Wasn’t that just a comment from a Microsoft software engineer that the company refused to confirm afterward? As for moving more toward the Mac direction, that wouldn’t bother me. I have a lot less trouble with my Mac and you can do some in-depth tinkering with the OS if you want to (if you Really Want To, you can even use the command line). I prefer both my Mac and my Linux machine to any version of Windows I have ever run.
I am a bit perplexed (as a heavy nerd) by this MAC/WIN/Linux is better-worse thing that should have been dead a decade ago. OS is just OS. Most people don't sit behind the computer and tinker with the OS, clicking on settings, turning switches on and off. They use apps and 90% browse online. I set computers for everyone in my family and they literally do not touch the OS. My wife probably doesn't know or care what OS she has, except she knows it isn't Apple. If I swap her Windows OS for somehow similar looking Linux - she would have no idea, if all the few apps she uses look the same, and they probably do. The OS is never the issue if there is an issue. Had been that for the last 10 years. All Windows, Mac and Linux are equally stable and equally good for normal users. It boils down to the choices of apps and even that is getting blurry as bigger apps are cross-platform anyway. Well, macOS lately starts to babysit users a bit more aggressively, not allowing opening third-party apps, removing all 32-bit support (bastards!) or even directly telling that the file is corrupted even if it is not true, but still most people won't be affected by this as they just have their set of apps they use and that's it. All the differences become significant when you are power-user or company admin, but that's not what most people are. I work on Windows on all my desktops (usually remote desktop to them from one location) and Chrome and macOS on all my portables. Over time, it almost became a rule. I don't see the benefit of Windows on a laptop, if Chromebook does the trick, and the 2012 and newer macbook air's are probably the nicest and least problematic notebooks (and I had them all), except they are a bit more susceptible to water damage, so don't take shower with them. I personally prefer mid 2012 AIR 11 as a toss-around notebook for writing. Used are like $250 and you buy new $40 aftermarket battery and that thing gives even Chromebook run for its money with 10+ hours of runtime. Put Mojave on it and it is as smooth as a butter. And no freaking daily updates and pop-ups for Mojave, unlike the newest macos. Reversely, I found Windows 10 least problematic on any desktops (well, Apple is not really in the desktop market anymore anyway). No issues with games, or drivers, tons of hardware options for every budget and I know exactly what is wrong with it. As with all new OS, Windows is literally don't-need-to-touch-anything OS. Runs 24/7 on all my computers for months without the need to reboot, not slowing down. Don't even know it is there. And don't forget one thing. The backward compatibility on Windows is pretty epic.
leaving aside that if you self publish and want to use vellum you pretty much need a Mac (although you can use it through mac in cloud - and these days there's also Atticus to consider), for actual writing anything that allows you to run a basic word processor is all you need, linux/chrome/windows/mac/ android will all be fine... in theory you could write under Dos but it would take a hardened nerd to try
A lot of Linux users made the switch to have full control of their operating system. Since Windows and MacOS are proprietary software, they come with baggage that makes quite a number of people pretty angry, like not being able to port a copy of Windows to multiple machines, or having corporate back doors into your system that you can never shut, etc. It's like buying a house, but the previous builder and owner still retains control of it, and can come and go as he pleases. Average users are not usually concerned about such things, but most Linux users seem to resent corporate shackles, and not really being able to own what they purchase. I'm pretty okay with Windows, personally, but I don't trust it. I don't trust Microsoft at all for its dirty practices. When I purchased my new PC a while back, it came with Windows 10. I went through the steps to make it as secure and private as I could: downloading privacy based browsers and more, and it worked great for a day or two. But then, it suddenly locked up my game recordings that I had made, and held those videos hostage until I chose to fork over some cash to purchase a proprietary video codec. I became so furious at this corporate extortion that I revolted and downloaded VLC media player instead to open my videos and save them in a different format: basically giving the middle finger to Microsoft. My videos have played properly ever since, but I'm still hot about what they tried to get away with. It just re-confirmed my reasons for switching to Linux about a decade ago. To me, Windows is only good for gaming, but that advantage is dwindling fast with better Linux integration projects like Wine, and Steam Proton: yay! Also, I'm a hardcore computer nerd, so Linux tinkering is something I love to do.
I currently own three Windows desktop computers, two Windows notebook computers, and two Windows tablets. All are on Windows 10. NONE have the hardware horsepower to run Windows 11, so I'll muddle through until the end-of-life for Windows 10 in 2025. By then, I'll either be ready to buy a new computer, or I may have gotten brave enough to try Linux.
Linux + Google docs. I have a windows 7 pc but no longer use it even for compatibility. Windows I'd probably be happier with if it confined itself to being an OS, but it also railroads the user into a particular Window Manager, a hard disk format (without ACL file permissions), a certain bootloader... and then once into the userspace there is the telemetry, the license terms, the attempts to incorporate DRM into deep levels of the filesystem... But the main reason I don't use it is just that I don't have 1 modern PC doing all tasks but 16 old ones with 1 task each. So if I wanted to install Windows I'd need to not only buy 16 copies of it, but upgrade 16 lots of hardware. Linux distros do have hardware requirements, but the kernel underneath them is <10Mb so a distro that aims to work on the oldest possible hardware has few limits in that regard whilst still being up to date from a security point of view. Also it is things like I have a boot USB on my keyring that I can carry around and plug into any PC and it's got my userspace on it with my window manager, the browser I like, etc just like being at home. Windows does have answers to many of these things, and it's mostly philosophical, but I stopped listening to them 10+ years ago. In a world where people might not have money for food and heating even in the wealthiest countries, it's unconscionable for them to say "try this software, it costs over 100 pounds". Google Docs is no good for novels except for being able to do some writing from wherever I am. If there is a free and open source alternative that would be one of my last links to the great user surveillance farm that Google has turned into. There wasn't one last time I looked but there will be soon I should think.
TBH, if you don't get it for free, you're either a business or not looking hard enough. I don't think I've ever paid for Windows, and I've built most of my computers.
Software and OS licensing costs have historically been substantial for businesses and other entities in developing countries, even when you take into account the discounts typically offered in those areas. I saw a study comparing the costs to GDP for developing countries and how it is proportionally a much bigger burden than in developed nations. Open source can be a great alternative for them. *Note—I saw this study quite a few years back. I don’t know how much things have changed since then, if at all.
Have you looked at SoftMaker Office (or its completely free sibling, FreeOffice)? Both are available for Linux. https://www.softmaker.com/en/softmaker-office https://www.freeoffice.com/en/ Or are you looking for something that runs in the cloud?
I still have my PC and laptop running on Win 7 and I don't really want to change. A) Both are so old that they probably wouldn't run a new windows version anyway and B) I dislike the new windows versions. But I cannot play the newest Minecraft snapshot (because PC too old) and I'm also getting warnings from Scrivener that it might not work perfectly on Win 7. It seems I need a new PC, but that costs money and I don't even dare looking at hardware costs at the moment.
Yes - it's the cloud-basedness more than the officeness. I like being able to open the draft at any PC and for family members to be able to add any comments. The main problems with Google Docs are that it becomes very slow to load in the browser (although not the android app) after about 150 pages, and it stops being able to export to pdf.
Just a crazy thought off the top of my noggin, but you might try making each chapter a separate document? Of course that would destroy much of the utility of using Google Docs. Probably not a usable idea really.
People say that becomes essential for larger documents - they do it by chunking to what it can cope with, so I could split in 2 and I probably should but by then there's the illusion that "it's nearly finished". After another 20 exports I could have saved time the other way
https://www.lifewire.com/free-online-word-processors-1356661 I have tried the on-line version of Microsoft Word, and I agree with the review comment that it's lacking many features. It offers enough to write a manuscript ... but not enough to desktop publish a book unless you just upload the manuscript into some PoD service's pre-made book template. What I don't like about on-line Word is probably a feature for you: it's very difficult to save your work anywhere other than OneDrive. Have you tried the on-line version of Apple pages? It's pretty full-featured.
But doesn't Apple Pages restrict you to iCloud? And Google Docs to Google Drive. To me, it would seem one needs to pick their "poison" when it comes to online storage and then resign oneself to using the attached office infrastructure. IIR, even Box.com has a set of office tools. As an Office 365 subscriber, I have access to the standalone apps as well as the online versions. So, I can use desktop publishing at my main PC using Microsoft Word, MS Publisher, or if I choose, Serif's Affinity Publisher. Right now, I like Affinity the best, MS Publisher seems a bit less flexible in its approach, though it is quite capable of fine work. To me, it makes sense to use the Office Suite as much as possible, where I can save to any online storage I would like (though I mostly like OneDrive) and use the online for version when I travel.
Zoho’s offering isn’t bad if you don’t mind exchanging Google, Apple, or MS for an Indian tech company.
If Microsoft ever swears on a stack of Bibles (or whatever technical documents they hold sacred) that whatever works on Windows 10 will function just as flawlessly on Windows 11, then I think it will be a good thing. I run my publishing business on a PC with Windows 10 and a bunch of software (Quicken, Libre Office, PagePlus, etc.) that are playing nicely in Windows 10, even though some of the apps are getting old. If the upgrade means that I will have to upgrade some of this software and get them functioning painlessly, I will be unhappy. I'm using Quicken 2004 which barely runs on Windows 10, but I've tried the later editions, found them wanting in various ways, and gone back to the older version.
I love Linux for its ability to run on old hardware. I could get an old IBM laptop in a thrift store, put some Linux and it does fly. I think my daughter uses one of those. My main gripe as a user is that Linux pulls in 100 directions all at once. Everyone and their dog wants to make their own distro. But of course, it is fine, no harm, except it took me about 15 installations to find one I liked and that is only temporary - in a few months there will be probably 5 more distros that everyone says are sooooo much better. It is a never-ending cycle of distro-hopping. But of course, the price is right, so no complaints. Trust or not, Microsoft? I don't even trust myself. And windows 10 is a prime example of a bad design, if I ever saw one, where everything is somehow duplicated, not conforming to a single GUI language, you have a control panel and settings, which do the same thing, but not entirely. It almost feels as if Microsoft simply went senile somewhere around windows 8. I've been developing on Windows for 25 years and I remember Microsoft GUI guidelines back then. Since then MS broke all of them in windows. Even now I just have to shake my head when I open the tray, only for windows to show me a message that blocks the exact place where effin' tray is. WTF, you have a whole screen, but we are fighting for 100 pixels in one corner. But again, it is just OS and MS has some very peculiar designers on their payroll.
Well, the OS situation is what it is, and we all must come to terms with it in our own ways. I am a retired Teradata DBA so I'm capable with Linux and did not feel joy when Teradata tried to market a Windows version as well. Teradata went from a "Big Data" database to a "medium data" database, and the support complications multiplied. Thankfully, the company continued with the Linux version for the power users. But Windows has clearly won the mindshare of the computer buying public. Those of us in the computer business need to follow along, I guess. But as a consumer, I want a system that doesn't cost too much, doesn't cause me too much hassle, and allows me to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And Windows pretty much meets those needs for me.
I used to hop Linux distros quite a bit. These days, I don't. There are a number of good, stable options to choose from, all of which have comparable functionality. Best bet is to pick one of those and stick with it, imo. I installed Linux for someone who had never used it before and I chose Mint. The person had very little trouble using it right from the start, and only occasionally messaged me to ask how to do something.
Did I hear correctly that Microsoft let a certificate expire, killing off some apps and features in Win 11? If I let something like that happen, the next day's company blog would include cheerful thoughts about how nice it had been to work with me. "We're all going to miss him and wish him the best in his wonderful new opportunities..."
When Windows 10 came out, wasn't there a disclaimer that it would be continually update making Windows 11 unnecessary? Liars.
