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Comment by synergy20 | Hacker News Reader

for non-business users, why does OS still matter these days?

I used to be a pure Linux desktop user, for two decades, recently I had to use windows and macos for a few months combined.

In the end, 95% of the time was spent inside a browser, the OS seems non-exist to me for the most part, I now consider myself OS neutral though still prefer Linux when I can choose. Welcome to the cloud era.

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Gaming in general. Comfort that things work like you're used to. Compatibility with various software. I've got a Linux and a Mac Partition as well, but in the end I'm just more used to Windows and it works best with all the software I use. Proton is still limited for gaming, the Linux DEs all have drawbacks over windows explorer and macos doesn't even have proton going for it.

Any workstation use like music/ video production, CAD of any sort, CAM of any sort, device programming/ debugging. These are not always used in “business” but in hobbies too.

I could run completely in the browser probably but I still consider it a worse experience. I game exclusively on Linux but it isn't for everybody.

Roblox for the kids, and a bunch of hardware my wife uses don’t have Linux software available either.

What is true for you and me is not always true for others.

agree, for non-business(who also are in fact migrating to office365 online than locally installed office suite) and gamers, windows makes sense, for the rest 90%(?) user base it seems to me all OSes will do just fine.

An average user just needs a web browser these days, but if you do any serious creative work, art/design/music/video etc, you’ve probably got to choose between Windows and Mac

I have a bunch of Windows desktops at home that share files using my Windows Onedrive (or LiveDrive or SkyDrive or whatever Microsoft calls it these days - each machine seems to have a different opinion).

What's a good easy-to-use alternative for that in the Linux world?

Ideally it would also allow me to share between my Windows and Linux machines to make transitioning easier.

I'm using syncthing: https://syncthing.net/ It requires that at least two machines be up for syncing to happen, but if you have a home server that isn't a problem.

There are onedrive clients for linux.

I tend to prefer syncthing over a cloud app but I have used the nextcloud accound that I got when I installed /e/OS rom on my smartphone in the past.

Syncthing might fit the bill, or just keep using Onedrive: https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive

Dropbox?

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