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Mac or Windows or Chrome or Linux for outlining?
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Posted by jaslar
May 18, 2018 at 02:31 PM
My aging Windows 7 laptop is starting to get annoying. A cursor control key popped off, and I suppose I should see if somebody can fix that first. But it may be time to revive the old religious debate about platform. So if I buy a new laptop, what should I get? (I do have a lightweight Chromebook, but have used Macs (I like their privacy policies), Linux (pretty robust these days), and of course Windows.
My question to you all on this Friday morning (here in Chicago, anyhow): when viewed from the perspective of outlining (and you should probably say what kind of outlining matters most to you: for me, it’s more about writing and daily management than comprehensive task and project management, but I’m interested in both) what platform do you think has the edge?
Or does it come down to cost? Or some other factor?
Or, with the rise of cloud and web-based outliners, does it even matter?
Posted by Dr Andus
May 18, 2018 at 03:28 PM
jaslar wrote:
> it’s more about
>writing and daily management than comprehensive task and project
>management
You may need to provide a bit more detail on what kind of writing and outlining you do, otherwise you run the risk that people will just chime in with whatever their particular preferences are.
Once you have defined your specific needs more narrowly, then it might even be possible to identify the specific piece of software and form factor (which might override the OS question).
E.g. is it about outlining and writing short pieces (e.g. for online consumption, blogging, journal entries) or large documents (theses, novels etc.)?
Then other considerations kick in, such as the need for a specialist notes database software or academic referencing software that may only be available on one OS or the other.
Posted by Paul Korm
May 18, 2018 at 04:15 PM
Pending the answer to Dr Andus’ question, I think your last point is also your answer—the cloud services are ubiquitous and so platform doesn’t matter.
(FWIW, just to telegraph preferences, I am now on my fourth Mac laptop and have enjoyed them all. However, I am pretty certain that if I bought a laptop today I would buy a mid-range or low-cost Surface. Mainly because of the cloud thing. And I’m weary of macOS and it’s nattering protectiveness.)
jaslar wrote:
>For me, it’s more about
>writing and daily management than comprehensive task and project
>management, but I’m interested in both) what platform do you think has
>the edge?
>
>Or, with the rise of cloud and web-based outliners, does it even matter?
Posted by Dr Andus
May 18, 2018 at 05:03 PM
Paul Korm wrote:
>the cloud services are ubiquitous and so platform
>doesn’t matter.
>I would buy a mid-range or low-cost Surface.
>Mainly because of the cloud thing. And I’m weary of macOS and it’s
>nattering protectiveness.)
If the above were your absolute criteria and nothing else tied you to Windows, then you would really be better off going with Chrome OS, e.g. a Pixelbook (unless you are wedded to the “detachable” form factor), as a dedicated cloud device.
It would be just an incomparably better user experience. Don’t believe me? Read what Surface users say about it themselves :-)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/8inqzt/just_joined_the_surface_family_bye_bye_chrome_os/
Posted by Paul Korm
May 18, 2018 at 05:36 PM
I hear you. My clients are deeply embedded in O365 and M365 enterprise implementations in the Federal cloud. Another reason, for me, to stay in the MS domain.
Dr Andus wrote:
>It would be just an incomparably better user experience. Don’t believe
>me? Read what Surface users say about it themselves :-)