Ubuntu Linux
Given that I work for a Microsoft partner in the daytime, immersed in the worlds of Windows 8, .
NET, C#, SharePoint, Lync, and all manner of other things that came out of Redmond, you might presume that I would also use Windows at home.
You would be wrong.
I have had Ubuntu Linux installed as the primary operating system on my desktop machine for at least the last two years. Sure, I can dual boot back into Windows if I really need to, but the requirement to do so grows ever more rare.
I think, given the number of different computers, phones, or tablets I end up using throughout each week, my “use” of computers has changed markedlyparticularly over the last year. Where I would once have chosen favourite software applications to get things done, now I look towards the cloud for everything; if there is no web based solution, or cross-platform, app, I'm likely not to use something.
Ubuntu Linux fits into that way of working perfectly, because it only really plays with open protocols, and open standards. The reason we can all use the web, email, and instant messaging regardless of platform or device is because of standards.
Sure, there are niche applications such as DropBox, or Google Drive that do their own thing for file storage, but that's only because there is no standard protocol for their class of service yet. Ubuntu acts (for me) as a means to an enda reliable operating system that “just works”.
Perhaps the reason I get on with Ubuntu Linux so well is because I have used so many operating systems on so many devices that I have become agnostic to any particular ecosystem, class of device, or brand.