It has windows and tabs along with the Sidebar for navigation. It’s powered by the Unity interface, which is quite different from the UI philosophy of Windows. Just like Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu is also a general-purpose Operating System. Being a Linux-based OS, it is quite different from Microsoft, in terms of looks and features. The latest version of Ubuntu is 16.04.1 LTS Xenial Xerus. There are even laptops and desktops that ship with Ubuntu by default. Although it is available for other devices like smartphones and servers, Ubuntu is used as a common alternative to Windows. As you can guess, it’s a Linux-based operating system. It is also known as Ubuntu Linux and developed by Canonical Inc. Ubuntu is the best alternative OS for Windows if you are looking for something free. But, we sure will be covering OSs from the families mentioned in the article. If you want to know about operating system families, you can check out our previous article on that. Note: In this list, we are listing individual operating systems, not the families. In the list, we will mention the major features, notable aspects and intended purpose of each OS.

In addition, most OSs support dual-boot, giving you the freedom of running two environments in one device. Most of the OSs listed here are free so the next time you set up a PC, you can try something from these free alternatives to Windows. In this article, we have come up with a list of alternative operating systems you can use instead of Windows. That’s when you need to go with some of the alternative operating systems. Or, you may not be interested in having a paid OS at all. Though, there are times when this proprietary OS isn’t enough for your needs. It’s pretty stable, user-friendly and comes with top-notch support. Even today, the word ‘PC’ refers to computers that are running on Windows. Before we begin, let’s accept that Microsoft Windows is one of the widely used and popular Operating Systems out there! From its inception in 1985, Windows is seen as the status quo of personal computing.

Imac operating system options