Closing the door on Windows: A guide to changing operating systems

PC World ^ | 16 December 2013 | Tony Bradley

[ShadowAce]

Is it time for you to dump Windows XP, or maybe to abandon Windows altogether? Windows 8 has improved significantly with the 8.1 upgrade. Nevertheless, for many users, Windows 8’s ...major changes like Live Tiles and the removal of the Start menu—remains an object of scorn. And security has always been a bigger headache for Windows...

If you’re still running Windows XP, making the switch to Windows 8.1—or to Windows 7, if you can find it—will probably involve replacing more than just the operating system. Your...hardware may not be able to handle a newer Windows OS; and even if it can, you’ll likely need to replace software and peripheral devices, as well.

If you’re going to invest money and time..., you might as well consider all your options. Microsoft’s stranglehold on the desktop market has loosened over the past few years. Mac, Linux, and even Chrome are sophisticated operating systems... Here’s what to expect if you embrace one...

Mac

There’s a reason people (and not just Apple marketers) say “once you go Mac, you’ll never go back.” Apple defined the GUI we know today and set the bar for user-friendly computing. Macs have a reputation for being expensive, but that’s not entirely accurate these days. You can certainly find cheaper Windows-based desktop and laptop options, but in bang-for-the-buck terms, Macs are on a par with—and sometimes cheaper than—similarly equipped Windows machines...

Linux

If you want to install a new OS on your existing hardware, Linux is the obvious alternative. The open-source operating system has many variants, one of the most widely used of which is Ubuntu Linux. Generally speaking, Linux has less-demanding hardware requirements and is much more forgiving of older PCs. Laptops are available from Acer, Asus, and Dell that run some version of Linux.

[Svartalfiar]

Some newer Macs will do 1080, but not all displays support 1080, and so for many shows we run, everything is scaled to a 720 output. When you’re processing video signals, you want everything to be unscaled as much as possible, or you start running into resolution and cleanliness issues when you continually add and subtract pixels.
Unfortunately, most Macs I’ve used will not output 1280x720, they only have an option for 1280x800. And adapters don’t matter, they’ll do it whether I’m adapting to DVI or VGA. The video out method doesn’t really affect what resolutions the OS will allow.