More Mobile: Trying the OS Alternatives (Premium)

I’ve been thinking a lot about Windows alternatives lately. And so have you, based on the questions and comments I receive. And sitting here the other day, using my latest “More Mobile” computing setup—a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 connected to an HP Conferencing Monitor with its unique 75 Hz refresh rate and built-in USB hub capabilities—-a thought occurred. How might the major platform alternatives to Windows—Mac, Chromebook, and Linux—-handle this use case?

Mostly pretty well, as it turns out.

That said, I don’t believe this particular configuration is ideal for anything but Windows: the HP Conferencing Monitor, for example, has firmware that needs to be updated, and I’m pretty sure that’s only available in Windows. But given how well each platform worked with the display and its USB hub, I suspect a more typical setup with a standalone USB-C hub and an external dumb display, would work just fine.

Anyway. Here’s what I found.

Mac
When my issues with Windows lead me to a dark place, as they do from time to time, it’s always the Mac that makes the most sense, at least on paper. This platform is used by tens of millions of people, is regularly updated and supported by Apple, has all of the major applications I need and want, and even supports native OneDrive integration with the file system. What’s not to love?

Well, lots of little things, in my case. And every single time I turn to the Mac, I’m quickly reminded of these things and how much they annoy me. This article isn’t about that topic, but let me give you just one example: if you have multiple browser windows open on Windows, Chrome OS, or Linux, you can switch between them using the ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut. But on the Mac, you cannot; instead, you can only switch to the application and then use a different keyboard shortcut to switch between the different windows in the application. Grr...

My issues with macOS aside, the Mac—an entry-level M1-based MacBook Pro—-immediately connected to the HP Conferencing Monitor at 75 Hz and had no issues using any of its connected peripherals.

Which, to be fair, introduced me to a new issue I didn’t know I had with macOS. Which is that I configure it a certain way when used normally, with just the internal display—-where most apps are run full-screen and I hide the menu bar at the top and the dock at the bottom—-and this configuration is not in any way ideal when using the system with an external display. If there’s a way to configure it uniquely for each setup, I haven’t found it.

(I also ended up reversing scrolling for the mouse. I am OK with how the Mac scrolls with its trackpad, but for some reason, I prefer it the other way with a mouse. This isn’t a big deal since you can configure the mouse and trackpad separately.)
Chrome OS
To test Chrome OS, I used an HP Chromebook c1030 Enterprise, which I keep around because it offers the full Chrome OS experience, with high-en...