The Household With Four Operating Systems : Chaos ensues

Like many families, ours is a household with four operating systems. The article discusses the my experience with managing multiple operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows, Linux) across various household devices. Prompted by the challenges of using the writing software Scrivener and the time-consuming process of updating multiple systems, the I have decided to consolidate. 

Introduction: Multiple Devices

By year’s end, the household will use a maximum of two operating systems, eliminating the need for numerous laptops. We have multiple devices that run on Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux.  I finally agreed with my wife that it is time to cut that number to three by the end of the month, and down to two before 2015 ends. If we exclude the operating system in the TV, the Ninetendo Wii, my old Nokia feature phone and a few other devices, there are four different operating systems for the various devices in the house. Then there are three laptops that run Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10 respectively, and a fourth one which runs on Linux (Ubuntu). My wife uses an iPad mini, and our phones run on android: she uses a Nexus 4, while I have a Xiaomi Mi3. लेख में लेखक ने अपने घर में विभिन्न ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम्स (iOS, Android, Windows, Linux) को मैनेज करने के अपने अनुभव का वर्णन किया है। लेखन सॉफ़्टवेयर ‘Scrivener’ उपयोग करने और कई सिस्टम्स को अपडेट करने में समय लगने की चुनौतियों के बाद, लेखक ने ठान लिया कि वे कंसोलिडेट करेंगे। साल के अंत तक घर में सिर्फ दो ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम होंगे और सारे लैपटॉप्स को हटा दिया जाएगा

What Triggered this post

For writing the sequel to NRI: Now, Returned to India, I wanted to use Scrivener, which of course does not have an app yet, so the tablet and the smartphones were of no use. It took me quite some time to set it up on the laptop running linux, which at that time was my main laptop. Then came Windows 10. I am liking it so far, and plan to use it going forward. Which means I had to install Scrivener on the windows laptop as well. Time that could have been spent on writing- spent on setting up software on laptops. grr..

Time Management in Household with four operating systems

Each operating system comes with its upgrades and patches, and majority of them are several hundred megabytes in size, the apps on the ipad and the android phones also require frequent updates, which again takes up time and data.

Consolidation is the name of the game

So I have finally decided that I will consolidate. Two operating systems at the most by the end of the year, by when we will get rid of all the laptops. Till then, I will be using Dropbox for files, Carousel for photos, evernote OneNote for my notes, and google docs for all other work. And Skype and Audacity for interviews for the podcast I am planning to launch shortly. Every other app can wait. Update: I have published two ‘sequels’ to this blog post in subsequent years:Household with Four Operating Systems – 2022 Edition, and Household with Five Operating Systems- 2023 Edition.

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_{This post was updated on 31 August 2023 and published under the category Technology.}