The best operating systems for charities

Every computer needs an operating system in the same way that every hotel needs a management team. Without receptionists, porters, room cleaners, cooks, and security staff to help the hotel run, a hotel is just a building. And without an operating system to manage storage, handle networking and printing, and help applications to run smoothly, a computer is just an expensive lump of metal.

 

It’s also true that there is more than one way to manage a hotel. Given the same building, one management team may choose to run a cheap and cheerful hotel with little security, while another may choose to offer luxuries like room service, a business centre, and wall safes in every room.

 

Likewise, there is more than one operating system available to make your charity’s computers work. Some make them run faster, some are more secure, some are easier to use, and some offer more useful features to help get work done efficiently. Here are the best ones your charity should consider, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

 

 

Microsoft Windows 10

 

Windows 10 is the de facto standard operating system for desktop and laptop computers now that Windows 7 is no longer supported, and most computers are supplied with Windows 10 already installed unless you specify that you don’t want it.

 

There are two key benefits of using Windows 10 as your charity’s computers’ operating system.

 

First, there is a huge choice of software that works on computers running Windows 10, including Microsoft’s Word and Excel, and many specialist software applications designed for charities.

 

And second, Windows 10 is by far the most common desktop and laptop operating system, so any charity staff that you recruit will almost certainly be familiar with how to use it.

 

But there are a number of drawbacks to Windows 10 as well.

 

Perhaps most importantly for charities, Windows 10 is expensive: each copy may cost £100 or more. So for a charity with a large number of computers, the cost of choosing Windows 10 can be significant.

 

Choosing Windows 10 is also undesirable from a security perspective. That’s because hackers and malware authors tend to concentrate their efforts on computers running Windows 10 – both because the operating system appears to have many security vulnerabilities, and because there are so many machines running Windows 10 that it is a tempting target. That means that if you choose Windows 10 you will need to invest in an endpoint protection system.

 

One final drawback worth mentioning is that Windows 10 uses a large amount of computer resources, which means that only relatively new, powerful computers can run it to its full potential.

 

Windows 11 has recently been released, which offers another option for charities. Check out our article: Should charities switch to Microsoft 11?

 

 

Apple MacOS

 

Apple’s operating system was designed to be easy to use, so that graphic designers and other creative types who lacked computer skills would be able to work with it. The operating system only runs on Apple’s own desktop and laptop machines, which tend to be designed with aesthetics in mind, for which customers have to be prepared to pay a premium.

 

The problem for charities is that although MacOS itself is available free, Apple’s premium pricing strategy makes the computers that run MacOS very expensive compared to standard desktop and laptop PCs. Charities may therefore struggle to justify paying over the odds for a computer system just because it is sleek and nice to look at.

 

What’s more, the selection of software which can run on a computer running MacOS is severely limited, although this is not such a disadvantage now that so much software runs in the cloud and is accessed from a browser. But aside from in a few specialist fields, such as film editing, there is nothing an Apple computer can do that a machine running Windows 10 can’t do just as well or better for less financial outlay.

 

Perhaps the biggest benefit of MacOS for charities is that because it has such a small share of the operating system market  - less than 10% - few hackers tend to bother with it. In practice this means that if your charity runs MacOS on its computers it is less to fall victim to malware such as ransomware.

 

Having said that, some malware for MacOS does exist, and many phishing attacks rely on exploiting computer users rather than weaknesses in the software running on their computers.