What OS do top companies prefer?

Answer 1

That depends a lot on the type of company you're talking about. Companies that work with video and audio editing often choose Mac because they work really well for those kinds of tasks. This would include recording studios and film studios.

Many companies choose Windows because it is the most familiar OS. You don't have to train your employees to use Windows because they have very likely used it before, and it is easy to pick up for anyone who hasn't used it.

Finally, there are a lot of companies who choose to work in a flavor of Linux that works for them. SUSE, Fedora and Red Hat are all popular enterprise Linux operating systems. The benefit of Linux is that there are hundreds of flavors out there, and there is likely one built just for what you need. And if there isn't something that matches exactly what you need, Linux is very customizable if you know what you're doing. Also, most of the popular Linux flavors are very user friendly, which is appealing to the Windows users that will have to make the switch. Many companies use Linux because it is more secure than Windows, but is still user friendly.

Really, it depends on what you need out of your OS. If you will be doing audio and video editing heavily, then you'll probably want a Mac. If you want something familiar that will serve your basic needs, you might want Windows. And if you want something that is free, customizable, secure AND user friendly, find a flavor of Linux that works for you.