There's no more subjective aspect of an OS than its looks, which affect how you interact with it. That said, most agree that the Mac OS, while not perfect-dragging CDs to the Trash to eject? Huh?-is the easiest to master. "When I recommend a new computer to anyone these days, as long as they don't need the cheapest pos¬sible machine, I tell them to get a Mac," says contributing editor Neil Randall. "That way, I know I won't be pestered about setup issues, things not working, and so forth-at least not very much."

Vista's interface is not radically different from XP's, just enough to set it apart. For instance, there's the Aero user interface with its smart icons and translucent effects (which aren't far different from Mac OS's Aqua interface tweaks), and the new sidebar of desktop gadgets. Extreme Tech editor Loyd Case says he can't live without the bread crumb navigation now found in the Windows Explorer shell, and that "the XP Start menu seems primitive in comparison with the Vista Start menu."
And Ubuntu? Even those with major Ubuntu issues, like Jennifer, still love the interface. The default GNOME desktop environment is clean and well organized, and not hard for a Windows user to get used to. "It's kind oflike a cross between Mac and Windows," Jennifer says. Indeed, the argument has been made that Ubuntu steals the best bits of both.

The Ubuntu core, however, is a textbased OS-something Windows spent years getting away from. And unfortu¬nately, you still have to use terminal input to install software or configure settings far too often, even more often than you had to use DOS command lines in Windows 3.1. Until Ubuntu can do away with the terminal for all but the most geeky uses (as the Unix-based Mac OS does), it will never become an OS for the masses. Advantage: Mac OS 10.5.1