OSX is not what I would call user friendly OS, sure for the computer skill-less it's good but when you need to make simple (under windows or Linux) changes to the desktop or other changes you are forced to ether live with it or go way out of your way to make it the way you want.
This from a computer consultant who has clients with both Win and apple computers...
none of the popular or less than popular operating systems are a be-all to everyone.
Can you elaborate? From my experience I have found OS X is not really that restrictive, I certainly consider it less restrictive than Windows. Windows will prevent you from deleting files, tailing a file that's being written to (or have they fixed that finally in powershell?)... If you're doing something that OS X is preventing you from doing I find it's usually something you can easily do with a different approach.
Yes I can...
Changing Desktop font size for example.
A client wanted larger fonts but did not want to lower the screen resolution, and did not want to use the accessibility controls which to someone who is partially sighted as I am are useless.
The same person didn't like the font used on the desktop.
If there is something I don't know how to change in a windowz box I can google it and have the answer in seconds. Mac computers not so easy...
Windows is more configurable along with Linux. I don't know why the Apple OS is so hard to deal with regarding some issues.
That's odd. Mac along with Linux implement the zooming really well, on Windows it's pretty clunky. But all you do is hold the CMD button (your standard key modifier) and scroll the wheel to zoom in into anything on the screen.
Pretty much every app supports text sizing, whether you use the trackpad pinch to zoom or the CMD-(+-). I actually think it's enforced by the OS, iMessages, the Finder, terminal, everything supports it. I have not found that to be the case on Windows. Notepad doesn't support text scaling. The most basic of the native apps in Windows. I would actually argue that OS X has a far better accessibility support for vision impaired.
If none of those work you also have the resolution scaling setting for retina displays, you can make the entire UI huge.
Sounds like it's just a case of not being familiar with the keyboard shortcuts. Something I touched on in one of my previous posts.
The lack of google results can be various things, from the different verbiage Mac uses, using Windows setting names to search Mac settings for example, but it can also be the popularity thing, after all Windows still enjoys like a 90% monopoly. The key thing with Macs is that CMD is your main modifier for most things. In fact if you use a mouse it's the only keyboard modifier you ever have to use.
CMD - C - Copy
CMD - V - Paste
CMD - Tab - Tab between apps
CMD - ~ - Tab between windows of the same app
CMD - Space - quick spotlight search
CMD - Mouse scroll wheel - quick zoom wherever the mouse is pointing.
CMD - W - close the window/tab
CMD - N - new window
CMD - T - new tab
CMD - Q - quit the app closing all its windows
All these shortcuts are honored in most apps too. Not just some. Not like Putty on Windows where all the shortcuts are different between some apps. Right click is your paste, lol. Linux is just as bad with shift+insert. On OS X copy is always CMD-C.
I should also note that CMD is where Alt on windows machines sits, and it makes it much easier ergonomically for prolonged use in my experience. Think of how Alt-Tab is easy on Windows. All the shortcuts on OS X are that easy.
For instance if you're trying to copy some text from one app to the next, you can quickly just do CMD-C, CMD-TAB, CMD-V on windows that's Ctrl-C, Alt-Tab, Ctrl-V.. (4 key presses, vs Windows' 6) as someone who uses this a lot I find I am at least 20-30% faster on the Mac. Not to mention Cmd-Tilde and finer control of what you're "alt-tabbing" between.
I do get it though. Like I said in my previous post, you really have to learn the keyboard shortcuts, it makes the OS X so much more efficient. Too often I see Windows users use OS X like they would use Windows and find themselves frustrated. But this is hardly OS X's fault.
OS X is not just easier for new users, it's easier for power users too. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't used OS X for an extended period of time. I happened to have used all 3 for about equal amount of years (Windows the longest since Windows 3.0).