Operating System of choice for a modern Network Engineer?

For Engineers today what is recommended path in regards to OS?

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There's a lot of tools that are Windows only. But there's also a lot things that are 'easier' on Linux (or macOS). I suspect that you'll use what you are given and make do.

Params7

Windows and Unix almost equally. Windows is good for general use and Unix skills will come in handy for scripting. That's where networking seems to be heading. If I had to just pick one, it would be Unix.

DoubleNNs

Client machine? Mac OS X. Has almost all of the advantages of WIN and *nix (OS X is BSD under the hood) and if needed, can easily create a WIN and/or *nix VM. (I love Vagrant.)
Additionally, altho you can virtualize WIN and *nix, you can't virtualize OS X unless you're on Apple hardware because of licensing.

networker050184

It's all personal preference really. I've been on linux for years now and couldn't go back. Lots of people use OSX or Windows just fine though. Your employer might just make the decision for you anyway.

tunerX

For me Apple is fine for the kids and media editing.

I prefer windows because I use visio and office a helluva lot. Pretty much every hardware or peripheral vendor has driver and application support for it.

I run everything else as VMs with workstation to include OSX.

hurricane1091

Doesn't really matter.

kye.davey

An equal share of Windows and Linux (Fedora)