Ive been a windows user for many years, mostly out of necessity. Whether its engineering software, or its just out of the dire need to use Microsoft Word for school work, it has been my daily driver for many many years. For the periods that I havent been at school, ive predominately used Linux, as it is something easy to setup and use especially for development as well as something im comfortable with.
Unfortunately, since windows 11 the OS has taken a more and more invasive approach. I would say, where I draw the line, is when I am not only heavily encouraged, but almost forced into using OneDrive. You know longer have a desktop folder, you no longer have a documents folder, it is within the OneDrive directory. I find that incredibly frustrating. I in general dont even use one drive, unless I am at work. So why on my personal device does this OneDrive folder exist, when I am not even using OneDrive? I want my damn files in the desktop folder, and my documents in the documents folder.
I feel as though, windows is fundamentally taking away my control over the experience of my desktop. Im forced to sign into windows with an email, and while currently, sure theres an OOBE trick to make it so i end up with a local account, it is still frustrating. When I open up the terminal, which i spend many hours a day in, my username is shown as joshu. Why can i no longer set my own user name? This is my computer? Again another aspect that windows has stripped away from the user. While this seems like a simple complaint its more about the principle. Windows used to be great. It gave you complete control over the system for the most part and how I wanted to interact with it. But now, its been riddled with ads and software.
I open the start menu and im being advertised facebook esq games and the like. Things I would never normally use. I download Okular to read PDFs and i get an AD in the start menu for a Acrobat Alternative. I download Visio for a class, and I get an ad for Project365 Plus, an alternative to Visio. The apps that I download, and the things that I do are being blatantly sold and manipulated to recommend advertisements. Its just an in-genuine feeling.
So why Mac?
Well, its a unix based… kind of, and to start, I dont get ads in the start menu. I get a genuine C / CPP compiler. I can customize everything easily, pick my own user name, optionally sign in with a email, and if I do sign in with an email i actually get benefits, unlike on windows. My photos, notes, reminders, calendars, contacts, etc will be synced.
But mostly because the computer feels like its mine. With all the gotchas and little gimmicks that mac has, I feel like I own the device, and that ultimately, I can do whatever I want with it unlike with my windows laptop. Even when MacOS ends support for the laptop in some 10 years, I will still own it and can do whatever it is I want with it. It has all the great features that ive come to know and love. And say, in those 10 years MacBook discontinues support for the device. I can put linux on it, as by then people would have time to reverse engineer the hardware and provide drivers / support as there has been support for older devices like the 2017 MacBook Pro.
Besides that, i don’t feel like my data and informations really being sold. Why is that though? One reason i think that apple is less likely to do so is because you are paying a premium, for otherwise relatively basic hardware. This device is 8gb of ram and 256gb of storage, for almost $800. Where $800 dollars could get me 16gb of ram and 500gb of storage at BestBuy or Costco. Today, I would arguably never be willing to buy a device with these kinds of specs, with the exception of the MacBook. Apple has fine tuned their operating system to be so performant with the arm chips that it is a arguable purchase / deficit.
Even then, with how consistent the Apple ecosystem is, I probably would never buy a new device, unless there was a major selling point, or deep discount. I bought this device second hand from a pawnshop at a deep discount. Its a 3yr old MacBook that still holds its weight today and will for the next few years. This kind of behavior though, is something i would quite literally, never do for a windows device. Because the devices vary so much in build quality and specs, that it can be kind of hard to One) find someone who can show you all of the specs, or be willing to be walked through it on the phone, or Two) find a device that is good enough that someone is willing to let go of it in favor of the next best thing. Its just not a thing in such a diverse ecosystem. Many times people will hold their devices until they’re quite literally no longer good where as with apple, you have the concept of a “FanBoy” who will literally purchase the next latest and greatest every two or so years. Leaving the second hand market full of great devices, that you can guarantee the quality and capabilities of.
Cons of Migrating to a Mac
Games….. I can no longer play games on the go as far as I know. Ive been neck deep in homework, so theres no time for me to install steam and play around with vulkan at the moment, but when I do get that itch, I can still run games on my gaming PC which is foreseeably going to be windows until i no longer need windows only software. While we are on Windows only Software, I need to use Visio for a class I have currently. interestingly enough, having a windows PC disposable will actually aid me in this situation. Whenever there is something windows only, I can boot up rustdesk and connect to my device remotely and run / install whatever application it is that I need. Having rust desk really works to my benefit in this situation and I envision ill be using it more than ever in comparison to when I had two windows laptops, it was almost never a need for me to connect to my home desktop other than to play some AAA game remotely.
Final Thoughts
As a mobile workstation, a MacBook is definitely the way to go. For all the things that I do, even a MacBook Air is enough to get through my day. I would encourage it for anyone frustrated or even remotely considering buying a MacBook, to first look at the second hand market and see if you can spot something on a discounted rate and if you must buy something new, buy something that will be worth it, as you can keep it for a great deal longer than you would a windows laptop.