Let's forget about the device specific things (eg battery life or price) and just focus on the features/characteristics of each OS - what's your preference and why?
I'll go first, I use a Mac for work but I can't get over the fact that on Windows I can easily snap windows onto the sides/corners! So good for productivity sometimes…
And does anyone know of a good notepad++ alternative on the Mac that is not heavy/clunky?
I had the opposite problem. For the price ($1250 on sale), the Mac mini M1 (512GB) was the fastest computer I could find.
Yep. Things have changed with M1/M2. My last Macbook was 2012, and when I needed a replacement (probably around 2017?) they were not competitive pricewise for the specs so left for Windows, but when I was looking for a laptop for my Mum (non-mac user) Windows laptops actually seemed to be the expensive ones (particularly slim models - which also lack upgradeability anyway) for the given quality/specs. I was quite surprised actually. Got her the macbook instead, and she's super happy, even with the OS change.
Nah my iphone 6 almost killed me i love macs tho
Same with phones, iPhones have been the fastest and smoothest phones on the market since forever now.
Sounds completely anecdotal throw away statement, but you do you.
@Tardvark: In terms of benchmarks, Apple is ahead of Qualcomm on both Mobile and portable. Have a look at benchmarks of the A15 vs Snapdragon 8 gen 1.
https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-8-…
Hopefully, Apple will inspire Qualcomm to put out some more performant chips.
@Tardvark: It's completely based in benchmark data.
A15 crushes any android offering.
Android fanboys were all about the cores and bench marks and ram until crushed Android continuously
The M1 certainly changed the value argument but only on the entry level models for me. Plus you still need to use MacOS so you need to be OS agnostic to be swayed by it I feel.
Sure but 8 years ago is a long time ago. For me, the M1 MacBook Air was the best value laptop. I couldn't find a comparable Windows device in its price range.
That's because there isn't. Compare it to the surface lineup and it's amazing value, microsoft really need to step their game up.
Define "value". When compared spec to spec Surface Laptop and M1 Air are equally good and similar price range. If M1 Air has a faster chip, Surface can game, has touchscreen and Surface pen support. Like GTF outta here with "I couldnt find anything close to M1 Air" that has never been an issue.
@alikazi: Many users don't care about touchscreen or Stylus support. M1 is fanless/silent, has better battery life, and outperforms the Surface. There's also the advantage that performance is consistent on and off the charger.
Surface can game
These machines generally aren't bought for gaming anyway. Surface Laptop 4 is still an iGPU. You're not doing any serious gaming on either machine.
I think you've bought a little bit too much into the Macs can't game meme. The M1 is fine for casual gamers. There are also plenty of games that run without issue on Macs.
@alikazi: You're right — "value" is relative.
The fact @Nillionaire purchased a Mac almost certainly means he has little interest running AAA-rated games, making that aspect low/no value to him.
(Having said that, while the latest Surface Pros can run many games, it's not an ideal gaming platform.)
Likewise touchscreen / pen — could be great or meh.
Touchscreens have been around since 1982, but it sounds like Apple won't make a touchscreen Mac anytime soon:
Apple’s belief has not changed here. It is still of the firm opinion that vertical touchscreens suck. (refs Steve Jobs 2010, Craig Federighi 2020)
@Member 0230: So…. what's the point giving your opinion whether you want gaming and touch screen? You agreed value is relative.
But the statement "Oh I looked and looked and looked but gosh darn it could not find a Windows laptop that is comparable to M1 Air!" is objectively plain wrong. Just start off by saying "I'm an Apple fanboy" if you're going to say something wrong like that to make Apple look good.
So…. what's the point giving your opinion whether you want gaming and touch screen? You agreed value is relative
Because you raised gaming and touchscreens as being on the plus side for Surface ownership — but only if those things mattered to you, right?
But the statement "Oh I looked and looked and looked but gosh darn it could not find a Windows laptop that is comparable to M1 Air!" is objectively plain wrong.
Tbh, I can't tell from "For me, the M1 MacBook Air was the best value laptop. I couldn't find a comparable Windows device in its price range." whether or not he's an Apple fanboy — maybe.
As for me, I shopped, custom built and breathed PCs for almost 20 years (thanks Green Guide) — starting with 8088 XT with that lovely Turbo button 😂 then 386, P90, Celeron 300 (OC'd to 450 of course), and finally Athlon 64 3000+. Oh, yeah, DOS!
Loved the games available and still do. Windows for work but prefer Macs at home. For now.
I’m with the “use/enjoy what works well for you, cheer others who do different” crowd.
yep - why pay $1000 more for a Macbook when you can get the same power/speed in a Windows for $1000 less
decades ago Mac was the favourite of artistic types for graphic design and music, etc. but did not attract others
until they emulated the Windows desktop to attract more customers
so sure if you like to spend an extra $1000 unnecessarily, impress yourself with a Macbook !
Please point to an example of such a laptop
"REEEE WALLED GARDEN ECOSYSTEM"
"It dual boots Windows"
"REEEEE EMULATION MARKETING"
I was on the market for a laptop around $1.2-3k, nothing beats the M1 Air. How are you going to say cheaper and better windows laptop without giving us an example.
We are talking about CPU performance, GPU performance, SSD performance and battery life. Find one beats M1 Air and cheaper.
I doubt you can.
Mac is all fine and dandy until the moment you want to open up a game.
@demiurge: Depends on what game.
But to be absolutely comparing Windows and MacOS. You should compare Windows gaming laptop with Apple laptops. Not many gaming laptops can last using battery power.
Hope you aren’t comparing Mac laptop to Windows desktop. 😜
@goraygo: You don't need a gaming laptop. A ryzen laptop can play games just fine if you turn down the resolutions. A levono yoga with ryzen cpu will last a full work day on a single charge. Sure the battery life is much less if you game, but that is a nice option to have. Another thing is windows laptops can have stylus support. This actually is a major reason why macs are totally out of the question in some industries. I guess that's the point, Windows laptops can be configured to do whatever you want, whereas macs can only do whatever Apple allows you to.
@demiurge: Depends what you play by saying turn down the resolution.
You can’t really play FPS games by turning down resolution and reduce graphical outputs. You might as well not play it because there is really no fun and you will end up dying “a lot” in the game.
That’s why, it is not really an argument. No serious gamers will buy a laptop to play.
this question has never been asked on any forum on the internet ever
Really? because I'd love a way to turn off windows updates
Press Windows key + R. Type services.msc, then hit Enter.
Search for Windows Update.
Right-click on Windows Update, then select Properties.
Under General tab, set the Startup type to Disabled.
Click Stop.
Click Apply, and then click OK.
Restart your computer.
also i believe you can set an option for windows update to not use "metered (internet) connection" and then set all your networks that you connect to as metered.
i believe you can set an option for windows update to not use "metered (internet) connection" and then set all your networks that you connect to as metered.
this works in preventing auto-downloads,
but you will still get prompted to download the latest update,
ie. the service still runs in the background connecting back to the b0rg HQ.
Tomorrow is Monday and there will be silly Slavoz post again. This is a welcome change.
MS-DOS or go home
cd C:/an/confirm.exe
never used "/" like this :O
HAHA true, been so long. It is \ for directories, / for commands.
@AdosHouse: Fun fact: you can actually use / for directories as well. Windows supports either the forward slash or the backslash as path separator characters.
@Donaldhump: I have never heard them referred to as up or down… always forward / (slash / forward-slash) or backward \ (back-slash). It's also how I remember which is which - back-slash is underneath the backspace key.
@Chandler: its just a saying to make it easier to remember not the correct names for the characters
and well if you were walking along a straight road and came to a forward slash assuming you walk in the direction you read, '/' would you be going up a hill or down a hill?
@Donaldhump: All good - not implying right or wrong, just had honestly never heard them as up/down before.
And yes, if you were "walking" in the reading direction, then "/" would be an up-slash (for going "up" the hill). The convention makes sense, is even easier than forward/backward (IMO), had just never heard it.
Forward/backward I remember as a "stick" standing on writing plane | , either leaning in the writing direction / (forward) or against the writing direction \ (backward).
@Chandler: same, i just remember it as if it were a human which way would they fall (assuming facing left) same as ur stick method
tbh the shit still confuses me sometimes
imposter!
C:\DOS
C:\DOS\RUN
RUN\DOS\RUN
C:\WINDOWS\> win.exe
3.11 or bust
Dark Operating System.
Dank Operating System
Stank Operating Dysem
XTree Gold!!!
That was great
CP/M.
<C:\> Attribute -R * . *
Fun….
himem.sys
Parallels is the best thing to ever come to Mac.
If all you need to do is run Windows to game or whatever on a Mac, Bootcamp is far superior because it's free. Sucks that it's not supported on the new chips.
Parallels might be good but it's yet another subscription service to pay for.
You can once off purchase Parallels. In my case it's where both are required for business and the coherence mode works really well.
Oh, maybe I mistook the licence for a subscription payment. I guess if it's for work it can be expensed.
I'm running Parallels on my 14" Macbook pro with VMs of both Windows 11 and Ubuntu. Where's the "all of the above" option?
Unfortunately only the standard edition is purchasable as a once off. And it has a tendency to stop working in spectacular ways after an OS update or two.
@Clear: 13 failed spectacularly after a couple updates, basically toolbox would always use 100% CPU and turn your Intel mac into a toaster, known issue and no fix.
Agree, but parellet is expensive
$140 for a new license isn't so bad.
Last time I saw around 300$ ?
@coast666: Must have been a business license or something. Single PC outright is $139 and $99 to upgrade to a newer version.
Plus Cashrewards has 10.5% cashback for the normal rate.
@Clear: ended up buying this on evening of 06/09/2022 and it was $179.00 AUD (standalone) vs $139.00 AUD (1 year subscription)
(migrating partner from a bootcamped 2013 MBP 13" to a MBP 16" M1 Pro)
As with all things that are different - chocolate and vanilla, Mac and PC - one is always clearly better.
+1 for the Futurama ref
Chocolate, Mac, men. The end.
And moustaches?
I've been using a mac for about 7 years.. still can't figure it out 😂
Do they still not have cut-copy-paste in the right click menu?
Haha na, its always copy and then either paste or move
Does copy-paste actually do copy-paste these days? I always used to get confused with it creating aliases.
@salamandersushi: copy-paste does actually copy and paste, aliases == shortcuts, the only difference is what I said above
Me too and I still haven't found a replacement for Windows Paint.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint
Though it was discontinued in 1998, it did come before MSPaint and a lot of what we take for granted in MS Paint and Photoshop was pioneered by Apple with Lisa Sketch and MacPaint.
Grew up using Windows, but use a Mac these days. I feel more comfortable using the Windows filesystem and navigating around Windows than I do with MacOS.
Mac's GUI file system stuff sucks. Finder is terrible, and all the alternatives are just as bad in different ways.
Windows search is awful too but Everything is awesome! Not sure if there's a mac equivalent.
Not any alternative, the Linux attempt is
miles behind too. Everything is the primary reason I cannot full time switch, though it should run under parallels theoretically, minus the advanced NTFS features for your mac share.
muCommander ?
Both. I like the Mac for laptop use, and it works great with my phone and Apple TV. Windows for work, and desktop.
Mainly use Windows, and I know it more as my job is supporting it.
Yes I would like Notepad++ on Mac too
Same here. Mac for home. Windows for work. Windows shortcuts are all muscle memory. Mac shortcuts are +100ms behind ;-)
Text Wrangler was great. But I use Obsidian now. Full markdown so all text files and fully portable. Works on Mac, Windows, iOS.
Switching back and forward a lot I ended up using https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ to bring a lot of the windows shortcuts to mac and remapped some in windows so some of the basic Mac shortcuts worked there too.
Both. One is not better than the other.
Windows.
Mac os is fine. The hardware is rubbish if you wish to customize or upgrade.
You're up shit creek if one part fails too.
That’s not been my experience. I’ve had a couple of parts fail (over many years) and Apple replaced them promptly for free. The last time was the whole upper half of my MacBook, which was out of warranty.
I'm a Mac person because I'm an elitist and I only get the best of everything.
Sublime Text.
"I can't get over the fact that on Windows I can easily snap windows onto the sides/corners!"
PSA: There is an app on the AppStore called Magnet that adds this exact function to mac OS. From memory, it was a few dollars and honestly is the best AppStore purchase I have ever made.
As for my thoughts on Mac vs Windows. I currently use both - windows PC at home, macOS laptop on the go. I don't really have a preference for either team.
Windows - Way better for games and programs with heavy computational tasks. There's an app for everything and you can find a solution for most issues online. nVIDIA graphics support is also a big plus on the windows side.
Mac - Love the continuity features. Being able to easily move between iphone/ipad/laptop is so useful. When on the go I just flip open my iPad place it next to my laptop and it becomes a second monitor - no wires, nothing just works instantly. Generally speaking apps are nicer/better looking. Spark is my favourite email client and nothing comes close to it on windows.
The biggest contrast for me comes when they do updates:
Windows Updates: You get a random pop-up with a timebomb count down and if you've gone to the bathroom well bad luck it's gonna do it. Your programs all get closed, half your work deleted, 17 different things are broken, there are 3 new random bugs causing runaway programs that are using a bunch of RAM, Processing power or writing GB after GB to your drives for no reason, and your audio in chrome no longer syncs and it'll take you 4 hours of troubleshooting to fix, half the issues you fixed following the last update by deleting some random file that reddit said to have now all returned and it's going to take hours to have your PC back to normal. You turn off auto updates only for it to reach the inevitable point 6 weeks down the line where you aren't allowed to extend it anymore so again the time bomb of update death comes along.
MacOS update: Get a lil notification saying your mac will update overnight if you would like it to. The next, day you open it up and everything is just how you left it. All your apps open and where they were when you left and honestly 9/10 times you don't even know it's updated. Everything works and nothing is broken. At most, if it's a major OS update it asks if you want to learn about the new features and you say no and it goes away that's the end of it.
No idea how Windows is still so far behind MacOS when it comes to basic user experience.
Prior to my current MacBook, I bought a Windows laptop (Lenova) as I thought it would be nice to have my main PC and laptop both running windows. This was a massive mistake and made me vow to never buy a windows laptop again. Not so much the fault of windows but due to the fact that most windows laptops are manufactured by 3rd parties who destroy the experience. It was a ~2k laptop and was full of bloatware. A year on despite uninstalling, declining, and doing everything I could find on google I was still getting McFee antivirus rubbish and Lenovo smart power management, subscribe to this subscribe to that rubbish pop-ups and notifications all the time. Most frustrating experience ever. I would hope the experience with Surface devices is better but honestly, it was such a bad experience I vowed to never go back to a windows laptop.
A year on despite uninstalling
why didn't you do a fresh install from a Win10 ISO from Microsoft itself ? that's is the first thing I do when I get a new device.
This is what I do for every Windows machine I have.
I liked OpticalCog's comments but came to reply with a comment the same as yours, then saw you'd beaten me to it 😀
hehe :D Windows is pretty stable these days, it is so hard to get a BSOD if you don't do anything purposefully (remember the Win9x days ?), only thing I hate is, Windows is getting more and more like MacOS with those new simplified UI etc to make it simple for some users. TBH, I can't stand specially with Win11.
Honestly, you're right I should have done this. Will know for next time!
My main PC was self-built so a clean install and never had these issues. Was my first time with a windows PC that was built by a 3rd party so guess I didn't know how much other stuff came installed (admittedly my frustration should probably be directed at Lenovo not MS). Will definitely keep it in mind if I buy a non-Microsoft Windows PC again. You're right that really it's something you need to do on day 1, would be annoying having to reinstall all the programs I use, sign back into everything, put my files back on and customise everything how I like it again.
yeah, there are so much bloatware. Once I burned a restore disc kit when I got my Compaq Core 2 laptop back in the day with Win7, there were 3 discs :D but Win7 came in a single DVD :D
PSA: There is an app on the AppStore called Magnet that adds this exact function to mac OS. From memory, it was a few dollars and honestly is the best AppStore purchase I have ever made.
FYI. BetterSnapTool is cheaper and does the same thing.
Also Rectangle, which is free and Open Source.
Grew up with both, stopped using Mac about 8 years ago. Too expensive for what you get and doesnt have the flexibility with upgrades and games.