Age old debate: Mac VS Microsoft PC

[Daniel.]

Did not read this thread but felt the need to comment.

Being in the IT field, I hate this debate as well as the whole Android vs iPhone

It has a lot to do with preference, use whatever makes you happy and works for you. EVERYTHING comes with pros and cons. I'm a Windows guy but also own a 2015 Macbook Pro that I hardly use, not cause I don't like it - just cause when I'm on the road my Surface Pro is very convenient. Is it better? Yes, for ME cause it's super light and works FOR ME.

 

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[Seth G.]

Found just the video for you.

Install PopOS for a windows user --->

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mySqL4bCSw

 

[Seth G.]

Install PopOS for a windows user --->

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mySqL4bCSw

If you're wary -- just make the USB drive as he states in the beginning. When you launch it, you can play around on and "run" the operating system off the flash drive to test it out and see if it will do for you. So little harm in giving it a shot

 

[Vanda]

I have one - I love it, but don’t use it that much except when traveling. At my home desk and at office I have iMacs, the 27” ones. Those use a 10-core chip, which isn’t the Apple M1 but rather Intel I think.

I’ve switched to Macs 10 years ago and never looked back. I hate Windows. On Mac I never got a virus, and stayed for YEARS without any antivirus (I do have one now). Never had a blue screen of death. Never had to reinstall OS. Never had to do anything. With an old Mac laptop I’ve had for 10 years, in year 6, I had an issue with the ventilator… it just got very loud and made a strange sound. Turned out it was just dirty. Apart from that I also had to change the hard-drive of that super old Mac laptop because it just died at one point and I almost lost a lot of important stuff if I hadn’t saved it before. Those were the only 2 issues I’ve had, and all with a Macbook Air. My M1 Macbook Pro - no issue. My 2 iMacs - no issues (except had to install additional RAM on both).

I moved away from windows when they came with Vista, I hated it so much. I have a MacBook Air since 2013, it is still here, working very well. Had a major issue with Sierra software, it was to heavy but installed Mojave and it works fine. Now it is big sur software. I also have a imac 27" and I simply love it, for me it is the best thing to work if we stay many hours at the computer. I'm not thinking about going back. Everything works smoothly, very fast. Very good.

 

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[Raja]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2JdZ5rgVIR4


This guy was using a MacBook Air M1 with 8GB of Ram to edit 4K video in raw codecs. Evidently that is a big deal.

Based on this, I’m pretty confident in the audio processing abilities of a MacBook Air, which is the most demanding thing I do. I also run a 4K external monitor, which is something he is doing in the video as well.

That computer starts at only a grand. I paid more than that for my phone. I’d get some more storage and ram though.

if you are planning to do any of that It would be a better idea to upgrade to 16 gb ram.

source: I use MacBook Air M1 with 8GB of Ram

 

[basedzoomer]

Use linux if you don't have control of features on your operating system. It can be taken away from you by the company. Like the start menu grouping feature dropped in windows 11. But added back in a recent windows update due to public demand. You're restricted by microsoft & apple.

You're free to do anything you want on linux. It's your computer. Not microsoft's or apple's

 

[Madame Peccato]

I've been using Windows ever since I was a kid and I've never had any big issue. Yeah, the occasional virus or BSOD was annoying, though they haven't happened in years. But I suspect I'd have encountered issues at a similar rate with any OS. Components stop working, software acts funny, and sometimes I break things myself. It's part of the course.

I tinkered a bit with Linux and it was ok, but I still prefer Windows. Never used a Mac in my life so I can't comment on that.

Tl;Dr: I know my way around Windows and can fix anything that happens to it in minutes.

 

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[Xeon]

PCs PCs PCs.
Windows Windows Windows!

I'm a Microsoft fan. Love Office and everything MS has to offer.
The only thing I disliked was IE.

 

[justinbiz]

Nothing like a Windows computer... Leave it working totally fine, come back to zero way to connect it to the internet. Just what I wanted to do this afternoon, reinstall Windows from scratch.

How are the M1 Mac laptops? Anyone have one?

Pining for an M1 MacBook Pro right now. My 2015 15" is finally getting long-in-the-tooth. My long series of Mac laptops have nearly always been the best combination of screen size, battery life, and weight on the market. I recall a few years ago some reviewer saying the a 15" MacBook Pro was the best Windows laptop you could buy! (Because once Mac was using Intel they could all run Windows too).

I'm a pretty hardcore software developer, and my experience developing on and for Mac has been superior for decades. There are some cool things coming from Windows (like C# is an awesome programming language), but the frequency and intensity of excruciating developer rabbit holes is less on Mac.

Also I believe Apple has a more customer-centric culture than Microsoft. I had a software contract with Apple a long time ago and I was surprised the lengths they went to to get the details right for the best user experience.

Add less virus activity and impact on Mac, better data security, better integration with mobile (iPhone), and all the cool shit available under the hood with linux.

Oh, there's also my annual astonishment that whatever the latest Windows OS redesign, go two clicks below the pretty surface and I'm in the same blizzard of poorly-designed dialog boxes, especially when doing anything remotely technical. That's not to say Windows doesn't have some great features, some of which aren't on Mac.

All-in-all, the price premium is totally worth the better experience.

 

[Madame Peccato]

Oh, there's also my annual astonishment that whatever the latest Windows OS redesign, go two clicks below the pretty surface and I'm in the same blizzard of poorly-designed dialog boxes, especially when doing anything remotely technical. That's not to say Windows doesn't have some great features, some of which aren't on Mac.

Spot on, this is my biggest issue with Windows. When I have to help my friends out when their PCs have issues, and I have to instruct them on how to modify the registry...oh boy, I'm always in for a ride.

"Yeah just go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Windows add a new QWORD (64-bit value), name it "EPICSUPERFIX" and give it a hexadecimal value data of 1. Fixed"

Another upsetting thing is all the pre-installed bloatware and telemetry. It's sooo messy.

F*ck off Bill.
~ I type on my Windows 11 PC that I built myself. ~€1200 well spent

 

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[Prince33]

Back in 2007-2013 PC was the easy winner for the average user.
Now?
Windows is a pain in the a$$. I builty my PC as a teen back in the late 00s. Was the biggest PC fan ever imo. But now? Updates, updates, and more updates. Stuff as simple as wifi glitches out. Driver error. Forced updates. They shady stuff they do to collect info(can say the same for apple too). And it.. just doesnt work! Windows XP did what it needed to do. It worked and was easy to use for a lot of people. Seems as we get more modern MS got lazier and lazier. Adding bluetooth devices gets "stuck" at times and all that BS.

And dont get me started with android.

However windows still has best compatibility so...
My opinion.

 

[Singularity73]

I got the M1 Air after using Windows my whole life. I used it for 1 year before recently switching back to Windows. MacOS is awful, the window management makes 0 sense (talking from the perspective of using multiple monitors). Windows 11 is great, love the snap layouts feature. It just works like you'd expect. I constantly had "WTF" moments using MacOS.

 

[E-Sharp]

I switched from PC/windows to mac laptop and iMacs back in 2008. On occasion I've considered going back but the thing that keeps me in with apple is the mileage I can get from the hardware. For me, software limitations in areas such as business apps are offset by the longevity of the devices.

 

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[Walter Hay]

After receiving an unwanted update that installed Windows 11 on my laptop, I was keen to revert to Windows 10. The main reason was that it appeared to have been designed by an apprentice, and was a pain to use.

The attempt failed and resulted in a second installation of Windows 11, but with all my data lost (other than the files I had preserved on large capacity USB sticks) and every attempt to tidy it all up was thwarted by demands for logins that rejected my well know passwords because the keyboard had been changed with the result that symbols that should have appeared when I used SHIFT + a number key produced the wrong symbol.

All the guides (including Microsoft) to show me how to restore the proper keyboard function were obsolete, but I persevered and now have my computer functioning correctly, but I am still searching for some lost data.

I am not a fan of Microsoft.

Walter

 

[Thinh]

I got the M1 Air after using Windows my whole life. I used it for 1 year before recently switching back to Windows. MacOS is awful, the window management makes 0 sense (talking from the perspective of using multiple monitors). Windows 11 is great, love the snap layouts feature. It just works like you'd expect. I constantly had "WTF" moments using MacOS.

Gotta admit that window management on MacOS is rather… cryptic

But thankfully it can be solved with a neat app called Magnet.

 

[Nick Kadutskyi]

I think the decision should be based on what specialized apps you need.
If you don't require anything special then, I think, MacOs is way better than Windows in terms of:

• Productivity.
  • With Mac you get all the apps you need for work right away (Office, mail, messaging, calendar, reminders, notes etc.)
  • Most of the apps you use for management on Windows are available on Mac as well.
  • Spotlight - system wide search feature that will look not only for files and apps but for emails, contacts, calendar events etc. There are alternatives like Raycast and Alfred that do a ton of additional stuff. I basically run everything through such app (I use Raycast)
  • Automation capabilities. There is a Shortcuts app where you create Shortcuts to automate various things. those shortcuts will be shared on both Mac and iPhone. If you need something more advanced there is Automator.app.
  • If you are on a laptop MacOs has superior touchpad gestures.
  • Mobility helps to be productive in any place. Apple Silicon Mac laptops provide you much greater battery life and performance per energy expended.
    • Apple's apps on MacOs are much better adjusted to the system thus working faster and spending less energy (including their Safari browser)
• Security and Privacy. Apple doesn't feed you with ads in their OS while Windows does. Apple is much more security conscious than Microsoft.

 

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[Tiago]

Holy moly, I've switched from my Macbook Air 2013 to Macbook Pro M1 Pro 2021.

It's a beast of a machine. I'm using computer very differently than I was when I purchased the Air, with multiple softwares open at the same time, and it doesn't break a sweat.

Very good investment.

Only one thing is bothering, and I've seen it posted multiple times in various forums, the sound is giving out a crackling/popping noise. It seems to be software related, so would be good to have it fixed soon by Apple.

 

[DWX]

Former Mac maximalist here.

Still love the machines, but have found my custom Windows PC to be far superior (and cheaper).

The main trigger for the change, however, was software. Dragon dictation wasn't available for Mac and the Siri thing was whack.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Windows, but I have been thinking about trying out MAC haha!

 

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[Xeon]

Windows 11 UI is just plain gorgeous. A literal piece of art.
I love Microsoft.

 

[inabox1]

Just over a year ago I spent the last of my money on a used 2015 Macbook Pro 13" from eBay.

Since then I've used it to learn to code from scratch, record & edit videos, run multiple demanding pieces of software simultaneously, build my business, etc.

I had never used a Macbook before and chose to invest in it mainly for coding and creating/selling websites. The investment has paid off over tenfold for what I bought it for, and I've used it every single day since day 1 with 0 issues (hell, I'm typing this on it haha!).

When I was a teenager I built a Windows PC and used it for several years, so while I understand that Windows has its strengths too, for myself the Mac has been a gamechanger.

Ngl though, I do miss video games

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Surprised Mac isn’t the landslide winner after saving the planet from the Independence Day aliens in 1999. That 32MB of ram was no match for those aliens who travelled trillions of miles to conquer us!

 

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[Mammoth]

After using Windows since I was a child and a few years on Linux, I think I'm going to give the Macbook Air a try.

My current ASUS laptop is so big & bulky and the battery barely lasts an hour so I don't move it anywhere. If I'm going to have something like that, it might as well be a tower PC.

I want to be able to just pick up my laptop and go with it.

 

[Voracity]

Been using Macs and PCs interchangeably since 1996. There was a time where certain types of work made more sense on one OS or the other, so I used both since I do a ton of different types of work from web dev to video editing. Today, with most applications being cloud based it hardly matters. I do rely on certain legacy software that requires one or the other, such as certain Excel addons.

Macs are a little easier to network together out of the box, and it’s a huge convenience if also using iOS. Nice to be able to share text on the clipboard from my desktop to my iPhone, and then grab my MacBook when going out the door.