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The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

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Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#91

Post by vbezhenar »

I used macOS for a 5 years, but switched to Windows, because Apple did not produce any Macs that I wanted to buy. While I would still prefer macOS because of better iPhone integration, I did not find any problems with Windows 10 and I'm using it every day without problems, it just works. And the fact that I don't have to pay those 500% Apple margins makes me quite happy. I waited for Mac Pro announce to make a final decision what platform I would use, but now it's a no-brainer, as Apple obviously does not consider me its target audiency, I'll just stay on Windows.

Funny thing is, as I'm no longer attached to macOS, I'm considering switching from iPhone to Android. I'll have much better synchronization for Google Chrome and newer iPhones are really weird (similar to Macs, LoL). And, again, no need to pay their crazy prices.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#92

Post by School-Cotton »

da_chicken wrote: post #55
School-Cotton wrote: post #12

When people refer to the entire suite of Unix-like tools as “bash” I don’t quite know what to make of it. Interpreted uncharitably, it would seem to imply that they think all those nice tools like grep, awk, etc. are all shell builtins, which would be a huge red flag as it would mean they have very little idea of how a typical Unix-like OS works. Interpreted charitably, maybe they do know that those are all separate…

> When people refer to the entire suite of Unix-like tools as “bash” I don’t quite know what to make of it. Because nobody installs bash without coreutils and the 30 or so other common utility programs (grep, sed, awk, et al). Pointing out that bash doesn't include coreutils+standard is just being pedantic. Nobody runs a system without those utilities present. Everybody already knows what is meant. You're not adding…

You seem to be responding to points that I’m not making.

I’m aware that very few people install bash outside the context of a typical Unix OS. It would indeed be pedantic and useless to point out that that’s theoretically possible, and that’s not what I’m doing.

It’s also very rare to install, say, grep outside of a typical Unix OS. But you wouldn’t say “the grep workflow on WSL is great” to mean the entire WSL experience, unless you were specifically talking about actual grep. So why do people do it with bash?

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#94

Post by Kneighbor »

pbreit wrote: post #9

I just switched from Mac to Windows and had to move back. I cannot believe how miserable the Windows experience is. I mistakenly thought that since so much is browser-based, it's not a big deal. But literally every single little thing is slightly-to-much worse on Windows. Even stupid things like changing scroll direction, saving the 5 second preference for notifications to disappear, finding a wifi password, arrangin…

Same - here's how my story went:

Upgraded from my 2009 MBP to a 2017 MBP a couple years ago. Immediately regretted the purchase after the keyboard screwed up multiple times so I returned within 14 days for a refund. Ended up buying a Surface Pro and hated it. Upon booting up my machine I was instantly met with severe backlight bleeding so I returned it. The store gave me another device - same issue. This time I decided to see if I can put up with it. I immediately regretted not having a proper shell for dev work. In addition to this, I couldn't believe how hard it was to remove certain applications/programs from the computer. Why is there a menu for Apps and also one for Programs and Features? These issues kept piling up until after a few days I returned it again. Decided to grab a 2015 MBP from the Apple refurb store and have used it since. No regrets.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#95

Post by qball »

euroclydon wrote: post #86
mdorazio wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows is somehow worse than it used to be. I have to agree. I use Windows probably 90% of the time, but I have to say it peaked with Windows 7 and started going downhill with 8. Now it's a game of "guess which config system has the option you need" + Microsoft forcing all kinds of things power users really should be able to disable.

I wonder if it’s because the older MS developers are retiring and the young blood don’t know how to keep the OS to the same quality.

I'm tempted to say this is true (most newer developers are unlikely to have a deep understanding of older, faster languages like C++, especially in the age of Javascript and glorified IRC clients that consume more resources than the OS does to run), but I think a more accurate description of the problem is that Windows became fragmented in 2012 for stupid reasons (when the decision was made to make desktop Windows an ad for its unfinished tablet version- Metro was an unmitigated usability disaster for everything not a tablet) and everyone getting hired on is just trying to put the pieces back together.

We don't know if Windows is in maintenance mode or not either, or what the next version would look like if one eventually comes out (maybe it'll all be in TypeScript?). After all, UWP was mostly retired and the visions of "your next desktop computer is a tablet" have significantly died down- the technology and the will of the market just weren't there.

However, Microsoft has failed once before to develop a proper, stable OS- though Vista did bring a great number of graphical and usability updates to XP, chief among them the "Show Desktop" button, the ability to snap windows onto sides of the screen, and putting a Firefox-style search bar in Explorer, it suffered from poor functional quality (file copy windows should never ever be broken, for instance), so I'm not convinced it's solely the fault of newer developers.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#96

Post by com2kid »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #42

I'm debating switching to Windows when my 2015 Macbook gives up unless Apple really have learned their lessons from the 2016 model. I have two remaining major issues with Windows, which is down from the remarkably sizeable list that had me switch to Mac and OSX, which makes it easy to keep the Windows box as games only: + Extreme monochrome flatness. It's obtuse and hides information, like the edges of icons, encoura…

In regards to the flatness, MS is moving over to Fluent Design (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_Design_System) which has more depth and colors, and is a return to Aero in some ways.

FWIW Metro was originally super bright and cheerful, even if it was flat.

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#97

Post by keithnz »

pbreit wrote: post #9

I just switched from Mac to Windows and had to move back. I cannot believe how miserable the Windows experience is. I mistakenly thought that since so much is browser-based, it's not a big deal. But literally every single little thing is slightly-to-much worse on Windows. Even stupid things like changing scroll direction, saving the 5 second preference for notifications to disappear, finding a wifi password, arrangin…

not having a unix shell? you read the article right? the part about how you can run a unix shell with WSL? you don't have to bash on windows, but now you can bash on windows ;)

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#98

Post by vbezhenar »

sarim wrote: post #66

I use Mac for work (MacBook Pro 2017) and windows for personal projects (HP Envy 2018) and posts like these makes me wonder: are we both using the same Windows? Because the windows that I am exposed to finds the most inconvenient time to install updates, slows down for no apparent reason and, as of late, turns on two keyboard cursors at the same time causing me to type in two different locations of a document at once…

Comments like yours make me wonder the same thing. I almost never notice Windows updates. May be once a month when I shutting down my PC, I'll notice that label changed from "power off" to "install updates and power off" and that's the only difference for me. I never experienced forced reboot or something like this. I don't have any slow downs and I never saw two keyboard cursors (apart from Intellij Idea multiple cursors feature).

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#99

Post by freewilly1040 »

spookybones wrote: post #84
rayiner wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing here. Sold my 2013 MBP and bought a Thinkpad X1 carbon. After a year of frustration, bought a used 2013 MBP. Windows is somehow worse than it used to be. There's two control centers for some reason. Much more notifications and intrusiveness. Taskbar auto-hide doesn't work consistently. Updates install without permission. The big thing is the apps. Apps are getting much less functional (just like how the Se…

I’m happy to see someone els lament a good alternative to Preview on windows.

I remember this being a pain when I switched off of windows 10 years ago, can’t believe they haven’t figured it out yet

Re: The state of switching to Windows from Mac in 2019

#100

Post by jhbadger »

School-Cotton wrote: post #34
saagarjha wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often say that I like using macOS, but what I really mean is that I like macOS itself along with its apps and ecosystem. Perhaps the same thing was meant here.

I see your point, but I think it’s a slightly inaccurate analogy. There is no “bash ecosystem”; if you switch your login shell to zsh or fish or tcsh, nearly everything works identically. I suspect if this guy were forced to use zsh, he’d be fine; he just doesn’t because it’s not the default. Whereas when you say you “like using macOS” I assume you don’t just mean that you like using computers in general and you woul…

Expect zsh to stop being niche in a few months when apparently the next version of MacOS will use it by default
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