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?
Mac's can be a nightmare when something goes wrong.
Availability of games on windows
price of windows pcs
the ease of building a windows pc
familiarity of windows after using it 25years
I think they are more intuitive than macs (but probably because of point above)
windows dont have "fan boizs" like macs do.
never have to worry about software compatibility issues with windows
PC, because I like to get what I pay for and then some. Not the opposite.
I don't mind Mac and used to use an iMac for a few years for work. In some ways I prefer the Mac OS and in other ways I prefer Windows.
The only real reason I stick with Windows for non work related things is price. PC I built 10 years ago is still comfortably serving its purpose, parts that have failed have been able to be replaced or upgraded etc. Meanwhile a lesser specced Mac is more expensive and doesn't have the same flexibility with upgrades and repairs etc.
For Laptop use I prefer Macs, for Desktop use I prefer Windows. I find the Windows on Laptops aren't really that stable for some reason. I feel that Windows is only reliable using desktop class hardware.
I'll never forget the first time I used an iMac in 2010 and it took me a few minutes to find the power button.
Both. I use a Mac for work and have a personal Mac laptop. I have Linux on a home server. I have a desktop which is pretty much just for gaming and very occasionally use a Windows laptop.
I think Mac has the following advantages:
Windows has the following advantages
Windows does have major annoyances - I find myself digging into group policy, and registry to get things to work how I want. I am not sure of the current state as I have implemented workarounds that haven't come undone.
Windows does have major annoyances - I find myself digging into group policy, and registry to get things to work how I want. I am not sure of the current state as I have implemented workarounds that haven't come undone
I have custom W10Privacy config file, which I run after any fresh install.
Only reason I would be using Mac Os is if I bought a laptop in the future. I'm not particular about a hackintosh nor do I necessarily want Linux as my main OS for a build.
Currently, I use windows on my PC, android on my phone and iOS on my tablet.
I'm not particularly bad in using Mac Os, but would need to modify something's to my liking before I would fully commit. No transfer speed output on dialogue boxes? Seriously?
Mac, for both work (software developer) and personal use. Windows for me is just a gaming PC OS. I build PC myself with windows for playing games.
Amiga 2000
Windows - gaming compatibility and works with the apps that I am used to. Haven't used mac Microsoft Office products in a while, but the last time I did they were crippled versions of the windows ones - excel didn't do half the stuff it should.
Windows cause Format C: is life.
Seriously though. Most apps I've needed to run for console mods, etc, almost always work with PC only.
I've had success with VirtualBox on Linux with USB pass-through for old console modding / CRT monitor adjusting tools.
The only thing that bugs me about windows is the DLL errors. I don't know how but it seems to happen every few years forcing me to do a complete reinstall.
I've actually found Windows to be a lot more resilient when it comes to slowdowns and also, improved in terms of upgrades.
With my previous PC(i5-3570K based), I planned on doing a clean install. I ran through the Windows 10 Upgrade process and there were no issues so I just kept using it.
My current PC has an 18-month-old install of Windows 10 which is showing no signs of any issues. The previous install was the same age with no issues, but the SSD failed.
Any idea what is happening to cause you issues? A friend who ran into issues with system files getting corrupted found out they had a faulty PSU.
Every now and then when I try installing a new program it will come up with an error saying that I am missing some Microsoft Visual C++ DLL files. It hasn't happened in a while but it's happened enough times that it's become one of my pet peeves with Windows because usually reinstalling Visual C++ won't fix the problem and no other compiler requires a complete reinstall to fix.
It may be worth checking your hardware is functioning correctly
Next time it happens you could also try unning the integrity check for system files - Sfc /scannnow
This is not my experience with windows. I have an old pc that went from a 3570k to a 3600x to a 5600x to a 5800x3d. It went through multiple windows upgrades/updates with no complete blank reinstall. Just moved the ssd to the new machine then updated drivers. Never had a problem. I’ve had about as many issues as my kids machines running similar hardware with blank installs of win10. I’m more of an apple user too. Windows for pc, apple for tv/phones/school laptops. Would probably use apple for gaming PCs but they have nothing anywhere near a high end gaming pc
Mac hands down.
Simply because with Windows hardware, I was advised (> 10 years ago before I switched to Mac) that once every year (6 months at times), will need to do a fresh-reinstall of everything to get the as new performance. Thought that advice was obsolete with new hardware and new OS but apparently it's still applicable to this day.
just couple weeks ago, I was cleaning my house while half watching / listening to Channel 9 or 7 and this so-called "computer-expert" was giving tips on how to keep your computer at its top performance. Guess what the advice is? Every now and then, make sure you delete everything and do a fresh reinstall of your laptop.
On the other hand, one app that I couldn't live without is "Alfred" (there was Quicksilver too but it's obsolete now). Windows had Launchy but it's not as versatile as Alfred.
Both. I work on a company Windows laptop, and use a docked M1 Macbook Air as my personal machine as of about Nov last year. I also have a mini Windows PC that runs a few 'always-on' apps, and acts as a backup Windows box that I can remote into should I ever really need to do something on a Windows machine.
Honestly, I don't have a hard preference either way. I'm more comfortable with Windows from a good 20 years of use compared to < 1 year of MacOS. I still struggle to understand the logic behind some things in MacOS, but I'm not sure if they're legit gripes or if it's just me expecting it to behave like Windows e.g. needing a third party app to maximise (not full screen) a window without manually resizing the window. That being said, I've become very used to spotlight and use it as a launch point for just about everything.
I've dabbled with Linux but invariably run into enough small issues that add up to bigger issues and take way too long to resolve. So back to my corporate overlords I went.
BTW to maximise (not full screen) an app in MacOS you can just double click anywhere along an apps header bar* double-clicking it again puts it back to the size/position it was in before.
*idk if this is the right name I mean the bar along the top of apps. Like it has the (x) (-) (+) in red/yellow/green but you don't click those just anywhere along the bar that isn't a button or tab
Both 😷💪🏿
Why no box for bi-sexuals?
I mean I use both, win for junk, mac for banks…
Windows for life.. There are or were many more freeware programs on Windows than on Mac and as someone who go very used to the idea of files and folders in Windows I always found Mac OS frustrating.
I used windows for 20 years. Now I am very happy in the Apple ecosystem.
And does anyone know of a good notepad++ alternative on the Mac that is not heavy/clunky?
nvim (or just native vim) work well (has a learning curve, very keyboard based) 100% free and very customisable.
https://vim-adventures.com/ <— can play a game to get familiar with how to use
Lots of youtube videos out there on how to setup and get the most out of it.
I'd only invest the time if you're working on text files regularly.
use textwrangler on mac instead of notepad ++
there are plenty of options to get windows to snap into place but you can just hold option and click green aswell
mac is better if you have other mac devices, especially iphone / ipad because you can airdrop etc..
LOAD"$",8,1
LIST
LOAD"*",8,1
RUN
LOAD "PR?N.TXT"
GOTO 69
END
Edlin all the way!
Finally an editor that never made sense if you came from a Commodore!
Generally prefer the UI of Windows, but the battery life, hardware build, and Unix underpinnings make Macbooks superior overall to me
Windows = Desktop, gaming. MacOS = Laptop, portable. M1/M2 gamechanger
Not sure if it’s because I’m simply more experienced on windows, but I feel more productive on windows by far. Apple feels like a premium experience cause it’s so smooth and pretty, but with windows I feel connected to the output.
Hence using an iPhone for social tasks and windows for work or whenever I need serious output. In saying that I had a MacBook at uni because windows laptops sucked at the time due to 2 hour battery life.
Windows user… I refuse to be sucked into the marketing BS that apple zombies have succumbed to
How do you know if someone hates Apple? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
How do you know if someone loves Apple? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
Mac when I'm on the go. Windows when I'm at home.
I used Macintosh since the 90s, and loved them, especially Aldus/Adobe.
Then along came Windows and since about that time, almost all the 2D/3D design software was only on DOS or Windows (except for Archicad and a few random homegrown apps). Nothing on Mac/OSX for serious designwork, so unless you work by yourself it's not a realistic option. Some small offices run Macs with Parallels or Bootcamp, and while the Apple hardware is quite fast on paper, in the reality the performance is pretty dismal due to emulation overhead and no native graphics drivers; Also, you can forget about gaming on Mac.
Bottom line is you won't get a smooth, fast experience unless you are using native applications, and whilst those are well-made (most are better than the Windows equivalents, except for Microsoft Office Suite which is just bad), the available Mac apps don't cover all business industries.
Also bear in mind Apple's hardware is largely designed not to be upgraded or expanded, unless you get the top of the range products — if you're buying Apple, you will regret buying the cheap model now, so if you can't afford the bells and whistles, look instead at Windows equivalents like Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, which have models that you can swap out drives or memory, even batteries as needed. Some people use desktops and notebooks just for 3-4yrs, but a good one can last 6-8yrs if you look after it. iPads have that well-deserved reputation over Android tablets, but a budget Macbook will quickly become unusably full / out of memory, whilst Windows notebooks can be cheaply updated to your needs.
Work Mac. Home have a 2015 pro and Windows gaming beast build.
Use Rectangle or Shift it for window snapping.
I have used textmate and sublime text as notepad++ alternatives.
I've used all three regularly over the last 30 odd years… started with MS DOS on a PC…. I found that I tinker too much with Windows and Linux and MacOS helps me just get work done. But they're all tools and I use the right tool for the job if I have access to it.
MacOS for SSH Keys w/ Keychain and TouchID integration
Switched between all of them from the days of MS-DOS.
Mostly used windows for my personal computer till about 2 years ago. Got frustrated with most windows laptop touchpads and multi-desktop switching jankiness. Used a mac from work for a few years and then switched to one for my personal machine when the m1 came out. Also switched because I don't game as much on my laptop anymore and mainly use it for web browsing and a bit of photo editing/dev work from time to time.
All three options. I use different platforms for different tasks.
Work - Mac
Gaming and hardware tinkering - Windows
Home server - Linux
I use Windows or Linux mostly, as I hate how macOS pukes metadata dotfiles all over any volume it touches. Also with mac I feel too detached from the machine.
I use my m1 macbook for light tasks like watching media and some small scripts etc, and Razer Blade 14 for dev work.
Windows. Grew up with it. Windows 95 was first computer. Also a gamer.
I use MacOS for work because having a package manager and a shell environment is just convenient for programming.
I use Windows at home because I grew up with it, play games and build my own PC.
I used to play around with Arch Linux as a hobby and while I learned some things, I was never convinced that I would ever switch to it.
In my everyday use, the thing that frustrates me most about MacOS compared to Windows is the window management.
Dexpot on Windows is awesome. Having experienced it, Spaces on Mac is frustrating to use due to the transition lag (even with reduced animations), lack of grid layout, and ignored keypresses when rapidly switching spaces. I'm not interested in spending too much time on these things after my venture into Arch Linux where I spent hours on my AwesomeWM config so I didn't bother with Yabai.
Windows's taskbar also only shows the application you have open on a given space on the monitor it is on. MacOS's dock on the other hand, shows all applications across all spaces and all monitors so it becomes a cluster (profanity) that I can't use. I bought Contexts3 as a workaround to this but it's far from ideal (takes up horizontal real estate, sometimes buggy when switching spaces and something triggers it to immediately switch back to where you came from).
On the plus side, Mac lets you use Alt + ` to switch between windows of the same instance which is neat. Raycast is also an awesome app launcher once you integrate it with Github, your CI/CD, Jira, Figma, etc. Not sure if Windows has a similar launcher where the community can build extensions to integrate with other services.
I've gotten used to switching between using Alt and Command at will thanks to using both Mac and Windows daily. However, when I code on Windows, I find myself pressing s/c/x/v before holding the Ctrl key down when trying to save/copy/cut/paste and it's been really annoying. I'm not sure if it's cause I'm getting old, my keyboard sucks or getting used to Alt has screwed up my muscle memory for using Ctrl.
For some retarded reason, MacOS doesn't let you customize the scroll behavior of a mouse independently to the trackpad. If you disable natural scrolling for your mouse, it disables it on the trackpad too. Because of this, I'm now no longer used to natural scrolling on the trackpad. I remember using an app called Reverse Scroll to deal with this but I think I disabled it after it caused confusion during pair programming.
For some retarded reason, MacOS doesn't let you customize the scroll behavior of a mouse independently to the trackpad.
This has been the only thing which has annoyed me really with my Macbook!
notepad++ alternative on the Mac
Not sure if it's on mac but on Linux there's notepadqq which is a notepad++ clone written in QT
edit: looks like they have an experimental mac build: https://github.com/notepadqq/notepadqq/releases
Windows 10 with a Windows XP classic shell on top. Makes me feel young again.
Android harmony os for life
Grew up with windows. Have had a Mac as a personal computer since 2010. Still work on windows at work.
Personal opinion only. It’s hard to beat the windows for productivity. Especially if you use the office suite. Mac seems to nudge ahead on reliability and os stability. I use Mac for Lightroom and photoshop as a hobby photographer. For everything else, I prefer windows.
Lately though, it’s getting harder and harder to use both simultaneously. I blame age. Thinking of making a switch to windows full time. And move from iPhone back to android.
Windows for daily driving and Linux for any kind of hosting.
Was a Windows user for years, but went over to Mac for my personal PC with the shift from desktops to laptops.
Went back to PC with my most recent laptop a couple of years ago.. But it's starting to have issues (typical Windows). Thinking I may even buy an iPad Pro as a replacement.
Mac for work, Windows for gaming.
Linux - it's free and has a large, dedicated community behind it. It can be a steep learning curve but once you get used to it it's really not so bad.
Also gaming on linux (with steam/proton) is incredibly good these days. I don't even check whether the games I buy are supported by proton anymore and it's been a couple of years since I've had any issue. Maybe Cyberpunk 2077 was the last but it was buggy as shit anyway and supported within a couple weeks of release.
Windows - I play games, parts in desktop are upgrade-able, work in IT so I need windows for all the system, monitoring and remote tools.
Windows. Its what I'm used to and most workplaces use it. My kids have macbook airs and they are definitely decent and I think pretty good value.
When I worked at Commonwelath Bank some years ago, they actually had everyone useing macbook airs but with the Mac OS removed and windows installed???
We had something similar at uni of Qld. iMacs with windows running on them.
"When I worked at Commonwelath Bank some years ago, they actually had everyone useing macbook airs but with the Mac OS removed and windows installed???"
Are you sure about that??? That's incredible.
It wasn't that uncommon, I ran my 2015 MBP for years with windows installed as the default boot OS via BootCamp. It worked fine (only annoyance was that you couldn't adjust the trackpad speed - but there was a 3rd part remedy for it). The main reason this was so common imo is that there just weren't any 'quality' windows laptops around back then. When I say quality I mean aesthetic/build (not performance). Fortunately, the introduction of the Surface line has pretty much replaced this use case and with M1 not supporting BootCamp for windows the trend of windows on apple devices will die off.
I worked there for 3 years using a Mac air with windows so yes, I'm quite sure.
can confirm this was the default lappy a several years ago.
I used to plug in a USB HD with OSX installed, and boot into OSX/macOS
Mac user, fast and non virus so far
That alone is the reason why I am hesitant to get back to windows.
Been using PCs for like 33 years at least and haven’t had a virus. My 10 and 12yo haven’t encountered one yet either. We only use defender too
Why no Chrome os in the poll? Next gen will be using it a lot….
Banks are soon rolling out chromebook to front line staff for easy use
I use Macbook for work, business but Windows for home and personal usage.
Although I have to play games on window, I always used Mac for my daily work, especially while working a lot with webapps using web browser.
Google Chrome on Macbook M1 give noticeably improved responsiveness and performance.
Note: browserbench.org is a tool made by Apple but used by many orgs especially Google used its to show Chrome supremacy on Mac M1
Test it yourself?
Reference:
Chrome is now the fastest web browser for M1 Macs
PC User my entire life.
Macs just feel so opressive etc… With gaming and various programs not being usable on it.
As a gamer mainly, PC all the way.
PC User my entire life.
Have you used a Mac for any significant period of time? Or is that strictly opinion?
I used them briefly when I was younger. I hate the way Apple chooses to deliberately have dumb things to just be "different" to Windows.
Every now and again a student will ask me to help tech support one of their laptops and it's just like - wtf is this?!
load "*",8,1
Commodore 64 is still a landmark in computers - where games and software kept getting better, despite it never getting any upgrades. Have many long years of playing games before the Amiga and PC took over!
Windows on Mon, Wed, Friday
Mac on Tue, Thu, Saturday
Dex on Sunday
Plex everyday
I use PC's cause that's what I know, kids use Macs. Both are good, in different ways.
i've always been windows ever since i updated from amigaDOS
same with phones blackberry, nokia & android but never apple
Same. I even transitioned to winuae and brought my data with me back in the day and used a laplink parallel cable to copy the data across.
The Amiga OS was light on resources and high on productivity. Dabbled a little with Ubuntu but.. My schema took my back to Windows and learnt powershell
I have used PC's most of my entire working life. I used a Mac for a year about 6 years ago and sold it after a year and went back to PC. I tried to switch to Mac again about 2 years ago but returned it within 14 days to Apple store.
Mac does lots of good stuff. Both my kids use them and swear by them.
For me, the issues with Mac were the inability to scroll easily snap windows side by side, the photo app requiring all photos to be imported before they could be used rather than just accessing them directly from their folder location like windows does and a few applications that i used like MS project and DVD profiler that could't be used on the Mac.
On the plus side, i did like inbuilt imessages and facetime and also mac could go bigger than 1TB HDD the last time i briefly owned one. I now have a 2TB dell XPS15 and note that XPS now goes up to 4TB.
I do have an iPhone and iPad for my Apple fix.
I dual boot. Kubuntu / Windows 10
Linux is just really nice to use. It can run/do everything I need and is always updated,fast and stable. Zero bloat and don't need to restart every update that comes around.
Windows for gaming as some games are just bloated with DRM crap that Linux can't work around.
I have Linux on my wife's laptop as well and she loves it ( Doesn't know what an OS is.)
Don't touch Mac as it's locked down, overpriced and can't run things I want it to ( especially after M1 chips )
Personally, Windows for gaming then Mac for other stuff except for Excel, mac excel is retarded.
Windows at work, Mac (and some Windows 98) at home.
I'm a Windows person but I couldn't find a decent replecement for my Macbook Pro (battery duration, design, weight, price). Did I say battery duration?
Many years ago, I struggled when Windows was extremely unstable (BSOD and the lovely "illegal operation" message. Today, I have more issues with my Macbook than with my Windows (Desktop).
I'm much more familiar with Windows, including particularities of the system, which is more compatible with everything that I use, including softwares and games. The Mac environment is annoyingly restrictive, probably better for those who don't know what they are doing, but infuriating if you want to change the system.
OOI, what specifically do you find restrictive?
I mean it's more difficult to use softwares that change the codes. Game trainers and patches, or third-party softwares that modify the package contents. Therefore, those third party apps are often not available for Mac. It's a very particular use related to my long-term hobby.
Integration of other softwares (that I use) with Windows is smooth, and there are more (free and paid) software options for Windows.
Thanks for clarifying.
Yeah that makes sense, the communities that create that content would likely be targeting Windows.
Agreed regarding software, especially free. I don't find libre office as good on Mac. I also don't have a good replacement for Notepad++ or Paint.net.
Gaming on a Mac. LOL.
Plenty of games run on Mac without issue if you don’t care about the cutting edge.
There are also streaming services such as Stadia, Geforce Now. There’s also local streaming from steam or PS5.
I think it will be interesting to see where the platform goes with games as Apple Silicon matures.
Nowhere.
Mac isn't friendly to gaming. It's locked down, over priced, upgradable and missing DirectX
Game streaming is idiotic, you can't change the laws of physics to get light to reach your home fast enough. People complain about 40ms LED screen latency, think what controller input to a datacenter and back via congested NBN is.
Something tells me the people who care about 40ms screen latency aren't the same people who care about 2 frames latency.
Not a single comment giving some light to Linux and what it can do. First it's free, customization and come in many flavors as so called distro. It have their own repositories, it's like App stores where you can find the most popular apps and some games.
You can do work on it with the free and open source tools like Libre Office.
Unlike popular believes you don't have to be a computer wiz to use Linux, it's as user friendly as Mac OS, sometimes even simpler.
You can run Windows games with Steam Proton and Epic games with Heroic game launcher. The performance is near that of Windows, since some games support Vulkan, so do Linux.
The most important feature is the lack of spyware and telemetry.
Sadly I think there is much that holds Linux back
As for some of the features you’ve mentioned:
DRM comes with the browser? If you mean native apps, then yes.
Photoshop will come as web app in your browser very soon. Office is covered by MS 365 and Google Office suit in your browser.
Linux is getting shipped pre-installed on some brands, linux focused and HP I think.
True the Gaming is still an issue.
It depends what you want to customize, some basic things are very easy.
I don't remember needing to set up anything that hard with Heroic, it's GUI app after all. You need command line as much if you were an advance user on Windows and Mac. Most of the time it can be avoided.
As the time goes Linux is getting more versatile and popular. The issues now, won't be after a year or two.
Web apps will replace light usage but heavier professional usage will more than likely rely on native apps.
Command line is much more needed in Linux still. Even installing Steam requires the command line - not needed on Mac or Windows.
I do agree, things will improve in the next few years and I do look forward to seeing Linux ship on more machines. Even then, it still has an uphill battle against commercial OSes.
Windows because it works with no issues and is compatible with everything.
Mac cuz that's what the missus can use, otherwise it's just Linux for me.
I've never done any serious work with Windows, I started using FreeBSD and redhat Linux back from 2002, and have always stuck to Linux (redhat, mandrake, suse, debian, gentoo, Ubuntu, now back to Debian) on my personal computers. I did dual boot Windows for games, but maybe around 2008 i switched completely to console gaming.
Windows used to be shit (always crashing), same as Linux's desktop system, but both got better over the years, but I still always feel handicapped on Windows whenever I get to use it.
Windows
Upgrade parts
More customisation
Easy to navigate and find files
Alot of apps are on windows
I design, so having adobe on a power PC is nice. I used MAC on uni comps and it was horrible!
Windows as it's mainly GUI based. Linux commandline is difficult for performing most everyday tasks (like installing programs). Also software is more limited (no premiere pro). Macos is too expensive and doesn't let me custom build a PC to my requirements at a decent price.
Ubuntu has a software centre built into it and GUIs for things like updates. You’d rarely need to use the command line. When you do, there are generally clear instructions to follow. eg: https://support.plex.tv/articles/235974187-enable-repository…
It is lacking commercial options for software but many FOSS alternatives are very usable especially for home users.
Windows is my work laptop so I use Mac for personal. I still have a gaming rig which is Windows but my preference when not doing work is to use my Macbook Pro. Not sure why but I just enjoy using it alot more. That being said I do wish it had better window management/snapping particularly when connected to large monitors with ratios other than 16:9 (eg 49" 32:9).
OP add to poll use both please