Breaking News from a 3 Decade Mac Guy -- Windows 11 and PCs are on the brink

Greetings All,

So I was as Mac as a person could be for 29 years. I wasn't into paying the big bucks but I simply couldn't accept any version of Windows as good enough.

Now I know when I say this many Windows users simply have no idea what I'm talking about. The best analogy I can think of is McDonalds. Around my 5th grade in the 70s I realized I couldn't eat McDonalds burgers anymore. Not because I didn't want to but because they made me literally sick to my stomach. When I tasted my first Burger King whopper, that was it for McDonalds. Game Over, Mayor McSleaze.

All Windows versions I ever played with didn't reach the minimum level of acceptable. They didn't qualify as an OS. They were buggy, incoherent, and ugly AF. The hardware usually was as weak. Once OS X came into the picture PCs were McDonalds puke burgers. A non-starter.

Windows 10 was the first OS that, to me, qualified as acceptable. Not preferable, mind you. So if a Mac equivalent of the same PC was only 20% more, I'd have gotten the Mac. The thing is that since typically the Mac was twice the price of its cousin PC -- it became clear the Mac was not twice as good. Only... lol... 20% better at best.

The thing was it was hard for me to rave to people. I couldn't honestly say, "Apple is over. Get a Windows 10 PC." More like, "PCs really aren't so bad these days and you can save a ton of money."

But one of my biggest problems to persuade Mac users to even try a PC was the Windows 10 OS. It was okay. But too big a backwards step for any Mac user. And so when I saw MS was putting some serious interest into Windows 11 -- I was one of the few PC users grinning ear to ear.

We all know 11 is a mixed bag that has received mixed reviews. Yet just the other day I was helping a Mac friend do something very basic on their Mac. While sitting before their M1 MacBook Air a funny kinda thing happened: I was no longer impressed. Sure, that thin metal hardware is to die for, but two things main selling points of the OS/Hardware were gone --

1. I can't really say that Mac OS is so much prettier anymore. This may sound funny but I really feel it's sort of over-designed at this point. Everything has become a bit 'precious'. Like a box of chocolate candies wrapped in pretty little pieces of shiny paper with unicorn designs on them. Strangely distracting.
This is to say that the Windows 11 design, although nowhere near finished, is more than acceptable and breaching 'preferable'. If MS keeps polishing it up a year from now I may shock myself when I tell people, "I actually prefer the cleaner less distracting look of Windows 11 over Mac OS." Not there yet, mind you.

2. So there I was in front of the M1 Apple Silicon. Opening and closing windows, apps, rebooting. Spoiler: if it was faster than my PCs, I didn't really notice it. Now I know that since I wasn't editing video I was 'missing the best part' of M1. But the owner of that Mac and 99% of people don't edit video. They surf. And I tell you it wasn't impressive. At all.

Now, a Machead would say wait wait a minute and talk about the amazing M1 battery life. I agree. When parents ask me what their kids should get for college, I say if they intend to roam around campus all day you can't quite beat the lightweight diminutive all day battery bright screen thing known as the MacBook Air. Sorry but no contest.

But I'm watching the Intel 12th Gen. The new AMD stuff. When those units can promise an all day battery --

-- I'll see absolutely no need to recommend a Mac. Zero.

and.... nobody cares

I could use a MAC if I had to, (but would not like the slowdown in performance My current workstation is tested as four times faster than the fastest M1 Mac for the work I do )

I do not spend my days staring at the OS User Interface, I use applications to do work, and major applications are basically the same when run in full screen whatever OS you are running.

My case is probably not common as I have spent many years using Operating / Graphical User Interface, systems, designed for a specific, industrial, purposes, (and have designed a few myself), so switching is "Normal"

Unfortunately Apple lately seem to spend more time in the courts on Patent cases than thinking about what's best for the user ( RIP Steve Jobs ).

I also see the adverts for the latest "Unique" function in the latest iPhone. that has been in Android phones for several years.

Maybe not then, but now I can fully understand why you were a Mac guy. Having used PCs since forever I can honestly say I had never touched an Apple product until 2017 when I bought my first ipad. When I did, I discovered what everyone had been raving about for so long. It flew on 2 gb ram. I had owned multiple Windows tablets up until that time and every one was a piece of crap. Last year i upgraded to an ipad pro but the old ipad is still as good as the day I bought it.

Quality wise, Apple products are so far out ahead of any OEM Windows or Android device, it's laughable to me, as is Apple support miles ahead of that one gets from Microsoft or any computer manufacturer. It's easy to understand Apple superiority since they are responsible for everything from hardware , design, and operating system. They don't cut corners in using quality components. Any operating system can only be as good as the hardware it runs on and the OEMs are in control of that rather than MS so a lot of issues arise from that.

From an operating system standpoint, I now have limited experience with MacOS and more with IOS but I feel both have always been more stable than Windows. I do think Windows is catching up but it's reliability has always been and still is questionable when compared to Apple stuff. Windows 10 really impressed me in its advances in that regard. The jury is still out regarding 11, and the verdict won't come down until 11 is fully cooked. I do think Microsoft released 11 earlier than they should have.

This is just a simple case of "To each his own". Has nothing to do with Windows or Mac OS. I can say exactly the same thing for Mac OS being not a Mac guy. Or a Linux geek may feel the same. The same goes for Android and iOS phones. Gas or electric vehicles. Work from home or work from office. It's all a matter of personal preference. And there is no room for argument in that.
I know my way around Windows when I encounter a road block. But with Mac, I will surely get stuck.