On the floor, there may not look like there’s quite a bit in widespread between Home windows 3.1 and Windows 11 , however some issues – particularly legacy options added in Home windows 95 – proceed to work the best way they’ve at all times executed.
Whereas this causes issues – Windows 11 looks like a contemporary OS glued on high of an previous, rickety OS at instances – there’s a sure consolation to utilizing such a well-recognized product.
Additionally, whereas Linux and macOS, Home windows’ largest opponents in relation to operating systems , are getting higher at supporting video games, for those who’re a PC gamer who desires the widest choice of titles to play – like I’m – then Home windows 11 actually is the one selection.
Nostalgia, laziness, and being a hostage to my very own video games library aren’t the perfect causes to maintain utilizing a product, nevertheless, and it’s an issue that I really feel Microsoft has been combating for a very long time.
(Picture credit score: Microsoft)
Home windows is by far the preferred desktop working system on the planet in relation to consumer numbers – however it simply isn’t that standard in relation to… nicely… reputation.
Regardless of Microsoft wishing individuals beloved Home windows, the shortage of affection is a hazard for the corporate, as a result of it means rival working programs are discovering it simpler and simpler to win over Home windows customers.
With Windows 10’s End of Life approaching in October 2025, this hazard might be much more pronounced as there are going to be plenty of Windows 10 customers seeking to change working programs after Microsoft stops formally supporting the older OS.
Whereas the Redmond-based firm would love all these customers to maneuver to Home windows 11, there are going to be many customers taking a look at different working programs – and if individuals don’t get pleasure from utilizing Home windows, however simply keep it up out of behavior, then that’s not going to be sufficient to ensure that these customers will proceed utilizing Home windows.
Lately, Apple has been placing out some nice computing merchandise, and that’s meant I’ve been utilizing macOS much more – each at residence on my M2-powered MacBook Professional and at work with the Mac mini M4 .
With the Home windows PC I take advantage of at work displaying its age, I made a decision it was time to make the swap completely and use the Mac mini as my essential PC – and due to this fact cease utilizing Home windows 11 every day and as a substitute use macOS Sequoia . Right here’s what I discovered.
(Picture credit score: Sergey Zaykov / Shutterstock / Microsoft)
What I didn’t miss when ditching Home windows 11
I’ve been utilizing macOS for years as nicely, so I wasn’t entering into fully blind. Nevertheless, I used to be eradicating the protection internet of deep familiarity that I’ve with Home windows.
After two weeks of utilizing macOS as my sole working system for work, there have been loads of Home windows 11 quirks I wasn’t lacking.
For a begin, I definitely didn’t miss the adverts and nagging messages from Microsoft attempting to get me to make use of extra of its providers, one thing that’s getting more and more annoying in Home windows 11.
The place Home windows 11 places video games in my Begin menu that I’ve no real interest in, ignores my default browser settings to open up Microsoft Edge at any given alternative, and exhibits pop-ups attempting to get me to enroll in Video games Go, macOS is impressively clear.
There’s nonetheless makes an attempt to get you to make use of Apple’s ecosystem, however it appears much less invasive, and might primarily be ignored. The closest it got here was within the Preferences app the place Apple was attempting to persuade me to strive its AI instruments generally known as Apple Intelligence . Nonetheless, in comparison with Microsoft’s makes an attempt to power me to make use of its personal AI assistant, Copilot , this was far much less annoying.
(Picture credit score: Future)
I additionally appreciated that once I used Apple’s personal Safari browser to obtain Google Chrome , my web browser of selection, I wasn’t bombarded with messages and warnings attempting to place me off – one thing that Microsoft tries to do with various levels of desperation when utilizing Edge to obtain Chrome.
It additionally felt like macOS revered my decisions once I set non-Apple functions as defaults. As soon as I’d set Chrome as my default internet browser, that was it. In the meantime, with Home windows 11 it at all times felt prefer it was attempting to both change my thoughts or trick me into utilizing Edge, even once I explicitly set Chrome as my default internet browser.
This consists of incidents like opening a web site from throughout the Begin menu, Widget space or throughout the Settings app – as they’d ignore my settings and open up the web site in Edge.
After putting in massive updates, Home windows 11 can even generally present a display screen asking you to complete establishing your PC, and it usually consists of an possibility to make use of advisable web settings. If you happen to don’t concentrate and simply click on okay, you find yourself with Edge changing into your default browser once more.
(Picture credit score: Microsoft)
One other factor I didn’t miss was the instability. Whereas I normally have a good suggestion of how to fix Windows 11 problems , it doesn’t imply they’re any much less annoying after they strike – and generally there’s no straightforward repair. In the meantime, macOS feels much more secure and reliable.
To be truthful to Microsoft, that is primarily as a result of sheer breadth of units that may run Home windows 11, with PCs and laptops from all method of producers coming with completely different {hardware} configurations. It’s basically inconceivable to write down software program for a near-infinite variety of {hardware} configurations and assure that there will probably be no bugs or incompatibility issues.
In the meantime, Apple strictly restricts what units can run macOS to Macs and MacBooks that the corporate itself makes – and it may be ruthless about reducing help for older units as nicely. I’m not an enormous fan of this, however it does imply Apple has a transparent concept of the {hardware} that will probably be working macOS, and might due to this fact extra simply be certain that the software program works correctly.
That’s to not say that there are by no means macOS problems , however they really feel quite a bit much less widespread – and general the consumer expertise simply feels much more secure.
Alternatively, when one thing does break in macOS, I’m usually at a little bit of a loss, whereas with Home windows I’ve a good suggestion of what is perhaps inflicting the difficulty and methods to repair it.
(Picture credit score: Studio Romantic / Shutterstock)
What I missed about Home windows 11
The extra I used macOS daily, nevertheless, I discovered myself lacking sure issues about Home windows 11 – issues that I hadn’t actually paid a lot consideration to earlier than.
Maybe the largest, but least thrilling, factor was copy and pasting. I’m not speaking about getting used to urgent CMD + C on a keyboard as a substitute of CTRL + C (that was annoying however rapidly turned second nature, and you may also change it to the Home windows manner of doing issues in Preferences).
What I did miss was Home windows 11’s glorious Clipboard Paste characteristic.
(Picture credit score: Future / Microsoft)
Somewhat than utilizing CTRL + V to stick one thing, in Home windows 11 you may press the Home windows key + V to open up a small menu that exhibits a historical past of stuff you’ve copied to the clipboard, making it straightforward to modify between objects to rapidly paste. It’s one in every of Home windows’ greatest current options, and I actually missed it in macOS.
I ended up putting in a third-party instrument to do one thing related, however it wasn’t was straightforward to make use of as Microsoft’s built-in characteristic.
After I work on the smaller screens of laptops, I additionally actually appreciated how straightforward it was to snap home windows to the left and right-hand sides of the display screen, which made multitasking with a small show a lot simpler.
Simply grabbing the menu bar of a window and dragging it to the left or proper of the display screen will enlarge the window so it takes up half the display screen. You possibly can then do the identical with a special window on the other facet of the display screen to get two equally sized home windows open side-by-side.
I usually use the Home windows key + arrow key keyboard shortcut to make this course of even simpler. When snapping a window, Home windows 11 can even present you different open home windows to rapidly snap to the other facet.
(Picture credit score: Apple)
Whereas macOS Sequoia has lastly launched the same characteristic, it nonetheless isn’t as slick as Home windows 11’s implementation, and lacks a number of the options. With the ability to drag a window to the highest of the display screen in Home windows 11 to open it full-screen can also be one thing I actually missed when shifting to macOS.
To be trustworthy, the clipboard characteristic alone has been sufficient for me to return to Home windows 11. Regardless of all of the hassles and annoyances, this one characteristic actually makes a distinction to my day job.
So, Microsoft is perhaps happy that it’s not fully misplaced one other buyer (and I’d nonetheless use Home windows on my gaming PC), however I’d additionally prefer it to grasp that one of the simplest ways it may well preserve individuals utilizing its working system, and perhaps even in the future like its working system, isn’t with AI gimmicks and annoying advertisements for its providers, however by concentrating on seemingly easy options that work nicely and make individuals’s lives simpler.
My concern is that Microsoft gained’t, and can as a substitute assume that shoving Copilot in additional apps would be the approach to preserve individuals utilizing Home windows. Belief me although, it gained’t.
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