I stopped using Windows in 2015, and this was already an issue then. Actually, since Windows 8, released in August 2012… It's kinda unbelievable that Microsoft let this mess hangin in production...
I stopped using Windows in 2015, and this was already an issue then. Actually, since Windows 8, released in August 2012…
It's kinda unbelievable that Microsoft let this mess hangin in production for that long.
Their engineers are too busy integrating AI features nobody wants, Ads nobody wants, and features that will force people to buy new computers arbitrarily to finish this decade+ long endeavor. A...
Their engineers are too busy integrating AI features nobody wants, Ads nobody wants, and features that will force people to buy new computers arbitrarily to finish this decade+ long endeavor.
A month or two ago I bought a new MacBook, which is the second Mac I have ever purchased new. One thing that surprised me about the transition is how surprisingly durable the user profile is: copying over my profile with the migration tool was almost pain free and when it was done the new computer was effectively the same computer as my old one! I’m sure some settings may have been changed for the difference in hardware but I couldn’t tell you what.
Contrast this with my experiences with windows, where I have had to start from scratch every time. Granted I haven’t bothered with windows on real hardware for quite a while now, but each time I have tried to migrate computers I have had to deal with the locations of the settings changing with each version of Windows, so it’s like navigating a labyrinth.
While I don’t agree with a lot of changes in MacOS, the differences between the two operating systems frankly makes me wonder if Microsoft actually cares about serving the end user instead of trying to exploit them. While Apple does also exploit their users with their services, they feel a lot less intrusive than the ads Microsoft inserts all over their OS by default. All of the tiny adware-like bits that Microsoft incudes by default - backgrounds that tell you to look up the details on Bing, a ticker on the bottom, a giant slide-out pane if you accidentally mouse over the corner of the screen, the literal ads in the start menu and search, etc. literally give me a tiny burst of anxiety whenever I need to help my students with their personal computers.
There is a reason why Microsoft doesnt bother to get rid of the well-documented hole letting people activate Windows for free. Microsoft simply doesn’t see end users as their customers when it comes to Windows. It’s their big expensive ad platform.
Ive got a theory that Apple might just have developers which stick around for longer and better onboarding for those who don’t. At Microsoft, like most companies, the company I work for included,...
Ive got a theory that Apple might just have developers which stick around for longer and better onboarding for those who don’t.
At Microsoft, like most companies, the company I work for included, theres a revolving door of developers and no one creates onboarding instructions for their project because soon as they finish they’re on to the next new fancy. The only way to get promoted is to be working on the new fancy, because thats what management is looking at, so thats what all developers migrate towards. Getting stuck on such a legacy project is basically a punishment, since its career suicide.
Its possible that this project is taking so long because the developers are attempting to onboard themselves into code with no documentation and the recent invention of Claude Code maybe has begun to make this endeavor almost possible since you can give it access to an entire codebase and ask it to either tell you how it works or just write the feature you need by itself.
Does Windows have an auto-setup based on OneDrive? On macOS, I don't even have an old Mac when setting a new up. I just log in my iCloud account and a couple minutes later it feels like home.
Does Windows have an auto-setup based on OneDrive? On macOS, I don't even have an old Mac when setting a new up. I just log in my iCloud account and a couple minutes later it feels like home.
As one of the techy people that most of my friends and family know, I sometimes get asked for recommendations on computers for various use case scenarios. It’s been a good decade since I...
As one of the techy people that most of my friends and family know, I sometimes get asked for recommendations on computers for various use case scenarios. It’s been a good decade since I recommended Windows for any reason other than “your company requires you to use Windows.”
For gaming, I always recommend my PC gamers learn the ins and outs of Steam and Linux, then move on to launchers like Lutris for non-Steam installation.
For casual use I now recommend folks pick up either an inexpensive used MacBook if they need to have a real computer, or just grab an iPad with a wireless Apple keyboard. (I still don’t recommend any of them that they buy the MacBook Neo simply because it has 8 GB of RAM and even with the processor that it has that’s just too little for the kind of tab heavy browsing most of these folks that I know of do.)
I cannot in good conscience recommend Windows to anyone for personal use. And frankly, I really would strongly encourage any company that’s looking at using Windows because they want to use Microsoft Word or Excel for their day-to-day business to consider just using the web versions of those programs from a Mac, Linux, or hell even a Chromebook computer, as the desktop versions of those apps are currently little more than wrappers for the web version anyway. Supposedly they’re getting away from that but so far that’s just talk.
I used to consider myself to be fairly platform agnostic. I have at least a decade of experience with three major operating system options (never used Chromebook), but I just can’t with Windows anymore. Too many bad decisions since at least Windows 7. They’ve lost my confidence.
As a side note, 8 GB of RAM for browsing, email, and light document work and photos — the use cases for the Neo — is good enough. I'm still using an Air M1 with 8 GB and can even edit 1080p video...
As a side note, 8 GB of RAM for browsing, email, and light document work and photos — the use cases for the Neo — is good enough. I'm still using an Air M1 with 8 GB and can even edit 1080p video on iMovie without hiccups. Of course 16 GB would be better, but I find surprising how much I can do (everything) with 8 GB to this day.
I've read a lot that macOS handles memory swaps a lot better, especially in the Apple Silicon era, making 8GB not feel as limiting, though swap can obviously only go so far.
I've read a lot that macOS handles memory swaps a lot better, especially in the Apple Silicon era, making 8GB not feel as limiting, though swap can obviously only go so far.
It's not really size of RAM that concerns me, it's Memory Pressure. My 16 GB M4 Mac mini spikes into yellow memory pressure if I get too tab-heavy in Safari, but when I use Firefox (my main...
It's not really size of RAM that concerns me, it's Memory Pressure. My 16 GB M4 Mac mini spikes into yellow memory pressure if I get too tab-heavy in Safari, but when I use Firefox (my main browser) it remains good. I don't even want to think what Google Chrome would do to these resources...
I am convinced that the only thing keeping windows alive today is inertia. Most people need a browser. That can be done on any OS today. Any other needs you may have can be solved online in the...
I am convinced that the only thing keeping windows alive today is inertia.
Most people need a browser. That can be done on any OS today.
Any other needs you may have can be solved online in the browser.
Yeah, mostly that's true for sure. There are a few folks at work that use Windows outside the job because "it's the best" but that's honestly like 2 of the team, the rest of us either use Mac or...
Yeah, mostly that's true for sure. There are a few folks at work that use Windows outside the job because "it's the best" but that's honestly like 2 of the team, the rest of us either use Mac or Linux, and the younger guys all use their phones and iPads for everything offline. And why not? I turn to my iPad Mini a lot as well, because it has a Pencil Pro that I can doodle with.
I stopped using Windows in 2015, and this was already an issue then. Actually, since Windows 8, released in August 2012…
It's kinda unbelievable that Microsoft let this mess hangin in production for that long.
Their engineers are too busy integrating AI features nobody wants, Ads nobody wants, and features that will force people to buy new computers arbitrarily to finish this decade+ long endeavor.
A month or two ago I bought a new MacBook, which is the second Mac I have ever purchased new. One thing that surprised me about the transition is how surprisingly durable the user profile is: copying over my profile with the migration tool was almost pain free and when it was done the new computer was effectively the same computer as my old one! I’m sure some settings may have been changed for the difference in hardware but I couldn’t tell you what.
Contrast this with my experiences with windows, where I have had to start from scratch every time. Granted I haven’t bothered with windows on real hardware for quite a while now, but each time I have tried to migrate computers I have had to deal with the locations of the settings changing with each version of Windows, so it’s like navigating a labyrinth.
While I don’t agree with a lot of changes in MacOS, the differences between the two operating systems frankly makes me wonder if Microsoft actually cares about serving the end user instead of trying to exploit them. While Apple does also exploit their users with their services, they feel a lot less intrusive than the ads Microsoft inserts all over their OS by default. All of the tiny adware-like bits that Microsoft incudes by default - backgrounds that tell you to look up the details on Bing, a ticker on the bottom, a giant slide-out pane if you accidentally mouse over the corner of the screen, the literal ads in the start menu and search, etc. literally give me a tiny burst of anxiety whenever I need to help my students with their personal computers.
There is a reason why Microsoft doesnt bother to get rid of the well-documented hole letting people activate Windows for free. Microsoft simply doesn’t see end users as their customers when it comes to Windows. It’s their big expensive ad platform.
Ive got a theory that Apple might just have developers which stick around for longer and better onboarding for those who don’t.
At Microsoft, like most companies, the company I work for included, theres a revolving door of developers and no one creates onboarding instructions for their project because soon as they finish they’re on to the next new fancy. The only way to get promoted is to be working on the new fancy, because thats what management is looking at, so thats what all developers migrate towards. Getting stuck on such a legacy project is basically a punishment, since its career suicide.
Its possible that this project is taking so long because the developers are attempting to onboard themselves into code with no documentation and the recent invention of Claude Code maybe has begun to make this endeavor almost possible since you can give it access to an entire codebase and ask it to either tell you how it works or just write the feature you need by itself.
Does Windows have an auto-setup based on OneDrive? On macOS, I don't even have an old Mac when setting a new up. I just log in my iCloud account and a couple minutes later it feels like home.
As one of the techy people that most of my friends and family know, I sometimes get asked for recommendations on computers for various use case scenarios. It’s been a good decade since I recommended Windows for any reason other than “your company requires you to use Windows.”
For gaming, I always recommend my PC gamers learn the ins and outs of Steam and Linux, then move on to launchers like Lutris for non-Steam installation.
For casual use I now recommend folks pick up either an inexpensive used MacBook if they need to have a real computer, or just grab an iPad with a wireless Apple keyboard. (I still don’t recommend any of them that they buy the MacBook Neo simply because it has 8 GB of RAM and even with the processor that it has that’s just too little for the kind of tab heavy browsing most of these folks that I know of do.)
I cannot in good conscience recommend Windows to anyone for personal use. And frankly, I really would strongly encourage any company that’s looking at using Windows because they want to use Microsoft Word or Excel for their day-to-day business to consider just using the web versions of those programs from a Mac, Linux, or hell even a Chromebook computer, as the desktop versions of those apps are currently little more than wrappers for the web version anyway. Supposedly they’re getting away from that but so far that’s just talk.
I used to consider myself to be fairly platform agnostic. I have at least a decade of experience with three major operating system options (never used Chromebook), but I just can’t with Windows anymore. Too many bad decisions since at least Windows 7. They’ve lost my confidence.
As a side note, 8 GB of RAM for browsing, email, and light document work and photos — the use cases for the Neo — is good enough. I'm still using an Air M1 with 8 GB and can even edit 1080p video on iMovie without hiccups. Of course 16 GB would be better, but I find surprising how much I can do (everything) with 8 GB to this day.
I've read a lot that macOS handles memory swaps a lot better, especially in the Apple Silicon era, making 8GB not feel as limiting, though swap can obviously only go so far.
It's not really size of RAM that concerns me, it's Memory Pressure. My 16 GB M4 Mac mini spikes into yellow memory pressure if I get too tab-heavy in Safari, but when I use Firefox (my main browser) it remains good. I don't even want to think what Google Chrome would do to these resources...
I am convinced that the only thing keeping windows alive today is inertia.
Most people need a browser. That can be done on any OS today.
Any other needs you may have can be solved online in the browser.
Yeah there's a reason why some people call the web browser the modern operating system. It's kind of amazing what's possible in a browser nowadays.
Yeah, mostly that's true for sure. There are a few folks at work that use Windows outside the job because "it's the best" but that's honestly like 2 of the team, the rest of us either use Mac or Linux, and the younger guys all use their phones and iPads for everything offline. And why not? I turn to my iPad Mini a lot as well, because it has a Pencil Pro that I can doodle with.