
From Microsoft to Apple, and Back Again - allenleein
http://www.akitaonrails.com/2017/11/21/from-microsoft-to-apple-and-back-again
======
scarface74
The state of the Mac is just sad right now.

Laptops - the Air is overpriced with horrible specs - a 1400x900 screen is
something you expect to see on a bargain basement Dell being sold on Black
Friday, the MacBook only has one port, and you're in dongle hell buying the
MacBook Pros

-Mac Mini - hasn't been updated since 2014 and it was a down grade in a lot of ways.

-Mac Pro - hasn't been updated since 2013 and won't be until 2019 according to Apple.

That leaves just the iMac. It's the only line that is actually good from the
low end to the high end iMac Pro. But I can understand why that isn't for some
people.

------
sneak
I recently gave it that second chance the author suggests; Windows still sucks
_real_ bad. Even Win10 is still a nightmare of disabling a boatload of shit
nobody ever wants.

The “no OS X team at Apple” rumor is false.

OS X does suck more these days than it did, but I don’t think things will stay
that way in the future.

~~~
collyw
What exactly do you find so bad about Windows 10? I am on Linux pretty much
full time, but when I have looked at Windows 10 it seemed OK.

~~~
Rebelgecko
For me, there's a lot of minor annoyances that add up. Some have been fixed
(start menu), and others have only gotten worse (searching for a file is
totally broken. I can be looking at a file in explorer.exe, type its name into
the search bar, and be told that no files were found).

There's also a lot of antiprivacy things that bother me (Cortana, push to sign
in to a Microsoft account, weird spammy notifications, etc)

~~~
0x6c6f6c
Search has been an incredibly finnicky experience. I had to use PowerShell
commands to correctly search the contents of files in a folder, checking the
options in Explorer did nothing to accomplish this. "No results found", yet I
run the script and oh look 25 project files contain this string.

The Start Menu has constantly been slow for me, and often times I can't search
and/or click anything. This is incredibly frustrating.

Having to disable so many features out of the box is annoying, and the amount
of effort to disable telemetry without some helping script is absurd. I'm not
sure I even got everything the first time since it seemed like more registry
values needing modification were being discovered continuously.

Any large update takes a substantial chunk of time and multiple reboots. I sat
in front of my computer as it updated for at least two hours with 4 reboots. I
didn't even get to use it. This was last week. On top of that it restarted
while I was grabbing a snack. I didn't get to use it again before bed. This is
hardly acceptable when I may actually NEED to use it.

Still have gotten blue screens of :) death on multiple computers, work and
personal. They're happy now at least, but doesn't change the fact I lost some
work.

Inconsistency between Windows programs is also frustrating. There's at least 3
different design styles, maybe more, than go into the default Windows
programs. Difference in font, spacing, window design, icon design, alerts,
etc. that really show fragmentation even still after 8, 8.1, and still on 10
trying to modernize their OS.

These are a few things that I've still found wrong with Windows 10. Just about
all of these in the last week, I'm not trying to look much farther back.

------
Sarki
So, another ad-financed blog post, right?

Also the following is ridiculous: "It's also obvious why it makes no sense to
ask "Why don't you ditch Windows and install Linux on it?". Because no Linux
distro has Pen support, whatsoever. The performance base also has a physical
key that you need to press in order for the hinge to release the display."

Wacom has been developing Kernel modules FOR YEARS. I've personally been using
a Samsung XE700T1C for 4 years with full pen support without any problem.

I've even been surprised to see Ubuntu 17.10 supporting automated screen
rotation, on-screen keyboard pop-up out of the box.

~~~
jfim
Can you elaborate on what "full pen support" means in this case?

Does it support pressure/angle in drawing applications (eg. gimp)? Is there
support for handwriting recognition as a text input method? Is there a good
note taking app for Linux (like One Note or Nebo)?

------
nailer
> Rumor says that Apple doesn't even have a dedicated team for the desktop OS
> anymore.

Yep. The MacOS team was disbanded in 2016.
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/how-
apple...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/how-apple-
alienated-mac-loyalists)

~~~
sempron64
Possibly in imitation, there actually is no more Windows "team" at Microsoft
either: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/03/windows-leader-
terry...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/03/windows-leader-terry-
myerson-out-as-microsoft-reorganizes-windows-division/)

So we're in for a rocky few years in commercial operating systems.

~~~
widowlark
Windows software division has been turned into a services group. Windows is
going from Software for sale to software as a service.

------
nadioca
You are creating a case to justify your overpriced windows laptop.

Linux <3

~~~
nailer
I love Linux, have worked for the two largest Linux companeis for a few years
of my life, and happily purchased laptops with entirely OSS drivers for Linux
support.

And still spent a bunch of time fucking around with my laptop to make stuff
work instead of getting things done.

Since all I want is a terminal and a web browser, Windows works fine, with the
added benefit of occasionally being able to fire up some good quality desktop
software like Tower 2 or Excel.

~~~
chopin
I am not sure if I understand, but if you only need a terminal and browsing,
what's the problem with Linux?

I switched recently from Win7 to Linux Mint and it has been a smooth
experience (granted, Libreoffice is sufficient for my use-cases). Even my
relatives have little complaints and mostly stuff just works (which I can't
say from my prior Win7 experience).

~~~
nailer
> I am not sure if I understand, but if you only need a terminal and browsing,
> what's the problem with Linux?

In the case of my last Linux laptop it was compositing not working when using
an external monitor on the low end Intel graphics card I'd picked because it
had OSS drivers and was regarded as having excellent Linux support.

------
ngrilly
If Apple has not team working on macOS, then who developed stuff like APFS
(Apple File System) or Metal2 that were introduced in High Sierra?...

~~~
kridsdale1
Those were introduced in iOS first. And the kernel is shared.

~~~
ngrilly
I stand corrected. At least, it proves that merging the macOS and iOS is not
totally pointless ;-)

------
legitster
I'm the rare creative professional who never really made the move to Mac.
Windows in general has always done everything I need at a better price
(Ultrabooks aside). The benefits to getting a MacBook seem very superficial
and easily fixed in Windows - definitely not enough to lock myself down to
their ecosystem.

> There is nothing like Garageband if you're a hobbyist musician.

Also, a point of correction. If you are looking for Garageband on Windows,
Mixcraft is an excellent option.

