There’s no one standalone reason why I think macOS is better than Windows for productivity. Instead of a single killer blow, it’s death by a series of smaller wounds.
The only real way of describing it. So many little niceties from decades of attentiveness, even if things have been backsliding in recent years.
Fantastic description! This is an issue that made it difficult to justify to my management to allow them to allow Macs, but thankfully Apple Silicon was big enough of a game changer to sway the decision
Exactly my case. Apple Silicon was a game changer in relation to performance against cost. Was able to replace my old top PC with a mac mini and improve my work on Adobe suite. Impressive. The ecosystem with my iPhone was also an amazing improvement. Airdrop is fantastic.
There’s a nice browser run and open source alternative to airdrop called Snapdrop. It uses web rtc to transmit data from device to device directly and can be self-hosted. I use it to transfer data between my Mac and my windows pc as well as my steam deck.
Same here. I’m an Apple user since 2008 but had a bad period in my life where I needed to squeeze every € and couldn’t afford a new Mac so I had to build myself a Hackintosh, which was ok at the beginning but missing a lot of things (the special connectivity between devices like airdrop or continuity) but now I’m recovered and bought a Mac Mini M2 and it’s like coming fully home again. No more random panics or wasting time diagnosing errors, and it’s incredibly fast. The jump in performance jumping from a Haswell CPU to a M2 in mind blowing and a joy to appreciate every time I use it
One of the things I still love about my 11" MacBook Air is the ease of using multiple desktops (spaces). Even with the tiny screen, I can quickly switch between apps and keep things organised with the trackpad gestures. Drag and drop is also more seamless in macOS compared to Windows.
Of course I also want the 15" air so maybe I just like cool stuff. But I think there's a place for a real ultraportable that's not trying to kludge any of the awful keyboard cases on an iPad.
Anyone trying to batch rename files on Windows should check out PowerToys. It’s a first-party app that adds a lot of useful utilities. One of them is PowerRename, which lets you batch rename files using regex for precise search and replace. It also has the option to preview changes before applying them.
I’m glad they mentioned rectangle, I found that app amazing. I have however upgraded to Amethyst for my app tiling though.
I’m a dev, so if I’m not doing .NET development. I found windows quite limiting. The new terminal stuff is nice but it’s native on a mac. I’m not sure about Docker because that really spins the fans on my 16 Intel Pro.
Also, things like Spaces and virtual desktops have been pretty sweet for a long time now. Windows, I can’t recall but it’s been a horribly broken PowerToy for so long. I can’t believe people were to recommending it. I think some people were telling me it’s native now, but like, it’s crazy how it wasn’t done properly years ago.
I’m a SysAdmin for a large university and work with our loan services team quite often to get faculty and staff loaner machines for various reasons. They typically stock Win, Mac, and Linux laptops for users. The number of Windows and Mac users that complain about the Linux experience in our surveys is off the charts. The Macs get the highest praise, with Windows right behind it and Linux systems are typically trashed in the surveys. It’s reached a point that team plans to reimagine the Linux to systems Windows and investing in more Macs.
And not to forget the little Finder function that allows you to create a new folder with all of the items you’ve selected, which are automatically moved into it.<
Oh how I wish windows could or would add this. And hitting the space bar in the Finder to look at a file without opening the requisite app. And just Preview. He’s right, there are tons of little QoL improvements that make macOS feel so superior.
I installed powertoys last night but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. Still no new folder from selected files option, but lots of other things sound useful.
I really like using MacBooks (for anything other than gaming). My biggest gripe is about how difficult Apple makes them to repair. I need to replace a battery on an old MBP and I’m dreading the dozens of screws and dealing with the adhesive…
MacOS window management is unfortunately a total mess. To the point that I still feel more productive on a dirt-cheap linux laptop, vs. my expensive work-isssued M1 machine with great hardware
If you’ve been using Macs for years and you learn all of the Mac-specific shortcuts and window management tools, it’s fantastic.
If you’re trying to get it to act like Windows or your favorite Linux window manager, you’ll find it frustrating. However, if you absolutely insist then you should just install a third-party window snapping tool.
I feel the same about Windows not having virtual desktops for years. Windows users had other solutions, but coming from both macOS and Linux window managers, I thought it was ridiculous they had nothing built-in, so I always installed a third-party virtual desktop tool for Windows.
Yeah that's a good way to put it, when I picked up my Air recently I was extremely frustrated by how it didn't quite do things quite like Gnome 40x and how it missed some of the Windows things like Window Snapping but once you get used to the gestures it's not so bad.
Also yeah virtual desktops are a god send on Gnome/MacOS it's frustrating to not have them on Windows.
undefined> If you’re trying to get it to act like Windows or your favorite Linux window manager, you’ll find it frustrating. However, if you absolutely insist then you should just install a third-party window snapping tool.
I mean there are things in Gnome that I prefer but what I found useful was to start using the workspaces / virtual desktops more and using the three finger swipe up a lot on my Air. That helped when using multiple profiles on chrome a lot because using cmd + ` was just not it for me.
Auto snapping would be great but at least you can tile windows to left / right so that's something and you can add keybinds for it
I much prefer MacOS over windows due to the spotlight search. The only thing I wish was added is a detailed audio interface. It’s frustrating having to go to a app to turn it up or down.
Yeah a volume mixer that isn’t natively built in is a very missed opportunity. I don’t want to have to pay extra money for software that most other OSes ship with lol
Yeah a volume mixer that isn’t natively built in is a very missed opportunity. I don’t want to have to pay extra money for software that most other OSes ship with lol
Yeah a volume mixer that isn’t natively built in is a very missed opportunity. I don’t want to have to pay extra money for software that most other OSes ship with lol
I use Mac for productivity but windows for gaming. I love spotlight on macOS. I recently discovered PowerToys for Windows (made by Microsoft), which includes a little add on that provides spotlight-like function on windows. You can even assign your own keyboard command to it, so I have main assigned to WIN+Space, just like Mac.
I use Mac for productivity but windows for gaming. I love spotlight on macOS. I recently discovered PowerToys for Windows (made by Microsoft), which includes a little add on that provides spotlight-like function on windows. You can even assign your own keyboard command to it, so I have main assigned to WIN+Space, just like Mac.
I use Mac for productivity but windows for gaming. I love spotlight on macOS. I recently discovered PowerToys for Windows (made by Microsoft), which includes a little add on that provides spotlight-like function on windows. You can even assign your own keyboard command to it, so I have main assigned to WIN+Space, just like Mac.
There are power toys for windows which add the spotlight search functionality as well as ear trumpet which is amazing for turning specific apps up and down by themselves just from a single menu
Yeah ear trumpet I’ve been using for years but somehow never see anyone mention it. Maybe there’s a better tool that I don’t know about. But the spotlight function in power toys is amazing since when I switched to Windows from Mac I missed that a lot.
I much prefer MacOS over windows due to the spotlight search. The only thing I wish was added is a detailed audio interface. It’s frustrating having to go to a app to turn it up or down.
The last version of Windows I used on a computer I owned is 3.1
Every time I need to use Windows I’m so insanely lost and have next to no idea what I’m doing, like it’s seriously like I’m 80 yrs old and using a computer for the first time lol.
It doesn’t help that it feels like it’s vastly different in how the start menu works depending on which version I’m using.
macOS is a great OS, and I’ve used it pretty extensively now. Every time I try to make it my primary OS I end up wanting to go back to Windows soon after. And this is from a die hard Linux advocate. Part of the issue is the cost and lack of easy upgrades for the hardware, the other is I just find macOS to be frustrating for anything but normal “user” stuff. So for me: Linux for servers and hobbyist stuff, macOS if no other option, Windows for just about everything else.
It's basically good there's choice. I run Linux exclusively on my gaming laptop, with the improvements in Proton I can now game on it as well as everything else such as desktop productivity/photo editing/Rust programming. I also enjoy MacOS (and love what they have done with the Mx series) but can't afford a Mac and well, I game a lot.
I can use Windows (My career started with TWM, so I can use anything) but it annoys me so I tend to avoid it.
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