I find it hard to believe that, outside of work computers, many people would be choosing Windows over Mac or Linux, especially is AI is their goal.
I’m also curious why the comments are turned off for this article unless it is a paid ad for Microsoft.
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Apple hardware is overpriced and they go out of their way to make it unrepairable.
This is the reason I will never buy an apple device and go out of my way to (try and) convince people in my circle not to buy apple devices.
The ONLY reason I have a Mac for work is the Adobe suite. As a designer, there is no substitute (GIMP and Inkscape are nice, but they don’t replace Photoshop and Illustrator plus whatever else you get with the sub).
All my home stuff has been swapped over to Linux years ago. If Adobe ever decided to make a native Linux cc suite, I’d dump apple too, but there we are.
The Adobe ecosystem is finally starting to bother me enough to bounce. But I’ve worked with these programs for 30 years, so moving to Davinci and Krita is going to be a thing. And afaik, there’s no real replacement for After Effects.
I am debating the jump to affinity for my department. Weighing the pros and cons now. I use it at home for personal stuff, and it’s fantastic. It still doesn’t get me onto Linux, but at least it’s not Adobe.
Interesting! Never heard of Affinity, so that’s an alternative to InDesign/Illustrator it looks like? I ditched Windows for Linux (Mint at the moment) this year, but I honestly haven’t even sat at that computer in six months, so…
Yeah, an alternative made by the company Serif. No subscriptions, buy it and use it. Replacements for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I keep waiting for them to make an Acrobat alternative so I don’t need to source it from somewhere else (and the rest of the company can pickup the product and use it for commenting and proofing).
The only apple things I’ve ever owned was an IPod. And I never paid full price for that shit.
If you look at the price for a Mac versus a Windows computer, I think it’s pretty obvious why people might choose a Windows device. For Linux, you really have to know where to look to buy a laptop that is shipped or warrantied with Linux. People tend to buy Windows computers because that’s what’s advertised available, familiar and in their price bracket.
Disclaimer: my main laptop is Mac. I have a secondary one running Linux and although I have a work laptop running Windows, that wasn’t my choice and I don’t have Windows on any personal devices.
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It’s worse than a paid ad. It’s an ad. You have to pay to see.
Linux is not quite normie stream ready but boy is it getting close.
Ubuntu and it’s spin-offs are really are as close as we’re ever going to get to a full, user-friendly Linux OS. At least one that isn’t going to scare off as many people.
It’s just when you tell people the part where you have to keep track of some of the software that they use through the terminal, that’s when you start seeing them trickle off back to Windows.
Because the average user doesn’t have the patience, time or know-how to utilize commands in a terminal. If you plopped them down during the era where DOS was prominent, they’d be so lost and be begging for a UI to handle everything.
Ubuntu and it’s spin-offs are really are as close as we’re ever going to get to a full, user-friendly Linux OS
Why do you think it will not progress much from now on?
You don’t need to use the terminal for Linux at all now AFAIK. Ubuntu / GNOME already has a nice software store as a UI.
There are some rough edges I really don’t understand why they haven’t addressed yet that seem like very low hanging fruit, but overall IMO it’s very close to being there.
I’ve never mentioned the software store.
And not every single piece of software is on it.
And yes you’ll still need to use the terminal for more than just updating and installing software. Kinda routes back to my problem in regards to transitioning from one OS to another.
What do you need the terminal for?
By Betteridge’s law of headlines: no. Also: this is an ad.
I find it hard to believe that, outside of work computers, many people would be choosing Windows over Mac or Linux, especially is AI is their goal.
I’m sorry, why? Microsoft basically owns OpenAI and has begun integrating it into their products. Apple doesn’t have any AI capabilities beyond Siri.
They only announced replacing siri with an ai alternative about a month ago. The lack of copilot features is making osx the obvious winner now. Incompetence is making apple the good guy for a short period.
I have a 3 year old MacBook that runs my local LLM and Image Generator. I read this article from the perspective that the new PC chips would be for people who want to run their AI locally, but I suppose you’re right, Microsoft is going to push their Copilot as hard as possible.
Windows beats Mac on price.
Windows beats Linux on compatability.Really all there is to it.
If you want to spend 3x the money, get a Mac.
If you’re comfortable dealing with software incompatibility, install Linux.
My MacBook Air is 9 years old and still running strong. I’ve more than gotten my moneys worth out of it.
Unless your laptop isn’t brand new, at which point Linux absolutely beats Windows on compatibility.
Or, you know, want to visit a website:
https://www.linux.org/threads/solved-some-websites-not-loading-in-linux.39289/
… Thats someone having a problem with being given an incorrect certificate for a website because their ISP was blocking the website they were trying to access. Even though its on a linux support forum its neither a linux nor firefox issue.
Worked under Windows, not an ISP problem.
These are the sorts of things you have to accept as a Linux user and figure out workarounds.
It happens all the time with job search sites and government sites. Happens to Safari users on Mac as well.
If you read the thread they were using google dns to get around ISP blocks. They had set it up for ethernet but not for wifi (i presume they had already set it up fpr windows). Not using the service you want but havent set up is not an OS problem.
No.
I find it really frustrating to not have a touchscreen on a laptop (e.g. scrolling and zooming Google maps).
I don’t understand what I’m getting for the price difference compared to a similar windows laptop.
I don’t like how the Ctrl/Fn/Alt/Cmd keys are used, but that’s just because I’m used to Windows. (Remapping then doesn’t help because commands are divided differently been those modifiers).
I do like that it has a native bash shell instead of having WSL with its separate filesystem. But I doubt that that is a common reason people choose macs.
There is pinch to zoom and multitouch gestures on the trackpad, which I consider a lot more convenient than a touchscreen since my hand is already there.
I haven’t actually bought a Mac in a long time since I get them from my job, but the Windows laptops I’ve used and seen don’t have the build quality, and having a big network of retail stores is a nice insurance policy. And if I was going to buy a Mac I’d buy refurbished anyway.
I’ve been a Mac user since the late 80s so I have the opposite problem with keyboard commands on Windows and Linux that you do.
Most of the people I’ve seen who use Macs - mainly developers working with Linux servers - do use it because it has a shell. (Though Apple switched to zsh not too long ago.)
For me, my cad software was always windows specific. I think they have Linux versions now though.
Gaming is the other reason.
I think (although I’ve never tried to verify) Steam is making progress to make most games playable on Linux.
There is that nvidia open source thing that recently happened. Still think that’s going to break down some doors that Linux gamers have long wanted to see. Like to be able to run their Linux OSes with drivers to their GPUs from Nvidia and play games that way.
I loved macs back when it was more maximalist design and its service was beyond reproach. anyone buying a pc might be installing linux on it. not that many vendors specific to linux.
What does maximalist design mean in the mac world ? Is this regarding UI and/or industrial design ? I was teaching design back when we were transitioning from OS9 to OSx early or mid 2000s I guess . We had to switch between them for a good couple years I think as various packages became available or affordable on osx. Never owned one in the early days but study and work from mid 90s onward was generally on them. I can’t relate to them ever being maximalist really but I guess they gradually did get more minimalist very gradually as far as UI. Throughout this time I was almost always using windows at home so my super basic summary of 90s, 2000s mac vs pc argument would be that the mac rarely interefered with workflow in the sense that win98,2000,xp etc were requiring a large percent of maintenance time. To me thats the minimalism mac were always about and for me still holds to a degree - though far more retail/consumer and far less industry/pro focussed despite FCP, Logic, and fast apple silicone etc.
Dont necessarily disagree though, just curious what it means. Now also using kubuntu or similar around 9 years (I’m jumping between 3 OSs these days) it often feels like the os9 days as far as community vibe and support - smooth and low stress though the ui approach is sometimes an afterthought rather than the end goal perhaps. Completely capable though. Mac feels more consumer and indeed less concerned with service feeling direct or individualised . So agree with you there. Maximalist service, or is it minimalist :)
Im talking about the time when mac enthusiasts would brag about how many more ports a macbook had over a windows laptop. I use the term just because when they went minimalist design coincided when the apple store started acutally said they would not deal with something which was the cable losing their casing which did end up being a design issue so they handled it later but previous to that they would never not do something unless it was obvious you took a hammer to it or something. my last mac was the macbook pro erra with the dvd-i port.
I’ve never used a Mac but my experience with iPhones and iPads (not mine) has convinced me to never touch anything Apple makes. The requirement of iTunes to send files between an iPhone and a PC is, for example, just ridiculous.
that hasn’t been the case for years though you do need some apple software to make it work. Or you can use Files and connect to Windows over file sharing (smb).
They could probably make it easier, but then they’d have a harder time selling you up to a Mac.
Just got a Mac last week, and was able to set up file sharing with my PC in less than 5 minutes last night. In fact, it was way easier than getting the sharing working with my Surface, which refuses to acknowledge my desktop’s existence.
I don’t generally encourage buying a Mac, I’m not at all convinced it’s worth the price premium. I’m only commenting insofar as I have context.
Apple IIgs was alright. That thing and Oregon Trail is embedded into the culture of every American 80s/90s kid. Jobs era I was a lot different than Jobs era II.
