Windows after macOS

Table of contents

My Desktop OS Journey

The Early Days

I started my desktop OS journey with Windows 95, when my father brought home an old laptop. It wasn’t stable or performant enough to render cartoons using Flash, but it was the first device I could use.

I was a kid, fascinated by the idea of a computer, and I wanted to learn how to use it. I spent hours experimenting and reading about different software and capabilities of the OS.

The Floppy Disk Hack

At that time, we used floppy disks, and they could not fit a game on 1.44 MB. As a kid, I had a “brilliant” idea to go to my friend’s house and copy shortcuts (symlinks) from his computer. It felt like a way to hack the system by copying all of his games onto a single floppy disk.

It was a huge disappointment when it didn’t work, but that is where I started to learn why and what I could do instead. Fortunately, there were books I could read to learn more about Windows 95 and related programs.

Moving to XP and Programming

After some time, I managed to convince my parents to pay a fortune for a new computer. It was a tower PC with Windows XP, and it was a huge step forward in performance and stability. I was able to play games and try different programs available at that time.

This was the PC where I started to learn programming. My first motivation was to automate an Ultima Online client, a popular MMORPG. My character could move by itself, chop wood, and train skills without me being there.

The Shift to Linux and macOS

Unfortunately, hardware kept moving forward, and my PC struggled with new Windows versions and games. That’s when I first tried Linux.

I didn’t want to learn Linux. I just wanted to install it and use it like Windows. That didn’t go as planned. After some trial and error, I found myself with Gentoo Linux and a good understanding of how it worked.

When I got my first job, I used Linux for work and kept Windows only for gaming. Later, companies started providing MacBooks. After some initial conflicts (especially with the Magic Mouse), I switched to macOS as my main OS and was really happy with it.

For the last 10 years, I haven’t used Linux or Windows daily. I was locked into Apple’s ecosystem. To be fair, it works great, except for gaming and my nostalgia for Linux.

My New PC

Recently, I decided to buy a new PC. A real tower PC, like the ones from the past.

• It allows upgrades and lets you see what is inside.
• It doesn’t require battery optimizations or sleep mode management.

As expected, the device came with Windows 11, and I thought I would use it as my main OS. I remembered Microsoft doing a great job with WSL and WSL2. I thought that after all these years, Windows would provide a better development experience than macOS. Plus, gaming is a huge bonus.

Oh man, I was so wrong.

What exactly shocked me? I’ll share that in a moment. But first, the Linux part. I installed different Linux distributions and was surprised by how limited some package managers are (different PPAs, untrustworthy repositories). After some hopes and warm memories of Gentoo, I settled on Arch Linux, which is now the main OS on my new PC.

OS Comparison

macOS: The Ecosystem

I was really happy with macOS. It was stable, fast, and had a great software ecosystem:

• Safari: A good browser. It works, is energy efficient, and has almost no compatibility issues.
• Terminal: Good enough. I recently moved to Ghostty (a really good terminal emulator), but the default Terminal has all the required features.
• Homebrew: Works like a charm. It has all the packages I’ve ever needed. It is the package manager I’d expect in Linux (especially Ubuntu).
• Native Apps (Mail, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Maps, Photos, Music): These apps are amazing. They are minimalistic but work well. I rarely looked for replacements.

Apple managed to build most apps that people need (outside of professional exceptions). There is no need to pay for or download extras. Many users stay inside this default set and are happy.

Windows 11: The Reality Check

Windows? Windows is different. I heard many negative things about Windows over the years, but people always complain, right? However, from my experience:

1. Setup and Package Management

Windows loaded quite fast. I had an issue with the PIN code setup, but in general, the experience was okay. Then I learned about winget. I was really surprised—having a native package manager with many apps is a huge plus.

But winget was also the first disappointment.

• Some apps installed via winget did not work.
• I had to download installers from official websites and install them manually anyway.

2. The Ad Experience

After installation, I saw many news widgets and unexpected pop-ups. It felt like some of them were promotions. Who expects to see ads on their desktop OS?

3. Missing Core Apps

The next step was opening Calendar, Mail, or Notes. I was surprised to see that real native programs are effectively missing. They are there, but they feel like web views or just stripped-down versions of Outlook with limited functionality unless you subscribe.

Pre-installed Copilot is forced as much as possible. And Edge… Edge is a decent browser, but it has too many “features” on top. I prefer a minimalistic browser.

4. Gaming Stability

Windows is the GOAT of gaming, right? At least I thought so. In general, games work with fewer compatibility issues (after the initial shader compilation).

But why do games crash so often?

I installed Fallout from Xbox (via the Game Pass subscription that came with the PC). During the first hour, it crashed about 10 times. I’m not sure why I was so motivated to keep playing, but is this how people play on PC? Did I do something wrong? I don’t know, but the experience was unpleasant.

5. WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

And last but not least: WSL. It’s the feature everyone praised for Linux integration.

To be fair, it works. It’s not bad at all. But it is not native, and it does not feel as good as the development experience in macOS¹.

Bottom Line

To finish positively, I believe Windows is not terrible. Microsoft just needs to invest a little less into Copilot and a little more into quality.

• Outlook is great, but without a subscription, the default apps feel lacking compared to Google or Apple.
• If Microsoft looked at the best parts of the Apple ecosystem, they could catch up fast.
• They have everything needed to make this OS great, they just need to focus on users, UX, and quality.

I will still load Windows from time to time to see if things change. But for this PC, Arch Linux has definitely won.