Using Windows
After a decade of working on macOS, iPadOS, and iOS, I've switched jobs and been diving into Windows Desktop as a result. So far, the transition has been better than I thought as I have found Windows 10 usable but that's with some heavy caveats that I'll get into later.
The Good
WinGet
The most overlooked thing on Mac is a package manager -- despite there being great third-party alternatives (I ♥ Brew), Apple should really find a way to bring a solid solution to the Mac. WinGet is great but out of the box, there are few repositories that offer many open-source solutions. But there are lots of great Windows apps out there which are included and are easy to install. This also made collecting the apps I needed to get going much quicker as they are just a command line away from installing, especially helpful since a lot more apps are required to bring a Windows laptop up to par (more on that later).
Windows Terminal
This was the thing I was most excited to start using
Windows Subsystem for Linux
Once installed and configured, gives a true Linux terminal
The Bad
The lack of built-in apps
Surprisingly, things have drastically improved in this regard. There was a time where Microsoft just provided an Operating System with the basics and then charged for an Office suite. This left you to your own devices to find everything else that, in 2021, feels like should be there. So, when things which are simply basic (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, Maps, and OneDrive) are all included, starting out is much quicker. The company provides the Office suite now with Microsoft 365 and the Windows Store offers a broad selection of apps to get started. It was liberating how wide the selection of apps was there -- Microsoft being much more lenient than Apple with their app store policies. These apps leave much to be desired and only fill in a small part of what should be there. The built-in Mac apps like Preview (for viewing and manipulating PDFs and images), Terminal (which has all the BSD Unix goodness baked right in, no additional download required), and Safari (IE is still included, Edge is a great replacement and adds some Preview features like editing PDF's but just doesn't compare) are all present from launch. There is no need to find any replacement apps for most people because they are simply great! And for Preview and Safari, the sync with the iPhone and iPad works so well you can have a consistent experience across devices without any interruption in your workflows. Edge has these features and there are some clever ways they handle this same set of problems, but at the end of the day, you still must install Edge separately and on all devices.
The Ugly
Hardware
While the hardware has come along (notably, the trackpad gestures were much better since the last time I used a Windows device), the overall hardware just cannot compare. Trying to make the laptop go to sleep by closing the lid and placing it in my bag has resulted in coming back to a dead laptop that never made it. Running it in clamshell mode at home is clumsy as the laptop must be woken, plugged in to USB-C, then the lid closed, rather than on a Mac simply plugging in the USB-C waking the laptop and connecting. The headphone jack did not automatically detect that I had plugged in a device, and it wasn't until I contacted support and they recommended shutting down the laptop, plugging in the headphones, and then powering it on that the laptop finally detected them as a device and started working. These are headphones I've used on many devices before that simply just worked, including gaming systems and other laptops -- and the issue was not unique to me either, another co-worker reported the same issue.
Integration
The tight integration with software and hardware on Apple's devices is unbeatable. Microsoft has been working hard with their own line of Surface's to develop a similar set of features, but they lag behind due to their inability to own the entire process. Notably: AirDrop; Safari tabs; iCloud sync of files, settings, third-party apps, and much more; phone calls on any device; device unlock with Apple Watch; and so much more that I am forgetting. These are the intangible things that make it so hard to describe to people who have not used a Mac and iPhone before -- things that seem so simple or
Reboots
You still must reboot Windows. A lot. I am learning it is better to sometimes power off the laptop rather than sleep since it just cannot seem to overcome issues such as switching between networks and such.
Apple could fix some things too...
While there are many things that are a struggle with on Windows, Apple has an opportunity to provide some improvements and potential customers by expanding their apps as well.
Facetime and Messages (and Phone)
One of the best features of Apple devices is their messaging capabilities. And the latest version does add some excellent features that expand on the already great service. But there are so many other potential users of the system that Apple could bring in and, while they are at it, add subscription revenue. By making apps for non-Apple devices (Android and Windows to start) but requiring these users to be subscribed to Apple+, they open a new way to bring in revenue and subscribers who would be more than willing to pay for these features and apps.
Apple Music, Podcasts, and News
Most noticeable is the lack of any web or app presence for their paid subscription offerings, other than Apple Music, and that is just in the form of the web app or the bloated and outdated iTunes client. Podcasts are also available in iTunes but there are many missing features to it that are hard to overcome. The frustrating part is that these are paid services (other than Podcasts) that should have a way for me to use them anywhere I want, not locked to Apple devices.
iCloud
While there are solutions for Windows for some of the features of iCloud, they could be easily improved with some development of a Native or Progressive Web App (PWA) on the Microsoft Store. Twitter is a notable example of a PWA which excels at this. Apple has pushed others to make their apps as PWA's for compatibility and it is high time they did the same!
Are there any solutions to these problems?
I plan to do a follow up article that will outline how I've overcome these challenges. I plan to keep it up to date as things evolve and new solutions present themselves, so stay tuned.
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