After greater than a decade of Mac-centric computing, I made a giant change final month, setting apart my MacE book Pro and shifting to an Alienware Aurora R13 desktop as my major day-to-day laptop. While the proliferation of cloud-based companies and cross-platform utilities has made switching simpler than it’s ever been, it’s nonetheless a major change to the best way we reside and work. Along the best way, I hit just a few snags and annoyances, however I additionally unlocked some superior Windows capabilities that had been out of attain on my Mac.
Why the change from Mac to PC?
In a world the place the majority of my every day interactions occur by a digital interface, switching computing platforms modified nearly every part in a roundabout way. Reflexive menu navigation and hotkey patterns ingrained in muscle reminiscence over a few years all of a sudden meant nothing, and I would want to study new ones of their place. So, given the trouble of disrupting every day life in methods starting from delicate to vital, making the leap to Windows had higher yield some worthwhile advantages. What I’d hoped to achieve within the course of had been:
- More choices in computing know-how and producers
- More flexibility in software program ecosystems
- More customization potentialities
- More improve choices for {hardware} and software program
- Much more gaming choices
One month in, I’ve not been upset.
I ought to pause a second to acknowledge that I’m not a “Mac guy” or a “Windows guy.” I’ve been in tech for the reason that internet first grew to become a factor, and I’ve run every part from Unix and Linux to Windows and macOS. I used to be a Linux blogger for Maximum PC, an editor of Windows Magazine, and a contributor to MacAddict and Macworld. My company-issued work computer systems have been MacE book Pros for the previous decade, and I’ve consolidated a lot of my every day life onto Apple’s messaging and media ecosystem extra out of comfort than the rest.
So that’s me. Now, listed below are the 5 huge benefits I’ve discovered within the change to Windows.
This 15-inch MacE book Pro has served me properly for a number of years, nevertheless it’s time handy it all the way down to the youngsters
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
1. The PC has extra {hardware} choices
There’s no getting round it: The PC ecosystem is simply massively huge. While the Mac vary presents a wholesome number of type components and efficiency ranges, it doesn’t even come near the breadth of PC methods out there for buy off the shelf. And when you’re into desktops and don’t like what you see within the mind-bogglingly huge vary of prebuilt machines, you possibly can hand-select each single part your self and construct one thing customized from the chassis up.
Since Apple moved its Mac strains to the corporate’s personal CPUs, shopping for a MacE book means deciding on an M1 chip or an M2. That’s it, except you desire a Mac Mini with an Intel Core i5 or i7, or a $6,000 Mac Pro with a Xeon.
By distinction, the mainstream Windows PC vary presents an abundance of CPU selections. Intel Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 CPU strains every supply a number of choices, as does the copious AMD Ryzen household. If you’re not simply thwarted by decision-paralysis, the Windows world offers you much more room to customise.
More {hardware} selections additionally means extra pricing choices. The lowest finish MacE book, the 2020 MacBook Air, runs $999. A comparably spec’d Windows laptop computer may be had for $350. It received’t be Apples to “apples,” after all, as a result of Mac {hardware} is proprietary, however the efficiency shall be related. Meanwhile, high-end PCs supply unbelievable specs in an unlimited array of type components for each specialised want, from gaming to intense Intel Xeon-powered graphics workstations. At just about each worth level, you get extra {hardware} for the greenback with a PC than with a Mac.
I chosen this Alienware x15 because the drop-in alternative for my Macbook Pro for cell use.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
In my case, I went for 2 completely different PCs, each from Alienware. My daily-use desktop is the Alienware Aurora R13 with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 3.61GHz CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. For mobility, I selected an Alienware x15 R1 with a Core i7 and an RTX 3070. What can I say? I’ve all the time favored the peculiar styling of Alienware machines, and these had the specs I needed in designs I dig. These are significantly succesful methods, however not extravagantly high-end, and but they each price about as a lot as a midrange MacE book Pro.
2. The PC has an even bigger, extra versatile software program ecosystem
Because Windows constitutes roughly 76 p.c of the worldwide computing market share, and builders around the globe who’ve by no means even seen a Mac in individual are cranking out apps continually, the numbers recreation right here is apparent. I don’t wish to overblow this, as a result of many of the actually main productiveness suites on the market work on each platforms simply wonderful. But if you would like seemingly limitless choices for software program in nearly each class, Windows wins hands-down.
For me, this was a lot much less of a difficulty with mainstream apps than with area of interest apps. Niche pursuits, like novice radio and astronomy, for instance, are usually dominated by Windows-only apps constructed by unbiased builders. So, earlier than switching to Windows as my every day driver, I usually needed to both run a digital machine on my Mac, hook up with a Raspberry Pi field working the apps I wanted, or hold an affordable, spare Windows laptop computer round for infrequent use. But since switching to a PC full-time, these complications have disappeared. (And I haven’t as soon as wanted to get my outdated MacE book to run something.)
Switching from Apple’s built-in apps was a combined expertise. It was once that when you had all of your footage in iPhoto, it was tough to maneuver all that stuff to Windows. In years previous, I had seen vital degradation of my photograph library on importing it into Windows. But Apple has made it surprisingly straightforward to drag your iCloud pictures into Windows, edit them in Windows Photos, and even see the adjustments again in your iCloud library on a Mac.
One of probably the most commonly-touted benefits of the Mac ecosystem is its help for artistic apps, however I’ve discovered Adobe Creative Suite and related apps run nice on Windows.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
For different media duties, I discovered that Apple’s most difficult built-in app to switch is GarageBand, which is wildly higher than any free equal I’ve discovered for Windows. Microsoft ClipChamp, nevertheless, is now a fairly strong alternative for iMovie.
While there isn’t any Windows equal for iMessage relating to connecting your iPhone to the PC, Windows helps connectivity to any Android telephone, providing you with far more flexibility in what manufacturers of units you should utilize along with your PC. I’ll talk about extra about coping with Apple’s remoted ecosystem of apps and units later on this article.
3. The PC presents higher customization
It feels bizarre to name Windows an “open” working system, however in comparison with macOS, Windows is a giant ol’ open playground of customization potentialities, each for {hardware} and software program.
The Windows OS can be usually extra customizable than macOS, though a fantastic many utilities exist for each platforms. That mentioned, Apple has a transparent bias in opposition to encouraging customers to tweak the feel and appear of their OS, whereas Microsoft has lengthy fostered a neighborhood of theme builders to assist customers personalize Windows to their tastes.
Apple’s system-on-a-chip strategy to {hardware}, tightly built-in with macOS, has its personal benefits: Apple has targeted on constructing a unified {hardware}/software program product that works extremely properly and yields nice efficiency. Comparing that efficiency to a Windows PC is difficult, as a result of the CPU and GPU benchmarks we use at PCWorld received’t run on a Mac. But the PCs’ huge efficiency benefit throughout the board is the power to tweak {hardware} efficiency.
Even off-the-shelf PCs embody instruments for overclocking and tweaking your {hardware} efficiency.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
A educated PC consumer can overclock CPUs and GPUs, shut down system processes, and tweak each aspect of the software program and {hardware} to optimize efficiency. Most gaming PCs come preloaded with efficiency administration software program only for this function, making it straightforward even for relative novices to overclock.
4. The PC is full of improve potential
The vary of {hardware} improve choices for Windows PCs is a minimum of as huge because the array of off-the-shelf PCs out there on the market. CPUs, GPUs, RAM, storage drives, USB controllers, seize playing cards, absolutely anything that may be put inside a pc is accessible as a reasonably straightforward improve for a desktop PC.
While laptops are usually proprietary and far more tough to to improve past swapping out RAM and storage, just a few permit for CPU and GPU module upgrades that may be achieved by anybody with a screwdriver. One notably fascinating choice: The Framework is designed for DIYers and tinkerers, letting you construct your personal laptop computer and customise it to your wishes.
When the time comes, my Alienware desktop machine shall be prepared for simple GPU upgrades. The case pops open in seconds, and all elements are inside straightforward attain.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
I’ve upgraded Mac {hardware} infrequently, after all: Older MacBooks was once pretty straightforward to open up and add/change RAM and storage. Newer fashions, nevertheless, are constructed as system-on-a-chip, and whereas improve modules exist from some third events, they’re extraordinarily costly relative to PC upgrades, and principally quantity to changing all the inside logic elements without delay.
In observe, it makes extra sense simply to purchase a brand new Mac than to improve the elements in an M1 or M2 machine. And as a result of somebody will carry it up: Yes, the $6,000+ Mac Pro is far more upgradeable, after all, nevertheless it’s in a very completely different class of machine than something even fanatic Mac or Windows customers are possible to purchase. We’re actually not speaking about workstations right here.
5. The PC is a real gaming machine
If you’re in any respect desirous about gaming, there’s no denying Windows is the platform with probably the most selections. The greatest recreation studios develop for Windows first, then consoles or cell. The greatest gaming titles have a tendency to not be out there for Mac in any respect.
Wanna play Call of Duty: Warzone II, Fortnite, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, or simply about any of the highest 20 video games of 2022? You can get all of them on Windows, most of them on Xbox or Playstation, and even the Nintendo Switch has fairly just a few. A pair run on Macs, however you’ll run out of choices quick.
You can actually strive working an emulator or digital machine in your Mac, and there are methods to stream your video games from a PC, however these are all kludges and hacks, and yield poor outcomes. If gaming is your factor, Windows is a should.
Come on, have a look at it. The Alienware is all gaming machine, and the Mac doesn’t come shut.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
One huge draw back: Messaging
The greatest trouble I encountered switching from Mac to PC was untangling my textual content messaging from Apple Messages’ walled backyard. At least for now, I’ve little interest in buying and selling in my iPhone for an Android telephone. If I did, after all, I’d be up and texting fortunately by way of Windows Phone Link, and will make calls from a linked telephone as properly, roughly the identical manner I might between my iPhone and my Mac. Sadly, no such connection exists between Apple Messages and Windows.
There is, nevertheless, a workaround to allow texting and calls between the iPhone and Windows, and that’s to modify over to a third-party SMS/calling app that works throughout platforms. The caveat, although, is that whereas these apps can ship messages to and out of your iPhone, all of them get their very own telephone quantity. Some, like Google Voice, make it pretty straightforward to take care of this forwarding course of, however none are as seamless as simply having your native cell quantity instantly linked throughout units. For that have, a full change to Windows means switching out your telephone, too.
Windows Phone Link makes it straightforward to attach Android telephones and get calls and texts proper in your PC, however alas, it doesn’t help iPhones in any respect.
Robert Strohmeyer/Foundry
The greatest approach to keep away from this lure could be to keep away from getting locked right into a proprietary messaging platform within the first place. But, time machines nonetheless being a significant engineering problem, my most suitable choice could also be emigrate my textual content messaging to Google Voice, and use forwarding to bridge the hole. I’d wish to hope Apple will supply Messages on Windows the identical manner it has enabled the remainder of iCloud. After all, Photos, Passwords, Contacts, and even iCloud Drive sync simply wonderful. Pending that, although, I could also be out there for a brand new telephone quickly.
Don’t concern the change!
Ultimately, it’s by no means been simpler to modify backwards and forwards between PCs and Macs. Having nearly all our work and private information within the cloud means you may be up and working on a brand new platform in minutes, and all of your pictures, recordsdata, and information will make their manner onto the brand new machine inside just a few hours after that. So when you’re considering a change, the largest hurdle you would possibly encounter is deciding on a brand new laptop to purchase, and there are many guides to assist with that call.
While some of us could fear about studying a brand new consumer interface, my expertise is that macOS and Windows have change into related sufficient over time that every part from looking out the drive to putting in apps from an app retailer to managing a number of desktops has achieved pretty constant workflow parity between the 2 methods. I did discover that I’d misplaced the muscle reminiscence for Windows hotkeys and needed to spend a while googling those I needed to make use of. This comes with time, although, and it’s solely an issue when you’re an influence consumer within the earlier OS.
By distinction, switching cell platforms stays a far larger trouble. Apple and Google stay locked in a battle for dominance, and Apple specifically appears to continually sabotage switchers with pointless limitations and lock-ins to discourage customers from straying to competing platforms.
For my cash, the Windows world continues to supply the best breadth of choices in each {hardware} and software program, and the feel and appear of the OS has superior properly previously decade. So whereas the leap has not been utterly annoyance-free, the advantages actually outweigh the issues.