A couple of years ago I planned to build A Dual Boot Hackintosh with Windows and macOS. You can read more about my hardware selections in this old post.
But after installing macOS and configuring it for my hardware, I got sucked into the Apple ecosystem and did not even bother to check for windows.
The Switch
For over a year, I used this custom-built machine with Linux
and Big Sur
as my only computer. It is when I recently bought a 13" M1 MacBook Pro
on a deal, I stopped using this custom-built.
My Hackintosh was not lacking in any performance, but working from anywhere on a 13-inch lightweight easy-to-carry machine, whose battery holds for more than a day, is better than sitting or standing at a desk at a fixed place.
This switch rendered my Hackintosh a bit useless. So I decided to play with windows OS.
The prejudice.
I had been using windows for 15 years and had a preconceived notion that windows-OS is very slow compared to macOS.
What I missed realizing was the fact that I’ve always used MacOS on my machines but my windows machines were always company-provided machines.
It was not Windows OS that ruined the user experience but it was those perpetual file-system scanning software, sluggish antiviruses, firewall, and much more internal software that were always running on those company machines.
Also, a lot has changed in Windows 10, Maybe my prejudice is justifiable for earlier windows versions.
Current Windows is/may-be better
It may be a very controversial statement, but not for custom builds. Nowadays windows, OS is a far better choice than macOS for custom-built machines
Better Hardware
The biggest problem with macOS is, you can not install it on any intel processor above the 10th gen. The OS and architecture is completely different since the introduction of the M1 Mac. Therefore, you are stuck with either 10th gen processor with 400 series motherboards. Or older.
However, with windows, you can choose any latest hardware.
Hardware related Softwares
Another point in favor of windows is hardware-specific software.
There are many Softwares which can configure custom hardware behavior but you can install them only on windows. Like my Gigabyte-Arous-Ultramotherboard configurator, XPG color schemes, etc.
macOS Trackpad multitouch gestures
This was one of the great features that were not available outside of MacOS.
With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced the concept of Multi-Desktops that you can swipe across with gestures, including some more multitouch gestures. But due to hardware, the experience was never close to working on a MacBook.
That problem can be solved by this Logitech M720 Triathlon mouse where you can configure many gestures with Logitech Option + and they work flawlessly.
I use this mouse, but there are many others to choose from here, which you can configure with option+ and have a macOS-like experience
The Boot time
It's blazing fast, if you do not add a password and have only one user, in less than a second of switching on the power you will be inside windows. At least that's how it works on my Machine.
A fluid design
From Windows 10 onwards, the windows experience is as fluid as MacOS, provided you are not working on your company machine :-)
The terminal
If you are a technical user, you might hate windows for its CMD prompt with a limited command set and love MacOS for its easy-use terminal app, which can be configured with any shell although Zsh is enough.
You can however install bash on Windows OS by turning Developer-Mode
on. However, it's not as powerful as the Terminal app & Homebrew combination
. working with PowerShell
is a nightmare in itself. But it still gets the simple tasks done
In the past, I had been very hard on windows OS, so I had to get this article out to repent my sins. :-) . That's all for this post, happy computing.
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