For the second question I put down what's handy but the truth is it really depends on what I'm doing. If I'm listening to podcasts then my phone, if I'm looking at Substack then my tablet but if I'm playing video games my desktop/laptop. Somethings work better for certain applications.
No mobile devices or macs here. Except our car thinks it is a large cell phone. I type 60 words a minute on my PC. I suspect it would be 6 words a minute on a cell phone. I started with an IBM PS-2 model 30. I have upgraded since then.
Just coming off a couple of year experiment using a Mac every day to see if it was worth switching. I don’t think it is. For me, MacOS is just not that great. I use something with a real keyboard for emails and typically research at home. Once I get home, I use my phone less and then chose which ever tool is easiest for me to use. Might be my phone, tablet or laptop.
Windows 7 was the first fully functional and "mature" iteration of Windows with high-performance disk-caching and garbage collection. This keeps Windows 7, and above, free from the flotsam & jetsom that used to collect over time on Windows XP. To keep macOS clear of this clutter, I was constantly running a third-party app by hand.
I don’t even go that far down. Just how I use the programs in MacOS and Windows. Finder is not good. Spotlight isn’t very helpful. The whole application/document switching model is hard. I’m personally convinced that anyone who leaves Windows for a Mac and likes it was a very basic Windows user.
I share your reaction and have since I first evaluated a 512K "Fat Mac" in 1984. My occasional foray into macOS all those years since always led me to the same conclusion.
Oddly, I have not had trouble adjusting to any other "window" paradigm I have used during my 38-year career -- including multiple UNIX flavors, Linux distros, or any other OS I have used.
I use a Mac Studio at home (both for home stuff and to telework using VDI). I use a Surface Pro at the office. I use an iPhone on the go and when it's handier. Each of these is better for some specific tasks and worse for others.
While I have a smartphone, I use my desktop or one of my Laptop PCs for most of what I do. My smartphone comes into the picture when I need to provide an OTP for 2FA or make a phone call. While my smartphone has the facilities/functionality to do much of what I use my PCs for, I prefer the PC's larger screen, and I consider them to be inherently more secure than my phone.
For the second question, I prefer a desktop or laptop computer to a phone, big time, but my desktop and laptop computers are mostly running Linux. I do have them set up to dual-boot Windows, but only do so when I need to use the rare software that isn't available and has no counterpart in Linux, and doesn't run well under Wine. Mostly these days that means Dragon Naturally Speaking (there's nothing remotely comparable for Linux) and, less often, Wordperfect, which still has some features not found in Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. That's the only importance for me these days of a *Windows* PC, rather than a Linux personal computer. (Microsoft does not own the phase, "personal computer".)
Once upon a time I always favored my desktop PC to trying to accomplish anything on a lame telephones screen. But some phone apps have gotten so user friendly that the user experience is even better than the computer experience. For an example, USAA Bank as a terrific app. I also like signing in with a fingerprint, which I cannot do at my PC.
Welcome back from your vacation. And the first thing you wish to do is talk about Apple devices. Must have been a heck of a vacation, my friend. Grin.
I much prefer to use Macs but not for the "usual reasons". Throughout my professional career, I used PC computers and PC software and the knowledge of that ecosystem certainly helped advance my career along. But if truth be known, my personal choice of computer platforms during my professional career years, in this order, were the Commodore Amiga and then Apple Mac ecosystems. It must be because I have always known that I use the "right brain hemisphere" far more than the left hemisphere - if given a chance. I prefer being creative and those two platforms - well - still lead or are best suited for those fields.
This personality preference of mine dovetails into my reasons for my answer to your second question. Note: A comment I read in this post by "RC" is really my answer as well. "What's handy but the truth is it really depends on what I'm doing" with this addendum. Apple's unified ecosystem of software and hardware that allows such tight integration between all Apple software and hardware makes possible the phrase "what ever is handy" take on new meaning. One example should suffice to explain this reasoning.
I just read your email about this topic asking for answers to these two questions on my iPhone. (While watching golf on my HDTV or on my iPad Pro - whenever I needed to be away from the living room HDTV today.). Since I much prefer to type on a keyboard and use a 27" 5K display monitor to do actually "text work", I went over to my desktop and there, on the dock, was my iPhone icon with the link to this page - a page that I am currently typing this comment on,. (Thank you Apple Handoff and Continuity capabilities.)
I know that the PC ecosystem has "some to most" of these capabilities now - but Apple has had them, for the most part, far longer. And they just work the way they are supposed to.
Just a personal opinion, but for me and perhaps most "creative minded folk", doing things in a macOS/iOS/iPadOS integrated hardware and software ecosystem is far more enjoyable and easier than in a PC ecosystem.
Some things I do online work better in the app on my iPhone, while others have horrible phone apps and work better via a good web browser. Over time I’ve come to recognize which do what better where, so I’m all over the joint.
My Android phone is my first stop but, whenever I want to address discussions such as this, the phone invariably loses my work before I am finished. So here I am on my trusty PC which won't lose my work.
I was first exposed to MacOS in 1984 and found it incredibly un-intuitive, compared to PC-DOS! Three years later, I found Windows 2.11 fully intuitive in my transition from PC-DOS to Windows. (I know, that statement is even counter-intuitive!) During my professional career in IT, I moved from Windows to UNIX (multiple flavors) to Linux (six of my 38 years in IT) but I always gravitated back to Windows as my main driver. My periodic exposure to macOS along the way never swayed me.
After I retired from IT, I decided to give macOS a serious try -- purchasing a MacBook Air (M1) of my very own. To aid my transition, I installed Mac versions of my favorite Microsoft apps.
I learned that Macintosh hardware was second to none -- but I also found that macOS was lacking much of the functionality I found in Windows, out-of-the box. I could find third-party apps for macOS to meet these needs but why should I need to in order to have functionality found in most other general-purpose operating system. (UNIX, all Flavors, GNU/Linux, all distros, as well as Windows).
Most notably, my MacBook battery was constantly draining -- even when not in use.. A problem I never solved -- while I could configure my PC so I never have to deal with a dead battery just because I didn't use (or charge) my computer every single day.
To be fair, we ALL like whatever we first learned on, and transitioning between platforms is never simple. And Apple is an incredibly capable hardware company -- with a considerable network of hardware and software partners. I even knew people who would buy Apple Macintosh for the excellent hardware just to run Windows as their GO TO OS.
They have simply made different design choices with different goals in mind.
I think our mutual friend Steven Vaughan-Nichols would say you omitted an option.
Let's be honest. In the last 8 years, mobile devices have evolved from poor substitutes for real computers, to better processing devices than most active PCs. But even more pointedly, servers in the data center have transformed at least two generations, arguably three. Infrastructure is in a different world than in 2015, with respect to both hardware and services.
That our PCs (including Steven's) should, except for cosmetically, be unchanged from 2015 to today, especially with regard to software, is an embarrassment. In 1978, I was programming a TRS-80 to simulate a Klingon invasion; eight years later I had an Atari ST, an Amiga, a Mac, and a 486 PC. The eon between the last significant change to Windows, and today, is about the same. When did our drive for innovation shut off?
Most of my volunteer work computing time is on a desktop running Linux, my preferred OS since 1995. I use an iPad to read the news and check my email . . . usually in bed. The only use I have left for Windows is doing my taxes.
For the second question I put down what's handy but the truth is it really depends on what I'm doing. If I'm listening to podcasts then my phone, if I'm looking at Substack then my tablet but if I'm playing video games my desktop/laptop. Somethings work better for certain applications.
I think you answered just right!
Doomscrolling is best on mobile!
Linking to long form, analysis of data, more-than-trivial content creation, coding…all these & more are better on a screen bigger than 6"
So I spend 5X the hours on mobile that I do on my always-handy MBP
No mobile devices or macs here. Except our car thinks it is a large cell phone. I type 60 words a minute on my PC. I suspect it would be 6 words a minute on a cell phone. I started with an IBM PS-2 model 30. I have upgraded since then.
Just coming off a couple of year experiment using a Mac every day to see if it was worth switching. I don’t think it is. For me, MacOS is just not that great. I use something with a real keyboard for emails and typically research at home. Once I get home, I use my phone less and then chose which ever tool is easiest for me to use. Might be my phone, tablet or laptop.
I performed a similar experiment with macOS -- and came to the same conclusion. Windows is simply more full-featured, out-of-the-box, than macOS.
I’m glad it’s not just me. I keep thinking that I must be missing something.
Windows 7 was the first fully functional and "mature" iteration of Windows with high-performance disk-caching and garbage collection. This keeps Windows 7, and above, free from the flotsam & jetsom that used to collect over time on Windows XP. To keep macOS clear of this clutter, I was constantly running a third-party app by hand.
I don’t even go that far down. Just how I use the programs in MacOS and Windows. Finder is not good. Spotlight isn’t very helpful. The whole application/document switching model is hard. I’m personally convinced that anyone who leaves Windows for a Mac and likes it was a very basic Windows user.
I share your reaction and have since I first evaluated a 512K "Fat Mac" in 1984. My occasional foray into macOS all those years since always led me to the same conclusion.
Oddly, I have not had trouble adjusting to any other "window" paradigm I have used during my 38-year career -- including multiple UNIX flavors, Linux distros, or any other OS I have used.
I use a Mac Studio at home (both for home stuff and to telework using VDI). I use a Surface Pro at the office. I use an iPhone on the go and when it's handier. Each of these is better for some specific tasks and worse for others.
I use a Chromebook 90% of the time so I answered Linux. I use a PC for those times when ChromeOS just won't do.
While I have a smartphone, I use my desktop or one of my Laptop PCs for most of what I do. My smartphone comes into the picture when I need to provide an OTP for 2FA or make a phone call. While my smartphone has the facilities/functionality to do much of what I use my PCs for, I prefer the PC's larger screen, and I consider them to be inherently more secure than my phone.
For the second question, I prefer a desktop or laptop computer to a phone, big time, but my desktop and laptop computers are mostly running Linux. I do have them set up to dual-boot Windows, but only do so when I need to use the rare software that isn't available and has no counterpart in Linux, and doesn't run well under Wine. Mostly these days that means Dragon Naturally Speaking (there's nothing remotely comparable for Linux) and, less often, Wordperfect, which still has some features not found in Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. That's the only importance for me these days of a *Windows* PC, rather than a Linux personal computer. (Microsoft does not own the phase, "personal computer".)
Once upon a time I always favored my desktop PC to trying to accomplish anything on a lame telephones screen. But some phone apps have gotten so user friendly that the user experience is even better than the computer experience. For an example, USAA Bank as a terrific app. I also like signing in with a fingerprint, which I cannot do at my PC.
Welcome back from your vacation. And the first thing you wish to do is talk about Apple devices. Must have been a heck of a vacation, my friend. Grin.
I much prefer to use Macs but not for the "usual reasons". Throughout my professional career, I used PC computers and PC software and the knowledge of that ecosystem certainly helped advance my career along. But if truth be known, my personal choice of computer platforms during my professional career years, in this order, were the Commodore Amiga and then Apple Mac ecosystems. It must be because I have always known that I use the "right brain hemisphere" far more than the left hemisphere - if given a chance. I prefer being creative and those two platforms - well - still lead or are best suited for those fields.
This personality preference of mine dovetails into my reasons for my answer to your second question. Note: A comment I read in this post by "RC" is really my answer as well. "What's handy but the truth is it really depends on what I'm doing" with this addendum. Apple's unified ecosystem of software and hardware that allows such tight integration between all Apple software and hardware makes possible the phrase "what ever is handy" take on new meaning. One example should suffice to explain this reasoning.
I just read your email about this topic asking for answers to these two questions on my iPhone. (While watching golf on my HDTV or on my iPad Pro - whenever I needed to be away from the living room HDTV today.). Since I much prefer to type on a keyboard and use a 27" 5K display monitor to do actually "text work", I went over to my desktop and there, on the dock, was my iPhone icon with the link to this page - a page that I am currently typing this comment on,. (Thank you Apple Handoff and Continuity capabilities.)
I know that the PC ecosystem has "some to most" of these capabilities now - but Apple has had them, for the most part, far longer. And they just work the way they are supposed to.
Just a personal opinion, but for me and perhaps most "creative minded folk", doing things in a macOS/iOS/iPadOS integrated hardware and software ecosystem is far more enjoyable and easier than in a PC ecosystem.
Some things I do online work better in the app on my iPhone, while others have horrible phone apps and work better via a good web browser. Over time I’ve come to recognize which do what better where, so I’m all over the joint.
My Android phone is my first stop but, whenever I want to address discussions such as this, the phone invariably loses my work before I am finished. So here I am on my trusty PC which won't lose my work.
I was first exposed to MacOS in 1984 and found it incredibly un-intuitive, compared to PC-DOS! Three years later, I found Windows 2.11 fully intuitive in my transition from PC-DOS to Windows. (I know, that statement is even counter-intuitive!) During my professional career in IT, I moved from Windows to UNIX (multiple flavors) to Linux (six of my 38 years in IT) but I always gravitated back to Windows as my main driver. My periodic exposure to macOS along the way never swayed me.
After I retired from IT, I decided to give macOS a serious try -- purchasing a MacBook Air (M1) of my very own. To aid my transition, I installed Mac versions of my favorite Microsoft apps.
I learned that Macintosh hardware was second to none -- but I also found that macOS was lacking much of the functionality I found in Windows, out-of-the box. I could find third-party apps for macOS to meet these needs but why should I need to in order to have functionality found in most other general-purpose operating system. (UNIX, all Flavors, GNU/Linux, all distros, as well as Windows).
Most notably, my MacBook battery was constantly draining -- even when not in use.. A problem I never solved -- while I could configure my PC so I never have to deal with a dead battery just because I didn't use (or charge) my computer every single day.
To be fair, we ALL like whatever we first learned on, and transitioning between platforms is never simple. And Apple is an incredibly capable hardware company -- with a considerable network of hardware and software partners. I even knew people who would buy Apple Macintosh for the excellent hardware just to run Windows as their GO TO OS.
They have simply made different design choices with different goals in mind.
To each his/her own.
So that's what the "M" stood for, eh? Grin. Welcome back, Marc.
I think our mutual friend Steven Vaughan-Nichols would say you omitted an option.
Let's be honest. In the last 8 years, mobile devices have evolved from poor substitutes for real computers, to better processing devices than most active PCs. But even more pointedly, servers in the data center have transformed at least two generations, arguably three. Infrastructure is in a different world than in 2015, with respect to both hardware and services.
That our PCs (including Steven's) should, except for cosmetically, be unchanged from 2015 to today, especially with regard to software, is an embarrassment. In 1978, I was programming a TRS-80 to simulate a Klingon invasion; eight years later I had an Atari ST, an Amiga, a Mac, and a 486 PC. The eon between the last significant change to Windows, and today, is about the same. When did our drive for innovation shut off?
My main device and my preferred device is a Chromebook, but it's not on your list so I cannot answer question #2.
Most of my volunteer work computing time is on a desktop running Linux, my preferred OS since 1995. I use an iPad to read the news and check my email . . . usually in bed. The only use I have left for Windows is doing my taxes.