[Unbeliever69]

As an industrial designer, Ux designer, and a programer I have found anything "Microsoft" (hardware or software) offensive to my sight, taste, touch, ears, and soul. I'm a Mac user at home and in the office, mainly for application development. BSD Unix under the hood just makes my life as a programmer feel more integrated. I'll have to look at the Linux CLI on the Surface and see how I feel. Most importantly, I love how my Mac just stays out of my way.

I also use Windows at the office for AutoCAD because the Mac version is inferior to the Windows counterpart. Our machines and OS are modern, but I want to carve my eyes out with a spork on a daily basis using Windows 10.

THAT BEING SAID, we've got our eyes on the Surface Studio for the boss to use. We'll see how I feel then. I still have a copy of Adobe Master Collection cs6 that I paid good money for with, no Windows machine to use it on!

[bhauer]

For what it's worth, as just a plain user of computers, I personally find Microsoft's industrial design way more appealing to my sensibility than Apple's industrial design.

I prefer:

* Smaller radius corners. The Mac and iPhone have always appeared too rounded.

* Less tapering. I like that the Surface Book's contact surface (no pun intended) is basically its entire area (notwithstanding the rubberized feet). I don't like that the Macs taper inward. I think Apple corrected this on the newest MacBook Pro, however.

* Less visual emphasis on the keyboard. I don't like the Mac's dark keys on a silver plane. I prefer that Surface Book's keyboard matches the metal color.

* Less obnoxious branding. I like that the Surface Book has just a reflective Windows logo on the back and no branding on the front. I have never liked the glowing Apple logo on Macs and I applaud Apple for ditching that. But for 2016, they added a big "MacBook Pro" on the bottom edge of the screen which is also tacky.

* This one is a particularly big pet peeve: a chamfered edge for the track-pad that matches the width of the trackpad. I've never understood why the chamfered edge on the MacBook is so narrow. I like not having a sharp edge digging into my wrist even when I am a bit sloppy with my arm positioning.

That's saying nothing of the software. But to be brief on software, I am so happy that Windows is (slowly) providing a dark look and feel. Applications that use the latest Microsoft design thinking look great to my eye. Admittedly they are very slow at bringing old apps up to snuff—there are a number of legacy apps that still look as they did on Windows 8 or earlier. MacOS has always looked too "bubbly" to my eye.

My personal laptop is a Surface Book, though I use a workstation for normal day-to-day work.