[nvrspyx]

> why would you use windows nowadays?

- Gaming

- Cheaper hardware options than Macs

- Commercial software support (e.g., Adobe, Autodesk, Affinity, Office, etc.)

- Better hardware support (e.g., Nvidia graphics cards)

- Easier Linux VM setup with WSL and x86(_64) support than Mac (i.e., requires ARM iso or the hassle of setting up Rosetta)

- Piecemeal hardware upgradability

- Less hassle than Linux, depending on hardware configuration and needs

- Smoother experience for some things like (HiDPI) multi-monitor setups and video playback than Linux with the current state of Wayland and the recent drop of third-party codecs by multiple distros

Some of these apply to Mac and some of these apply to Linux, but only Windows has all of these characteristics. Windows is far from perfect, but it is the best tool for some jobs. People also simply have different preferences and trade-off priorities, whether it be in regards to usability, affordability, privacy, or anything else.

[smackeyacky]

This is a good list, although for me I find it less and less compelling as more of my development tools become either fully cross-platform or web based completely and distributions like Pop! make hardware support easier.

- Gaming - no question windows is still better.

- Less hassle? - I find that questionable these days. Windows 11 has broken this somewhat.

I like WSL2 but for the last couple of years I've found it easier to reboot into Linux for dev work and just switch back to Windows for gaming.

[cooldown_00001]

> - Gaming

Mobile/Console gaming got a bigger market share

> - Cheaper hardware options than Macs

That's a valid point, although Chromebooks are better in that regard

> - Commercial software support (e.g., Adobe, Autodesk, Affinity, Office, etc.)

They support macOS too, and since they are moving to web interfaces the OS not longer matter (support Chromium / Safari / Firefox)

> - Better hardware support (e.g., Nvidia graphics cards)

Both NVIDIA / AMD offered their PRO products for a very long time on macOS

macOS also has better audio hardware support out of the box, and that includes manipulating RAW photos too ;)

> - Easier Linux VM setup with WSL and x86(_64) support than Mac (i.e., requires ARM iso or the hassle of setting up Rosetta)

That's not true, macOS doesn't need a linux VM when most of the core unix tools are available out of the box

And in that case, WSL doesn't work with the ARM windows ;)

> - Piecemeal hardware upgradability

Professionals don't care about this, they replace their machines every few years (ebay is flooded with cheap thinkpad laptops)

> - Less hassle than Linux, depending on hardware configuration and needs

Nobody waste their time constantly "configuring" their machines, it's setup once then they use it, it's valid for Windows/macOS/linux and mobile OSs, most of the settings are blocked by the sys admin anyways

> - Smoother experience for some things like (HiDPI) multi-monitor setups and video playback than Linux with the current state of Wayland and the recent drop of third-party codecs by multiple distros

Linux? linux is not meant to be a "univernal ready2go plug'n'play" OS, it's meant to scale from embedded to datacenters, you have to configure it to work the way you want, it's by design and the reason why people use it to begin with

[pjmlp]

People use it because it is a free beer UNIX clone, they wouldn't otherwise if there was a price tag on it.

We would have kept using Solaris, Aix, HP-UX, Tru64,...

[thebitstick]

All valid and true points on x86_64.

Windows on ARM ruins everything Windows offers.

- No gaming due to poor emulation

- Usually pricy Surface devices

- macOS on ARM has waaaaay better commercial support

- Do any WoA devices even have USB4?

- WSL still exists, and is better than anything on the Mac

- No hardware upgradability

- More hassle than Linux, since everything is compiled natively for aarch64