[troupo]

> Call me a hater, but the problem is Windows, not necessarily the hardware.

Thing is, MacOS was heading the same way until the new chips saved it. The last few versions that were still running on Intel shouldn't have been as slow as they were.

Software is going to shit everywhere, it's just there's now M* equivalent for Windows and Intel.

All that to say: yes, I think you're spot on, the problem is sowftware, not hardware.

[ryandrake]

More specifically, the problem is software that the user has less and less control of every year. We have no control over the bloat Apple and Microsoft perpetually add to their operating systems. We just have to take it, or hardware and ecosystem leave us behind.

I wouldn't mind Windows if it were easy to rein it in, if I had granular control over what updates get applied and what gets trashed, and the ability to opt-out of updates. I wouldn't mind macOS if I could more easily control the UI bloat, preinstalled apps, and hundreds of background daemons/processes that are running that I never asked for.

I want to take my Operating Systems back to 2009 and have a version of Windows 7 and OSX Snow Leopard that runs on my modern computers and have all 3rd party apps work on those operating systems.

Or, just install Linux.

[elxr]

Apple is lucky so many talented devs have built alternatives and fixes for the sorry state of factory MacOS. The settings app, the finder app, spotlight, the general lack of innovation are just a few things that really should've been fixed about a trillion dollars ago.

It's gotten to the point that I've switched to omarchy and somehow this tiling-only, arch based distro, with big changes every ~2 months is still more sensible and just gets out my way better than MacOS in early 2026.

Don't think Windows is unique in having their long-time users being unhappy with them. MacOS really isn't any different.

[ExoticPearTree]

I switched to Mac in 2013, with the launch of the 13" MBP Retina and haven't looked back. With the exception of some minor annoyances here and there, I did not feel the need to install an app to customize the MacOS experience. Using migration assistant from Mac to Mac over many laptops, most of the settings have been kept and did not really got on the bandwagon for all the new enhancements introduced in MacOS over the years. Like the desktop thingie where you can have your windows tiled on the side, or Stage Manager or whatever is called and so on.

Search in Finder sucks, but luckily I know how to use find in the terminal so it's a non-issue for me. And so on. As I said, minor annoyances.

There is no perfect OS to make everyone happy.

For me MacOS brings the best of two worlds: Windows (GUI, friendly apps, etc.) and Linux (terminal, access to *NIX tools, etc.). And with the stability of a UNIX based system. And now with the size of its market share, there are so many apps for Mac that were Windows only.

And before anyone starts, I used Linux as the main desktop from ~ 1999 to 2006 or so. And went through all the pain of configuring X, make the sound card work, compile my own kernel because reasons and so on. I have touched it sporadically since then but it still feels unpolished compared to MacOS.

[troupo]

s/it's just there's now M* equivalent for Windows and Intel/it's just there's no M* equivalent for Windows and Intel

(no instead of now)