I've been following with interest David Heinemeier Hansson's recent posts about his switch from Mac to Windows for both personal and company use. I made a similar switch myself a few years ago, albeit for somewhat different reasons to start, and have come to find many of the same benefits that he has.
Although I used (still use) Windows at the day job, we had been a Mac family since the PowerPC days. I remember the G5 iMac sitting on the counter, which gave way to a laptop that took up way less space and was, of course, much more portable. That was around 2009. When the team I was on won GlobalHack II in 2014, I used a portion of my share of the winnings to buy a laptop of my own.
For many of the same reasons Hansson describes, a Mac (in this case a 2013 MacBook Pro) was the way to go. I was re-entering the world of software development, entering for the first time the world of "modern software development. JavaScript had changed a LOT since I had last played around with it in the early 2000s.
When it came time to update again in late 2018 - partially because Julie's laptop by that time was now 9 years old and because mine was a whopping 4 years old! - I looked at Windows again for a personal device. I am of course very familiar and comfortable with Windows, since I've used it pretty much every working day since Windows 3 came out. And I was intrigued by Microsoft getting into the hardware business with the Surface line of products.
I ended up with a Surface Pro 6 with the keyboard cover and Microsoft Pen. I liked the idea of it being a laptop and a tablet. As it turns out, though, I'm not much of a tablet and pen kind of guy. So I got a lot of use out of the Surface Pro, it was a great system that met all my needs, along with the things it promised that I ended up not using.
Here we are 5 years later, and, you guessed it, time for something new. Like Hansson, I have found that WSL2 is a killer app ("hey gBRETT, the early 00s want their buzzwords back!") on Windows, and I found that I wasn't interested in going back to a Mac. But what to buy.
I'll spare you all the research details and just say that my new laptop is the Framework 13. Running Windows 11 with plenty of processor and RAM and 1TB NVMe storage device (I almost typed "hard drive"). Are you kidding me, 1TB. Wow how things have changed in 5 years, not to mention the last 25 years.
If you're not familiar with Framework computers, I encourage you to check them out. No touch screen, but some incredible flexibility in the design and configuration, all of which comes from the company's approach to sustainability and support of the right to repair.
Although I used (still use) Windows at the day job, we had been a Mac family since the PowerPC days. I remember the G5 iMac sitting on the counter, which gave way to a laptop that took up way less space and was, of course, much more portable. That was around 2009. When the team I was on won GlobalHack II in 2014, I used a portion of my share of the winnings to buy a laptop of my own.
For many of the same reasons Hansson describes, a Mac (in this case a 2013 MacBook Pro) was the way to go. I was re-entering the world of software development, entering for the first time the world of "modern software development. JavaScript had changed a LOT since I had last played around with it in the early 2000s.
When it came time to update again in late 2018 - partially because Julie's laptop by that time was now 9 years old and because mine was a whopping 4 years old! - I looked at Windows again for a personal device. I am of course very familiar and comfortable with Windows, since I've used it pretty much every working day since Windows 3 came out. And I was intrigued by Microsoft getting into the hardware business with the Surface line of products.
I ended up with a Surface Pro 6 with the keyboard cover and Microsoft Pen. I liked the idea of it being a laptop and a tablet. As it turns out, though, I'm not much of a tablet and pen kind of guy. So I got a lot of use out of the Surface Pro, it was a great system that met all my needs, along with the things it promised that I ended up not using.
Here we are 5 years later, and, you guessed it, time for something new. Like Hansson, I have found that WSL2 is a killer app ("hey gBRETT, the early 00s want their buzzwords back!") on Windows, and I found that I wasn't interested in going back to a Mac. But what to buy.
I'll spare you all the research details and just say that my new laptop is the Framework 13. Running Windows 11 with plenty of processor and RAM and 1TB NVMe storage device (I almost typed "hard drive"). Are you kidding me, 1TB. Wow how things have changed in 5 years, not to mention the last 25 years.
If you're not familiar with Framework computers, I encourage you to check them out. No touch screen, but some incredible flexibility in the design and configuration, all of which comes from the company's approach to sustainability and support of the right to repair.