As Much as I Like Windows, I Always End Up Back On My Mac

I want to like Windows. It’s great for gaming and handles CAD software fantastically. But, for over a decade, I never seriously considered it as my primary OS—until two years ago. Now, after giving it another shot, I’m back on macOS… just like always.

I’ve Used macOS as a Primary OS for Over a Decade

I got my first Mac back in the summer of 2012. It was a 13-inch MacBook Pro, right before Retina models came out. I remember it like it was yesterday, I worked all summer to save up for it and purchased it. It still had a standard hard drive and even a DVD slot. Those were the days.

That was my introduction to macOS (then called OS X). I still had a Windows computer at home, but it was aged and nowhere near as nice as my MacBook. From that summer on, my primary computer was a Mac.

There were a few moments here and there where I would use Windows for a bit. In the summer of 2016, I built a high-end gaming desktop and moved to that for a bit, but quickly went back to my MacBook as a primary system (I had upgraded to a 2016 15.4-inch MacBook Pro at the time).

For a while, I even had a custom-built Hackintosh system that had an i7-8086K and Vega 64 graphics card. All that to say, macOS has been my home for the past 13 years, almost exclusively.

Two Years Ago, I Decided to Go All-In on Windows

A few years ago, I shifted gears professionally and started working in my woodworking and CNC shop full-time. This meant that I had to have a system that supported my CAD (computer aided design) software, which ran exclusively on Windows.

Yes, I could have used a virtual machine on my MacBook, and I could have just switched back and forth between macOS and Windows, but I decided to go all-in on Windows at that time.

I set my 14-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro to the side and booted up my high-end desktop that I built for gaming a few months prior—Ryzen 9 7900X, RTX 3060 (that I upgraded to an RTX 3080), 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 6TB of NVMe storage.

The Windows machine was a beast. It would handle anything I threw at it—from gaming to video editing, photo editing, or even general workstation tasks, I could do it all on that system.

Windows Is Great, But It’s Still Missing Something

I was honestly pretty happy with Windows 11, surprisingly even though I didn’t expect to be, I figured the experiment would go on for a few weeks or months, and I’d come crawling back to macOS, but that just didn’t happen.

I ended up living on Windows for just about two full years. I was able to use my CNC software just fine, and when I shifted gears from running my shop to writing full-time again, I was able to do those tasks well too. Video editing worked great, photo editing was great, and playing games was seamless. I had an always-on computer in the office and my laptop for when I was out. It really was a pretty great setup—except for Windows.

I know I just said that I was happy with Windows 11, and that’s very true. However, I’m an iPhone user, and Apple’s smartphones just don’t play well with Windows 11. Yes, there’s now a way to text on Windows from an iPhone, but it’s not seamless. File transfers between Windows and iPhone just don’t work well either.

Truly, the main thing that drove me away from Windows this time was the integration with my iPhone (or lack thereof). If Windows integrated better with the iPhone, offering solutions similar to AirDrop and access to iMessage, I wouldn’t have left Windows. Hands down. I’m very aware that this is down to Apple’s closed-ecosystem approach, and that’s to say I guess it worked as intended on me.

macOS Just Scratches All the Right Itches for Me

Due to the missing integrations on Windows, I’m back on macOS. I can now easily move photos and videos back and forth from my iPhone to Mac and vice versa, iMessage works flawlessly, and, well, that’s it.

Really, those two things are the driving factor for me moving back to macOS. It might sound frivolous, but the ecosystem really does get you. I was willing to deal with the lack of integration when I required Windows for my job, but now that I don’t need Windows for my job, there’s nothing holding me there.

I actually game far less than I used to, and if I do want to game, I can just fire up my desktop again. I’m not treating the Mac as a gaming platform, even though Apple has made strides in that department over the past few years.

I’m Back on macOS Full-Time, and I’m Getting a Mac Mini in the Future

The switch back to Mac has been a good one. I really didn’t use my MacBook Pro much during my two years on Windows. I didn’t have much need to use a laptop during that time, so I just used Windows.

Going back to macOS has been a treat. Yes, Windows was great for me, but I forgot how polished the apps were on macOS compared to Windows. Services like Adobe work better on macOS, there’s a better (and higher-quality) App Store, and the OS is much snappier, even though I have less hardware to throw at processes.

In fact, moving back to macOS has allowed me to ditch my Adobe subscription entirely for Photomator and Pixelmator Pro—two apps that are macOS exclusive (and actually are owned by Apple now).

Honestly, being back on my MacBook has reignited my desire for a Mac mini or even Mac Studio at some point. The 14-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro is a fantastic machine, don’t get me wrong, but I really want an always-on computer. That has been my biggest takeaway from moving back to the MacBook full-time—I just want a computer in my office that’s always on and ready to use.

I’m excited for what macOS Tahoe will offer in September, as this will be my first macOS update since 2022 that I would have been using my Mac during a release event.

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It seems that 2025 is the year people ditch Windows for macOS. Back in January, my colleague Goran switched to macOS after nearly 20 years on Windows.

At the end of the day, macOS simply beats Windows in several areas. It’s more stable, offers a whole-ecosystem approach (something Windows can’t touch), and it honestly is just a nicer experience overall. I’ll likely give Windows another try in a few years to see if things are different—but without deeper integration, I just don’t see Windows winning me back.