I used to love Windows as a utilitarian OS I could just get things done on.
But over time the OS felt like it wasn't there for me to use. Rather Windows feels like it is pointed AT ME. Eventually it felt almost like an advertising supported OS than anything else.
Moved to a Mac and haven't looked back. Performance and battery life were big bonuses too, but honestly weren't why I moved. I just hated using Windows that much.
> Eventually it felt almost like an advertising supported OS than anything else.
This is exactly the emotion I feel opening Apple Music in 2025. I want to play an audio file, but the app wants me to subscribe to Apple Music+. We've crossed the Rubicon of intent-based UI to intent-based advertising...
Yeah, "Windows 11 is bad" is a meme at this point (you can buy the Pro version if you are an advanced user and then it's mostly fine).
macOS and much of the Apple software is just as bad if not more nowadays. They constantly push their service crap and what used to be pretty good apps for users to manage their stuff are now just shell to use their overpriced services.
The destruction of iTunes into Apple Music is a disgrace. iTunes was actually pretty good software; probably the best music library management software that isn't professional software (at some point I had a 100K+ tracks libs and used the thing extensively as a database for DJing with CDS). Apple Music is just bad; there are some commonalities with iTunes but it just doesn't work the same and don't even feel the same (so godamm laggy).
But over time the OS felt like it wasn't there for me to use. Rather Windows feels like it is pointed AT ME. Eventually it felt almost like an advertising supported OS than anything else.
Moved to a Mac and haven't looked back. Performance and battery life were big bonuses too, but honestly weren't why I moved. I just hated using Windows that much.