I'm Back on Windows. It's Still Bad.

My Medium friends can read this over on Medium.

I wrote here in May that I'd never use Windows again. Then part of my work moved onto a Windows machine. Not full time. More than I'd like.

Back on it

The experience didn't change… really. I've written about the first three days back on Windows, and four months later it's the same machine in every way. Copilot is still in the taskbar. The Start menu still nudges me toward apps I didn't ask for.

But there's much more.

Spec sheets lie

Windows laptops are sold on numbers. A chip name, a GPU name, a RAM figure. What that number does inside a given chassis is a separate question.

Nvidia's RTX 5070 for laptops is rated anywhere from roughly 50 to 100 watts, depending entirely on how the manufacturer configures it. Same GPU name, same box art, and the performance gap between the low and high end of that range is not small. A thin, light laptop that can't cool the higher end of that just runs it throttled. You paid for a chip you never get to use at the number printed on the sticker.

Intel does something similar with naming. A "Core Ultra 7 258H" and whatever comes without the H suffix are not the same chip, not close.

Who are these laptops built for

A lot of Windows hardware gets designed for the buyer, not the user. Corporate procurement, big retail chains, not the person who ends up typing on it every day.

Intel and Microsoft both run co-marketing budgets, and a laptop maker who wants a slice of that money plays by their rules.

Same story with Copilot bolted onto everything and Windows nagging me to switch to Edge. Neither exists because it makes the machine better. Both exist because someone upstream gets paid when I use them.

Apple doesn't have that problem, mostly, because Apple doesn't have four other companies with a marketing budget riding on what's inside its own laptop.

Fair's fair

Windows hardware isn't universally bad. If you game seriously, a Windows laptop with a real GPU is probably a good call, although Windows just makes that experience much worse, in my eyes. Mac gaming has improved but the library isn't close.

If you want a laptop you can open up and swap parts on, Framework is doing something Apple has zero interest in matching. Touchscreens, 2-in-1s, a pen that draws directly on the display. Windows (and Linux) still owns that variety.

What I missed most

When I am not on my Mac, here is what I miss most:

• A one-time code arriving by text and dropping straight into the password field without me touching my phone.
• Turning on my hotspot from the menu bar instead of digging the phone out of a bag.
• Maccy* sitting in the menu bar, remembering what I copied a week ago

And so much more.

Bottom Line

I am not a Windows fan. Won't become one any time soon. And the current Windows world isn't helping.

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