With its Subsystem for Linux aimed at developers and now this desktop PC for designers, it seems Microsoft is quickly catching up with Apple. Now if they could release a good alternative to the MacBook Pro that would be great.
A regular laptop from Microsoft might be redundant, since you can already buy lots of good MacBook Pro alternatives from other companies. (Dell XPS 13/15, Razer Blade / Blade Stealth, HP Spectre, etc)
edit: if you asked me 5 years ago if I would ever be happy with Microsoft, I would have laughed.
This is highly subjective, but my experience running Windows on Mac hardware was that they felt snappier than OSX on the same machine.
I only wish Apple would open source BootCamp and allow others to try and fix the few issues that it still has, namely around battery consumption. Highly unlikely they would ever do that, but one can dream.
But I still feel Windows itself is not a productive OS. I'm big on keyboard shortcuts but MS is very much mouse based. Being required to use my pinky to try and hit CTRL instead of my thumb to hit COMMAND to do simple things like copy and paste is HUGE to me.
I didn't use a Windows machine for 3 years and when I did need to use Windows again it was extremely frustrating. I remember switching from Windows to OSX and it felt more natural.
Anyway, MS is definitely making some cool stuff and I like the direction they're going. But I'm still not ready to go back.
I rarely use the mouse on windows, I think it's just a matter of familiarization on both OSes.
Incorrect. You can operate the entirety of Windows with just the keyboard.
Please tell me what you cannot do with the keyboard in Windows and I'll straighten you out.
OS X/macOS is definitely worse with regards to keyboard acceleration. For instance, here's a glaring omission on Apple's part: try opening any window from the menu bar (e.g. the BetterSnapTools preferences dialog) then switch away from it with ALT+TAB and you'll be unable to switch back to it.
FYI, I'd never heard of this shortcut before but just tried it in the Finder and it worked just fine (to toggle visibility of invisible files).
IMO they were fewer and less consistent than Windows and Linux shortcuts at the time and a huge disappointment.
(Example: no consistent way of selecting from cursor to end of line - there was no end button and which modifier to use varied with the application you used...! I have joked that the superior touchpad on the Mac is an adaptation to make it usable despite its inconsistent keyboard shorcut handling.)
cmd+shift+right-arrow. I've once had to use an app in which it didn't work - the developer was using the shortcut for cycling between tabs. But it definitely works in all the apps I use right now.
I still love the keyboard shortcuts on macOS. My favourite is alt+<any function key> to open the respective section in System Preferences. Hard to discover (like most shortcuts) but also really hard to forget about.
Cmd-shift-right arrow. There are others, but that's the one I use and I don't recall it ever not working.
I've also seen some keyboard shortcuts not mapped properly in Firefox and Chrome. e.g. in the Chrome console the home and end keys don't work as expected under macOS
I always assumed these were cross-platform library issues but I don't know for sure.
Perhaps it's a question of muscle memory and discoverability? I love spotlight, and installed magnet (http://magnet.crowdcafe.com/), and slowly getting there.
The issue isn't that the MS shortcuts for things are any better or worse, it's just that you're not used to hitting CTRL. As a developer, my pinky basically rests on the CTRL by default when I'm on a windows system. When I'm on a Mac my thumb rests on the Command key.
I've tried it.
Multi monitor support sucks so bad, I have to wiggle mouse few seconds at bottom of monitor before it is taken as active, but boy popup of active window still opens on 2nd monitor.
I minimize Firefox it goes down in Dock, now when I press Cmd+Tab, Firefox is in the applications list but the window doesn't comes back. I have to click on it with mouse to open it.
And maximize screen button now defaults to new full screen Desktop, which looks good if you use trackpad and swipe around, but with keyboard it adds no value, just distracts a lot, and apps like Chrome/Finder if I click option+maximize, they believe I want some sort of horizontal/vertical expansion.
/rant
Edit: Even greater WTF is dialog boxes, I use tab to focus on a button, press enter and viola the default action is taken, ignoring the keyboard focus, so if I don't want to save file, I have to use trackpad :|
http://osxdaily.com/2010/02/26/use-the-tab-key-to-switch-bet...
Space = focused button, Enter = default button. When a dialog is shown, the focus is never on the default button, so there are always two choices that you can make (Space/Enter) without using the mouse or the tab key at all.
Maybe you should read the help file instead of going on "feelings". Every UI widget in Windows can be operated from the keyboard.
> Being required to use my pinky to try and hit CTRL instead of my thumb to hit COMMAND to do simple things like copy and paste is HUGE to me.
Oh come on. You're just making up reasons to dislike it at this point. "The shortcut key is a half-inch further away! THIS IS AMAZINGLY IMPORTANT MIND-BLOWING SUPER-FLAW!"
And that was an example, not an exhaustive list. But honestly, yes the fact that the ctrl is so important to keyboard shortcuts on Windows but is in such a difficult (for me) position to get to is a big deal.
New tab, new window, find in page, open dev tools, and many many more, require using ctrl on Windows.
I think the key you're looking for is the 'Alt' key. You'll find a lot of doors open up for you on Windows when you use it.
edit: just to clarify. If you see a menu or anything with a letter that is underlined, Alt + Letter will choose that target. In addition, pushing down Alt will sometimes show which menus have keyboard options.
I use Windows, OSX, and Linux fairly often (mostly Windows, then OSX, Linux here and there). For me, the most frustrating thing about Windows, a minor point but it bugs me, is that you can't remap the CTRL key without having admin rights.
This is a user-controlled preference the OS has in the box, in OSX and Linux distros I've used. On Windows, you need to edit the registry (!!) or use the SysInternals driver, which requires Admin rights. I haven't found another way to do it that doesn't require installing more software and/or admin rights.
That said, ever since the Intel firmware fixes addressing the power management issues, the Surface Book has been the perfect general purpose mobile computer for me. Crisp screen, solid keyboard, long battery life, lightweight, and the stylus has been sufficient for replacing good ol' pen and paper when I need to scratch out some math for my occasional graphics programming hobby work. (I have a dedicated GPU model.)
It's the first new computer I've bought in 4 years, so despite paying over $2000 for it, I'm quite happy with the value I've gotten.
DPI oddness (moving between low DPI external monitor and high DPI internal one triggered it) seems much less now.
Apologies to any of you who works for any of these, I understand that a number of you are most likely decent people but I am really tired of seeing new crawling slow pcs that becomes fast once you install a fresh Windows without bloatware.