Agree with others in this post that it's WAY too hard to get a stable stack on OSX and that a tool like BlackHole should be standard in the OS.
On Mac stuff basically just works.
On Windows ASIO works with only ASIO, and doesn’t allow the OS to use the card for “regular” sound unless the device-specific driver allows for it.
Edit: Or in most cases for two ASIO applications to use the same soundcard at the same time. So you end up needing to install a virtual loopback anyway, losing out on the (theoretical) latency benefits of ASIO.
Not that anyone cared about watching live streamed video game footage back in 2001 or so.
Buy audio interfaces with good drivers (e.g. RME, Lynx, Metric Halo or even MOTU AVB stuff and stay away from Antelope - they have problems), install, plugin and away you go.
compared to what?
https://www.theverge.com/24148033/satya-nadella-microsoft-se...
On MacOS there is CoreAudio, and it's been there for two decades.
I have a audiointerface from 2002 that I can plug into my windows machine and it runs. The same interface worked on Mac, once.
- Seriously though trying to understand audio midi setup from docs was pretty awful. - I've had a bunch of (mostly DJ) equipment refuse to connect with newer macs as they keep changing their security model. - Managing/fighting latency took a lot of experimentation (for me anyway). - The soundflower / blackhole stuff can be a pain until you've stitched everything together once or twice.