Is there an iOS emulator, which would persuade my wife to switch to Windows?

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My wife’s 2 iPads have quit (the battery on one, the screen on the other). I want her to switch to a Surface Pro. But she wants the icon setup which iOS offers.

Hi from Khanom and thanks Woody!!

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My advice is to avoid the Surface like the plague. The whole Surface line has been riddled with hardware and software problems. Not to mention the problems with the Windows operating system itself.

Buy the lady a new iPad Pro. They just work. She will definitely come out ahead.

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP, Bill C., Ascaris

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As an 10.4″ iPad Pro user, (and Win7-64Pro_SP1, Linux Mint-Mate 18.3, and Ubuntu 16.04) I have to agree whole-heartedly. There is no way the user experience of a Surface could mirror an iPad Pro. Even with a desktop like an iPad, a Surface would not be an iPad Pro.

It sort of reminds me of how people put a Rolls Royce-style grille and hood (bonnet for the UK folks) on an old VW beetle. Looking similar does not make it similar.

For the price of a Surface, she could get a 12″ iPad Pro and a backup 10.4″ iPad Pro. My only regret was not getting the version with 4G connectivity built in. But I can use the iPhone WiFi hotpoint for that. I rarely use my Win7-64Pro laptop anymore unless I specifically need a certain program.

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Let me elaborate on PKCano’s recommendation… Here is Woody’s article on Microsoft Surface Reliability Problem.

Consumer Reports, which gets its data from its subscribers who actually use the devices, pulled recommending Surface based on the 2 year breakage rate of 25%.  In addition, Microsoft’s customer service has been poor… so if you have one of the machines that breaks…well…

Problems were in starting, freezing, unexpected shutdowns, poorly responding touch screens… and wasn’t there a ‘flicker gate’ problem, where the screen flickers? You could replace the problem machine when it was under warranty, but people found that the replacement machine often had problems, too.

Its performance scores were very good or excellent (depending on the particular product) but it is a high price to pay with that kind of failure rate.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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“… and wasn’t there a ‘flicker gate’ problem, where the screen flickers?”

I wonder how well that went down with people with epilepsy or migraine.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Is there an iOS emulator, which would persuade my wife to switch to Windows?

Doubt there is, because Apple’s iOS is a proprietary and very closed-source software, eg Apple does not license iOS to any OEM.

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Actually there was a short period when Apple allowed Windows to be run alongside Apple’s OS (OS 7, I think). That was soon after they switched from using their own, bespoke chips to Intel’s and, therefore, to using the same ones as MS.  All this happened way back, in the Earlier Paleolithic, when they also made some tentative moves to license their OS and key software to other companies to run in non-Apple machines. So many who are around today might not have even been born at the time, or were too young to remember. But those two companies do have a history together: one that makes many on again, off again marriages look like very close, cozy, peaceful, mutually supportive and steady relationships:

https://www.cio.com/article/2989667/consumer-technology/history-of-apple-and-microsoft-4-decades-of-peaks-and-valleys.html

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I have a Surface Pro 3, my wife has an iPad.  My advice would be to pop for a new iPad rather than forcing a Surface Pro on her, unless your marriage works in a radically different way to the way ours does.  Apple will give you a trade-in on the old iPads.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Bill C., OscarCP

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When they lower the price of the Surface Pro to around $300, buy one. I wouldn’t pay a penny more than that for what is arguably a disposable Windows 10 tablet.

You can get a far better machine from Dell for the same amount that you would pay for a Surface Pro.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Won’t somebody think of all the wasted LCD panels? /s

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I can’t remember any occasion when they were really great at making hardware. Most of the time, they were a big, if so-so, software company. Now they are a big no good software company. Time passes, companies evolve. Or devolve. Such is  life.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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A different perspective here.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/why-i-m-switching-from-mac-to-windows-after-almost-10-years-20180723-p4zt15.html

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Bill C.

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Good and interesting article. I am glad you posted the link.

I do agree with the hardware parts of it, even though an Apple laptop is not under consideration. For me many of the features the author liked about Win10 or the surface are not a draw.

I am still considering an iMac desktop, but the second string hardware at certain price points makes me hesitate. In the US, finding the configurator on the Apple website for upgrading the 27″ iMac is not the most obvious. Plus I do not want to open the wallet for the Pro versions of an iMac.

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Hmmm… this looks a bit similar to some updated cut and paste articles I have seen in the past that looked like Microsoft PR folks pushing an agenda on some bloggers. I remember some Mac user saying how great Microsoft was now that Nadella is in charge and repeating some value statements for things that seemed pretty minor for folks outside of Microsoft marketing department, then seeing a very similar blog post somewhere else, with cut and paste marketing statements of advantages about Creator’s Update that are already today a bit weird to discuss.

I think the article rightly point out the terrible idea that the touch bar is. I predicted that failure when they announced the awful thing since Lenovo tried that stupid idea a few years before on the X1 and it was a total disaster.

The keyboard reliability issue is apparently fixed and Apple might not talk about it (as in admitting previous issues) to avoid litigation since there are people suing for this. However, it is still to many a bad keyboard with no travel. That’s not great for sure, but on the Windows laptop side, it is often not much better.

The lack of good integration with other Apple products might be valid, but it certainly won’t be better in Windows. The IOSification might be real, but then if they don’t force people on using only the IOS apps, I don’t see the big deal adding support for IOS apps. Demand should drive apps, IOS or not. The author complains for the lack of innovation on the desktop, but this is precisely what makes it better than the pathetic “innovation” that Windows brought in the recent years. The author complains about Siri making things worse, guess what will happen when having to deal with Cortana?

Yes, I agree with that the new Macbook Pros are in some ways a step back from what they have been. But this certainly doesn’t mean it is enough to switch to Windows 10 and its issues for long time Apple users.

Where the article really falls short of arguments is when it talks about MacOs not moving fast like MS, not being great at VR and games as if everyone needed that. It is not a surprise that Mac has never been a gaming platform and Mac users did not use a Mac before because of its gaming potential. The timeline feature presented as an example of something oh so great produced by the rapid deployment schedule comes from someone who hasn’t used it and is strangely tied to the latest release of Windows, just like the Creator’s Update advantages were pushed by those Mac bloggers previously. Maybe the author is acting in good faith, but then it just means to me he/she drank the marketing kool aid.

Henry T. Casey of LaptopMag posted an article saying he would switch to Windows in June:
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/reasons-to-buy-matebook-x-pro
Then, a month later:
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/matebook-x-pro-long-term-review

It is an interesting data point from a real Mac user. The main problem of the laptop is the fact it doesn’t run MacOs, for whatever reason he has.

I think both Mac users and PC users have issues right now preventing them to switch OS without having more to loose than to win, for different reasons. One is more the hardware than a general philosophy so I think it can be reversed more easily.

On a side note and related to our discussion here about the Ipad, I just read Macworld and the priorities of Apple for IOS 12. All currently supported devices will still be supported, it will be more stable and faster than IOS 11. There will be increased focus on privacy and stability. The author talks about how it might seem contrary to business to extend the life of older devices especially with Apple being accused of planned obsolescence in the past and also to not harvest the data as much as it can, but it brings trust in the company and makes it look like they care more about your needs, backing off from the buggy mess that IOS 11 has been and refocusing on what users care about. How refreshing!

Apple might have devoted its best resources on the IOS platform and neglected the Mac a bit, but it’s not like it needed that much love. Acutally, it is the thing that they did for the sake of change that makes people mad the most, not the thing that didn’t change! I still don’t believe that an Apple user will be more happy on Windows.

Another side note about using a Windows laptop today vs an Ipad. My hairdresser told me this weekend his old 7 laptop that was updated to 10 a while ago (he doesn’t know how) stopped working after an update. He gets a blue screen with a character. I have seen that! So he bought a new laptop (one new PC sold with Win 10 to add to statistics), thinking he could use the recovery CD and the Windows key on it to reinstall his old laptop. Oh my! He spent a long time on the phone to finally get a key (that is what he said) but he hadn’t had the chance to try the recovery disc he made yet. So I just told him to drop this bad good idea and just download the ISO from Microsoft and reinstall directly on top of the old preactivated laptop that doesn’t need a key since it has been activated with the digital signature, just like I did for someone for probably the same issue a few weeks ago. But this just shows you how people that know at least a bit how to manage their computer (he knew at least how to boot the Windows CD and his ideas where not that bad except he didn’t know about OEM licensing and what exactly is a recovery CD) can be so left out with this new WaaS delivering buggy updates.

 

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OscarCP, Elly

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“Products like the iMac Pro and the latest refresh of the Macbook Pro might be enough to keep some creative professionals on side, but for the rest of us who don’t see the iPad as a suitable replacement, it’s time to switch to Windows.”

It always gets me how some of these commentators on all things PC can be so venal, or superficial, or naïve believers in marketing hype vs. actual hands-on experience and, or deeply ignorant of a wider world of users than those who go for eye-candy, showy gizmos that mostly work (if one is very willing to make allowances) and consider a PC to be like a smartphone, only larger. Where they get those people from, and who are those that give them gainful employment as their publications “technology gurus”?

And how does a person who eats cheese puffs and sticky treats while pounding on a keyboard gets to deserve anybody’s attention when opining on keyboard reliability?

Yes, that is most assuredly a severe test of any keyboard, but not a particularly useful or meaningful one, in my humble opinion.

I mostly agree with his opinion about the touch bar, and would add that the choice of ports in the MacPro book and even the desktop version is not very helpful, with ‘cool’ gaining the upper hand at the design department over ‘practical’, always a rather unfortunate thing with Apple. I also find it not entirely on point some negative comments often heard on the high price of Macs. Because that price can be certainly high, but, in my own experience, it buys one more than just a machine: it buys some peace of mind, as well. At least considering the Windows 10 alternative the Antipodean author of that article seems to really like.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Krishan Sharma is looking at what hardware is available for Windows vs. Macs… and there is newer, and faster hardware for Windows.

He is complaining about one useless feature on the Mac, the Touch Bar, calling it a flashy gimmick… Just wait until he gets an eyeful of the useless features/apps on W10! They may not be hardware, but they will be in his face from the time he first logs on… and one of the complaints about W10 is how it makes it harder (more steps, his very complaint about the Touch Bar) to access what he wants.

Then-

“In recent years Apple has been more interested in porting across half-baked features from iOS than listening to what Mac users actually want.”

What? You could switch “Apple” with “Microsoft” and “iOS with phone apps and never know the difference…

Windows 10. It mightn’t be as refined as macOS, but it’s more functional and is updated on a regular basis with useful software features.

He discusses how Mac features work unreliably… just wait until the forced updates remove and add features at Microsoft’s whim… and send his local searches out onto the internet with Bing! I’m curious about how functional he will think it is, when he turns it on, ready to get to work… and it starts updating, instead.

The Surface Book 2, for example, is not only one of the most impressive notebooks I’ve tested to date, but also the most versatile that I could recommend to almost anyone. While it’s a powerful 2-in-1 built for serious work, it’s just as fun off the clock with a capable graphics chip that had little trouble in chewing through my gaming backlog at respectable frame rates.

He likes the flash and pretty… but doesn’t realize that the Surface (any model) is very difficult to repair, and has a 25% failure rate at the end of two years… and he is in for a shock when it comes to customer service! Apple takes it seriously. Microsoft is seriously unresponsive, slow to acknowledge problems and slow to fix them.

Microsoft’s rapid update policy has given Windows 10 an edge over MacOS.

This man is going to be so disappointed! He obviously is just reading marketing hype, and believes it. I’d really like to hear from him after he goes through six months of the kind of unreliable updating that Windows users have suffered through this year. Actually he seems the sensitive type- maybe just give him a link to July Patches are All Messed Up.

And just one more observation…

Apple’s recent commercial where a child with an iPad asks “What’s a computer?” suggests that the company is more than happy to cannibalise Mac sales to sell more iPads.

Just wait until he sees his actual computer being cannibalized by Microsoft in order to push apps he didn’t want in the first place. On a positive note, he won’t have to go out and buy extra hardware for a diminished experience… it will take over the hardware that he is using!

I think he might end up on a site like AskWoody, looking for answers, and wondering what happened to the really good computer he used to have.

@b- I know you really like W10… and it really does need allies, or it won’t get any love at all… but this is really a review of Microsoft advertising, where Krishan Sharma doesn’t have real hands on experience with Windows and is repeating Microsoft’s selling points… and the selling points completely gloss over the problems present. He is clueless when it comes to telemetry… repair-ability and product life span… end user lack of control over features and settings… and riding the update roller coaster.

You’ve been posting some good, interesting links. From my point of view, Krishan Sharma is fantasizing over something better than what he has… and his fantasies are going to turn into nightmares when he is stuck with W10. All of us, whether Windows 7, 8.1, 0r 10 are looking for something better, too. Just like he sees Macs not being developed and a possible dead-end, Microsoft has abandoned developing a useful, stable, private OS anytime in the foreseeable future. At least he can go back to his old Mac and find it useable. Just wait until something screws up his W10 system, and only the current buggy version is available to reinstall from Microsoft! Maybe his back-up skills are better than his shopping skills!

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Ascaris, johnf, OscarCP, Bill C.

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Elly wrote:

Just wait until he gets an eyeful of the useless features/apps on W10!

Examples?

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“Krishan Sharma is fantasizing over something better than what he has… and his fantasies are going to turn into nightmares when he is stuck with W10.”

Elly, that is very generous of you, assuming that this man, who is supposed to be someone who knows what is going on, is honestly duped by the Windows 10 advertising, and is not, instead, deliberately writing a puff piece about it.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Why would you want your wife to get a Windows computer if she was happy with her Ipad? This doesn’t make no sense to me. Do you want to use this opportunity to make yourself a gift at the same time? Unless she wasn’t satisfied with it, the only risk you have is to make her mad, having her have to deal with issues that are nonexistent on the Ipad front. A PC is better than an Ipad when you need a PC, there is no doubt about that, but when you don’t need one, it is much worse than an Ipad.

Why not replace the Ipad, not with an Ipad Pro, but with the inexpensive best value very fast new Ipad? It is probably much faster than the one it replaces and it is quite cheap. There is not much compromise to make there vs the Pro version for many users, especially for users of older models that were happy with it. To me, the only drawback for casual users is the lack of laminated screen, but even my Ipad Air doesn’t have one. Most people don’t notice that and they love the new Ipad. Happy wife, happy life.

 

 

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Bill C.

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If there is such an emulator, it will not persuade her to switch to Windows. Unless she likes being unhappy, as some do.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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There isn’t an iOS emulator that runs on a PC. The iOS Simulator that runs on a Mac as part of Xcode is only for developers to test code out on their Mac before running the app on an iOS device.

Stick with iPads. I tried a Surface Book, and short answer is, it sent me back to a Mac and iPad. Longer answer is, when the Windows Secrets Lounge is merged under AskWoody, you’ll see all the posts I posted on here with my Surface Book woes.

Nathan Parker

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… so what does Corellium run on, anyway?

Yes, it’s a bit exotic…

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How about getting one of the old iPads repaired?  Apple tries to make this as difficult as possible, but there are independent shops that do a good job and don’t encourage Apple’s “don’t repair, buy a new one” business practices.

And now, some thoughts on the platform issue.

As much as I dislike so many of the Apple business practices, I could not, in good conscience, recommend switching to Windows to anyone, and certainly not the Surface line.  As others have noted, the Surface hardware has been plagued with all kinds of problems, and Windows 10 itself is a mess.

I’ve been an Apple critic since the Apple II days, where I came to despise the snooty air of superiority of the owners of such machines sometimes exhibited.  When the Mac came along, it was the same story, so when I built my first PC and inadvertently stumbled into the Mac vs. PC “war,” I already had a dislike for the Mac (which at the time had a non-replaceable 9 inch black and white display, while the full color Mac II series was so expensive that I’d never even seen one), while the wide-open nature of the PC platform was thrilling.  I started with MS-DOS, but that soon led me into Windows, which seemed at first to be a solution in need of a question.

Back then DOS was the go-to for all serious business applications and certainly all games, but in the next few years, Windows gradually became the standard OS (though at the time it was just a fancy shell more than a full OS in itself) for the PC, and I was essentially dragged kicking and screaming as DOS support evaporated bit by bit.  Once 95 came out, it struck me that Windows finally had an actual reason to exist, with 95 not only being a full OS in its own right, but also one that had a GUI that made sense, and that was it; I was a Windows guy.

For nearly three decades now, I’ve been mostly happily in the Windows camp, from Windows 3.0 to 3.1 to 95 to 98SE to ME to XP to 7 to 10 back to 7, and finally to 8.1 (with Classic Shell and other things to fix the UI).  I’ve been angry at MS before, and I was strongly against IE during the first browser wars, but I never questioned being on Windows as far as the OS.

Now, that’s all changed.  Windows has changed, and it’s not a good change.  It’s changed into something ugly and terrible, and while I was able to tolerate the crashiness of 95 and whatever it was that people hated about ME (I didn’t know it was a “bad” Windows release at the time I used it… other than the new System Restore feature that never worked at all, I didn’t have any problems with it, and since the other Windows versions at the time also didn’t have System Restore, it wasn’t a loss to just turn it off on ME and rely on my backups, as I had before), I can’t tolerate 10 for one simple reason:  All the things I find bad about Windows 10 are intentional design features upon which MS refuses to compromise, not bugs that one could expect to be fixed eventually, as was the case with ME and Vista.  Win 10 is bad because it’s meant to be bad, and the powers that be are quite obviously intent on keeping it bad (or else they would have listened to the avalanche of complaints from Windows users for the past 3.5 years).

Now, if a non-techie type wants a suggestion for an appliance to just use the internet, iOS and the iPad are the first things I mention.  They’re not perfect, and I don’t have nor want an iPad, but for people who just want to use the internet without thinking about the hardware and software that underlies it, there’s no better choice on the market today that I know of.

For the techie types who prefer the PC form factor and don’t need some Windows-specific program, I suggest Linux, though such people are less likely to ask for advice in the first place.  In the last few years of my Windows usage, I used to muse to myself that some people referred to it dismissively as a ‘hobbyist’ OS.  I certainly was a computer hobbyist, as I still am, yet I used only Windows at the time.  I had no specific reason to think seriously about moving on.

For non-techie types who want the PC form factor, I clench my teeth and recommend Macs.  There are a lot of things about Macs that I do not like (look up Louis Rossmann’s videos on Youtube to see some of the reasons for this), and while Mr. Rossmann has a point about how Apple will keep doing the things he talks about if people keep buying Macs, there’s no real alternative for people who want things to “just work” as Apple puts it.

Windows 10 only gets a tepid recommendation for me when the things the person wants to do absolutely require Windows, and if they are using hardware that is too new to accept Windows 8.1.  It’s simply not what I consider a usable OS in its current form, which really is a shame, given that the under-the-hood “guts” of the OS are actually quite good.  If MS wanted to make a truly great OS, they have the system and kernel stuff already done.  That’s the hard part!  But they don’t want to do that, evidently (or they would have done it).  They are more interested in monetizing Windows than in making Windows a great product and a strong platform that will continue to be so for as long as possible.

I do have MS to thank for the nudge into the “hobbyist” OS for this long-time hobbyist who always used Windows before.  Linux isn’t perfect, but it’s fun in a way that Windows isn’t anymore, and it’s rock-solid stable as far as the kernel goes.  It’s been ages since I’ve seen a kernel panic (like a BSOD).

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Marriage saved! What next?

SuperGeek is ready to save the world, whatever the next major catastrophe is to occur.

Nathan Parker

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woody

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Hey, Don!

How’s Khanom? I hope we can get back there before too long…

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