ISSUE 22.04 • 2025-01-27 PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston Microsoft is ending all security and feature updates for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.
[See the full post at: Windows 11, or a Mac?]
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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
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Windows 11, or a Mac?
- This topic has 78 replies, 39 voices, and was last updated 2 months, 1 week ago.
AuthorViewing 38 reply threadsAuthor-
Your investigation into switching to Apple and OSX is going to be interesting, Brian.
However, don’t you think that more people are inclined to switch to Linux instead?
Not only do distros like Mint give a more Windows-like experience, people can also run it on hardware they already possess (for maybe ten years more).LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background2 users thanked author for this post.
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Just a kind reminder – Askwoody doesn’t just discuss windows.
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
3 users thanked author for this post.
The online version of this week’s newsletter has a bad link to this discussion page, https://www.askwoody.com/newsletter/windows-11-or-a-mac/FORUMLINK instead of https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/windows-11-or-a-mac/
The email version has no link at all.
Also, this sentence:
Figure 3 shows that the base configurations of Mac minis only 16GB or 24GB of RAM.
lacks a verb (“have”) in the second clause.1 user thanked author for this post.
Funny coincidence. After 35+ years of Windows, I just bought a Macbook Pro. Motivation was the lack of speed in my 7 year old Lenovo using Lioghtroom Classic AI – like denoise. I am taking my time learning and have a HUGE spreadsheet. Some features on the Mac are surprisingly wonderful. Some, I cannot understand how they have gotten away with for so many years. (Two in particular)
I find 6 or 8 things (so far) that have no equivalent from Windows utilities or fall very short. I find that dozens of utilities I have free on Windows are OUTRAGEOUSLY priced on MAC. Like a decent zip, pdf, screen capture. Many more.
I do not know if I shall keep both functioning or switch to MAC only. Too soon to tell. It took 143 days of spare time to research, install, configure, add plugins, etc on the PC. Will take less for the Mac but not in a rush. Already a number of things just not needed on the Mac. Likely another month before I can truly test.
Happy to comment more here is desired. I did start a toipic on Equivalents which got little readership or replies so stopped posting there. Could revive. Or not…
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I think the Intel NUC 14 Pro series would be a fairer comparison to the Mac Mini than some discount, name-brand laptop. The ASUS version of the NUC 14 Pro Tall Barebone Kit is ~$600 at B&H photo, but it doesn’t include RAM or storage, which might put off a non-tech user. However they also offer versions with, for example, 32GB RAM and 1TB SDD for ~$1000.
And it goes without saying that the NUC is reconfigurable without a heat gun or soldering iron.
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The online version of this week’s newsletter has a bad link
Now that is weird. I do a search and replace to change the placeholder FORUMLINK to the correct URL. In Brian’s article, the “Comment” line next to his name has the correct link, while the button at the bottom does not. (Microsoft’s own software, Visual Studio Code, made that mistake.)
I fixed the verb.
Thanks for the copy-editing work.
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Five years ago I would have agreed with you DrPep71 – but these newer Macs with the Apple Silicon CPUs are pretty impressive & most importantly the prices have come down a lot, as long as you get the base model.
I’m literally using a 12 year old Macbook Pro and it is great to use, gorgeous screen, snappy feeling, works really well and it’s 12 years old!
My main computers are all Thinkpads and home-built PCs though.
Windows 10 LTSC + Excel 2024 + Synology Docs + Firefox w/ Ublock Origin
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If Apple is a constant theme, I will find another source of PC information.
Better than us? Hard to imagine.
Seriously, we’re not turning into an Apple publication. But as I mentioned in my explanation, it’s hard to ignore this moment in time. And as you can see from other sentiments here, other Windows diehards are thinking the same thing.
Right now, I’m spending time developing Windows 11 topics for many months out, well beyond the end of this special series.
3 users thanked author for this post.
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Brian,
Thanks for taking this task on. I am looking forward to your view on this journey.
I have been a MS user since DOS days and am currently supporting my wife’s Win 10 PC and I have installed Win 11 on my desktop Dell XPS and my “unsupported” Dell XPS15. It has been a mixed experience. I am tired of the MS invasion of privacy and forcing changes that few want or need. I still think that a PC means Personal, not MS corporate extension. To this end I have been also using Linux for a number of years, both in a VM and Native on a mini PC. I have found a few limitations that keep me from moving to Linux full time,
I picked up a base Mac Mini M4 for $499 during the Black Friday Amazon sale. I am very impressed with this PC. This is my first real exposure to Apple Mac but overall it has been very positive. I did add an external Thunderbolt compatible external ZikeDrive with a fast M.2 SSD and moved my home folder to it. Highly recommended. Much faster than the internal 256GB SSD. My only issue at this point is getting my Quicken files imported to the Mac Mini. I get an error caused by the Quicken conversion process. If I need to I will likely start a new instance of Quicken by manually entering my latest data. I have not yet decided but I am strongly considering making the Mac Mini my primary use PC.
Gook luck with your efforts.
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Hi Brian,
This is an interesting read from an obviously Windows orientated person looking at the Mac world for the first time. I started in the MS world with MS DOS and then Windows 1 (I still have the scars from those days!) having played with Atari STs and Amigas and was intimately familiar with CP/M. I switched to Macs in 2002 or thereabouts when I was fed up of the issue that every time I turned on my desktop or laptop (desktops were home built: I probably built around 20 machines in my time) it needed updating or crashed due to a buggy software update, drivers that did not work or I had the interrupt settings incorrect on an add on card etc. I suspect you are very familiar with those days. I wanted something that ‘just worked’ since I now streamed music content and then video content to my home entertainment systems. Windows was just not reliable enough for this purpose. And my switch worked. Apple systems (they had just switched to their new OS X (Linux derived) OS, since I hated their OS 9 (as it was non multitasking)) were amazingly clean and reliable. At least when compared to Windows at the time (note I am aware that Windows is much much better in this regard these days).
Today I have a reasonably powerful desktop Windows 11 machine and MS Surface Laptop that does laaptop duty if I need one, which, to be honest, is not often these days. I use the Windows machine to keep my hand in and run one or two particular pieces of software for which there is no Mac alternative. My problem these days is that there are no Windows equivalent for some of my favorite Mac applications (Logic Pro: and I know there are equally capable Windows apps, but they do not allow me to use the same work flow process as they are not compatible in any way. Final Cut Pro: Yes there is Adobe Premier but it does work the way I do and, again, I know how to use FCP and Premier is not compatible in any way). However for day to day use, the Mac apps are in some ways more functional than their Windows equivalents. And these days the Windows and Mac OS machines know how to talk to each other very easily if I need to swap files etc. Office on both machines is virtually identical and the Adobe apps I use (Lightroom and Photoshop) look almost exactly the same on both platforms (the subscription license allows to you use either Mac or Windows version of the app).
I will be interested to see how your experiences compares to my experiences and I will be avidly reading the articles. You write extraordinarily well and I am very familiar with your Windows books.
Having just taken delivery of a Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB, 2TB) to replace an older I9 based iMac and I am amazed how good it is, but as you note, they can get really expensive with those upgrades. I use an external TB5 drive which adds on another 4TB to avoid paying Apple upgrade prices. But when I compare it to my Intel i9 14900K based Windows machine with 64GB memory and 4 TB SSD running Windows 11, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti card, my Mini destroys it in, say, importing and processing my RAW Sony A7RV files into Lightroom Classic. (2000 photographs, Mini is 2 x as fast). Granted my Mini is an M4Pro which is going to be substantially better in some tasks than your base machine.
Just a note that you compare the cost of the Apple Studio display (which is stupidly expensive) to a none Apple 5K display (which is much better value) and seem to imply that you need an Apple Studio display to use with your Mini. The Mini will use most displays that are available so your alternative Apple Display is just an expensive option which you do not need. Also note that you can use your mouse and keyboard with a Mini (although the keyboard may to be remapped and/or some key caps changed).
I would also like to point out that in my 24 odd years of interacting with Apple personnel at their stores (in many different locations) I have never found any remotely like the ones you seem to have met. I have often had interesting discussions with them about the merits of Windows v Mac and most of them, other than their greeters, seem to be quite technically proficient. Either you are unlucky or the stores you are using are not that good. I live in Austin and the two here are very good.
I really look forward to your series and if I sound a bit Mac biased, it is only to give a slight tweak to your obviously Windows and Microsoft based view of the world and I apologize if I seem to be a little Mac orientated. I was for many many years (1982 or so until 2002) a thoroughly Windows based person and did not know the Apple platform at all (and was somewhat disdainful of OS 9), but now I am an agnostic and see the merits for both platforms and am happy to use either, knowing my way around both pretty well.
Brian, I enjoyed your article and look forward to hearing how it goes.
I must confess that I honestly can’t think of any practical reason why a Windows 10 user should seriously consider switching to a Mac aside from sheer curiosity or fulfilling a long-held desire to do so. If so, now is just as good a time as any, but just to avoid having to switch to Windows 11?
As you pointed out, Macs are a hell of a lot more expensive, especially if you need any upgrades at the time of purchase. And yes, better CPU performance with Mx processors, but is the typical user going to benefit from that on their workaday tasks? Almost certainly not.
And a longtime Windows user will need all new apps (unless you want to virtualize Windows– more cost and complexity) and indeed have to familiarize themselves with an entirely different computing environment (where the @$&! is the right-click?!?!) I think almost anyone would agree that the learning curve from Windows 10 to 11 is negligible compared to going from Windows to MacOS.
And if it’s about the loss of Windows 10 updates, Apple will EOL whatever Mac you buy today in 5-7 years depending on the model, and which point you will lose MacOS updates, just like you’re losing Windows 10 updates this year. I’d add that by the time the October deadline rolls around, Windows 10 will have been out for just over a decade, which is a pretty long time for an OS to be supported.
Now, if the argument is you have a PC that lacks TPM 2.0 or a 8th-gen or newer Intel CPU, so you can’t do a supported upgrade, OK, but that PC is at almost certainly 6 or 7 years old and probably needs to be put out to pasture anyway. Even in this case I’d argue that a new Windows PC is less expensive and much less friction, in both the near- and long terms.
I’ll admit I have been steeped in Windows since 3.0, but I’m not anti-Mac– I have several. I just don’t think a Windows-to-Mac migration solves any real problems. At best, it defers a few while creating several new ones.
For those of you wishing to de-bloat your standard retail Windows versions I have found this tool to be interesting. I’ve only played with it once as the easiest solution is to just go with Windows LTSC, but this could be helpful and maybe a bit safer than the well-known Atlas OS (as Windows Atlas OS allows one to turn off Windows Defender, which is fine with me, but a bad idea for most)
Windows 10 LTSC + Excel 2024 + Synology Docs + Firefox w/ Ublock Origin
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Wow, that didn’t take long..
For those asking, here is the Microsoft webpage where you can download an evaluation version of Windows 11 IOT LTSC:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc
Have fun, if you were wondering about all this LTSC jazz, this is a legit way to evaluate this unique version of Windows. There is also a Windows 10 version available.
Windows 10 LTSC + Excel 2024 + Synology Docs + Firefox w/ Ublock Origin
2 users thanked author for this post.
Another source says you might try Wubuntu Linux . It has a Windows-like appearance, and runs Windows programs you already have.
Wubuntu Linux is designed to closely mimic the look and feel of Microsoft Windows 11, making it an ideal choice for users looking to transition from Windows 10. The operating system offers a highly Windows-like desktop environment, using the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution as its base. It includes pre-installed Microsoft apps such as the Edge browser, OneDrive, PowerShell, Teams, links to Office 365 apps, as well as integration with Copilot AI.
You’ll find a familiar desktop menu, weather app, sidebar, run command launcher, and system tray. It also comes with Google Chrome, VLC media player, Thunderbird email client, and Steam gaming platform. Many native Windows applications can be run with the Wine/Winetricks utility.
Ubuntu Linux has a reputation for user-friendliness, security and strong hardware support. Wubuntu strikes a balance between familiarity for Windows users and the freedom of Linux. All of that, in my opinion, makes Wubuntu Linux a worthy alternative to Microsoft Windows, especially for users facing the October 2025 “end of life” for Windows 10.
credit: Bob Rankin
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… OR LINUX … or PC Sticks or NUC PCs?
I’m a little surprised that linux wasn’t mentioned as a way to refresh the existing PC instead of lashing out with green dollars to buy a mac and get lured into Apple’s walled garden instead of Microsoft’s. From my perspective, trading Windows for Apple is trading the OS you know for the OS you don’t know, and the devil is in the details.
Consumer Linux costs nothing. Nothing to try, zero dollars ever, works on almost any old PC hardware that turns on, and there’s heaps of support on the web. Some linux distros look so much like windows that users will feel right at home after installation and setup.
So if users want to abandon Windows 10 altogether because they don’t want to pay the hardware upgrade cost, there’s free options for their existing hardware.
OR
there’s cheap PC Stick hardware or NUC PCs that will run Windows 11 happily for the budget conscious folk as well. Then they don’t have to learn a whole new OS ecosystem.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Been using 0Patch for years now, and has never given me any problems. Mitja Kolsek and his crew know what they’re doing.
Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
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"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty1 user thanked author for this post.
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Monitor. Buy an Apple 5K Studio Display: $1600. Buy an Asus 5K ProArt PA27JCV: $800
Or the BenQ PD2730S 27-inch 5K Thunderbolt 4 Designer Monitor for $1199
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Probably going to Mint for most things. Reasons:
- I can’t stand the Apple elitist snobbery many of it’s users and salespeople project
- The overall product is outrageously overpriced
- I’m a tinkerer; I like to get “under the hood” and get my hands dirty. This is impossible with the walled garden of ignorance Cupertino keeps it’s users in. But then, I guess if you have enough dough, you can pay Apple to fix it for you.
When people used to ask me (long, long ago) if they should get a PC or a Mac, I used to tell them, “If you come from a technical background, save your money and get a PC. If you don’t come from a technical background, and have the cash, get a Mac. If you have neither the background or the money, you can build your own PC and save a TON of money. If you do so with a PC guru from your local PC user group, you get an education as well!”
(Next time I’ll tell you how I REALLY feel.) 🙂
Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
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"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty1 user thanked author for this post.
Great idea for a series. Very pleased you have chosen to dive into this question. This thread has jumped in all directions, so I’ll start a new tangent.
In 1986, my dad received an Apple II GS as a retirement gift. The same year, I bought an IBM PC/XT-286 because that was the computer-of-choice where I worked. These acquisitions were purely coincidental. Neither of us preferred one platform to the other.
Over the next 32 years, my father stayed with Apple while I stayed with DOS and was then dragged (kicking and screaming) into the world of Windows, which I called “cartoon-based computing” at the time. When my dad died in 2018, he running an iMac with the Mojave OS, while I was running a Dell laptop upgraded to Win10.
Experiences with my dad led me to an unproven theory, supported only by my subjective experience. I know of no scientific study on this proposition. My theory is that left-brained persons tend to prefer Windows, while right-brained persons tend to prefer Macs. (Brief refresher: left-brainers are logical, analytic, linear thinkers. Right-brainers are imaginative, intuitive, and creative thinkers.)
My father was creative and intuitive. I am analytical and linear. Over the years, I have tried to like Macs. Working on one feels like working with one hand tied behind my back. I truly hated Android phones, so I bought an iPhone. After six months, I found the iPhone even more confusing and switched back to Android.
It seems to me that some attempt is being made for convergence between the two platforms as evidenced by the cosmetic changes in Win11. I’m not happy about that, but I’m still unwilling to move to the Apple ecosystem.
Linux continues to shoot itself in the foot because of the proliferation of distros, the odd names (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Wubuntu, Xubuntu, what-the-hell buntu, and Mint with some Gentoo on the side), and the ungodly number of repository changes, updates, and new versions released daily. I can’t get any work done on Linux because I spend too much time maintaining the operating system.
I can’t wait to hear about Brian’s experiences. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather write the series. This is going to be great.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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An interesting and often repeated thought ie. creatives use Macs and logical, engineering type people use Windows/Linux. In fact the Mac was marketed towards creatives and was the chosen platform for video processing, artists, photographers and graphic artists/publishers for many years. There is still that bias in the Apple marketing approach.
I was (now retired) a scientist and engineer and I picked up on CP/M and personal computing when it first became a thing. I spent a lot time building hardware and writing software. I never liked the Apple approach, at the beginning, which was a closed self contained system which simply delivered a computing device where the software functionality was the thing. Graphical interfaces took a while to get to the CP/M and then MS DOS/Windows environments while Apple focused on this very early in the evolution of their systems.
However there came a point in time when I needed a computer purely as a tool and did not care about being able to customize my experience and spend my time making the tool do what I wanted. Personal computing devices all did, essentially, the same thing and I focused on using them to do what I wanted. In this case, it was delivering music and then video for my entertainment. At the time Windows needed too much tinkering to get it to work. Apple machines just worked and the tight integration between hardware and software gave them the reliability I needed. I still used Windows or Linux machines for my work processes and any music editing and photography work. However over a period of time (around 5 years) I moved everything to a Mac and gradually moved my Windows machines out of my main stream computing environment. The last Windows machine I built was in 2017. I bought my next one when I needed to move to Windows 11. I bought my first Mac and MacBook in 2002.
And this brings me to the core difference between Apple machines and the Windows world. Apple tightly couples the hardware and software for optimum performance and reliability. MicroSoft, for all its fault, had a very difficult job designing a system environment for software that uses an infinite variety of hardware and configurations so that software applications can run reliably. Yes, that also gives us the option to customize the hardware and software for our very specific requirements, but, in my opinion, at the cost of reliability. Computers are now appliances and our focus is not on the appliance and its functionality but on the applications and the way we use them which drives the requirements.
I had a lot of fun in the early days building computers for a variety of circumstances and also spent a lot of time getting them to work and keeping them running. But now I need a computer to do certain things (e.g. edit and catalog my photographs, allow me to create and edit music, interface to my house automation system etc.) and I do not want to spend time patching, putting in faster graphics cards, debugging faulty software ( brought about by both the complexity of the application and the infinite variety of hardware upon which Windows applications are supposed to work). The tight integration with hardware in the Apple environment means I spend very little time on keeping them working and when I want a faster one or more resources I either add them (if I can) or buy a new one.
I have the same attitude these days to my smart phone. I have both an iPhone and high end (foldable) Samsung Android phone. The Samsung is infinitely more configurable than the iPhone but it is a clumsy, ‘noisy’ environment (getting rid of advertisements and notifications is infinitely easier on an iPhone since we do not have an advertising company providing the OS) where all those options often make the phone behave in ways I do not want and constantly interferes with my use of the phone. The iPhone is reliable, just works and as a result I can use it without worrying about the latest virus laden software infecting my phone or another Google option that wants to steal my data or getting rid of unwanted ‘noise’. So my main phone is the iPhone 16 Pro Max and my Samsung Z Fold 6 is a backup and a way to keep me informed about what is going on in the Android world.
I have no problem working in any of the worlds, Apple or Windows or Linux, and choose my environment based on needs and or wants. I am supposed to be a left brain thinker, but I have chosen the Apple world for very solid pragmatic and logical reasons. I am also not an evangelist for any of the worlds and do not denigrate any person who chooses a specific platform (unlike some people in this thread).
Let’s see how Brian progresses with his experiment. It will either work for him or the changes it requires may not fit with his world view or needs. But please, let’s not denigrate either platform or their users.
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What if 0Patch got hacked? Or a 0Patch employee went rogue?
What if the same thing happened at MSFT? What if the same thing happened at any A/V firm? Come on, these postulates are wildly exaggerated, hyperbolic, and devoid of any sound reasoning. Really, now!
Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
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"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty1 user thanked author for this post.
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She’s all for it:
In light of various Zero days, here’s instructions on how to install and use 0patch.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Where are those many security experts hiding?
Steve Gibson of Security Now! is a fan too:
We know from our many years of covering 0patch that these guys are the real deal, and that they really do present a viable alternative to Microsoft’s doubling-every-year extortion for the enterprise.
In this instance, I don’t mind this sales pitch since it’s easy to endorse what they’re selling. Microsoft has made a strategic gamble to deliberately abandon its users to its buggy and vulnerability-ridden software as a clear means of scaring them into migrating to a fully supported operating system that most users would rather avoid… even when what that really means is that there will still be a constant flow of new vulnerabilities always being introduced while older problems are being resolved.
…
So, consider that remaining on a platform that works and that you love, into which Microsoft will no longer be continually introducing new vulnerabilities and which will, nevertheless, continue receiving updates for any newly discovered critical security vulnerabilities. This is the niche 0patch has decided to fill, and I think that for just 25 EUR per year– which is around $27 USD per year, extending the security coverage of that beloved platform for a minimum of another 5 years, makes a great deal of sense. And to top it all off, their on-the-fly RAM-based code patching system is significantly more user-friendly than Microsoft’s nagging reboot and wait system.3 users thanked author for this post.
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I switched from Windows to a MacBook Pro in 2019. It worked right out of the box and has worked well since then. If you anticipate problems learning how to use your Apple, for the bargain price of $8.99 per month (cheaper by the year), you can call and ask your questions.
You don’t have to buy an os and Apple automatically includes many apps with the operating system. Updating my Apple is much easier than updating my Windows computer was. Apple marks two icons, letting me know there are updates. So far, waiting two weeks after notification has precluded any problems with updates to the os, MS Office, and several apps.
I like computers that “just work” and are eqasy to update.
Best wishes,
cesmart
2 users thanked author for this post.
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With yourself? 🙂
cheers, Paul
2 users thanked author for this post.
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I should mention why I switched to Mac. One year I was a student, and bought the super dooper Windows for the same price as the base version.
Outlook wouldn’t load properly. As MS promises they’ll help you load any of their programs you buy, I contacted them for help. Even though I had a top of the line Windows, they saw no reason why it should work out of the box. In fact, MS insisted I pay them $100 in order to obtain their assistance.
I concluded that if the top of the line Windows didn’t work any better, I would buy Apple products in the future. Apple products have worked well for 5 years, and they’re always helpful when I call. They don’t even ask me for more and more money.
Best regards,
Charles
1 user thanked author for this post.
Despite the heading “Can you use a Mac mini instead of Win11?” this article is not a neutral evaluation of the two as alternatives, but rather a justification, “for die-hard Windows users” from a “Windows fanboy,” of staying with Windows.
I am an OS agnostic. I have been a user of every Microsoft operating system since the demise of CP/M, with every version of Windows on my principal computer since 1985, because some professionally necessary programs have been available only on Windows. I have concurrently used both OS since Apple transitioned to Intel CPUs, not for leisure (such as gaming) but as an essential professional tool.
The first article in the series claims to be a comparison of cost. The author looks only to purchase price, and finds a 10% difference. But to someone who uses a computer as a working tool, purchase price is the least part of the total cost of ownership. As a Windows user, I found it essential to become a semi-competent software repairman, and I was an early subscriber to AskWoody and LangaList (as well as the Chaos Manor newsletter). But spending hours weekly on sorting MS-Dos and Windows problems had for me a real cost in lost earnings, and outsourcing the work was both expensive and costly in delays. Unlike Brian Livingstone, “revealing Microsoft’s bugs and workarounds” is not my primary income source. Spending time doing so is for me time lost, not time gained, and for most computer users that is the case.
The contrast between Windows and Apple is striking. We have yet to read of Brian’s experience, but mine – and that of those to whom I recommended Apple before trying it myself – is that when turned on an Apple computer just works, and goes on working, probably because the software has to address only one set if hardware. There is no equivalent to “MS-Defcon” warnings. More striking is the contrast with support: Apple provides an accessible and free (and often amazingly patient) online and telephone problem-solving support, as well as in-store hardware support. The after-purchase cost is in my experience dramatically lower than for Microsoft systems.
A final point – the article’s language is disappointingly loaded (“aggressively white,” “astoundingly” expensive, “yet another Apple Store”). I hope for better in the remainder of the series.
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