Mac or Windows? I Use Both — And That’s Kind of the Point

There are few topics in technology guaranteed to generate quite as much completely unnecessary tribalism as Mac vs Windows.

Apparently, you’re supposed to pick a side.

I’m not going to.

I use both. I like both. And I think both are genuinely excellent platforms in their own right.

If you want to use a Mac because you prefer Macs, knock yourself out.

If Windows works better for you, great.

But after spending a lot of time switching between a 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Pro and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7, I’ve realised that they frustrate me in completely different ways.

They also excel at completely different things.

And that’s probably a much more useful conversation than another “10 reasons macOS is better than Windows” article.

My Setup

For context, I’m not comparing a £400 Windows laptop with a MacBook Pro.

My Mac is a:

• 14-inch MacBook Pro
• Apple M2 Pro
• 16GB unified memory

On the Windows side, I have both 14-inch and 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 devices, including a Snapdragon-powered machine with:

• 32GB RAM
• 1TB+ storage
• Windows 11

At my desk I’m running a 49-inch Dell UltraSharp ultrawide, along with the rest of my usual conferencing, camera and peripheral setup.

These are all very capable machines.

This also isn’t based on running a benchmark three times and deciding that one laptop is 7.3% better than the other.

It’s based on actually using them.

For work.

For writing.

For Microsoft 365.

For Windows 365.

For video.

For travelling.

And occasionally for spending far too long wondering why something that should work doesn’t.

The MacBook Pro Is Ridiculously Good Hardware

Let’s get this out of the way first.

The MacBook Pro is an absolutely lovely bit of hardware.

It feels beautifully made, the display is excellent, it’s quiet and the trackpad remains probably the best laptop trackpad I’ve used.

And despite mine being an M2 Pro rather than Apple’s latest generation, performance is still fantastic.

Then there’s battery life.

This is one area where the MacBook continues to impress me.

My Surface Laptop 7 machines aren’t bad when it comes to battery life.

In fact, compared with previous generations of Windows laptops, they’re very good.

But neither my 14-inch nor my 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 competes with my 14-inch MacBook Pro in my normal use.

And remember:

My MacBook isn’t even the current generation.

That’s impressive.

Video? Mac Wins. Easily.

There’s one workload where I don’t even need to think about which laptop I’m going to use.

Video.

If I’m processing or editing video, I’m using the Mac.

My M2 Pro has 16GB RAM.

My Surface Laptop 7 has 32GB.

If you’re shopping entirely by specification sheet, you could quite reasonably look at those numbers and expect the Surface to have the advantage.

In practice?

For the video work I do, the MacBook Pro wins hands down.

It’s not even particularly close.

Apple’s combination of silicon, dedicated media capabilities, macOS and software optimisation makes the whole experience incredibly efficient.

And that’s a useful reminder that specifications don’t tell the whole story.

32GB is a bigger number than 16GB.

That doesn’t automatically make it faster for your workload.

But Then I Go Back to Windows…

And everything feels familiar.

Some of that is absolutely muscle memory.

I’ve spent decades working with Windows.

I know where things are. I know the keyboard shortcuts. I know how I want the taskbar configured. I know how applications behave.

There’s very little cognitive overhead.

Windows 11 gets plenty of criticism, some of it deserved, but I actually like using it.

There are lots of small usability things I don’t really appreciate until I move back to the Mac.

And recently I’ve hit a few of them.

Edge Profiles Are a Great Example

I use Microsoft Edge on both platforms.

Chrome isn’t really my thing and, while I’m sure Safari is lovely for those who like it, it’s definitely not for me.

Edge also fits the way I work.

I’m constantly moving between different Microsoft identities, tenants and environments.

On Windows, Edge profiles work brilliantly with the taskbar.

I can have separate profiles effectively represented separately on the taskbar.

That makes it immediately obvious which browser context I’m working in.

Personal.

Andy Kemp Consulting.

A customer.

A lab environment.

Whatever I need.

On macOS?

They’re all Edge.

One Edge icon in the Dock.

You can switch profiles inside Edge, of course, and there are ways of creating separate launchers for profiles.

But that’s the point.

It’s another workaround.

It’s a tiny thing.

But when you’re moving between identities all day, tiny things become surprisingly noticeable.

And Then Apple Changed the App Launcher

This one had me genuinely wondering whether I’d broken something.

Since the big macOS update, I’ve found the new application launcher somewhat… unreliable.

Applications that I know are installed don’t always appear.

The best example?

Terminal.

I went looking for Terminal.

Not there.

Maybe I’d missed it?

Search around.

Still nothing.

Open Finder and go into Applications and Utilities?

There it is.

Of course it is.

The application exists.

macOS knows the application exists.

But the application launcher has apparently decided I don’t need to know about it.

I’ve now added the Applications folder to the Dock and configured it as a grid.

It works nicely.

Arguably, I actually prefer it.

But again…

It’s another workaround.

That’s where some of my frustration with macOS comes from.

The operating system can feel incredibly slick right up until you hit one of these little nuances.

Then you can lose 20 minutes trying to work out whether something is broken or whether that’s simply how Apple has decided it should work.

To Be Fair, Windows Has Plenty of This Too

Before somebody reaches for the comments…

I’m not pretending Windows doesn’t have its own collection of baffling design decisions.

It absolutely does.

Settings vs Control Panel probably deserves its own archaeological study at this point.

Windows carries decades of backwards compatibility.

Legacy interfaces.

Old management frameworks.

New management frameworks.

Settings that appear in one interface but not another.

Things that have been “moving to Settings” for what feels like half my career.

There are absolutely times when macOS feels refreshingly clean by comparison.

And there are things Apple does where you immediately think:

Why isn’t Windows this simple?

That’s why this isn’t a Mac-bashing post.

And it definitely isn’t a Windows-bashing post.

The Dock That Almost Made Me Stop Using the Mac

This one particularly amused me.

I’d actually found myself using my Surface Laptop more and more at my desk recently.

Not because I’d decided the Surface was better.

Not because Windows had suddenly won.

Because I couldn’t be bothered faffing around getting the Mac connected properly.

My Dell Pro Thunderbolt 4 Dock WD25TB4 was supposed to support Macs.

Everything suggested it should work.

But the external display simply wasn’t behaving properly.

The Mac could see the display.

The monitor couldn’t see the Mac.

The exact same dock, display and general setup worked perfectly with the Surface.

And when your working day is already busy, eventually you stop troubleshooting and just use the thing that works.

So I increasingly picked up the Surface.

Eventually I went back to the dock.

Firmware update.

Initial failure.

Reapplied the firmware.

Dock rebooted.

And…

It worked.

The Mac now happily drives my 49-inch ultrawide through the Dell dock.

No bother.

And suddenly I’m using the Mac more again.

That’s actually a fairly good illustration of real-world device experience.

A specification sheet saying “Mac compatible” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to plug everything in and wander happily into the sunset.

Sometimes there’s firmware.

Sometimes there’s a cable.

Sometimes there’s a particular port.

And sometimes there are 45 minutes of your life you’re never getting back.

Passkeys Have Changed the Equation Too

There’s another reason I’ve found myself using the Mac more again recently.

Authentication is getting better.

This matters quite a lot to me.

I’ve been moving heavily towards passkeys and phishing-resistant authentication, and historically there have been some frustrating gaps when you start crossing operating-system and remote-desktop boundaries.

One of those has recently improved considerably.

I’ve been testing WebAuthn redirection in the Windows App Beta on macOS.

And it works.

That means I can be sitting on my Mac, connect to a Windows environment and use modern WebAuthn authentication through that session.

For the way I work, that’s a big deal.

Previously, authentication was one of those little pieces of friction that could push me back towards using the Surface.

If the workflow you’re trying to use doesn’t play nicely with your authentication method, it doesn’t really matter how nice the laptop is.

Now that barrier is starting to disappear.

Yes, I’m Using a Synced Passkey

I’ve also started making more use of Apple’s password ecosystem for passkeys.

And yes…

That means I’m using a synced passkey.

I can already hear keyboards being prepared. 😉

But this is where authentication needs to be considered in context rather than reduced to:

Synced passkey bad. Hardware key good.

That’s far too simplistic.

There are absolutely scenarios — particularly privileged identities and higher Trust Levels — where I want device-bound credentials and hardware-backed FIDO2 security keys.

I’m not suddenly suggesting we throw those away.

But that doesn’t mean synced passkeys are inherently a bad authentication mechanism.

For an appropriate identity, workload and Trust Level, having a phishing-resistant passkey securely available through the Apple ecosystem can provide an excellent combination of security and usability.

And usability matters.

Because the easier we make strong authentication to use, the less incentive there is for people to find ways around it.

The Ecosystems Are Starting to Play Together Better

This is probably one of the more interesting changes I’ve noticed while switching between Windows and macOS.

The ecosystem boundaries aren’t disappearing.

But they’re becoming less painful.

I can use my Mac.

I can authenticate using a passkey from the Apple ecosystem.

I can connect into my Windows environment.

And with WebAuthn redirection improving through Windows App on macOS, I can carry that modern authentication experience further into the Windows environment.

That’s a significant improvement.

It doesn’t suddenly make macOS equivalent to Windows from an enterprise management perspective.

It does, however, remove another reason why someone like me might previously have reached for the Surface instead.

And ultimately that’s what I want.

I don’t want Mac vs Windows.

I want to be able to pick up whichever device is best for what I’m doing and have identity, authentication and access follow me securely.

That’s a much more interesting future.

Then There’s Management

And this is where Windows has a very obvious advantage.

Particularly from my perspective as someone who spends much of his working life around Microsoft 365, Intune, Entra ID, security and Modern Work.

You can manage Macs with Intune.

Microsoft’s macOS management capabilities have improved considerably.

Apple has also continued improving the management capabilities available to enterprise administrators.

But let’s not pretend the experience is equivalent.

If you’re a Microsoft-centric organisation using:

• Microsoft Intune
• Microsoft Entra ID
• Microsoft Defender
• Conditional Access
• Windows Hello for Business
• Cloud-native Windows management
• The wider Microsoft security ecosystem

then Windows is simply easier to control and has deeper native integration.

That’s hardly surprising.

Microsoft controls the operating system.

There are things I can configure, enforce, report on and remediate on Windows that are either more complicated, require a different approach or aren’t available in exactly the same way on macOS.

That doesn’t mean:

Don’t allow Macs.

It means:

Understand what you’re signing up for when you allow Macs.

There’s an important difference.

”But Our Developers Want Macs”

Fine.

Give them Macs.

Seriously.

If the Mac is the right tool for someone’s job, let them use the Mac.

Likewise, if somebody wants to use a Mac simply because they prefer using a Mac and your organisation is prepared to support it…

Knock yourself out.

My issue has never been with Macs.

It’s with pretending there are no operational differences between platforms.

There are.

Identity works differently.

Device management works differently.

Application deployment works differently.

Security controls can work differently.

Authentication can behave differently.

Peripheral support can be different.

Support is different.

And occasionally your supposedly compatible dock decides that today isn’t the day.

Those differences have a cost.

That doesn’t make one platform “bad”.

It makes architecture important.

Apple Silicon vs Windows on ARM Is Interesting Too

There’s another reason I find this comparison particularly interesting.

I’m not really comparing the old world of an Intel Windows laptop against Apple Silicon.

My Surface Laptop 7 is ARM-based too.

Both Microsoft and Apple are now showing what highly optimised ARM laptops can look like.

And both are very good.

The Surface Laptop 7 is easily one of my favourite Windows laptops I’ve used.

Performance is excellent.

Battery life is good.

It’s quiet.

Windows on ARM has matured enormously.

And the compatibility problems that once made ARM Windows devices difficult to recommend have reduced considerably.

But Apple had a significant head start here.

The level of integration between Apple’s hardware, silicon and operating system still shows.

Particularly when I hit workloads such as video.

Microsoft and Qualcomm have closed the gap considerably.

But from my own day-to-day experience, Apple Silicon still demonstrates just how powerful controlling the entire hardware and software stack can be.

So Which Do I Prefer?

That’s the question people inevitably ask.

And I genuinely don’t have a single answer.

For video processing?

MacBook Pro.

No contest.

For battery life?

MacBook Pro.

My Surface Laptop 7 machines are good.

The Mac is better.

For general day-to-day usability?

Probably Windows.

But I freely admit that decades of muscle memory have a lot to do with that.

For hardware feel and that slightly intangible polished experience?

MacBook Pro.

For working across multiple Microsoft environments and identities?

Windows.

Things like Edge profile integration alone make a noticeable difference to my working day.

For enterprise management in a Microsoft-centric organisation?

Windows.

Comfortably.

For sitting somewhere with a laptop, doing some writing and knowing I’m probably not going hunting for a charger?

MacBook.

For video work while travelling?

Definitely the MacBook.

And that’s why I keep both.

It’s Not Mac vs Windows

I think technology discussions would be considerably more useful if we stopped treating operating systems like football teams.

You don’t have to support one.

You don’t have to hate the other.

I can appreciate how good my MacBook Pro is while simultaneously wondering why Apple’s application launcher can’t reliably show me Apple’s own Terminal application.

I can enjoy Windows 11 while simultaneously wondering why some settings still send me travelling through several generations of Microsoft UI.

I can say that Windows is easier to manage through Intune without pretending macOS can’t be managed.

And I can recognise that my older 16GB M2 Pro MacBook absolutely destroys my newer 32GB Surface for one of my workloads without concluding that Surface devices or Windows on ARM are rubbish.

They’re tools.

Use the right one.

Supporting It Isn’t the Same as Managing It

And perhaps this is the bit that matters most from a Modern Work perspective.

When we’re designing an enterprise environment, the question shouldn’t simply be:

Does it work on Mac?

That’s too easy.

A better set of questions is:

Can we manage it properly on Mac?

Can we enforce the security controls we require?

Does our authentication strategy work properly?

Can we deploy and maintain the applications people need?

Can our support teams troubleshoot it?

Does the user experience remain good when we apply our security controls?

And are the differences acceptable for the Trust Level and workload involved?

Sometimes the answer will absolutely be yes.

Sometimes the Mac might actually be the better device for that user.

Other times Windows will make considerably more sense.

The important thing is that we’ve made that decision deliberately rather than based on somebody’s preferred logo.

Because “it works on Mac” and “we can manage it properly on Mac” aren’t necessarily the same statement.

And perhaps that’s the more interesting Mac vs Windows conversation.