I don’t typically write about this sort of thing, but a lot of people kept asking me about it, so I figured it would make a good blog post.

I used Apple computers my whole career up until about two years ago. Then I did the unthinkable and moved to Windows. How come? And how bad is it–are the rumors true? Is it better?

Since people, especially audio people, like talking about gear, I’ll write a bit about my own experience. I’m not going to make any recommendations because your situation is different than mine, and I’m not the type of fanboy anymore that recommends what I have out of some misplaced loyalty.

My History

One of my earliest memories was watching my dad send an email to his friend Caroline in France. My dad told me Caroline would call us when she got the email, and she called us about five seconds later. At that point, I had already been to France, and I wondered how she could get an email instantly, but we had to take a plane and go through a whole ordeal to talk to her.

Ever since that moment, I’ve always had a fascination with computers. I used to break them constantly and played with the settings in the Mac just to see what could happen. In middle school, I took a Python class from my friend’s uncle, and ran a laptop with Linux on it.

Neither the class nor the laptop worked out. I realized I prefer making music to making software because music is much more abstract and more interesting to me. Linux is great for people who want to customize their computer endlessly and don’t need commercial software. While I love changing settings, I do need Adobe and Cubase to work, otherwise I won’t have a job. So much for Linux.

I switched back to Apple computers for a bit. And then I ran a Hackintosh, but that was horrible. Anyone who tells you their Hackintosh works is a liar. That computer ended up dying during a severe power surge and I ended up building my own PC and running Windows for the past two years.

Why did I switch?

It was purely a cost-saving measure for my business. In other words, I didn’t have the cash for a new Mac. I also refuse to go into debt for equipment, so I had to find something cheap and powerful.

I built my system for $600 and recycled a bunch of old parts from the Hackintosh. I ended up with a Ryzen 5 2600, 4 TB total of storage, 256 GB PcIE drive, a Radeon RX 560 with 4 GB of VRAM, and 16 GB of RAM. I later upgraded to a 1TB PcIE drive, 32 GB of RAM, and a new CPU cooler and case for a total of $200. You just can’t find a modern Mac with those specifications at that price.

How bad is it?

Two things suck about Windows: drivers and aesthetics.

GPU drivers are a pain to update and I have to think about doing that every so often. I could get them from Windows Update, but then I wouldn’t have the AMD super resolution features I like so I can get some more mileage out of my 2013 display.

Drivers also cause problems on lots of other machines. I personally didn’t have many issues, but lots of people complain about them online.

You just don’t deal with drivers on Macs. This is a really huge benefit that gets underplayed, honestly.

Windows is ugly in my opinion. They recycled a bunch of icons from Windows 95 and recycled them into this mish-mash 70s office aesthetics meets bargain basement Apple design in this retro future 90s crap they call Windows 10.

Other people without taste think Windows looks fine, but I’ll leave that to you. Anyways, taste is too subjective to have any real discussions about it.

Also, getting used to using the control key for everything instead of the command key was a bit of a struggle at first.

Are the rumors true?

I was a die-hard Apple fanboy and heard all sorts of rumors that kept me on the platform out of fear. The truth is that none of them are true.

I never:

• Noticed my computer getting slower over time
• Had disruptive updates that made me miss a deadline or deleted files
• Had any issues with software stability
• Had my audio equipment perform worse (it performs better now)
• Had malware
• Had demanding programs run slowly or crash frequently costing money in missed deadlines and time

Is it better?

Yes.

Windows is the largest desktop operating system in the world by several orders of magnitude. Consequently, it has a significant objective advantage over every other platform: software support.

I’m not just talking about the number of programs you can run. That doesn’t really matter, since most of us use the same sets of software across Windows and Mac. Software support refers to how much attention the engineers give their products. It makes sense for businesses to spend the most time developing and optimizing for the largest platform. Business always do, and Mac users unfortunately get left in the dust.

Software for Windows is far better optimized and often performs better than its Mac versions. For instance, Adobe Media Encoder typically encodes video faster on Windows than the Mac. My computer renders 4k video from Premiere in real time. I created complicated, old school iTunes style visualizers in After Effects that took one hour to render for every minute of 4k video. Macs still can’t do that. Especially not $600 Macs.

Also, Windows software gets updates and new features before its Mac version. Most of my plugins got 64-bit support in the Windows versions before the Mac versions.

Updates on Windows are not disruptive compared to Mac. Updating to Catalina is still problematic for some software. I’m not restricted to old versions without security updates at this time on Windows like Mac users are.

Should I switch?

I don’t know, honestly. It…depends. Everyone has different needs, and you should use what fits you, your budget, and your business. Obviously, if you’re using one of the few programs that only runs on a Mac, you should stay on the platform. And, generally, if your computer does what you want in a reasonable amount of time, there’s just not a good reason to get a new one.

The only position I feel comfortable giving advice is if I know you as a friend, or we speak for a few hours and I get a good idea of what your situation is like.

So, I’m not going to make blanket statements on what’s better or worse for you here. I did speak about benefits of the Windows platform, but those are objective benefits, and it may not make a difference to you if you use Apple-only software or you’re happy with your computer. All that really matters is that your equipment works for you.

It didn’t make sense for me to remain on the Apple platform, so I moved. That’s just me, though.

I’m not too loyal to any one platform these days. If Apple makes cost-effective products that offer better performance, I will switch back when my computer eventually fails or can’t keep up with modern software.

I never got any benefit from being loyal to a brand. Apple never allowed discounts, and Microsoft won’t give me any money at this point.

Be loyal to your family, friends, and your art instead of your gear.