While I have used the Apple Macintosh platform for photographic work for many years, I will very likely be moving to the Microsoft Windows platform in the future. To me, MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was the pinnacle of MacOS versions; a refinement and optimisation on MacOS 10.5 that was touted as having ‘zero new features’ and went directly against the trend to add more features to each new version of software. Through the 2010s, MacOS went through a phase of increasing ‘iOS-ification,’ where it changed to be more like Apple’s iOS mobile operating system (as used in its iPads and iPhones), rather than retaining its identity as a desktop operating system.
I still remember trying to show someone how to do something in a recent version of MacOS, and was dumbfounded by the Apple designers’ decision to dynamically display a button—that is, to keep the button hidden in the frame of a desktop window, and only display the button when the user brought the cursor over it. That one small example was symptomatic of the way MacOS was going—putting form over function; aesthetics over practicality.
That said, Microsoft Windows is far from having a better user interface than MacOS! There is still, very much, a general ‘clunkiness’ in Windows not present even in older versions of MacOS.
For example, one problem I frequently run into is renaming files in Windows: selecting the file’s name allows me to edit the name, but after a couple of seconds, Windows automatically selects the entire filename. If I want to edit only part of the name (which is usually the case), I need to select the filename, wait a couple of seconds (until Windows has automatically selected the entire name), and only then click on the part of the name that I want to edit. If you do not wait, what happens is that you start editing the filename, Windows selects the entire filename (while you are typing), and then your typing replaces the enter filename rather than just part of it. This creates an inconvenient and unnecessary delay for the user.
Another example: in some circumstances, placing the cursor over an on-screen option causes a bubble or small window to ‘pop up’ with some text to clarify what the option is. Sometimes, those bubbles do not then disappear once the cursor is moved elsewhere, thus blocking the option, which the user may well now want to click on. Usually, this means the user has to perform some manoeuvre (such as selecting something else on-screen) to make the bubble disappear. As above, this creates an inconvenient and unnecessary delay for the user.
On reflection, perhaps MacOS has tried to simplify things for the user to the point where it has taken away too much, while Windows has tried to guide the user to the point where it has put in too much.
Why consider a move to Windows, then? It is a pity, but the fact is that while MacOS 10.6 remains a comfortable platform for my personal use, it just has not kept up with modern security measures and so is no longer viable for many types of on-line communications. Windows 7 seems to have fared better. (Both MacOS 10.6 and Windows 7 were released in mid-2009.) I think a lot of this is due to the much larger userbase that Windows has, and the need to keep as many users happy for as long as possible. With a smaller userbase for MacOS, Apple has more leeway to functionally retire older versions of MacOS as it sees fit.
Regardless of what I do in the future, the fact is that I have been a Macintosh user for many decades and, all said and done, it still provides a mostly smooth user experience. For anyone interested in choosing the Macintosh platform for photography today, I would suggest looking at Thom Hogan’s recommendations. Probably the biggest word of warning is about memory configuration: with modern Macintosh models, you cannot expand RAM after the purchase, so think ahead, and choose carefully when ordering.