Let's understand something about this, Apple runs a closed system. If you and office worker, mail browser etc. are all you need, then Apple will work fine for you. Apple dictates the hardware, cpu, and every item on that laptop. Of course, you''re going to have fewer updates, fewer issues, etc. Like it or not, Microsoft has quite a few more years of OS compatibility, laptops vary from manufactures, Apple has only one to worry about. You can pick the system that suits you from Strix Halo with 128gb and decent graphics, to Intel with a 5090 RTX, to a entry level 4 core CPU. It ALL has to work.
Windows 11 has hardware limitations though, it's in the news regularly how it doesn't support CPU's before 2018, So although you are overall correct, Microsoft have to support a far more varied hardware landscape, don't make it sound like that support extends 10+ years, because it doesn't.
Windows also never used to be this rubbish, last time I used a Mac was back when they just transitioned to Intel CPU's, I didn't think there was that much difference speed and reliability wise then, kinda why I wrote MacOS off in mind I suspect.
That doesn't really exist anymore, to the point of this article, AMD had to double the price of their competing laptop to even make an argument against the Neo.
On top of that, for my given trade, NONE of the software and hardware I use will EVER be released for Apple.
It's so irritating that people tout the Apple and it's "superior" interface. Even if that's a given, There's never been an Apple customer that will admit to having limitations. Which it does. Just because a sizable chunk of the buying pubic won't have to worry about the limitations, doesn't mean they're not there.
I bought this Neo not for work, I bought it because it was cheap and I hadn't bought myself a laptop in 12 years and also wanted to play around with MacOS and learn what it has to offer. What I didn't expect was my work laptop to breakdown one day and use the Neo in an emergency, just to find it's MILES better than Windows, even running Microsoft's own software.
I'm also surprised at how well it can run Windows in a virtual machine, there's a single piece of software I wasn't able to replace on Mac that I need access to once or twice a week, Parallels "Coherence Mode" literally makes Windows Apps look like they're running natively, it's pretty cool.
Funny thing with Windows is that using Edge, OneDrive, Teams etc is voluntary, not mandatory.
Let's break this down, Microsoft regularly push updates to ask you again, and again... and again, if you'd like to use those services, even going so far as to force them on in the past, yes they're optional, as long as you're diligent, also, I'm forced to use them for work anyway, company policy.
With Apple you are stuck with Apple browser, there is no freedom of choice. Well at least some areas there are but majority of world just needs to use whatever browser engine Apple offers to you.
It's quite telling you really haven't used MacOS, I use Firefox for example, it's same the Firefox you find on Windows and Linux, nothing different, I use Outlook instead of Mail, I use the Office suite instead of Apples, I use OneDrive instead of iCloud etc... I'd argue Apple allows for better control than Windows, I can turn off Siri and all the AI stuff with a single toggle, never prompts again, never pushes to enable it, just does what I ask it to do.
You're thinking of iOS which does have more limitations, such as browsers are forced to use their Webkit rendering, which I agree, is a massive limitation, they don't exist on MacOS however.
It just sounds like you are using Windows wrong. I am writing this on Windows virtual machine that have whopping 4GB of RAM! I also have another physical machine with only 8GB RAM and that runs pretty fine outside anything heavy. Saying that Windows needs More than 32GB for basic tasks is just Apple fanboy BS.
See, once again, you're arguing something you know nothing about, I need the RAM as I need to virtualise multiple switching environments and test changes out, the Neo is absolutely a limitation here, I need more RAM, that's just how that piece of work goes, but Teams? Outlook? Word? Just seem to load faster, and crash far less frequently (specifically Teams) vs when they're running on Windows, which is crazy.
Having very restricted laptop and then saying it's reliable is just double standards. You just have very limited laptop and because it heavily limits what you Can do, it feels reliable. Sam applies to almost every machine. When something is built reliability in mind, it is always very limited and offer very little room for adjusting. And that always becomes problem, sooner or later.
If it was so limited, why have I been able to replace my work and personal laptops with a single Neo? Why have I found all my software works fine in MacOS? Or I've found direct replacements? Examples, Notepad++ is Nextpad++ in MacOS, PuTTy/CMD/Powershell is Tabby in MacOS etc...
I must stress, I've been a Windows person since the late 90's and only dabbled in MacOS a couple of times up until this year, Your view on MacOS is very wrong, you seem to think it's iOS, it just isn't, it's far more open, you aren't locked to an App store for starters.
