But this is just getting ridiculous. I'm serious considering bouncing off to Linux because M$ is just not an option in my mind. /QUOTE]
Oh yeah, also overpriced, underpowered, unrepairable etc. I'd been working with Macs and large scale installs for 20+years (universities) and the hardware quality builds have never been as poor as they are in these last few years. The other issue is the 'echo chamber' loop where Apple and Apple users only compare Apples with Apples. My advice, get uptodate and across 'platform agnostic' resources that compare, review and test innovations on ALL platforms. After all, Apple are only one vendor of (mostly) Intel dictaions (for now).
In my case: 1) went with a beefy Windows workstation for all of my recording studio and video production work a couple of years ago. Never looked back, incomparable support, performance, etc. and 2): almost 12 months ago I went with a Dell XPS laptop to replace my history of some 30 Apple laptops across my career. Again, there is no comparison in terms of the hardware and the Dell is literally 1-2 years ahead of Apple, eg: magnetic keys design, 4k edge-2-edge display, dual GPUs (my 15" 9575), touch screen, upgradable parts, on-site service warranty, etc.
re. Windows: I too had old preconceptions of what Windows 'was'i, but others apart from Apple do indeed innovate and evolve as well (much to the contrary of AppleSpin). My present Windows10 Pro 1809 is also light years away from MacOS, is far more powerful, and I have learnt to also ignore all of the old 'add on', fix-it spamware that insists I need say, Registry Editors, Driver Boosters, Virus protection, any number of Maintenance programs. My experience is that all of this is bull, sales-oriented and plays upon the very old and somewhat outdated fears of those of us who remember the 'bad old days'. This Dell laptop runs best it I leave it alone, the built-in security centre runs fine, doesn't get in the way of anything else. I've never had any virus on either of my machines.
The downside? Windows updates 'can' break things. Solution and workflow: keep backups, make a small system partition for speed of incremental updates and restore if necessary. All of which works perfectly and quickly in the case of a restore (not at all like Timeachine restores, trying to fix macos via Terminal Unix command lines if necessary, and lastly: the usual only mac fix 'reinstall the OS'). With revised thinking (forget the Apple context) and a good regime, is easy and painless. Again: the Windows recovery from image function works quickly and perfectly (assuming a good backup). Win backup and restore (Paragon's Hard Disk Manager); FileSync for the docs on another drive of partition using something like GoodSync.
Sure, will take a little reserach and practice as first, but this goes away with greater familarity and confidence. Again: do proper reserach with platform agnostic (Win, Mac, Chrome, Linux) and country agnostic (Google US-centric, vs the rest) tools.
My 2 cents anyways. The Apple loop has been out of control for the last few years since Jobs died. Over it, have moved on. A shame, but there you go.
