Temporarily working on a Windows Laptop

This has been quite the struggle, for the last 6 years, I’ve been working on a Macbook Pro/Air (m1) and right now I’m not able to do so. Due to a recent job change, I’m working on a Windows laptop until the new Macbook is in. At first, I was really curious to work on Windows again! I’ve been talking Microsoft up anytime I spoke with somebody about the company, the recent acquiries, the change in direction, I really like where the company is going.

As a software engineer, you must be able to see that Microsoft is working towards an amazing direction. With Github, Visual Studio Code, Azure (no experience, but looks promising), NPM (okay, this needs improvement), WSL2, and loads of existing names in their toolset they are really setting up for an empire.

Mainly because of those I was actually curious how it would be working on Windows again, and however it’s definitely not bad; nothing beats working on macOS for me. Mostly because I’m a keyboard enthusiast and have really worked on the shortcut game on macOS, there are just so many shortcuts and muscle memory that working on Windows is almost impossible for me. (definitely exaggerating here).

Besides the muscle memory, I made a list of things that annoy me at the moment :

  • Window placement, on Windows you can have an application window on 2 monitors at the same time (part on the left, part on the right for example). At first, it annoyed me that it wasn’t possible on macOS. However, now I’m so used to it, it annoys me the other way around.
  • The ctrl vs cmd button. Nothing more to add. Should be under muscle memory I guess :)
  • Making screenshots on Windows feels much better on macOS
  • Spotlight or alternatives like Alfred/Raycast
  • WSL2. Okay, this actually works pretty well. Just don’t like it because it is actually a separate operating system of some kind. Had some issues setting it up and installing things like git on windows and ubuntu but it works now, sort of.
  • For some reason storing bookmarks on Microsoft Edge is really slow when placing in a folder on the bookmark toolbar. Was working great in Edge on macOS.
  • Just need to name muscle memory again, there is just too many differences.

And the worst thing is definitely where Apple has won me over in the last few years, I’m dead stuck in their ecosystem. I have an iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV, my significant other as well, and more. As we are both dedicated to the Apple ecosystem we also share some of our calendars/notes because that’s just easy to work with. However, try and work with Apple Notes on windows and you’ll understand my problem instantly. This is especially painful when that’s the designated tool to manage your grocery list.

Alright, this was my rant for now.

I’ll be looking forward to working on a Macbook again real soon and will create a list of software I use and recommend using if you are in my line of work (or into productivity tools) and share it on here!