My First 24hrs as a New MacOS User

Background:
Been generally a Windows user pretty much since the demise of MS-DOS. I've also used Linux concurrently, and learnt programming many many many moons ago on Unix systems, so using a terminal is still pretty alright (though not my preference).

Was thinking of changing to a Macbook for months but held off as I wanted either an M3 MBA cheap, or a new M4 MBA - size and weight were my priority.

I figured why not since I'm already almost fully into the Apple ecosystem. However, I started hesitating after watching Linus's video.

A few days back, my 2022 Zephyrus G14 started having issues, and I figured I might as well get a new laptop and keep that home for gaming after I get it repaired.

Walked into a local store yesterday, and I couldn't justify paying (noticeably) more for a windows laptop, and with their anniversary discounts (which didn't stack with the discounted M3 MBA), ended up getting a 24gb-512gb blue MBA.

This is just my take on what I dislike out of the box in shifting to MacOS, and there may be external solutions.

Hardware:
There's really nothing I can say that is bad about the MBA's hardware. The fit and finish are great, though I would argue the ultra tight tolerances (eg between the screen and chassis when closed) would require a bit more care in usage. I absolutely love going back to something slimmer and lighter.

Display- I wish I had the option for a nano-texture display, but even on windows devices, there are very few models now that have an anti-glare display. At least my external display has it.

Keyboard- I do slightly prefer the keyboard on my G14, but the MBA's one is still great.

Trackpad- The haptic trackpad feels superb... if you click stuff 😝 Otherwise both their glass trackpads feel equally great.

Ports- In my workflow, I rarely use more than one usb c to monitor, a power cable, and another USB C dongle with everything else attached to that. So the two ports are sufficient, as anything I would do with my external SSD I will continue doing on my G14.

Software:
I do understand that some people think using MacOS is a team sport 🤨, but there are definitely pros and cons to using both. Here are some of the cons coming from windows, so if these aren't dealbreakers, then its worth giving MacOS a shot.

File management is bad - Finder is a bit of a pain if you have to go to anything that isn't in the favourites or icloud categories or their subfolders. It's not a dealbreaker for me as I changed the view settings which shows the file path below, and I click from there.

Windows managment is bad - snapping programs is nowhere near as fluid and fast (or as simple) as on Windows.

The trackpad and mouse scroll direction be locked together is a thing - Unless you already use a mouse with logi-options. Then you can decouple them in the app, plus if you've used/setup gestures with the buttons, you'll find them eerily similar on both platforms.

It's worth noting that I bought a magic mouse, and instinctively swiped it like on a trackpad, but automatically scrolled my logitech mouse and used the side buttons the way I normally did.

Some things I love-
The trackpad gestures are identical. There was nothing I need to change in how I used it!!! Where the clicking on the haptic trackpad felt better, the tapping that I'm used to feels laggy or less responsive than on windows. Makes the system seem slow.

The battery life. I no longer have to trade power and doing things fluidly for extended use unplugged! I would have had to charge my G14 twice over today for the 23% battery drain thus far.

The ability to use your mac's keyboard and mouse/trackpad with your ipad at the same time. You can even just drag and drop from one to another.

Using a browser is fast... very fast... I honestly can not think of any Windows laptop being as snappy when surfing. It's not even close.

Some things I didn't love-
Setup of MacOS wasn't as straightforward as I expected. After having issues with windows update after I rolled back, I had to deal with both Siri, and unlock with apple watch not working.... The latter was due to MacOS not setting the time right...

MacOS needs face unlock. Moving over from Windows Hello which just works, having to use touch ID fells like going 10 years back in time for me. After Apple support helped me to get it working, it alleviates some of the need for face ID, but is still a massive step back, especially when not everyone uses and Apple watch.

iPhone mirroring sounded great to me. In reality using it is a bit uninspiring. You're better off running whatever you need in a browser.

One thing I did not expect-
Based on what everyone is saying/has said, I assumed 24gb of ram would be a little bit of future proofing.

I was wrong. It should be the bare minimum that people get.

Yes, any OS will utilise as much RAM as possible, however with
-2 browsers open (both with one instance of Whatsapp, one with a google search result, and the other with my telco's bill payment page which I forgot to close),
-the Whatsapp app,
-messages
-mail
-finder, and
-the activity monitor running,
I've used just above 16gb of ram. So IMHO the baseline anyone should get is 24gb, espcially if you're a tab horder and want the full ridiculous web browsing experience of MacOS.

Hope this helps anyone who's on the fence with switching!!! Neither OS is perfect. However jumping over to MacOS is thus far not as scary, nor as painful as I imagined.