From MacBook To A Laptop Not By Apple

My MacBook Air M1 is truly an excellent laptop. But lately I’ve been thinking about switching to a non-Apple machine. In fact, I have a post in draft about moving back to a Chromebook, but now I’m thinking I’ll rejoin the Windows PC world. If my Mac works well, then why fuss with a flip-flop to something else?

Chromebook

Switching from iPhone to Android a month ago, I left Apple for Google. Naturally, this got me thinking about a Chromebook again — I still have my old one but it’s slow and no longer gets updates. A Chromebook is super simple and much more affordable than an Apple laptop. Looking toward the future, I don’t want to keep paying for expensive Apple gear.

And if I switch away from my MacBook now while it has a good amount of life left in it, then it can become my family’s shared Apple computer for those using an iPhone. It’d also be useful as an extra “full” traditional machine for all to share — it helps with our homeschool and dual-credit college courses online.

But my Chromebook aspirations were cooled by an issue that recently arose. Rumors and evidence strongly indicates that Google is migrating ChromeOS over to Android. Some think this simply means Chromebooks will run on Android code in the background without losing any desktop computing features. But it’s also possible that ChromeOS may lose some of its unique features, making Android more forefront. And there’s the specter of the US DOJ forcing Google to sell off the Chrome browser altogether, which seems it’d totally kill Chromebooks. What the?

Simply put, the future of ChromeOS and Chromebooks is now uncertain. The platform Google built up for years (especially in schools) has become unstable — and Google is known for killing apps and services (remember Stadia?). On one hand, since I’m daily driving an Android phone, the ChromeOS change could be great. But who knows?

Windows

When it comes to a stable platform, Windows 11 is a good example. Microsoft has mostly kept Windows the same for decades, serving enterprise and personal users alike (ignore Windows 8). My wife and two oldest teens each have their own Win11 laptops, which serve them well. Although Windows is not without its own issues, it’s a good platform overall.

What Windows is especially great at is gaming. Lots of it: Steam, GOG, Epic, XBox, Minecraft Java Edition... I’m mostly a Switch gamer, but there are certain Steam titles (Tiny Glade…) I really want to enjoy too…

Generally, Windows is a traditional “full” computer system like macOS, which is good. And I’m afraid if I were to switch to a Chromebook, I’d regret limiting myself to an overly simplified system, unable to play PC games or install classic apps. Also, Windows machines tend to be more affordable compared to Apple computers. And they’re not much more expensive than the newest Chromebook Plus models.

Summary

I plan to keep enjoying my MacBook through this year. But in 2025, I think I’ll move to a Windows 11 laptop with a discreet Nvidia GPU. Actually, my family has one now that we can share, but it’s really for the kids to do their schoolwork. We’ll see how things go.