For many, many years I have been an Apple Fan Boy.
My phone is and iPhone (with Apple earpods), we have a number of iPads around the house and I run Rouvy (my indoor cycling app) on a 2015 MacBook Pro.
On the desktop, I have gone from iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini finishing up with an M1 mac mini.
However, sometime around 2016, I bought a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. This was a Windows 10 tablet so had the benefit of a touch screen but I also bought the matching keyboard and trackpad.
The device could be used as a tablet on as a laptop by attaching the keyboard.
I have dug it out now and again as it has a gorgeous screen and I occasionally need to run something under Windows.
A couple of weeks ago, I dusted off the Surface to discover that Windows 10 had reached (and passed) it’s end of life and was no longer supported.
Officially, because of some stringent hardware requirements, Windows 11 will not install but as usual there is a work around so I ended up with a ten year old machine running the latest OS. Not super fast but not too slow. With only a small built in SSD (128GB) I wasn’t able to load up much else.
Looking on eBay, I found a similar model but with double the storage so shelled out around fifty quid for this. Again, I upped the OS to Win 11.
Now I had two Surface Pros and one keyboard which has somewhat suffered the ravages of time. It still woks but the fabric has gone a bit tatty around the edges.
Another peek on that famous auction site got me an as-new keyboard so now I have two Surfaces and two keyboards. I only need the one so I’ll have to get around to listing the extra setup and get some of my ‘ínvestment’ back.
After playing with Windows for a couple of weeks, I must say that I am rather happy with the OS. It has come on a way, even from Windows 10.
It now integrates with the Apple ecosystem so I can access my passwords and it even links with my iPhone to receive texts and calls and transfer photos.
So far, I have transferred most of my usual apps to the Surface, including Lightroom (a little sluggish sometimes), Libre office (I’m not paying for Office) and even got Dropbox configured.
Today, I have installed Windows 11 as a virtual machine on my M1 mac mini and it runs great. Everything works except for my 3D printing slicer (that’s a work in progress).
So for now, at least, I’m a Windows Guy.