Switching to Windows: Where do I start?

Hey everyone, so I’m just starting to dive into the world of Windows, and seeing this deal pop up... I wanted to ask the folks here who actually know their stuff. Is everything really "all good" with this offer? My only real concern is that it doesn't have those special accented characters on the keyboard.
It’s a bit cheaper than what I usually see... honestly, it’s a decent deal. I just need something for my everyday routine and running Photoshop, which I've already tested out, and it runs absolutely flawlessly on a Mac.

EDIT: I think this one might struggle a bit... I’ve got more faith in the Pro model for this kind of work.

I was looking at this MacBook Air listing online—you know, the one with the 128GB storage—and it got me thinking about how much space we actually need these days. It’s kind of like buying a compact car when you realize you have a massive garage full of gear; you might fit, but things get cramped fast. It’s funny how we prioritize these things. You see a deal that looks decent on paper, maybe a little bit like finding a used Ford F-150 at a great price, and you think, "Yeah, this works." But then you start downloading a few large files or some heavy software, and suddenly that 128GB feels more like a tiny studio apartment in Manhattan when you were expecting a house in the suburbs. Anyway, just a random thought while browsing. Sometimes the specs on the screen don't tell the whole story of how you'll actually live with the device every day.

Thanks.

Bad move. Apple is moving toward their own CPUs, which basically means you’ll be left hanging in two or three years once they stop supporting everything else. They just dropped the first Macbook Air with an Apple CPU anyway.
If this is the absolute limit of your budget, you can find plenty of much better Windows laptops out there.

I guess we’re just waiting to see the answer to that one question—why choose Windows over everything else, unless there's some absolute necessity for software that only runs on one specific platform? To be honest, looking back at my experience tinkering with Hackintoshes, you might find that the exact same hardware actually feels a bit snappier running Windows. For instance, a Ryzen setup tends to pull better numbers in Cinebench, and an AMD GPU can feel noticeably faster when you're working in DaVinci Resolve. But does that really matter? It only makes sense if you managed to snag some budget hardware; otherwise, any slight performance gain isn't worth the massive price gap between a custom PC-Mac build and a standard machine. If someone is truly convinced that Windows is that much more exciting, they could always just grab a laptop without Windows pre-installed and try to set up a Hackintosh. Though, you have to be careful there—if I remember correctly, the last version of Windows to play nice with Nvidia was Mojave. If you're aiming for Catalina or Big Sur, you’d likely need a laptop equipped with a discrete AMD GPU... but there are no guarantees, and you'd have to spend a lot of time digging through forums to be sure. Still, it’s not exactly a trap you can't escape from; you can always just wipe it and install Windows.

Justin Davis75 said:Hey everyone, so I’m just starting to dive into the world of Windows, and seeing this deal pop up... I wanted to ask the folks here who actually know their stuff. Is everything really "all good" with this offer? My only real concern is that it doesn't have those special accented characters on the keyboard.
It’s a bit cheaper than what I usually see... honestly, it’s a decent deal. I just need something for my everyday routine and running Photoshop, which I've already tested out, and it runs absolutely flawlessly on a Mac.

EDIT: I think this one might struggle a bit... I’ve got more faith in the Pro model for this kind of work.

I was looking at this MacBook Air listing online—you know, the one with the 128GB storage—and it got me thinking about how much space we actually need these days. It’s kind of like buying a compact car when you realize you have a massive garage full of gear; you might fit, but things get cramped fast. It’s funny how we prioritize these things. You see a deal that looks decent on paper, maybe a little bit like finding a used Ford F-150 at a great price, and you think, "Yeah, this works." But then you start downloading a few large files or some heavy software, and suddenly that 128GB feels more like a tiny studio apartment in Manhattan when you were expecting a house in the suburbs. Anyway, just a random thought while browsing. Sometimes the specs on the screen don't tell the whole story of how you'll actually live with the device every day.

Thanks.

Photoshop does NOT run incredibly well on a mac.*
Especially on an older CPU with integrated graphics and only 128 GB of storage, which you'll fill up before you even get to work.

The laptop itself is too small for comfortable use, particularly with that 13" screen at 900p resolution. Plus, the color gamut is much narrower than what you'd find on a standard monitor, making it unsuitable for Photoshop.

You might have thought this was a great opportunity to pick up a Mac and switch over to iOS, but it really isn't worth it.

For that kind of money, you can buy a much better laptop. You might even be able to grab an external monitor as well.

Rachel Fox4 said:Photoshop does NOT run incredibly well on a mac.*
Especially on an older CPU with integrated graphics and only 128 GB of storage, which you'll fill up before you even get to work.

The laptop itself is too small for comfortable use, particularly with that 13" screen at 900p resolution. Plus, the color gamut is much narrower than what you'd find on a standard monitor, making it unsuitable for Photoshop.

You might have thought this was a great opportunity to pick up a Mac and switch over to iOS, but it really isn't worth it.

For that kind of money, you can buy a much better laptop. You might even be able to grab an external monitor as well.

Exactly. You're better off grabbing a Windows laptop or a desktop PC paired with a decent monitor. Or, if you're dead set on needing macOS plus an external display, just pick up a new M1 Mac Mini.

If you're planning on hooking it up to an external monitor, then sure, it works fine. Otherwise, I wouldn't really recommend it. If all you're doing is browsing the web, checking emails, or watching movies, you'll be alright...

I just found out today that what many people thought was a glitch in Photoshop is actually just a hardware limitation.
Long story short, there is a very strong possibility that if you pick up that laptop, Photoshop simply won't run for you.
In my opinion, that pretty much settles the debate.

What happened to the title of this thread? Wasn't it originally "entry into the world of Macos"? Now, suddenly, it feels like something that's been twisted into something semantically awkward and just plain wrong.