Life after Windows: was changing to Apple Mac M1 worth it?

I have fully converted over to the dark side. Everything I grew up hating or newly looking down at I have now fully embraced. I own a MacBook. To be specific it's just a MacBook air m1. I didn't see any reason in getting the more expensive version of the laptop and I'm glad I didn't.

I like the laptop for the most part. Honestly, the trackpad is the biggest plus. I can just use it, I never think about "Am I right-clicking?", it just works. And I think that is what the biggest draw to the mac ecosystem is, it just works.

When I was in high school and most of my college years I looked down on mac users, thinking they paid an extra thousand for a logo and got nothing more. I am glad that I have moved away from this thinking, I don't think playing down something you haven't used or understood is incredibly foolish. And I guess I am paying for those years.

Now don't get me wrong, I will love and use windows. But I think it falls short in the form of a laptop. I think when you are mobile and entering unknown places, it is best to have something that will not fail you. My new laptop has an actual battery life, it lasts me a day of consistent use. The keyboard feels nice and inviting to type on, which as a programmer helps me write more code.

Now, with all these wonderful things to say about Apple. There are downsides: first is that the CPU is a largely unsupported architecture. Now at the time of writing this, most apps do run on ARM and for the most part, I have had no issues with daily use. But when I'm programming is when the issues surface.

In one of my classes, I was asked to write a program that reads an excel sheet. pretty basic and simple task. One of the libraries that the package we were learning about didn't support the m1. I tried to explain to my teacher what was going on and she was frustrated, cause this wasn't an easy problem to solve. She was a smart teacher (one of my favorites honestly) but she wasn't aware of the new architecture and the problems it would bring. Her solution was for me to go get a different laptop. Not the most elegant solution...

Conclusion:

I enjoy having my Apple Macbook m1, and though it has caused some problems in my programming they have been problems that I can solve.