Switcher 2026: Coping With the Mac ⭐️

Of all the Windows 11 alternatives I’m currently testing–too many Linux distributions to count, Chrome OS and Chrome OS Flex, and, soon, an iPad–the Mac is the most obvious choice if you’re looking for a professional and familiar system where everything–hardware, software, and services–just works. Plus, the Mac is having a moment thanks to the MacBook Neo, a laptop I think most readers should skip in favor of the vastly superior MacBook Air. But whichever Mac you choose, there will be challenges for those coming from Windows.

So many challenges.

The good news is that most of them are minor. With Linux, I run into all kinds of problems, from sound that doesn’t work only in games to online services that never connect correctly and can’t seemingly be made to work. But the Mac is more like death by a thousand cuts. There’s nothing endemically wrong here. Just numerous small differences and some things that objectively just don’t work as well as they do in Windows, like basic multitasking.

However, there’s good news, too. These issues are mostly surmountable. So let’s dive in, starting with the most problematic blockers.

﹩ You will need a new computer

As I noted in Switcher 2026: The Mac is for People, Not Businesses ⭐️, the biggest issue with the Mac, from the perspective of a switcher, is that you can’t run macOS on a PC you already own.

A reasonable Mac–the MacBook Air–starts at $1099, which is a bit expensive but also in the “you get what you pay for” category. Even a base-level MacBook Air is a terrific laptop with incredible performance, epic battery life, and silent, fanless operation.

You can lighten the financial load a bit by:

• Shopping the Refurbished Apple Store
• Shopping the Education Apple Store, which typically sells Macs for $100 less than the normal retail pricing. The base MacBook Air costs $999 for education customers
• Paying over time through Apple.com; that $1099 MacBook Air costs $91.58 per month for 12 months

? You can’t sign in with your face

Though Apple offers its incredible Face ID facial recognition system on iPhones and the iPad Pro, we’re stuck with Touch ID on all Macs (except for the base MacBook Neo, which lacks even this nicety) and most iPads. And that’s … OK. It’s fast and accurate, but Apple, like Google, sometimes requires you to type in your password to sign in like it’s the 1990s again. This is one of many areas in which Windows is vastly superior to the Mac: They never bypass Windows Hello-based biometric sign-in and force you to type a password.

The workaround here is classic Apple, meaning you have to spend more money: You can also sign in to a Mac using an Apple Watch. It’s not as fast as Touch ID or Face ID, and you will still have to type in your password sometimes. But if you do have an Apple Watch, this is a nice option.

✈️ Multitasking is a mess

Multitasking on the Mac is a disaster of inconsistency and complexity and this is the biggest problem I encounter on this system in day-to-day use. There are too many ways to switch between open apps and other windows, and if an app has multiple windows, the complexity amplifies.

You use the Command + Tab keyboard shortcut to switch between apps/windows, as with Alt + Tab on Windows, but not all apps/windows; only the main or top-level window appears in this interface.

You can put any app into a full screen mode that takes up almost all the screen, usually but not always by typing Fn + F. But when you do this, that app is no longer available in Command + Tab because each full screen app in macOS uses its own virtual desktop.

One of the better Mac features is its accurate touchpad-based gesture system. You can use a three-finger sideways swipe to switch between full screen apps (and, thus, virtual desktops), but not between all running apps and windows; non-full screen apps and windows are all are on a single virtual desktop, so most of them will be hidden behind whatever app is in the front.

You can also optionally enable yet another way to multitask called Stage Manager that introduces a bizarre and different UI for accessing other app windows. This will appeal to some users, I’m sure, but I always end up disabling it.

And then there’s the sad trombone of Mac multitasking: Because Command + Tab does not display all windows for all apps, you must figure out how to switch to secondary app windows once you get there. And this varies by app. In many cases you can only get to other app windows through the Window menu, which isn’t keyboard accessible by default. Other apps provide keyboard shortcuts for this, but that can vary by app.

At a high level, I want to love the full screen feature in macOS, but it doesn’t work properly. In addition to using a virtual desktop, further complicating switching to and from other apps, some of which won’t be full screen, apps don’t seem to remember that you used them full screen. In almost all cases, I find myself having to manually put an app into a full screen mode after closing it and re-running it. And some apps, as noted, use a different keyboard shortcut.

And so I finally did what I think most Mac users, especially Mac power users, do. I stopped using full screen mode. Instead, I run many apps maximized; typically, you double-click the title bar area to do that, as with Windows. This eliminates swipe-based touchpad gestures, which stinks. But Command + Tab is natural enough coming from Windows, I guess. Ah well.

That’s not the end of it, however. To overcome the fact that you won’t see every app window in Command + Tab, I also use and recommend a free utility called AltTab that makes Command + Tab work like Alt + Tab does in Windows. Meaning, with this utility configured correctly, you can type Command + Tab on the Mac and see every app window. You know, like God intended. This one is a real sanity saver.

?️ Games

Most moving from Windows to the Mac will have few compatibility issues across the hardware peripherals, software apps, and online services they rely on. But there is one major exception: The Mac is not a great choice for gamers. The selection is limited and though the most popular game store, Steam, lets you filter the titles you own by platform, most of its Mac-compatible games only work on older, Intel-compatible Macs. So what you’re stuck with, mostly, are whatever few games Apple offers through its App Store. Even Linux is better for games. Much better.

Fortunately, gaming is incredibly popular and you have options. Among them:

• Keep a Windows (or Linux) PC around for gaming
• Use a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox console for gaming
• Use an iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device for gaming
• Check the Mac App Store to see if any of the games you want to play are available; there is a small but high-quality selection of AAA games there
• If you are a casual gamer

That last one is perhaps most on point because many Mac users will also have an iPhone and/or iPad, and those platforms are much more popular with game makers and gamers. Many will play different games–and different types of games–on different platforms.

? Windows compatibility

While games are the major exception to the Mac compatibility story, some will struggle with the Mac is there’s a specific app they rely on if it only runs on Windows. This was, oddly, a blocker for me: Though the third-party apps (and online services) I use are available on the Mac, I use two Windows 11 in-box apps–Paint and Notepad, go figure–throughout the day, every day. And I want them on the Mac.

There are different ways to solve this problem. The most obvious is to find a Mac alternative, which I’ve of course tried … And failed at.

You could also use a virtualization solution, though this will bring cost and/or complexity. Ideally, I would run these apps (and whatever other Windows apps) I need side-by-side with Mac native apps, and Parallels Desktop lets you do that using its Coherence mode, which I love. That said …

• Parallels Desktop is expensive and you have to pay for it every year to the tune of $120 per year. (It’s on sale as I write this for $78.)
• You have to acquire a Windows 11 license. This is expensive if you go the full retail route, but as I’ve discussed previously, you can buy a valid Windows 11 Home or Pro license for as little as $9.99 online. You could also just skip activation. Just saying.
• You will need a powerful Mac to run macOS and Windows side-by-side, especially if you intend to do so all day every day. This works fine on my M3 MacBook Air with 24 GB of RAM. But you won’t want to do this on a MacBook Neo or any Mac with 16 GB or less of RAM. Long story short, this is an additional cost you need to factor in, and you need to do so up-front.

If your needs are more casual, there are less expensive ways to run Windows 11 on the Mac, but you won’t get that seamless Coherence mode. Instead, you will run Windows 11 virtualized the old fashioned way, the full desktop in its own app window. UTM is a good example of this kind of software, and it is, at least, free. And you will still need a more powerful Mac and a Windows 11 license, of course.

To me, being able to run a handful of Windows apps is a nice payoff, a way to get by whatever blockers. But I also think of it as being temporary. I will continue to look for alternatives that work as well, of course. But there’s also the possibility of me (or someone else) just vibe-coding versions of Notepad and Paint for the Mac. In fact, I did that myself, with Notepad, though the resulting app, while very Mac-like, isn’t quite what I want. It’s close.

? Final thoughts

While Chrome OS, Chrome OS Flex, Linux, and the iPad all have their strengths, only the Mac lines up evenly with Windows across the board, with that one major exception for gaming. I have used it more this past month than I have in over a year, and it’s growing on me. I feel like those familiar with Windows, especially those with a foot in the Apple ecosystem, can be quite successful making this switch. And that’s especially true after overcoming a few obstacles as outlined above.