The Computer Wars!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a meme about choosing a new computer on Facebook and promptly forgot I had done so. But then I looked back a week and a half later to see that it had gone viral and people were still arguing in the comments!

Which is a good summary of social media. You can carefully consider a 1,500 word post that will get three likes at the most, but toss a meme up and forget about it, and you’ll come back in a week to see it had thousands of views! And over 200 comments, all of them arguing for or against specific computing platforms!

So I thought I would share what I actually picked for my computing needs in 2025.

Three caveats:

1.) For your own computing requirements, pick whatever meets your needs and that your budget will allow. Windows, MacOS, Linux, a tablet, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, I think 90% of people can do 95% of what they need in a web browser nowadays anyway, and maybe with a cheap laser printer to print something out every other month or so. I recently helped an elderly relative with a computer problem, and she likely does 95% of her computing needs on her Kindle Fire tablet, and only breaks out her laptop when a web page doesn’t render properly on mobile. That said, I definitely fall into that 10% that cannot use a web browser for everything.

2.) My objective isn’t to have the best computer or the most powerful computer, it’s to have the computer that will be the most efficient in helping me write and publish books.

3.) I worked for a long time in IT support, and I wrote an internationally bestselling book about the Linux command line. I have done tech support for operating systems that no longer exist. Remember Windows CE on phones? PalmOS? Windows Phone? Getting Mac OS X to talk to Windows Print Services? Getting Mac OS X to talk properly to Active Directory? (ugh!) Windows Millennium Edition? (double ugh!) I remember them, and none too fondly.

That means whatever objection you have to Windows, MacOS, Linux, or any other operating system, I probably know about it already, have experienced it, and have in fact tried to fix while on the phone with someone having a panic attack about it.

So, this is what I will use for computers in 2025, and hopefully longer than that.

WRITING/EDITING COMPUTER: Mac Mini M4.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m increasingly unhappy with Windows 11 because of Microsoft’s turn toward AI. I thought long and hard about either Linux or MacOS, and in the end I decided on MacOS because I have several subcontractors who all use Excel. Granted, you can install Excel on a Linux system with an emulation layer, but it never works 100% right, and some of the more advanced Excel stuff (which I do use) freaks out with it. There are a number of excellent spreadsheet programs available for Linux as well, but none of them have 100% compatibility with Excel, which is what I need.

Additionally, for ebook and paperback formatting, I use Vellum, which is Mac only. I’ve been very happy with Vellum since like 2018, which means I’ve used it to format around 60 different ebooks and paperbacks.

So, based on all that, I chose the Mac Mini M4. I’ve been reasonably happy with it so far. It’s quite fast, which shows there are some advantages to the same company producing both the CPU and the operating system. Microsoft Word is definitely faster than it has been on previous versions of the Mac.

I wasn’t expecting this, but the overall lack of distraction in MacOS is nice. It’s very unobtrusive. Windows 11 is a very cluttered environment by default with lots of distractions, and it is very annoying how Microsoft has been encrusting ads throughout the platform. You can turn on quiet mode, of course, but it’s pleasant to have the overall lack of distraction be the default. So the Mac Mini M4 will be the computer I use for writing, editing, and book layout.

But that’s not all I do.

EVERYTHING ELSE COMPUTER: Windows 11 Intel Core i7

My previous desktop computer, a Windows 11 box with an Intel Core i7, will also remain in use.

The thing about being an indie publisher is that writing and editing isn’t all you do. I do my own covers now, which means Photoshop and DAZ 3d, and both of those applications are big fat memory hogs. I definitely didn’t want to shell out for a Mac with that much memory. There is also advertising, which means a lot of spreadsheets (and using Photoshop to make those ad images), and other miscellaneous tasks like recording expenses, web design, audio proofing, podcast recording, and so forth.

So my Windows 11 box is now my Everything Else computer. It doesn’t have an NPU chip, which means Windows 11’s more odious features like Recall won’t work on it. Therefore I plan to nurse it along as long as possible.

I have to admit there was an unanticipated pleasant psychological effect to this – when I write, I go to my writing computer, and when I need to do something else, I use my Everything Else computer. So it’s easier to avoid getting distracted by something else I need to do when I’m writing.

I should mention gaming. I don’t really use desktop computers for gaming any longer. They’re for work. If there’s a PC game I want to play, it needs to be able to run on my laptop while I sit on my couch, otherwise it’s not going to happen. In the past five years, I have spent more time playing games on the Switch and the Xbox than on desktop PC.

That is my computer plan for 2025 – write on the Mac, do everything else on the PC.

I’m grateful I’m able to use two different desktop computers. Hopefully I will use these computers to produce many good books for you to read!

-JM