Agreed, but if you turn it off it stays off, it doesn't pop up something every day.

> The sidebar with the Apple shares and news apps.

I kinda know it's there, but I can't remember when I last activated it by mistake *. But then I turn off all notifications except app icon badges so I don't use it at all otherwise.

> Core OS that features only work when paired with iPad/iPhone.

Which ones? Doing phone calls and texts from your laptop? I suppose that requires control of the OS on both sides to work well. I don't know what's available on the Android side.

If there are other features that work when paired with apple mobiles and don't work with Android, I don't know about them.

* Last time I've seen that bar I think it was my cat's butt on the F keys :) She taught me a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

Of course but Microsoft is way more obnoxious about it. In macOS (and iOS) the upsell is a small icon in your system settings. On Windows it's big notifications when you start up your devices. Links in your start menu to third party apps. Notifications when you install and run third-party browsers.

Most mac apps work without an Apple ID. On Windows you can't even use the built in video editor (Clipchamp) without logging in to a Microsoft account.

Microsoft just sucks at UX. On Windows 11 a lot of people now have three versions of Microsoft teams installed. Teams Classic, Teams New, and Teams personal edition. And the search makes sure to avoid showing you the one you use most as the default result.

Don't get me started on how many nag screens and cookie warnings you have to go through when you start Microsoft Edge. I use both Windows and macOS regularly (macOS is my daily driver right now) and Windows has the way worse user experience.