Each to his own, I guess.

I began my days with 4bit, 16k (Yes K) machines, magnetic tape drives, command line interfaces and text screems. I soon gravitated to the Apple II but had to use a mixture of other noxes at work and as memory and sophistication increased, inevitably DOS machines.

Then, eventually, along came the Mac & the game changed. Wow, did it feel different and often puzzling. I'd spent a mass of time mastering DOS and extended memory and so on in order to be able to do anything like useful work on that other OS. So much was new & so much unfathomable at first but heh, it took no time at all to learn because it was so intuitive and refreshingly easy. For the first time I could concentrate completely on what I wanted to produce, rather than constantly having to figure out how to accomplish it.

Throughout my subsequent career I had to use predominantly DOS / Windows machines, even going to the trouble of buying the first (appallingly bad) version of Windows. They didn't bother with Win 2, Windows 3.0 was the first actually useable version and even that, almost immediately had to be upgraded to 3.1.

I can't even recall the number of Windows versions that were disasters but do remember finally feeling some relief when XP was released and used it as long as I could while working with that side's OS.

I very quickly adopted having macines of each OS at home, because I'm a workaholic and needed to be able to work on material in both places with minimal inconvenience. It also allowed me to keep in touch with the changes to OS's and to applications.

I had the dismal experience, when reading computer mags, talking to colleagues and eventually, using social media when it came along, of reading the bombardment of simplistic, usually uninformed, mis-stated & irrational - not to mention barely literate- diatribes decrying Apple & the Mac. The biggest lie was always that of the Mac being 'expensive', in the sense of 'over-priced'. This from so many who would buy a much inferior quality clone and then, after purchasing all the components they needed to equip their purchase to do all that the Mac did out of the box, end up having spent even more.

So things have continued to the present day, with a whole assortment of other 'issues', including crticism such as you raised about the abandonment of the disk drive - a move, as with many othe berated changes by Apple, nevertheless soon followed by the others until effectively becoming the new 'standard'.

Strangely, (or perhaps not so, given the one-sided view of most critics), these doom-sayers rarely mentioned the inclusion of the OS and a suite of extremely well designed and functional applications with every Mac purchase. Rarely either was there mention of various hadware inclusions that made Macs ready for networking and such without the need for additional purchases.

In my view, probably the biggest 'non-mention' has been the lack of acknowledgment of the benefits that have accrued to users of Apple's control over hardware and OS and the ability that such has provided to facilitate both integration and consistency of approach across devices.

In my 50 years of consisent use of Apple and other brand computers, operating systems, and etc. I haven't found any interference with my ability to work, such as you have described, yet I have only one working eye and that not as good as I would wish. I have also, only rarely come across another brand's product that came close to matching the elegance, design and build quality and longevity of a Mac. (Acknowledging that the 'Cube', whilst a remarkable looker and good idea, was badly implemented or that the appointment of a soft drink salesman as a CEO and licensing of the OS was a disaster, fortunately short-lived.)

The reality is that a Rolls Royce or a Ferrari or even a hand built, wood chassied Morgan will cost more than a mass market Ford, Mitsubishi, Kia, Hyundai, or whatever. As with most things, you tend get an equivalent to what you have paid.

Will you feel comfortable driving a Ferrari Enzo when you have been used to a Mazda MX5? It is unlikely.

The reality is that we are all unique and therefore have many differences, including technical, aesthetic, learning style, physical capacity, conditioning and experiences. As such, we will have differing reactions to the same entity.

I don't believe that you are an Apple or Mac 'basher' but that you have genuinely found discomfort in your latest experience with the Mac. I suggest, however, that before you reject or regret your choice, it may be worthwhile regardless of your obvious attempts already, to spend a litle more time with someone who can advise and assist you to overcome the issues you have.

There are good quality non-Apple computers out there, of that there is no doubt. They will cost no less but they are there.

As for Windows, I cannot understand how anyone who has used it *and* the Mac OS consistently and regularly, in tandem, can seriously suggest that Windows is as easy, elegant, functional, convenient, well integrated, versatile and consistent as the MacOS, let alone 'fun' to use.