Can I get the best of both worlds on a M1 mac or M2 mac? I'll explain

[jc0481]

I wish all of my computing needs are mac compatible but sadly it's not.

Going to school online right now. Online school is very Windows 10 or Windows 11 centric. Learning programming languages on the side right now too. Studying for my A+ certification as well. Bit of a gamer but ONLY use my Xbox for this. No gaming done on my computer. Just have a Windows 11 MSI laptop I bought almost 6 years ago. Has it been really that long?!

Unfortunately I need Microsoft Office I guess Microsoft 365 it's called now. Need Excel for macros and compatibility with my online university.

Was at a friend's house the other day and I had to check my email on his M1 Macbook Air he just bought. All I can is after using it was WOW!

The quality of the software and the operating system was amazing! Fast and silent!

I will need virtualization software to run Windows 10 or Windows 11 but I do not know how well it will work for my situation and especially the performance of it.

Just looking for feedback from people that are running Windows in a virtual environment. How is it working out for you? Pros and cons?

Thanks in advance.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Visualization software will run Windows… but maybe not the Windows you need 😉 you’re limited to Windows for ARM, and it’s important to learn up-front whether your Windows software will run on Windows for ARM.

That said - Microsoft 365, Excel, and even Excel macros do work on macOS. If that’s ALL you want Windows for, maybe you could just get Microsoft 365 for Mac and be done with it.

BTW if you’re going to do visualization, do yourself a favor and get 16GB RAM. Also at least 512 SSD since your visualized OS will need dedicated space, even if all of that space isn’t in use at the beginning. You WILL regret if you get to little storage, and “might” regret too little RAM.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you really, REALLY need Windows 10/11 compatibility, then the Mac m-series computers are probably not for you -- at least not yet.

That isn't to say that Windows won't run on them.
But... at least for now... compatibility is, well... iffy.

I could be wrong in this assessment.
If I am, others will jump right in and correct me.

 

[jc0481]

Thank you both for the feedback. I'll have to research more on this. Did not Excel on the Mac can run macros. That's good to know.

Thanks again.