Windows 12 vs macOS 2025 – Ultimate Productivity Showdown!

 Firat "Windows 12

Microsoft hasn't announced Windows 12 yet, and we likely won’t be seeing it anytime soon. At CES, the company published a blog post saying that 2025 would be the "year of the Windows 11 refresh," pretty much delivering a death blow to the idea. Microsoft hasn’t officially announced whether Windows 12 is even in development yet, but with rumors swirling around, I expect it’ll show up in the next few years.

Six years passed between the launch of Windows 10 and Windows 11 in October 2021. Prior to Windows 10, major releases arrived every three years, at least from Windows Vista on. But Windows 10, which was supposedly the "last version of Windows," marked a shift. Which cadence will we see going forward? It's a matter of speculation.

Since Microsoft moved to an annual feature update cadence for its desktop OS, the next logical time for Windows 12 to arrive will be around September or October 2025, tidily corresponding with the end of life for Windows 10. 

But given the aforementioned blog post, that now seems unlikely. If we drew a parallel with the Windows 10 lifespan, we'd get Windows 12 in 2027. Yeah, let's go with that!

Despite not getting a new major version number, the 24H2 Update of Windows 11 is based on a platform codenamed Germanium, which powers the artificial intelligence features in the new Copilot+ PCs.  7

In fact, who's to say that Windows 12 won't require a Copilot+ PC equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU)?

In a May 2025 interview, Intel's chief financial officer predicted a boost in PC sales due to the "Windows refresh" in 2024. 

Qualcomm, too, released statements pointing to Windows 12 in 2024. But, in retrospect, those must have been referring to the Copilot+ version of Windows 11 24H2.

One wildcard in all this talk of Windows 12 was the departure of longtime Windows boss Panos Panay, which resulted in a restructuring of the Windows version-numbering schedule. It seems that the new team wants to wait to put its stamp on a future release.

Another consideration is that Windows 11 has only about 43% of the worldwide market share among Windows versions (according to StatCounter). Windows 10 is still ahead of it, with about 53%. Introducing another version would split up the pie further, especially considering the glacial pace at which many people upgrade.

Most of the details about potential future developments in Windows come from a single source: Windows Central’s Zac Bowden, who has deep reach inside the company and a decent track record when it comes to Windows predictions.

Highlights among his leaks about the next version of Windows include that the OS will have more AI built in and that it will switch to a lightweight modular code in what's called Core PC. Bowden previously broke the news that the codename for the 2024 update was Hudson Valley.

Another peek at a potential Windows 12 came at Microsoft Ignite, a conference for the IT community. The company let slip a Windows desktop interface with an altered appearance, which many think represents Windows 12. Perhaps future Ignite events will reveal further details.

The (perhaps intentionally blurry) image features a floating search bar at the top, a floating taskbar, system icons in the top right corner, and a weather button in the top left corner.

Frankly, these design tweaks probably wouldn’t merit a whole new Windows version. They’re nowhere near as drastic as the interface update from Windows 10 to 11. And moving the system information—which is something Mac users are familiar with—seems an unnecessary disruption to ingrained Windows users’ habits. But maybe a drastic UI change like this is exactly what Microsoft thinks is necessary for a new version like Windows 12. 17

When Windows 10 launched, Microsoft stated that updates would arrive between the big updates in a steady stream, using the phrase "Windows as a service." Microsoft's Windows Lifecycle FAQ clearly states, "New versions of Windows 11 will be released once per year and will receive monthly quality updates that include security and non-security updates."

 Windows 11 has followed this pattern, and Windows 12 will certainly not be a static, monolithic entity. 

It will change and gain new features on an ongoing basis. 

Keep in mind that Windows 10 in 2020 was a far different and far more capable OS than Windows 10 in 2015 because the company rolled out many feature updates in the interim. 

Windows 10 had updates with names like Creators Update, which changed the OS about as much as macOS changes from one colorfully named version to the next.

Despite references to Windows 10 as "the last version of Windows," Microsoft has made it clear that its practice of releasing both major feature updates (as in 22H2 and 23H2) and interim updates (sometimes called Moments) continues with Windows 11. 

We have every reason to believe that strategy will continue with Windows 12.

Eagle-eyed code watchers have noticed references to "subscription edition," "subscription type," and "subscription status" in the code for a Windows Insider build in the Canary channel (the earliest release channel). 

These references have led to speculation that Microsoft will require a subscription for the OS in the future—and perhaps PC prices will be lower as a result. Further speculation has it that a free, ad-supported version of Windows 12 might be available as well.

But that's truly all just speculation. 

A stronger possibility is that these references to subscriptions are for business users, similar to the already available Windows 365 Cloud PC option. 

Even Bowden published an article debunking the subscription rumor.

A subscription requirement would surely outrage longtime Windows users. That's what happened when Adobe Photoshop first moved to a subscription model. Users eventually paid up, however, boosting Adobe's profits and enabling the company to develop impressive new features.

And last macOS 

The free macOS 15 Sequoia update is a must-have if you use a recent Mac and particularly if you have an iPhone. 

The most exciting new feature is iPhone Mirroring, which lets you directly control an iPhone running iOS 18 from your computer. 

Sequoia also offers a one-stop Passwords app that competes with even the best password managers. 

We would have liked a more full-featured clipboard, but the aforementioned features, along with dozens of smaller conveniences, help macOS Sequoia earn our Editors' Choice award for operating systems alongside Windows 11.

Like every new macOS release, Sequoia is visually spectacular. The default wallpaper is a stunning picture of the trees the OS is named for, and you can switch to dynamic wallpapers that change color depending on the time of day. 

As always with annual macOS releases, the latest version includes small conveniences that Apple doesn’t publicize but which you’ll be grateful to have. The System Settings, for example, finally gets a useful list of options you use frequently, so you don’t have to enter Startup Disk or Software Update in a search box to get to them.

Security concerns have led Apple to make some things less convenient than they were in earlier versions. For example, if you want to open a third-party app that Apple hasn’t “notarized,” you won’t find an option to do so in the contextual menu like before. Instead, you have to take a detour to the System Settings to authorize the app. It isn’t a showstopper and adds another level of protection for non-expert users, but it's a minor annoyance for anyone who uses a lot of software from smaller developers.

Sequoia has been in public beta for more than three months and registered Mac developers have had access for longer, so it's not entirely untested. But beta testers don’t put every app through its paces. If you use only Apple’s native software—Mail, Messages, Preview, Safari—then you can safely upgrade today. If you use any third-party software, hold off until the first point release. 

Note that the company's much-touted Apple Intelligence—Apple’s custom version of AI that every technology company seems to be adding to apps and operating systems—won’t be functional in Sequoia until the first point release, likely in October. Moreover, many of Apple’s AI features won’t arrive until later releases. If you want an early look at Apple Intelligence, you can install the public beta of macOS Sequoia 15.1 (I cover this later).

Sequoia is compatible with: Any Intel or Apple Silicon Mac first released in 2019 or later Any iMac Pro released in 2017 or later Any MacBook Pro or Mac mini released in 2018 or later

Most major features—like iPhone Mirroring—work on Intel Macs, but advanced features like the ability to capture text from photographs only work on Apple Silicon machines.

Apple’s ecosystem has always been seamless in terms of interconnectivity, especially between Macs and iPhones. For the past few years, you’ve been able to use your Mac’s microphone and speaker to answer calls that arrive on your iPhone. Last year, Apple added an option to run iOS widgets on your Mac’s desktop—with the exception of some high-security and finance apps. You’ve long been able to view your phone’s screen on a TV or monitor, but you haven’t been able to control your phone from them. 

The new iPhone Mirroring feature is completely different from the old passive screen mirroring. As far as I can tell, you can use your Mac to do almost everything on your phone that your phone can do—you just can't use the phone's microphone or camera. In the early Sequoia betas, some of my banking and financial apps refused to run in iPhone Mirroring, but Apple sorted out this problem before the final Sequoia release.

You set up iPhone Mirroring by selecting your phone in Sequoia and then responding to a series of security prompts that you have to answer just once. You can mirror your phone only when you’re not using it, and no one who looks at your phone while you’re running it from your Mac can see what you’re doing. 

You can’t swipe up to shuffle through open apps, but clicking on an icon above the image of your phone on the Mac performs this action. Otherwise, you can hold down your Mac’s trackpad to make your home screen icons start to wiggle for rearrangement. As mentioned, you can’t use the microphone or camera, and you won’t hear any audio coming from the phone, though everything that you can see on your phone is visible on your Mac. 5534

Apple also announced that you will be able to drag and drop photos and other files between a mirrored iPhone and a Mac, but not until later this year with an update to Sequoia and iOS 18.

The new Passwords app, available on both macOS and iOS, is a marvel of efficiency and clear design. It should help you ditch any clumsy password app. If you knew where to look and had lots of patience, you may have used it in earlier versions of macOS. Now, it’s all in one place, with separate lists for passkeys, verification codes, and Wi-Fi and family passwords, along with a section of your compromised and duplicated passwords.

As usual with Apple, the latest operating system adds features that used to require third-party software, as well as those already on Windows. For example, Sequoia adopts one of Windows’ best window-management ideas: When you drag a window far beyond the left or right edge of the screen, an outline fills the left or right half of the screen. You can then drop the window into it to snap it into place. You can also get the same effect by holding down the Option key when dragging a window. Windows 11 divides the screen into four quarters, while macOS only splits it in two when you drag a window. But macOS also has a Move & Resize item on the app’s window menu that lets you divide the screen into four Windows-style quarters.

Video conferencing apps like Zoom already have features that replace your background with a custom or stock image and let you choose exactly how much of your screen you share when you turn on screen-sharing. Now, macOS has those features system-wide and implements them better than the competition. 

Apple’s background-replacement feature isn’t perfect, though. When I move around, the edges of my shoulders look like ocean waves, for example. Still, it’s vastly better than the competition and close to perfect if you don’t move around much.