I got an excellent Windows gaming laptop for $900 USD. It has a beautiful 17" 144hz glare-resistant display, not an awful glossy screen that might as well be a mirror in lit environment. The workmanship is great and the keyboard has a full numpad and utility keys. It came with a 1TB SSD and 16GB ram, both of which I doubled with additional parts after the fact for about $120. It would cost +$600 to reach 2TB SSD and +$400 per 16GB to extend the Macbook Air. Even at the current bullshit 500% inflated RAM prices, it would only cost $200 for +16GB on a Windows laptop. Given that 16GB is a complete non-starter for a $1.1k laptop in the world of programmers who only know how to use Electron, the Macbook Air is actually just garbage for price.
If money is no object to you, you can pay a >$1k premium for a 13" 60hz display if you care about fan noise under load or battery life. I personally don't mind either of those things, and will gladly enjoy my laptop with vastly superior specs in all other regards for half the price.
Windows has its problems, but they are fixable. You can hack and modify Windows all you want to get rid of the BS. I'll take that over an OS that believes the manufacturer owns the machine rather than the user, any day.
If money is no object to you, you can pay a >$1k premium for a 13" 60hz display if you care about fan noise under load or battery life. I personally don't mind either of those things, and will gladly enjoy my laptop with vastly superior specs in all other regards for half the price.
Windows has its problems, but they are fixable. You can hack and modify Windows all you want to get rid of the BS. I'll take that over an OS that believes the manufacturer owns the machine rather than the user, any day.