Reply to: Switching wholesale from PC/Windows to Mac - Your experiences?

[kyber]

I love my MBP 2011, as I still use it to watch DVDs (old school, me), so I'll be getting the battery replaced in the next couple of weeks.

I thought I would miss a built in optical drive, but as I mostly watch streamed stuff these days, and software gets downloaded, I appreciate the weight reduction. (I do have a large collection of DVDs, Blurays, and even a few HD-DVDs at home though - yet to be ripped to a media server).

[cojak]

I love my MBP 2011, as I still use it to watch DVDs (old school, me), so I'll be getting the battery replaced in the next couple of weeks.

[kyber]

I switched nearly a year ago from Windows 8.1 Pro on a decent Lenovo touch-screen laptop, to a high specification MacBook Pro 15" retina. I was working at Microsoft (as a contractor) at the time but after a weekend was back up to speed on my work and found the rMBP to be more reliable with better battery performance than my previous machine.

I still needed to run Windows, not least for MS Project and Visio, but I found Parallels to be excellent as a VM platform (no doubt VMWare Fusion is just as good for most purposes) and have never bothered booting directly to Windows.

Despite decades of running, using and supporting Windows and managing roll outs of thousands of Windows desktops and servers, I have found OS X to be much easier to use. I find it easier to get on with tasks than I did on Windows.

I use Linux in a VM as well. In fact, with Parallels, I can mix windowed applications from any OS onto the desktop and copy and paste between them with ease. I am using Windows 10 Pro now in the VM without problems.

I'm an Office 365 E3 subscriber, and the latest version of Office for OS X, version 2016, is excellent with the possible exception of OneNote (not as rich) - I'd say it is on a par with Windows Office 2013. The beta of Windows Office 2016 does appear to have some additional features, but they are not critical to me. Outlook works a little differently, but not so much that it is an issue for me. I have had no material issues with formats/fonts/etc.

I use Chrome as my default browser - really not bothered with Safari. There was the odd service that needed it rather than Chrome (oddly, Microsoft's Lync client of OS X is one that needed to be launched from Safari after clicking on a meeting in Outlook, but a simple OS X Service addition allowed me to default to Safari for clicks in Outlook whilst everything else defaults to Chrome).

For many years, I have used a multiple virtual desktops approach, which is of course common in Linux and OS X (control-arrow or a quick swipe on the trackpad) but has only just arrived in Windows with version 10, so I've had to use a utility package to achieve this. Copy and Move have always worked reliably on OS X from the GUI or the command line, until Windows 8, this was deeply unreliable in the Windows world (and we all new to use xcopy or a third party app).

I do have to accept updates to OS X, but I do not get anywhere near the hassle I got from Windows doing seemingly endless updates (there is one going on now in a Windows 7 VM that I keep handy for various things) and telling you when you can and cannot shut your laptop down.

Just closing the lid on my various Windows laptops when called into a meeting a short notice, and hoping it would resume without problems was a real gamble. I have very few such problems on the MacBook Pro.

People say that "Macs don't get viruses" is a myth - but that is not so. Yes, they suffer from trojans and the like, but there is yet to be a true virus. The overhead for protection is definitely lower.

After using and testing many many laptops over the years, I have still not come to one that can match the trackpad on my MacBook Pro (or the larger standalone bluetooth version that I also use). I was a Thinkpad nipple user for many years and really could not get on with trackpads until I got a MacBook Pro.

In the dim distant past, I was a Unix user/administrator. I have forgotten loads. However, it has been fantastic to drop to the command line and use Unix commands again. Slowly, things are coming back to me and I find it so much is easier and faster using the CLI rather than the GUI. I did use the command prompt on Windows (and I used Powershell) - often with an addon/substitute such as 4dos/TCL to give me a more Unix like environment. So much more is just built in and works by default (or with very simple installation) on OS X than on Windows, such as python, ruby, web servers, etc.

As well as Parallels, I am also using Virtual PC from Oracle, or rather boot2docker is using it, so I can run containers on my laptop. (If this means nothing to you, you can safely ignore it.) Virtual PC and Parallels happily operate at the same time (and the latter can nest other VM hosts as well - which is useful from time to time, but a little mind boggling).

I do use the expensive Airport Time Capsule option to do my backups. I have used alternative backup approaches in the past including external HDDs on USB3 connections directly and on NAS or router setups, but find the TC just so much more reliable and less hassle. This is in addition to CrashPlan online backup arrangements.

A few months ago, I upgraded my wife from a decent Samsung Windows 8.1 laptop to a high specification MacBook Pro 13" Retina. This serves as a fallback if mine fails (or gets stolen). My wife, who works for my Co ltd, had no problems doing the switch either and she is not an IT pro.

[kyber]

Another pleasure of using the mac is the smile that you have when someone "from Microsoft" rings you up to tell you that there is something wrong with your Windows.

I confess that I especially enjoy these calls. I have been experimenting to see how long I can keep them going (with the help of Windows in a VM so I can read some representative log entries to them) - seems "I can't find a Windows key" does not put them off. I especially enjoyed the calls last year when I was working (as a contractor) for Microsoft.

[woohoo]

Those callers are hilarious. I flit between pretending to click along to pretending to work for Microsoft as well and asking whereabouts they work, to acting completely thick and pretending I'm trying to do it on my PS4 and generally seeing which way keeps them on the phone the longest.

this does it for me...

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my pc go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

[LondonManc]

They would ring up Mac owners, but everyone knows there's nothing wrong with Apple products so it wouldn't work.

Those callers are hilarious. I flit between pretending to click along to pretending to work for Microsoft as well and asking whereabouts they work, to acting completely thick and pretending I'm trying to do it on my PS4 and generally seeing which way keeps them on the phone the longest.

[DimPrawn]

Another pleasure of using the mac is the smile that you have when someone "from Microsoft" rings you up to tell you that there is something wrong with your Windows.

They would ring up Mac owners, but everyone knows there's nothing wrong with Apple products so it wouldn't work.

[expat]

Another pleasure of using the mac is the smile that you have when someone "from Microsoft" rings you up to tell you that there is something wrong with your Windows.

[sartois]

I'm thinking about going the other way. I am that impressed with Windows 10 that when the Surface Pro 4 comes out (as long as there is one that has 16GB ram config) I will replace the MBP and Ipad with it. The Mac is nice, but does crash from sleep wake failures far too often for my liking.

[Sysman]

I've heard there's this new thing in computing called a "Graphical User Interface". I'm quite excited by it. Does OS X support anything like that?

Don't be thick.

CLI experience is a useful addition to your skills.

[DimPrawn]

I've heard there's this new thing in computing called a "Graphical User Interface". I'm quite excited by it. Does OS X support anything like that?

It does in a Windows 95 sort of way, yes.

[VectraMan]

Same here. I've always reckoned that OS X is a good way to start learning the Unix command line. You aren't thrown in at the deep end and you can do it at your own pace.

I've heard there's this new thing in computing called a "Graphical User Interface". I'm quite excited by it. Does OS X support anything like that?

[cojak]

Mac software was over twice the price of Microsoft when I had one.

Did it come in a box with disks?

[DennyT99]

Mac software was over twice the price of Microsoft when I had one.

[SpontaneousOrder]

although I do miss the Del, Home and End keys!

You only have to hold down 1 extra key!