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

[Platypus]

I'm thinking of getting a Mac Mini (top spec) and moving as much as I can from my PC to it. I'll also get VMware Fusion and virtualise my old PC so that some old stuff continues to work (Microsoft Money which I still use).

I'll get MS Office for Mac and use that (are the file formats compatible?).

But before I click "Check Out" .... has anyone done this? I'd be really interested to hear what issues you had, how your experience was, would you do it again? Gotchas and so on. Anything you wish you'd known before you went ahead.

My reason for doing this is mainly to get rid of my huge PC tower (which supports 4 displays and has 6 drive bays) and basically shrink everything down. I'll get a Time Capsule for backup and continue to use DropBox and BackBlaze for added peace of mind.

Thanks!

[stek]

I switched in 1999 when OSX 1 beta 1 came out, never regretted it. Office same format apart from the odd font niggle when fonts don't match when transferring pc to Mac etc.

[Platypus]

Thanks, but I was looking for a more recent experience!

[cojak]

I moved in 2011, I use Office for Mac 2016 and have had no problem.

I did try to be a purist, but Visio forced me to use Parallels, but since you intend using VMware this isn't an issue for you.

But I'm very happy with my decision.

[unixman]

I switched to Linux many years ago. Linux only household now. I do have one Windows 8 partition that never gets booted.

But I booted it recently in order to "root" my Android phone. The rooting tool was Windows only.


Off topic, here's my Windows to Linux story. My Laptop disk failed in 2006. Didn't fancy spending £100 on Windows (was benched at the time, looking for first contract). PC World chap told me laptop was too old for new disk anyway. Ditto memory upgrade. Wandered out of PC World and into neighbouring Tesco. Saw a magazine with "free" Linux disk on the front. Nothing to loose, so took the plunge. Also turned out PC World chap was wrong. New disk, new memory, new OS. It really was like a breath of very very fresh air.

[DaveB]

I switched to Mac a few years back. Got an iMac and never regretted it. Now running a MacBook Pro and 27" iMac on the desktop. Office for Mac 2011 and everything works fine, no compatibility issues. Only thing I don't have that is MS only is Visio and I use Lucid Chart for that instead.

There is a short period of "How do I do this on a Mac" type stuff, but I found Macs to be much more intuitive than Windows and it doesn't take long to adjust.

Do it, you won't regret it.

[SpontaneousOrder]

OSX is easy. Go for it.

[Sysman]

I'll get a Time Capsule for backup and continue to use DropBox and BackBlaze for added peace of mind.

To be honest I think a Time Capsule is well overpriced for what it is.

I've always used external disks for Time Machine. Since a version or two of OS X ago TM supports multiple target disks. I've got two USB3 disks attached to my main Mac mini at the moment and the hourly backups alternate between them. If one goes phut I've still got a working backup.

My stubbornness in not shelling out for MS Office is about the only problem I've had over the years. Nowadays most of the stuff I get comes as PDF anyway.

[SlipTheJab]

Recently bought a Macbook Pro 15, it was either that or a Dell XPS and I am glad I chose the former. OS X is better and the machine doesn't come loaded with a bunch of cr@p/spyware a la Windows. Don't see why I would ever need to go back to Windows now.

[chef]

back in 2012 (i think) I decided to buy a macbook so that I could atleast have a valid point to argue against Doodab (RIP) that Macbooks are for fanboys and really just an overpriced linux variant and my Dell was much better.

After speaking to some other friends they simply advised me to buy the best spec macbook because "once I went Mac back I wouldnt look back". I ignored them as they were obviously delusional and bought a 5 year old macbook from ebay.

Annoyingly they were right. 2 months later I was buying a full spec Macbook Pro from the Apple Store.

Similar to others here, the migration was painless, it took a small amount of time to get used to the OS but as I did so found it was very intuitive, Visio also caused me to have parallels (and that backup cosy blanket of a full Windows install just in case I was right). I never use Visio any longer and so have cancelled my Parallels licence and dont intend to buy any Windows product again, no more "please insert disk for driver for xyz" or "are you sure you are sure you are sure you want to do this?"

Didnt bother with a timemachine as the Synology NAS server is a compatible Timemachine server anyway.

Overall, Im very glad I dmade the move and only wish I did it sooner.