Flip Flopping between macOS and Windows

[Bodie CI5]

It's what gets us all I suspect. There is no beating the level of interconnectivity Apple provides between all devices. My wife asked for a few pics I took on our walk this morning. Sure, a few clicks and airdrop, done. Can't beat it.

This is precisely what I feel like I've been missing out on. For me, and I'm speaking only for me, I feel as though all I'm doing on my PC gaming rig is living life through a digital mode and I end up missing out on life's more natural pleasures. I can devote my attention to other things again.

I miss the Pixelbook Go (and Pixel 5) I sold a few months back, but even that didn't hold a candle to Apple's offerings in terms of quality of life details. Apple's offerings are just too good (again IMHO)

 

[Bodie CI5]

totally know what you mean. phone link is nowhere near as good as the Apple integration and I much prefer the apple watch to any of the androids.

Yes, I was looking at the GW5 but having lived with AW and a Withings Steel HR Sport Smartwatch for a couple of years, the AW is the one for me, too. Too many features that I've sorely missed since I last had the AW5.

 

[Bodie CI5]

I've had enough of the stress and annoyances trying to get a functioning PC so I've just ordered a 16" MacBook Pro. My brother has bought my desktop (he's a gamer and needed an upgrade).

After 3 monitor RMAs and now my Lenovo laptop bricking itself I've decided this is a fruitless exercise and going back to Apple so I can have hardware that isn't junk.

I also found that after using 144hz I'm very sensitivity to slower refresh rates which is why I'm picking up the 16", for the ProMotion.

My iPhone 14 Pro 256gb deep purple arrives on Friday.

My brother in arms, this has been quite the journey for us! 🤣😭

-edit-
I'm sorry for the amount of posts I've just posted

 

[Expos of 1969]

Heh, unfortunately the past 2.5 years have been a little up and down, computer-wise. I've dabbled with Mac, Win, Chrome and Linux most of the way through with combinations of each.

This is not for bragging rights:

1984/5-88=C64
1988-1993=Amiga 500
1993-1997=Amiga 1200
1997-2014=Amiga 1200/4000/PC
2014-2022=Mac/PC/Chrome

Stupid me has lost a lot of time these past couple of years trying to decide on what to do and carry me through (platform-wise) for the remainder of my life. I thought the PC would do it for me, but all I end up doing is wanting to play games. I've set up my PS4 again, and thankfully I'm playing way less . Weird, I know. But, it's the way for me I think. S22 is gone, I bought an iPhone again and have my brother's M1 MBP.

The PC was literally only 2metres away from from my desk and I would set it up every so often, but I think, and famous last words (lol!), I think I'm content again.

What iPhone did you buy?

 

[Bodie CI5]

What iPhone did you buy?

On the cheap (well, discounted over a week ago) the 13. Hit the ground running, so to speak.

 

[Expos of 1969]

On the cheap (well, discounted over a week ago) the 13. Hit the ground running, so to speak.

What happens when your brother realizes you have his MBP

What is your opinion of the S22? I am thinking about getting one to replace my S10e.

 

[Bodie CI5]

What happens when your brother realizes you have his MBP

🤣
Nah all good on that front. He's loaned it to me and I given him the 3070 so all it's all worked out in the end. The MBP goes back to him once I move on either a 14" or iMac next year sometime.


-edit-
Sorry, to clarify, he's heavily into astrophotography and so the nVidia card suits him rather well.

 

[maflynn]

I try not to get locked into using only one platform but continuously use multiple platforms to keep my mind flexible and constantly see how things work on different systems.

I think I've always straddled the fence between windows and Macs. I remember using virtual pc on my powermac back in the day. Man, was that ever slow, lol. Financially, back then, I had less options and so I had to choose pc or mac, and I was all in on the mac.

I'm still very much pro-apple, but there are many things that PCs/Windows does better. I find that some apple fans are unable to accept that a non-apple product could be superior to something with a fruit logo on it, but it can.

I'm at a point in my life, that defending my decisions is not needed, and I try to just enjoy what I have, I'm blessed and fortunate enough to have the ability to own a Mac and a PC and so I have the best of both worlds.

 

[LeeW]

I'm at a point in my life, that defending my decisions is not needed, and I try to just enjoy what I have, I'm blessed and fortunate enough to have the ability to own a Mac and a PC and so I have the best of both worlds.

This, is exactly where I am right now.

 

[Technerd108]

What happens when your brother realizes you have his MBP

What is your opinion of the S22? I am thinking about getting one to replace my S10e.

I had an s22 from an S20 FE and for me there was a noticeable difference in speed. However Samsung does a pretty good job with the overall responsiveness of older phones.

I liked the screen better on the S22 as it is brighter and more true in tone. The speakers are better on my S20FE. Battery life on my S20 FE is way better.

I returned the S20 and Samsung recently gave me a promotional discount by email and I have my phone to trade so I might just get the S22 plus as it will have a much bigger battery and larger screen which I am hoping might mean bigger speakers as well.

I would think coming from a S10e you would see some significant improvements.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I had an s22 from an S20 FE and for me there was a noticeable difference in speed. However Samsung does a pretty good job with the overall responsiveness of older phones.

I liked the screen better on the S22 as it is brighter and more true in tone. The speakers are better on my S20FE. Battery life on my S20 FE is way better.

I returned the S20 and Samsung recently gave me a promotional discount by email and I have my phone to trade so I might just get the S22 plus as it will have a much bigger battery and larger screen which I am hoping might mean bigger speakers as well.

I would think coming from a S10e you would see some significant improvements.

Disturbing to read yesterday a number of comments from people who found the S22 caused PWM eye issues which they never had with the S10e. The poor battery comments were also a concern but the eye issue was the biggest warning for me.

 

[Technerd108]

Disturbing to read yesterday a number of comments from people who found the S22 caused PWM eye issues which they never had with the S10e. The poor battery comments were also a concern but the eye issue was the biggest warning for me.

Interesting. Maybe I am not sensible but I never noticed anything?

The regular s22 battery isn't bad but it lasts a day. If you are taxing it with gaming and navigation then maybe not a full day. I am so uses to phones going 1 1/2 to two days it was noticeable.

 

[Random_Matt]

Just thought about it, my studio will pay for itself with the energy crisis in my country.

 

[keithop]

Yep some wise words. I do want to be content, and I hope I am one day. Spending 9 hours a day using a device that annoys me is hard.

so it's been a while now! what hardware are you using now and are you content??

 

[maflynn]

Just thought about it, my studio will pay for itself with the energy crisis in my country.

I was running my laptop instead of my desktop this past summer just to save money. I went back to my desktop in september but then I hear how energy costs will be even higher in the winter. I'm considering my options, like going back to my Razer being put on my desk and leaving it there and not using my desktop.

 

[pshufd]

I was running my laptop instead of my desktop this past summer just to save money. I went back to my desktop in september but then I hear how energy costs will be even higher in the winter. I'm considering my options, like going back to my Razer being put on my desk and leaving it there and not using my desktop.

There have been many articles in my state (NH) about heating concerns. The main fuels are heating oil, natural gas, propane, pellet stoves and electricity. Heating oil is in short supply right now (in terms of forward contracts as it isn't cold yet). There may actually be shortages this winter. It has happened in the past when one of the major suppliers went bankrupt - that was more of a financial thing rather than a supply issue. There is enough NG in storage along with pipeline capacity right now but pricing will depend on how cold it gets. I do not follow the propane market. Pellets are widely available but you have to have a lot of foresight to have had one already installed. Electric could be a problem.

Our generation is nuclear and natural gas, so a colder winter will put stress on natural gas supplies and capacity which has been a problem in prior years. Our electricity prices doubled this past summer because of higher natural gas prices because we are shipping all we can to Europe as Russia has cut them off (mostly I think). Electricity prices could continue to rise.

I am considering replacing my old 2014 iMac with a second M1 Mac mini. Or an M2 Mac mini. Or replacing both of them with a Mac Studio. I wish that the M2 mini would come out already. The M1/2 mini would give me a far more efficient computer than the 2014 iMac though I'd lose it as a 27 inch monitor unless I bought another Ultrasharp 4k.

I am fine with running Windows 11 on my MacBook Pro now and am going to pay for the Parallels license. I've used it for two weeks and it does what I need on Windows. My Windows desktop hasn't been booted in about 3 weeks. I suspect that my Windows desktop uses less power than my 2014 iMac despite having a lot more CPU/GPU capability.

My desktop setup is in an unheated basement and it gets down to -20 F outside. Not a problem for three seasons. Yesterday, I spent a lot of time trading on my laptop in the living room and it does work though not as efficiently. I used spaces to simulate all of my displays. It works but it's not as efficient compared to my desktop. But it's nice to have options. I do not like hooking up my MacBook Pro to the monitors and unhooking them, and don't like carrying it upstairs and downstairs but I do like a setup in both places, with one not as efficient as the other.

One other possibility would be to go with an M1 Ultra - serious overkill but plenty of headroom for a long time. Probably as efficient a solution as I could get for a wide, dynamic workload.

 

[LiE_]

so it's been a while now! what hardware are you using now and are you content??

Pretty much landed on a slightly tweaked version of my last setup. I’m still switching daily between an iPhone 12 and my wife’s old Pixel 5 to see which I prefer. iPhone is winning currently.

I’m content with my PC. I enjoy macOS and Apple hardware but for my usages and my job it’s less than ideal.

Intel i5 13600K
Nvidia 3090 Founders Edition
32GB 3600 Corsair RAM
MSI MAG Tomahawk Z690
Gigabyte M28U 28” 4K 144hz monitor.

 

[maflynn]

I’m content with my PC

What happened to the 16" MBP? Did that not work out?

I've been kicking around the idea of picking one up, and replacing my desktop for a variety of reasons. Yes, thinking of flip-flopping, or at least flopping harder into the macOS realm

 

[LiE_]

What happened to the 16" MBP? Did that not work out?

I've been kicking around the idea of picking one up, and replacing my desktop for a variety of reasons. Yes, thinking of flip-flopping, or at least flopping harder into the macOS realm

I managed to return it. There were a few minor cosmetic marks on it which I leveraged for a return. The main reason for the return was safari was lagging a lot with the script editor inputs in the cloud software I use.

 

[maflynn]

The main reason for the return was safari was lagging

With my MBP 14" I tried to like Safari, I really did, but it was just inferior to what chrome was, and given I'm cross platform, it made so much more sense to stick with Chrome, though its resource usage is significantly higher then Safari.

I'm not eager to spend money, given that life is so expensive, but I think switching over to a 16" may be a nice move in the long term. I think I may start keeping an eye out for deals as Black Friday rolls around

 

[circatee]

Thus far, I feel I have moved more towards macOS now. I have tried and tried to use Safari as the default browser. But, I do not feel it is as smooth as Google Chrome (running a few plugins).

I actually need to power up my Windows 10 gaming machine. Haven’t done updates in ages. Actually haven’t played any games in ages, either…

 

[pshufd]

With my MBP 14" I tried to like Safari, I really did, but it was just inferior to what chrome was, and given I'm cross platform, it made so much more sense to stick with Chrome, though its resource usage is significantly higher then Safari.

I'm not eager to spend money, given that life is so expensive, but I think switching over to a 16" may be a nice move in the long term. I think I may start keeping an eye out for deals as Black Friday rolls around

One note: the 16 is a brick. There are many times when I wish for a MacBook Air 15 or that I got the 14. I am more productive with the 16 though - but sometimes I don't bring it because of the weight and size.

 

[maflynn]

One note: the 16 is a brick. There are many times

No question, I actually bought one, but returned it in lieu of the 14" I was traveling this past summer and I wanted a laptop with fantastic battery life and could be used on an airplane. The 16" fit one of those needs, I felt it way too big.

With that said, as I'm more local now, the 14" display size is simply too small for my old eyes. Even 15" laptops I scale up or I'm squinting. Sucks getting old ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think though for my usage patterns the 16 is a nicer option, but life has gotten so expensive, cost of energy for the winter has been reported to go up 60%, and that's after the summer energy costs rising 50%. Cost of the very stables that are needed to live are so expensive, its hard for me to splurge on such a luxury item.

I'm going to keep an eye out for refurbs and sales and see what my options are.

 

[pshufd]

No question, I actually bought one, but returned it in lieu of the 14" I was traveling this past summer and I wanted a laptop with fantastic battery life and could be used on an airplane. The 16" fit one of those needs, I felt it way too big.

With that said, as I'm more local now, the 14" display size is simply too small for my old eyes. Even 15" laptops I scale up or I'm squinting. Sucks getting old ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think though for my usage patterns the 16 is a nicer option, but life has gotten so expensive, cost of energy for the winter has been reported to go up 60%, and that's after the summer energy costs rising 50%. Cost of the very stables that are needed to live are so expensive, its hard for me to splurge on such a luxury item.

I'm going to keep an eye out for refurbs and sales and see what my options are.

I'm in NH so energy costs are a concern but we have a very small place that is also very energy efficient. There are already reported of forward shortages of heating oil in my state. A lot of people are depending on Federal heating assistance this winter in my state even as rental assistance is running out.

One thing to reduce costs is selling old equipment when you get new stuff. I have a bunch of old Macs in my basement that I should probably sell.

 

[keithop]

Pretty much landed on a slightly tweaked version of my last setup. I’m still switching daily between an iPhone 12 and my wife’s old Pixel 5 to see which I prefer. iPhone is winning currently.

I’m content with my PC. I enjoy macOS and Apple hardware but for my usages and my job it’s less than ideal.

Intel i5 13600K
Nvidia 3090 Founders Edition
32GB 3600 Corsair RAM
MSI MAG Tomahawk Z690
Gigabyte M28U 28” 4K 144hz monitor.

yeah I've reluctantly got to the same place. Building my new pc next week.

I still prefer Apple hardware and the relative quietness of their kit but macos just delivers a slower workflow for my particular use.

Is the 144hz monitor actually a benefit for business use or just games?