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For those who came from a PC...
- Thread starter kmac007
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1. It works.
2. Not really all that much. Lack of games perhaps.
2. Not really all that much. Lack of games perhaps.
Comparing my 2015 MacBook Pro to the Hp Envy laptop I sold and upgraded from..
The battery life and display is amazing in comparison. It manages to feel lighter than my HP (the weight is nicely distributed), yet less fragile.
I love how many accessories are available for Macs. I put a hard clear case on it, which makes it that much easier for me to throw it in a backpack with no worries. I couldn't even find a case for my Envy.
You get a year to purchase AppleCare (before the manufacturer's warranty expires). I think HP offers something similar, but I don't think their warranties come with international coverage for repairs abroad.
^All of these things make the MacBook Pro significantly more travel-ready. Even the power supply is small and portable, and the plug can be easily swapped for a compatible power connection overseas.
It's quiet. The fans don't kick in unless I'm doing something really processor intensive.
It's fast and powerful. I don't use this for gaming.. but if you're into graphic design, photography, video editing, music and audio.. Macs have a lot to offer. Core Audio + a Thunderbolt audio interface = extremely low latency recordings. Windows doesn't even come close to touching its low latency performance.
It syncs up nicely with my iOS devices (although some improvements could still be made in the iOS connectivity department).
OS X was quite easy for me to adapt to. I barely turn on my Windows desktop these days.
What's frustrating?
They're expensive and not really upgradable. Purchasing AppleCare or some kind of extended warranty is essential for protecting your investment, unless you have the money to burn.
I've had a few random glitches happen.. like the other day I opened FireFox for the first time in a long time and the browser kept freezing. I've never paid this much money for a computer before, so my tolerance for these kinds of bugs is pretty low and I get annoyed fast. But the few issues I've had have been small and short-lived ones like this, and I'm quite happy I made the switch.
The battery life and display is amazing in comparison. It manages to feel lighter than my HP (the weight is nicely distributed), yet less fragile.
I love how many accessories are available for Macs. I put a hard clear case on it, which makes it that much easier for me to throw it in a backpack with no worries. I couldn't even find a case for my Envy.
You get a year to purchase AppleCare (before the manufacturer's warranty expires). I think HP offers something similar, but I don't think their warranties come with international coverage for repairs abroad.
^All of these things make the MacBook Pro significantly more travel-ready. Even the power supply is small and portable, and the plug can be easily swapped for a compatible power connection overseas.
It's quiet. The fans don't kick in unless I'm doing something really processor intensive.
It's fast and powerful. I don't use this for gaming.. but if you're into graphic design, photography, video editing, music and audio.. Macs have a lot to offer. Core Audio + a Thunderbolt audio interface = extremely low latency recordings. Windows doesn't even come close to touching its low latency performance.
It syncs up nicely with my iOS devices (although some improvements could still be made in the iOS connectivity department).
OS X was quite easy for me to adapt to. I barely turn on my Windows desktop these days.
What's frustrating?
They're expensive and not really upgradable. Purchasing AppleCare or some kind of extended warranty is essential for protecting your investment, unless you have the money to burn.
I've had a few random glitches happen.. like the other day I opened FireFox for the first time in a long time and the browser kept freezing. I've never paid this much money for a computer before, so my tolerance for these kinds of bugs is pretty low and I get annoyed fast. But the few issues I've had have been small and short-lived ones like this, and I'm quite happy I made the switch.
I love being able to move and rename files while they are open.
I love being able to move a file without breaking any of its shortcuts.
I love being able to add, remove, merge, and separate pages in pdf files.
I love having a modern web browser.
I love the fact that I can print anything to pdf.
I love knowing that printed pages always appear the same as on screen.
I love sending a file to a printer without the OS telling me the file was sent to the printer.
I love being able to scroll background windows without bringing them forward on top of my work.
No drive letters!
Those are a few...
I love being able to move a file without breaking any of its shortcuts.
I love being able to add, remove, merge, and separate pages in pdf files.
I love having a modern web browser.
I love the fact that I can print anything to pdf.
I love knowing that printed pages always appear the same as on screen.
I love sending a file to a printer without the OS telling me the file was sent to the printer.
I love being able to scroll background windows without bringing them forward on top of my work.
No drive letters!
Those are a few...
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- Oh, my god, YES! The move/rename thing is divine.
I've had my iMac since 2009 and it was my first ever Mac. I still use it pretty much every day, for everything. I don't have another computer. (Sorry in advance: I wrote a novel here...)
Stuff I love about my Mac:
TEXT. RENDERING. This is the number one thing that drives me insane on Windows. I love nice graphics and fonts, and I'm always trying to learn Asian languages (unsuccessfully). Trying to read hangul or especially hiragana/kanji on a Windows box makes my eyes bleed. It's absolutely terrible, in my opinion. Much, much harder to read than on a Mac.
I love being able to sync all my devices through iCloud. Notes, open tabs, bookmarks, address book, etc. I never planned for that, I wanted an iMac before iPhones existed. But it's so nice to have all these things work mostly seamlessly together.
I like the general feel of the GUI so, so much more than Windows, which is honestly one of the most important things for me, because it's what I interact with most, you know? I love the low-clearance keyboard, the 24" monitor (even though it's not retina). I like the simplicity of the experience, it's very clutter-free and zen.
On PCs, I always wanted to customize everything possible or dig into the command line, and I always got into trouble with that. I can follow directions, but when something goes wrong, I don't know how to fix it if I can't Google the answer. So I'd install things like Windowblinds, but then I'd screw up my system and have to reinstall Windows. So I felt like I spent a lot of time fixing things on my PC rather than just using it to make stuff.
I sometimes joke that I like Macs because it's like putting the cork on the fork. (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels reference, anyone?) I mean it in regards to me, not Mac users in general: I can't jack things up on my Mac as easily as I could on a PC. So all the time I used to waste breaking and fixing things on my PC I can now spend actually enjoying my Mac and getting work done on it.
The only problems I've ever had with my Mac:
- Around 2014 or so, Google Chrome started to make everything freeze so I would have to hard restart. Solution: Use Safari.
- Even with Safari, occasionally if I scroll through Facebook or a crappy website too quickly, my Mac freezes and I have to hard restart. Adding more memory didn't help, sadly. So I just try to be careful and scroll more slowly.
- Boot Camp partition with Windows was annoying because the drivers never worked right. I wouldn't have bothered with it but I wanted to play SWTOR and it's Windows-only. It played, but the speakers for my iMac never sounded right on the Windows end, and I had other weird problems like not being able to get anti-aliasing to work right.
- Everything's slower than it used to be. But hey, this Mac is almost 7 years old and I used to burn it up raiding in WoW. I've used the hell out of this thing and it's still perfectly functional, which is more than I can say for my previous 3 computers (all PCs).
Stuff I miss about Windows:
Adobe programs are problematic enough (BF crashed two SSDs on his PC trying to install After Effects CC this month!), but good lord, Adobe programs are SO wonky on OS X. The windows in Photoshop are a nightmare, I always have to use Exposé to find lost windows. Really irritating. But that's on Adobe, not Apple.
Top of my list, something I really miss is that on Windows, a folder that contains images will have some image thumbnails on the folder icon, so you can quickly visually get an idea of what's inside the folder. I find this to be just a hair quicker to navigate through in comparison to reading the title on OS X. Sometimes the title just isn't descriptive enough and I can't remember what I put in that folder. So I wish OS X had image thumbnails on folders.
When I first switched, I had to get used to the fact that if I dragged a folder with the name "Pics" into a directory with another folder named "Pics," the new one would overwrite the old one. On Windows, I have the option to merge the folder contents, which I find preferable. (I'm not even sure if this still is the case in OS X. I just know it was back in '09.)
Always a bummer when certain things aren't Mac compatible, mostly video games. I didn't regularly play PC games, but I would play the big titles and I still try to. WoW and Portal 2 work on Mac, but SWTOR doesn't, which has always been a bummer.
Having to pay even a little bit for Mac apps that can be found for free on Windows is also a bummer. I understand the reasoning, and the OS X apps are worth the money. The trouble is just that I'm not really a typical Mac user. I don't make much money and neither does anyone in my family - they just all pooled their resources to buy me this iMac as a birthday/starting-college gift. So there are many apps I've gone without because I just couldn't afford to buy them. I feel like there are a lot more free or ad-based apps now than there used to be, though.
Stuff I love about my Mac:
TEXT. RENDERING. This is the number one thing that drives me insane on Windows. I love nice graphics and fonts, and I'm always trying to learn Asian languages (unsuccessfully). Trying to read hangul or especially hiragana/kanji on a Windows box makes my eyes bleed. It's absolutely terrible, in my opinion. Much, much harder to read than on a Mac.
I love being able to sync all my devices through iCloud. Notes, open tabs, bookmarks, address book, etc. I never planned for that, I wanted an iMac before iPhones existed. But it's so nice to have all these things work mostly seamlessly together.
I like the general feel of the GUI so, so much more than Windows, which is honestly one of the most important things for me, because it's what I interact with most, you know? I love the low-clearance keyboard, the 24" monitor (even though it's not retina). I like the simplicity of the experience, it's very clutter-free and zen.
On PCs, I always wanted to customize everything possible or dig into the command line, and I always got into trouble with that. I can follow directions, but when something goes wrong, I don't know how to fix it if I can't Google the answer. So I'd install things like Windowblinds, but then I'd screw up my system and have to reinstall Windows. So I felt like I spent a lot of time fixing things on my PC rather than just using it to make stuff.
I sometimes joke that I like Macs because it's like putting the cork on the fork. (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels reference, anyone?) I mean it in regards to me, not Mac users in general: I can't jack things up on my Mac as easily as I could on a PC. So all the time I used to waste breaking and fixing things on my PC I can now spend actually enjoying my Mac and getting work done on it.
The only problems I've ever had with my Mac:
- Around 2014 or so, Google Chrome started to make everything freeze so I would have to hard restart. Solution: Use Safari.
- Even with Safari, occasionally if I scroll through Facebook or a crappy website too quickly, my Mac freezes and I have to hard restart. Adding more memory didn't help, sadly. So I just try to be careful and scroll more slowly.
- Boot Camp partition with Windows was annoying because the drivers never worked right. I wouldn't have bothered with it but I wanted to play SWTOR and it's Windows-only. It played, but the speakers for my iMac never sounded right on the Windows end, and I had other weird problems like not being able to get anti-aliasing to work right.
- Everything's slower than it used to be. But hey, this Mac is almost 7 years old and I used to burn it up raiding in WoW. I've used the hell out of this thing and it's still perfectly functional, which is more than I can say for my previous 3 computers (all PCs).
Stuff I miss about Windows:
Adobe programs are problematic enough (BF crashed two SSDs on his PC trying to install After Effects CC this month!), but good lord, Adobe programs are SO wonky on OS X. The windows in Photoshop are a nightmare, I always have to use Exposé to find lost windows. Really irritating. But that's on Adobe, not Apple.
Top of my list, something I really miss is that on Windows, a folder that contains images will have some image thumbnails on the folder icon, so you can quickly visually get an idea of what's inside the folder. I find this to be just a hair quicker to navigate through in comparison to reading the title on OS X. Sometimes the title just isn't descriptive enough and I can't remember what I put in that folder. So I wish OS X had image thumbnails on folders.
When I first switched, I had to get used to the fact that if I dragged a folder with the name "Pics" into a directory with another folder named "Pics," the new one would overwrite the old one. On Windows, I have the option to merge the folder contents, which I find preferable. (I'm not even sure if this still is the case in OS X. I just know it was back in '09.)
Always a bummer when certain things aren't Mac compatible, mostly video games. I didn't regularly play PC games, but I would play the big titles and I still try to. WoW and Portal 2 work on Mac, but SWTOR doesn't, which has always been a bummer.
Having to pay even a little bit for Mac apps that can be found for free on Windows is also a bummer. I understand the reasoning, and the OS X apps are worth the money. The trouble is just that I'm not really a typical Mac user. I don't make much money and neither does anyone in my family - they just all pooled their resources to buy me this iMac as a birthday/starting-college gift. So there are many apps I've gone without because I just couldn't afford to buy them. I feel like there are a lot more free or ad-based apps now than there used to be, though.
Currently have mbp 15" and 4 minis.
All boot camp with El Capitan and Windows 10.
I prefer the office suite on Windows.
It just seems as of late I am having to relearn Windows with each version/service pack.
OSX seems to do a better job at preserving the user interface.
Finding files seems to be easier on a pc.
Printing on a pc has turned into an inquisition. Please answe the following survey. Print dammit.
Network conductivity is more straight forward in the Mac but Win offers more customizing.
My work computer is straight Windows.
I like both.
If I need to do something on the Mac that I am unsure of, the Internet is a click away.
Battery life on the mbp is better on the OS X side.
All boot camp with El Capitan and Windows 10.
I prefer the office suite on Windows.
It just seems as of late I am having to relearn Windows with each version/service pack.
OSX seems to do a better job at preserving the user interface.
Finding files seems to be easier on a pc.
Printing on a pc has turned into an inquisition. Please answe the following survey. Print dammit.
Network conductivity is more straight forward in the Mac but Win offers more customizing.
My work computer is straight Windows.
I like both.
If I need to do something on the Mac that I am unsure of, the Internet is a click away.
Battery life on the mbp is better on the OS X side.
Thanks for sharing. I'm planning on running bootcamp and dual booting when I get my macbook pro. Have you found any glitches or errors when running Windows 10 on the mac?
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Thanks for your opinion. How do you find the mac file system vs windows. Which one is easier to find files on? I notice with my windows pcs I always get disorganized eventually and have a bunch of junk files and sometimes find it hard to find important files. Could just be my lack of organization or windows lacking intuition.
[doublepost=1458705567][/doublepost]
Great write up, thanks for being so detailed.
If I find myself sharing a business class flight with Beyoncé I want her to see me using a Mac to hammer out better songs than she's been getting lately. Should I be in a coffee shop (that would be a first for me) and Jennifer Lawrence drops by for an espresso romano, I want her to see that glowing Apple symbol on my computer, on which I'll be writing a script she'll fall in love with. Windows computers are for the real world, but Macs are cool.
1. It works. No driver conflicts so far. It runs fast even if its an old MBA. Touchpad. Design (Hardware and OS)
2. Lack of games obviously. Apple proprietary files, iTunes, costs way too much, old crappy CPUs, often too complicated ( Example: auto import video files from SD-Card -> stored in foto programm -> need to export them out of foto programm -> now m4p whatever format. -> need to convert to mp4 so my friends can watch them. srsly. what the ****? ok. now i know i should not auto-import anything. even the metafiles are lost because who the **** knows what apple is doing while importing ......... )
2. Lack of games obviously. Apple proprietary files, iTunes, costs way too much, old crappy CPUs, often too complicated ( Example: auto import video files from SD-Card -> stored in foto programm -> need to export them out of foto programm -> now m4p whatever format. -> need to convert to mp4 so my friends can watch them. srsly. what the ****? ok. now i know i should not auto-import anything. even the metafiles are lost because who the **** knows what apple is doing while importing ......... )
OS X is a joy to use in comparison to Windows (this increases productivity just because I like using my computer and I'm not fighting with it all the time).
My rMBP 13 is the best compromise on power portability and battery life of any computer I've ever used 2 years on and it's had a sum total of 3 glitches all solved with a restart.
My rMBP 13 is the best compromise on power portability and battery life of any computer I've ever used 2 years on and it's had a sum total of 3 glitches all solved with a restart.
Moved from an i7 2.0GHz Sony Vaio with 8gb RAM on Windows 10 to a Mid 2014 MBP i7 2.5GHz, 16GB RAM and 512SSD and I'm blown away with the performance. There's a lot to get used to but learning the new system is half the battle/fun.
I started to go off Windows at the introduction of Windows 8/8.1. I suggest Microsoft lost a lot of customers not just at the time of that release, but later on because people just simply started to open their eyes to other options as i did and eventually (even though windows 10 isn't that bad), kick them to the curb.
Pro's:
Build quality
Portability/Battery Life
Display Quality
Responsiveness
Reliability
Boot time (Under 10 seconds!?)
Solidness/Stability of apps
Cons:
Erm...?
I started to go off Windows at the introduction of Windows 8/8.1. I suggest Microsoft lost a lot of customers not just at the time of that release, but later on because people just simply started to open their eyes to other options as i did and eventually (even though windows 10 isn't that bad), kick them to the curb.
Pro's:
Build quality
Portability/Battery Life
Display Quality
Responsiveness
Reliability
Boot time (Under 10 seconds!?)
Solidness/Stability of apps
Cons:
Erm...?
I wish I paid more attention to the glitches.
There were several.
After running all the updates the systems seem to be running well.
Well, let's put it this way, my wife has not called/text me for any issues.
If I remember correctly, after loading 10, I went back into OSX and made sure it was up to date.
Then updated 10 and updated OSX.
Somewhere along the line I noticed a boot camp update. Can't remember which OS it was on.
One thing for sure I don't like the Internet browser on 10.
Chrome seems to increase temperature causing the fans to rev up.
For the MBP it's a drain on the battery
I like both. Poeple who say Windows 10 is bad are wrong, no better than PC or Linux elities IMO.
But that doesn't mean OSX doesn't have nice things. The animations and text smoothing truly are better than the competition. That was the biggest thing I noticed. Just how good basic text looked.
But that doesn't mean OSX doesn't have nice things. The animations and text smoothing truly are better than the competition. That was the biggest thing I noticed. Just how good basic text looked.
1. What are the best things about mac in comparison to your PC?
I've been using a Mac for about a year now.
I like the way that updates are handled in the App Store
Good amount of software included with a new Mac which are more than adequate for the home user
Time Machine
Integration with other Apple devices
Amazing trackpad and gestures
Good battery life for a computer with quad core i7 and dGPU
Excellent customer service provided by Apple and its stores
2. What things have you found frustrating on a Mac compared to your old PC?
Finder. Slow when navigating local folders and painfully slow opening folders from my NAS. I have to use my Windows machine whenever I need to work with folders on my NAS
Lack of CAD/CAM software for OS X. I basically have have a $2500 Facebook and internet browsing machine. Extremely frustrating.
Pathetic dGPUs
No upgradability whatsoever
Poor value. Many times I feel stupid for paying $2500 for a machine with only 16GB RAm and pathetic GT750M GPU
I've been using a Mac for about a year now.
I like the way that updates are handled in the App Store
Good amount of software included with a new Mac which are more than adequate for the home user
Time Machine
Integration with other Apple devices
Amazing trackpad and gestures
Good battery life for a computer with quad core i7 and dGPU
Excellent customer service provided by Apple and its stores
2. What things have you found frustrating on a Mac compared to your old PC?
Finder. Slow when navigating local folders and painfully slow opening folders from my NAS. I have to use my Windows machine whenever I need to work with folders on my NAS
Lack of CAD/CAM software for OS X. I basically have have a $2500 Facebook and internet browsing machine. Extremely frustrating.
Pathetic dGPUs
No upgradability whatsoever
Poor value. Many times I feel stupid for paying $2500 for a machine with only 16GB RAm and pathetic GT750M GPU
It just works.
Fast, even after years without a re-install
Speaking of re-installs, re-installing to fix a corrupt OS doesn't disrupt your data or apps
Battery life is GREAT even after 4 years (almost)
The Mac hardware is just fantastically designed and built
File sharing between Macs, just SOOO simple. So is screen sharing
Combo of multi-monitor and multiple desktops. I can have desktops and full-screen apps on both displays and OS X will remember that each time the external display is plugged in
Drag/drop of links and text between windows/screens/tabs, easier than copy/cut/paste
Free major OS version upgrades
Terminal buffers ALL previous commands even after closing (the Windows command prompt only buffers the current session)
My personal Windows computer that my MBP replaced had HORRIBLE battery life and was a dog-slow Core2. My Mini replaced a home-built gaming system as all I was doing was serving media files, figured I could save money on electric with the Mini for that purpose. My work-issued Windows computer sits on its dock and is a reference or only used for Windows-only stuff since it's SOO slow, primarily use a MBA at work with an external display and BT KB and MM.
Fast, even after years without a re-install
Speaking of re-installs, re-installing to fix a corrupt OS doesn't disrupt your data or apps
Battery life is GREAT even after 4 years (almost)
The Mac hardware is just fantastically designed and built
File sharing between Macs, just SOOO simple. So is screen sharing
Combo of multi-monitor and multiple desktops. I can have desktops and full-screen apps on both displays and OS X will remember that each time the external display is plugged in
Drag/drop of links and text between windows/screens/tabs, easier than copy/cut/paste
Free major OS version upgrades
Terminal buffers ALL previous commands even after closing (the Windows command prompt only buffers the current session)
My personal Windows computer that my MBP replaced had HORRIBLE battery life and was a dog-slow Core2. My Mini replaced a home-built gaming system as all I was doing was serving media files, figured I could save money on electric with the Mini for that purpose. My work-issued Windows computer sits on its dock and is a reference or only used for Windows-only stuff since it's SOO slow, primarily use a MBA at work with an external display and BT KB and MM.