If you want a file system that's compatible between both OSes without nearly as many limitations, use exFAT. It supports file sizes over 4GB, and last I heard, both Windows and OSX support it fully.
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How hard is it to move to Windows?
- Thread starter Astroboy907
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If you want a file system that's compatible between both OSes without nearly as many limitations, use exFAT. It supports file sizes over 4GB, and last I heard, both Windows and OSX support it fully.
Agreed, I remember using Lotus 123, with the slash key to enter my data. I'm not fan of the ribbon, and some of the other conventions of Office that have been recently added but with that said. I do believe it is the best, most robust suite out there. There are still competitors, though they're not really gaining any traction.
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Agreed, exFat is the way to go, avoid Fat32 since it does not offer you anything.
Supposedly this has finally been addressed in Windows X.
I haven't done (and wouldn't do) that, but I've used Windows exclusively until 2004 without any major issues and would just as well be able to use it today. I'm already forced to do so from time to time. Windows is not hard to use, just in a lot of ways far more annoying than OS X – ymmv.
Same here. Id suggest using a Mac and have Windows on that, gives you the best of both worlds.
I moved to OS X a year ago, each core function has an equivalent.
Ignore the crock about virus and updates. MSE is great and automatic, Updates you set that to Auto. Every now and then when you shut it down it will process the updates quickly, thats no biggie.
Ignore posts about cheap hardware. You choose what hardware you want, you can go cheap, mid range, high end.
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Who is "their" Microsoft? You can choose amongst many manufacturers and spec the hardware as you choose. If its bad, that's cos you bought bad. Remember, Mac and PC's use the same hardware platform.
I only have one problem with Windows updates, and it's one that I've griped about here before.
This!
Once you're up and running, the updates are fine. Set them to automatic, and you'll only notice them during those few times a year you're required to reboot to complete one.
But when you're dealing with a new computer or install, the moment you hit the desktop, you're SLAMMED by the hundreds of updates you have to wade through to get your machine up to date. I'm looking at over a gig here, and I bet it's gonna take at least two hours and four reboots to get all all going.
And that is a pain in my ass. A PAIN! In. MY ASS!
All MS has to do is offer up to date isos to their consumers and OEMs to use, and this problem is GONE!
I love OS X and Windows. At home I'm all Mac, but I keep a VM of Windows 8.1 open on both of my Mac's. Actually, on the iMac I have Windows 10 running right now. Mostly the VM's for Windows are for work purposes and the Mac's for everything else.
At work, as a Systems Administrator, I run an all Windows environment, so with that said, I'm fluent with both platforms.
True, if you reinstall off on older DVD, but that's pretty infrequent these days, so a genuine negative but infrequent
Yeah, it's hardly the end of the world, but it is one of the things about Windows that could definitely be improved.
The only thing MS offers as far as updated media is concerned are the service pack releases. But those only come out every other year, and aren't always easily available for everyone to grab. You usually have to use whatever version you have a key for, and update from there.
I'm hoping Win10 fixes this issue, because it looks like they're doing rolling releases with it, kinda like Linux distros.
edit: and my link will be up once Dropbox quits indexing, and gets around to uploading again.
I'd say it's pretty easy to move to Windows. It'll take you a few weeks.
I switched to Windows during the Lion days.
In the meantime I tried every new OS Apple released, but they all sucked. I want to use Mac OS again, i guess i'll have to wait for the next Snow Leopard.
I switched to Windows during the Lion days.
In the meantime I tried every new OS Apple released, but they all sucked. I want to use Mac OS again, i guess i'll have to wait for the next Snow Leopard.
I've thought recently about possibly moving to Windows as well. I've had only Apple computers since 1983. But, I've grown tired of Apple's move towards everything being as basic as possible, and based entirely on iOS apps (like changing numbers to not have a page layout feature). That, and the "it just works" mantra is dead as a doornail.
Yet, they can't seem to come out with a damn touchscreen desktop or even a laptop running OSX. Is it even on the radar? Don't think so.
I want touchscreen functionality on a desktop OS without having to go through third party hoops and third party hardware and software. And to do that, a move to Windows will likely have to happen. I haven't found Windows to be difficult at all, and have actually enjoyed some of it. Using a Windows 8 all-in-one at work during the fall, it would start up and shut down in literally seconds, whereas my mac takes almost 90 seconds (yeah, it's old, but I've never seen a mac start up that fast).
Yet, they can't seem to come out with a damn touchscreen desktop or even a laptop running OSX. Is it even on the radar? Don't think so.
I want touchscreen functionality on a desktop OS without having to go through third party hoops and third party hardware and software. And to do that, a move to Windows will likely have to happen. I haven't found Windows to be difficult at all, and have actually enjoyed some of it. Using a Windows 8 all-in-one at work during the fall, it would start up and shut down in literally seconds, whereas my mac takes almost 90 seconds (yeah, it's old, but I've never seen a mac start up that fast).
I want no part of a touch screen desktop. That's what my keyboard and mouse are for, not reaching to a screen.
I want no part of a touch screen desktop. That's what my keyboard and mouse are for, not reaching to a screen.
I thought the same thing, but my wife has an AIO PC that is touch screen and i now have a SP3, and in both cases, reaching to do something is a big plus. Granted, in both cases the screen is not too far away. Its a nice feature imo.
iPad- touch screen required, acceptable, but not as much functionality as a keyboard/mouse and more prone to spelling errors.
Desktop- touch screen no way if I can help it. I can reach my keyboard very comfortably, screen sits at back of my desk.
It's not that I want to always use a touchscreen. Obviously drafting with a touchscreen would be awful (precisely why I'm not liking this move towards everything iOS). But, there are many, may applications where having touch ability would be just fantastic. And it's one reason I have to buy a PC to use some of my lighting programs. I could use them with a mouse and keyboard, but they are designed for touch use. So I can't even use bootcamp in these situations because the touch ability is nonexistent. I don't want only a touchscreen, I want a touchscreen mac with a mouse and keyboard. It's not too much to ask, it's just too much to ask of Apple.
I've also had plenty of situations using filemaker where I'd love some touch ability.
I think Apple's choice to integrate MacOS with iOS while keeping them separate is the wise path forward
Agreed. I'd like to see more of MacOS integrated into iOS, but that's probably a pipe dream. I actually kind of like the way Windows 8 has done it, it a touch interface which you can switch to the more normal desktop interface.
What I don't like is how Apple is simplifying everything to the point of non-usability. Some apps have had so many features cut, I had to go back to the old versions. But this seems to be their MO lately: go for the basic novice user. I guess that's more profitable. And of course it's their decision. But what a pain in the ass to suddenly not be able to work on documents you've been working on for years because the new versions have dropped so many features.
While I can't completely agree with the direction Apple's taking, my recent experience with Numbers has shown me some of the wisdom in their recent decisions.
A friend of mine started up a business a few years back, and it's getting to the point that he's starting to have to drop jobs because he can't fill the requests by himself. After some convincing, he managed to talk me into apprenticing with him on the side with the promise of becoming a co-owner if I don't accidentally kill either him or myself in the process.
...plus he has a CNC machine, and thought working for him was a perfect excuse to have complete unfettered access to it.
Anyway, he wanted to be able to keep track of every expense I make while on the clock. From hours worked, to lunch bills, to materials I use for training, to any and all other miscellaneous details. Now I'm far from being a spreadsheet pro, but I didn't think it'd be too difficult to figure out. I've done some simple spreadsheets before, so I have an idea of what I was getting it. I buy Numbers for my iPad, and go to town with it.
It took me about 2 hours to learn to make a stylish looking, logically laid out spreadsheet that accounts and tallies every cost, positive and negative, for a month. It's all cells referencing cells referencing other cells. I type my hours in on the left, input the cost of lunch in the middle, throw in numbers into the misc. category with notes beside it, and it gives me the final cost of the day on the right, with the grand total on the bottom. It was dead simple stupid to set up.
I even ended up making a ton spreadsheets for myself. I had kept records in Pages previously, and added up my costs at the end of the week. For all my supposed tech savvy, I'm pretty low-fi about some things.
He sees it, likes it, and wants to have access to it too for his own records. He's pretty well versed in Excel, and the PDF files I've been sending him weren't good enough for him. I figured it was a good excuse to finally get around to using Office. I had already done a few nice spreadsheets in Numbers. How hard could Excel be in comparison?
Turns out quite a bit. There's so much more to Excel. Like everything Microsoft, it gives a much finer level of control, and puts it all right in front of you. What took me a couple of hours in Numbers ended up taking me three days to learn in Excel.
...and I still can't get it to calculate hours to duration number times hourly pay when the clock flips from PM to AM without mysteriously adding 10 hours.
So while I think Apple's seeming abandonment of the pro market for more casual users is lamentable, I can understand why they're doing it. Their software, while sacrificing features for the sake of streamlined simplicity, is so much easier to use that anyone can figure it out with a minimal amount of effort. I guess their thinking behind the move is that if you need that extra power, you can always use someone else's software on your Mac in place of theirs.
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You know what is really useful for. Swiping the screen for scrolling and/or navigating around. I wouldn't use it for editing a word document but it has its advantages. I'd not be so quite to dismiss it. My wife works as a legal secretary, and she really wanted a AIO touchscreen. Why? Because she has one in work, so she works 8 hours a day using a desktop with touchscreen capability. Granted she doesn't reach for the screen all the time, but it adds some nice functionality.
Interestingly, as a developer, system architect, tech author, I feel like my tools on OSX have remained powerful and that I still get more overall effectiveness out of my Mac than any other OS.
Around a year ago (wow, didn't realise it was this long) I built a gaming PC, which was intended partly to replace my xbox 360 and partly to supplement my ageing MBP for uni work.
I still use my MBP as my main computer, but for some things (obviously gaming, another big one is pcb design) I use my PC.
This MBP was my first personal computer but until about a year before I got it I had never used a mac before, so you could say I was raised a windows guy. Honestly I didn't find it hard to switch to windoze. Someone earlier summed it up for me when they said "a computer is a computer".
I will add however that I still like OSX enough that my (ordered today) replacement for the MBP is another (retina) MBP. I thought about getting a windows laptop, but I generally prefer OSX and especially apple hardware.
I still use my MBP as my main computer, but for some things (obviously gaming, another big one is pcb design) I use my PC.
This MBP was my first personal computer but until about a year before I got it I had never used a mac before, so you could say I was raised a windows guy. Honestly I didn't find it hard to switch to windoze. Someone earlier summed it up for me when they said "a computer is a computer".
I will add however that I still like OSX enough that my (ordered today) replacement for the MBP is another (retina) MBP. I thought about getting a windows laptop, but I generally prefer OSX and especially apple hardware.
Yes, Numbers is far simpler, and it's why I still use it, albeit the downgraded version. For one, they took away the floating inspector, and multiple inspectors with it. So now, it's a bunch of added clicks, counter-productive. Secondly, they took away page layout mode. So now, you have no idea how the stuff will fit on a page without printing a preview, which is completely counter-productive. No multi-column sort. No headers or footers. And a whole host of others. There's "simplifying", and there's simply destroying.
Definitely considering it further as it seems windows isn't too hard to adjust to. A couple things holding me back right now. One of them being the awful windows trackpads... I'm not sure I could ever get used to those
Having owned Apple devices since 2006 I made the switch back to Windows a few months ago after running into a number of limiting issues with OSX. Moving data from one system to another was almost painless (though not exactly effortless) - Thunderbird can read the .mbox files Mail exports and iPhoto let's you drag and drop your albums into separate folders, though in both cases you lose the overall folder structure of course.
The things I miss most:
Things I like better now:
The things I miss most:
- iPhoto - there are some free alternatives, Picasa probably being the most prominent. iPhoto works better with multiple libraries, though on the other hand Picasa simply uses your OS's native folder structure instead of organizing your pictures in the non-intuitive way iPhoto does (outside of the iPhoto UI that is)
- Pixelmator - yes, I know, the GIMP and all... but that's a piece of clunky rubbish compared to the simplicity and power of Pixelmator. You will be missed, sweet prince.
- Time Machine - ease of backing up is still one of the major selling points for OSX in my opinion, but there seems to be at least one similar tool for Windows (albeit not free of course).
Things I like better now:
- MusicBee - it's like if somebody took a good look at iTunes and thought, "Yeah, but how can we make this useful for those who care about their music collection beyond being a simple refill station for their iDevices?" There are so many features I missed in iTunes - tagging, multiple genre/artist/composer support, custom fields... the only downside is that you still have to use iTunes to sync your devices but MusicBee offers to export an iTunes compatible library file so it's still possible.
- Messing around - I still think that OSX is great for everyday use and works fine within the confines of what Apple allows their users to do, but once you want to get out of that comfort zone you start hitting invisible walls everywhere, and when a simple task like connecting your MBA to an external monitor fails twice for non-explainable reasons when on Windows it just works you really start to question some of the decisions made in Cupertino...
If you're using Windows 8, you already have a decent (if not nearly as snazzy) Time Machine equivalent built right into the OS. Look up File History, and see if it works for you.