Is your MacBook Pro your only computer?

[ruslan120]

Yes, 15”. A while ago, I had both a laptop and an iMac, but the Mac laptops in the last few years are so ridiculously powerful that I really don’t see a point in using a desktop anymore. Also, synchronizing data over multiple machines is still a mess.

I found the relocating shared home directories to an external NVMe SSD -> iMac and then sharing that drive on the home network has simplified syncing.

What kind of work do you do on the laptop? (just wondering, I've read the newer laptops thermal throttle during heavy video edits but if you don't do that then they make perfect sense)

 

[VictorTango777]

It is my only computer. Same for my wife. We are considering getting iMacs in the far future (few years from now) but only if finances allow it. Really no need though because we connect our MBPs to external monitors when home.

Apple engineers only seem to test MacOS using 12 inch MacBooks. If you use a Mac laptop with a large external monitor, you may as well cover the entire screen with a sheet of cardboard and cut out a section in the bottom left corner.

Below are examples of working with applications and Finder windows on a MacBook Pro laptop screen, then connecting a 30 inch, 2560x1600 monitor as the main display.

1. Finder windows that were in the top left corner or the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
2. Applications such as Photos, News, Stocks which I put in the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
3. Documents from applications such as Keynote and Omnigraffle which filled the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
4. DMG disk image files for various downloaded applications frequently open in the in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor by default.
5. Some applications such as DVD Player in MacOS 10.14 Mojave or Powerpoint keep opening in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor no matter how many times I move the application window.

I first noticed these issues in Yosemite 10.10 and they continue to this day. If you think this looks annoying on a 30 inch monitor, imagine how it will look on larger ultrawide monitors. Yet somehow we are supposed to convince ourselves that this is "normal" and people should position their monitors so they are always looking directly at the bottom left corner of the screen. I have never seen an operating system handle window positioning as STUPIDLY as MacOS.

 

[entropi]

hm. I wish. I think a fell in the ”lifestyle inflation trap” so I have a MBP, a mba, a mac mini and three iPads and two iPhones... (and an apple watch!) Life was so much simpler with only one mac laptop and nothing more. I am going back to something like that (but the laptop will not be a mac).

 

[BigMcGuire]

Apple engineers only seem to test MacOS using 12 inch MacBooks. If you use a Mac laptop with a large external monitor, you may as well cover the entire screen with a sheet of cardboard and cut out a section in the bottom left corner.

Below are examples of working with applications and Finder windows on a MacBook Pro laptop screen, then connecting a 30 inch, 2560x1600 monitor as the main display.

1. Finder windows that were in the top left corner or the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
2. Applications such as Photos, News, Stocks which I put in the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
3. Documents from applications such as Keynote and Omnigraffle which filled the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor.
4. DMG disk image files for various downloaded applications frequently open in the in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor by default.
5. Some applications such as DVD Player in MacOS 10.14 Mojave or Powerpoint keep opening in the bottom left corner of the 30 inch monitor no matter how many times I move the application window.

I first noticed these issues in Yosemite 10.10 and they continue to this day. If you think this looks annoying on a 30 inch monitor, imagine how it will look on larger ultrawide monitors. Yet somehow we are supposed to convince ourselves that this is "normal" and people should position their monitors so they are always looking directly at the bottom left corner of the screen. I have never seen an operating system handle window positioning as STUPIDLY as MacOS.

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I hear you. I'm using an older 24' 1920x1200 monitor but I see what you're talking about. I can only imagine what it would be like on a 4k monitor 30'+. lol.

 

[RobbieTT]

At home:
3 x Mac minis
2 x MBPs
1 x iMac Pro

Different usage drives the need for different machines.

 

[leman]

I found the relocating shared home directories to an external NVMe SSD -> iMac and then sharing that drive on the home network has simplified syncing.

why use external drive? You can just share the internal one. But if you have hundreds of files across dozens of projects, keeping track gets messy. I used version control tools and a centralized synch server for a while, but it’s troublesome as well.

What kind of work do you do on the laptop? (just wondering, I've read the newer laptops thermal throttle during heavy video edits but if you don't do that then they make perfect sense)

Programming, data mining/analysis, probabilistic modeling, a lot of writing etc. The throttling is greatly exaggerated. The laptop (2018 i9 15”) is able to maintain above base frequency speeds while running all core workloads most of the time (not last few weeks though with average temperatures in my office over 35C). Of course, for serious stuff I use the supercomputer since some of the stuff I do needs thousands and thousands of machine hours to run. But the laptop is great for prototyping and normal work.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

iMac 5K i7 late-2015 plus MBP 13" i7 with TouchBar 2018. I usually rotate a computer every 4 years or so alternately so that in the worst case I have a 2 year plus a 4 year computer. Not having a computer would be a but of a major inconvenience and is worth having the two. The MBP is more a " just in case toy" than anything.

 

[thadoggfather]

it is indeed,

I have two iPads I regularly use (12.9 2018 and mini5), and three modern iPhones (two SE's and XR, XR is daily driver really just fiddle with the SE's) but only one computer and been that way for a long time / forever really. Go figure.

 

[Hieveryone]

Just curious as to others setups. My 15" is my only computer even though i'm debating on getting an iMac or an Alienware.

Used to be! Until I bought a 2019 base model 15" MacBook Pro. Now I have a late 2013 13" rMBP 2.6/8/256

And a 2019 15" MacBook Pro 2.6/16/256/6-core

 

[Michael CM1]

I treat my laptops as secondary portables. I take them with me everywhere and rely on them mainly for work or late night reading or browsing. That being said, I offload anything of value (Files, photos, videos) onto my desktop and raid storage when I am home. I use a 2014 Mac Mini with two 4k 27" monitors for home use.

I adapted this strategy after I had a laptop stolen. Portable is great, but it also means they can be lost or stolen. I do not want to have anything of value disappear. I know home computers can be stolen as well, but I feel a computer that can be taken with you is at more risk.

Unless of course your laptop never leaves the house.

That just happened to me recently. Thankfully I use iCloud for backing up photos and used it for backing up what's on my desktop and documents folders. The only issue I'm running into is loading Windows using Parallels. Windows is being cranky because that activation is on another device. I haven't figured out how to get past that, but thankfully that's a minor thing to lose.

So yeah, definitely an issue. I need to set this thing to back up once I get back to my place. When I switched from a MacBook Air to a MacBook Pro, there was some issue with restoring from a Time Machine backup because of macOS versions. I just set it up as new and downloaded files. Whoops for not getting back to a backup.

 

[marzfreerider]

In addition to my MacBook Pro, I use an 27" iMac (like having a bigger screen/more power), and a Dell XPS 15 for work.

 

[tpivette89]

My late-2011 13" MBP is my main machine when I travel for work (4-5 days a week), but it's mainly used as a media/internet device due to it's age. I've been thinking of getting something a little newer even though mine is upgraded (new battery, 16gb RAM, 250GB SSD).

My home desktop is a early-2009 Mac Pro which is flashed to a 5,1 model. It is upgraded with a 6-core 3.06ghz CPU, 24GB RAM, an SSD as the boot drive, and a pair of HDDs. I also added an RX480 GPU and a USB 3.0 card. Runs Mojave effortlessly and is great due to it's upgradeability, even though it's CPU is a little lacking in single core performance.

The kids also have a 2009 Mac Pro that is upgraded as well (3.33ghz 6-core CPU, 12GB RAM, an SSD, and a RX480 GPU). They use it mainly as a Roblox/youtube machine. Being able to use off the shelf AMD graphics cards has made it a pretty decent gaming rig.

Finally, the wife has a 2018 Mac Mini (i5/16GB/256GB) that is connected to our living room 55" 4k TV.

 

[xxray]

Yep. I have an old iMac that's usable, but very slow, so I just use it as a display for my MBP.

 

[Jarkleuang2018]

Nope, also have Mac pro, Mac mini and surface go

 

[960design]

Just curious as to others setups. My 15" is my only computer even though i'm debating on getting an iMac or an Alienware.

No.
I have an iMac27, Dual Stacked MacMini's, iPad Pro11, 3 AppleTVs, Acer ZenBook Pro (Win10), Dell XPS 15 (Ubuntu) and more all for work.

 

[Clockworkz]

I have:
2 PC laptops
1 MBA
1 PC desktop

Different uses, but the desktop and MBA are mine which I use.

 

[pshufd]

I have two 15 inch MacBook Pros which I use daily, a 2014 and a 2015. I have a work-issued 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro which I rarely use. I also have two Dell Studio XPS desktops which I bought refurbished in 2008. I've done a lot of mods to them but I haven't turned on either one in months. They have aftermarket PSUs, extra RAM (9-13 GB), SSDs and Nehalem i7 processors which still can do a lot of work, even on an 11-year-old processor. I also have a 2008 17 inch MacBook Pro which I haven't used in several months. The display died. It's still a decent machine and has a nice 1 TB SSD but the 2014 and 2015 are good enough to do just about everything on.

 

[smbu2000]

No, definitely not. I just upgraded to a nicer 2018 15" (2.9 i9 6core/32GB/560X/2TB) system from my max 2016 15" MBP.
My main system is a 2013 new Mac Pro (12 core Xeon/64GB/D700/1TB).

I also have a Win10 system (8 core Xeon/64GB/GTX 1080Ti), using the Xeon CPU that was in my Mac Pro.

 

[maflynn]

I typically have two or more computers. With a family of four needing access to the computers at various times, having more then one makes sense in my situation. I usually only use a single computer, i.e., my thinkpad

 

[Webster's Mac]

Just curious as to others setups. My 15" is my only computer even though i'm debating on getting an iMac or an Alienware.

Kind of. I have lots of older machines (Windows and Mac)...some that are more recent (Thinkpad T420 and Latitude E6430). I use the MBP the most though. Comes with me to work/school, gets docked at home, goes with me to coffee shops, etc. It's great. It's a Mid-2015 MBP btw. Just had the battery recall done and previous owner had the display recall done. So it's basically brand new and I freaking love it. Definitely the best computer I've ever owned!

 

[RayLancer]

My MBP13 is my travel machine and for light use. My Alienware 13R3 is my main machine (and for gaming).

 

[millerj123]

Personally or household? I use: MBPro, 2 work laptops, 1 windows desktop. Family uses 2MBPros, 2 more desktops, 2 laptops, 4 iPad minis, 4 iPhones, 2 Apple watches. And a couple of spare desktop computers.

 

[cdcastillo]

Just curious as to others setups. My 15" is my only computer even though i'm debating on getting an iMac or an Alienware.

A portable mac has been my only computer since 2001. First a white iBook, then a Powerbook (that got stolen at the hospital), followed by a white macbook, then 2 macbook pros, this last one with me since 2015, do not intend to change it (crossing my fingers)

 

[Donnation]

Also have 27" iMac.

 

[akash.nu]

I don’t like to have multiple computers that complicates my workflow. I was on a 2013 MacBook Air which was struggling with my requirements so upgraded to the 13" Pro a couple of days ago. I’ll set it all up this weekend and that’s it. The old one will either go to a family member or in the drawer.