Lifelong Windows guy contemplating the switch

[scotttnz]

Windows 8 hate inspired me to buy my first Mac after being a windows user and administrator\server guy for 20 years. I still use windows at work, but on my own time I prefer MacOS

 

[kmihir]

Hi jmarttu24,

Can you elaborate?, Which MacBook you were using,
Actually I am also thinkg to buy a Macbook for consistent performance, I am Designer I do you use some serious engineering design application like AutoCAD, Civil3D, Some bentley packages

I would appriciate your reponse before I commit to decided to buy MBP

 

[shaunp]

My thinkpad needs to be replaced and rather than get yet another thinkpad, I am considering going into MacOS this time. I have the phone, iPad, watch, apple tv. Only thing I am missing is the computer.

For someone who has used exclusively Windows for 30 or so years, this is a scary proposition. I don't know much about the Macbook lineup cause I never seriously considered it. Which model would you recommend and should I wait, as in are new models expected in the next couple months?

Thanks!

I've been from Windows to Mac and back again. Mac OS and the integration between Apple mobile devices and services is fantastic. Best on the market no doubt. However Mac hardware leaves something to be desired. Compared to a Thinkpad you will have a lack of ports (hope you like dongles), only a glossy screen option, you will have to buy all your RAM and storage upfront (not possible, or very difficult to upgrade in future), the new keyboards are dreadful (subjective) and if you need more than 16GB RAM there is no option as Apple doesn't provide anything with more RAM than this. I would if I were you go into an Apple store (without you credit card) and try using one for an hour or so. Take your time, even have multiple visits to get over the initial impression. Let's put it this way I'm not running on a new MBP, I've gone back to a Thinkpad having had the best that Apple can provide.

 

[apolkowski]

You can install macOS on your ThinkPad if you want to try things out before committing to the money.

How?

 

[Hater]

How?

https://www.tonymacx86.com/

 

[ChrisA]

.... the few times i have to use Windows at work now i just want to scream its beyond frustrating, i don't know why i put up with Windows for so long.

THIS is why many Windows users are afraid to buy a Mac. Oddly because Windows is so horrible they fear leaving it. It sounds backwards but every Windows user knows how much work it was to learn to use Windows and all the tricks they need to do to keep it secure and they assume all operating systems are like this.

This is almost universal, all Windows users think all OSes are the same. So they think any computer can be "hacked" and self driving cars will crash because of a virus. What they don't realize is there Windows is unique. Never before was there anything so poor. And I mean it. Look at the OSes in use at the time Windows was new: VMS, SunOS, Mac OS 9. All of these where miles ahead in Windows. Windows had just ONE advantage but it was a huge advantage: It ran on the lowest cost hardware. It was dramatically lower cost. It had zero else going for it compared to the competition. People bought it based on cost.

That is the heart of why Windows users think switching OSes will be hard, they expect a bad usability problem

I've done this experiment many times with students, I give them Chromebooks with no instruction. These are Linux based notebooks. Never once do first time users have to ask for help. Never. There is zero learning curve.

For the OP's use case, basically web browsing and minor photo editing. The Chrome book could work. But the Macs are a little nicer especially if you need to run a virtual machine or anything else that is specialized.

Windows has gotten better but is still unique in terns of it's horrible usability and security. Other OSes are not like this.

 

[jmarttu24]

Hi jmarttu24,

Can you elaborate?, Which MacBook you were using,
Actually I am also thinkg to buy a Macbook for consistent performance, I am Designer I do you use some serious engineering design application like AutoCAD, Civil3D, Some bentley packages

I would appriciate your reponse before I commit to decided to buy MBP

I was using a 2012 macbook pro 15inch. I upgraded the ram to 16gb, but when I progressed further into college and got into larger cad files with several xrefs and running multiple programs at once like sketchup, photoshop, and cad, my mac couldn't handle it. When trying to zoom or move around in cad, my file would disappear making the experience awful.
Mostly everyone at my school in architecture and landscape architecture were using windows machines to collaborate more smoothly. I also found that most of the design programs were windows based and lacked support for my mac, which is really upsetting when you drop 2k for a computer. Programs like cad, civil3d, 3ds max, lumion, and sketchup were more catered to windows, or windows only, and I found it a pain to have to switch to use both windows and mac on one computer at the same time.I am now a landscape architect in a professional office and I personally could not recommend a mac. The programs nowadays seem to be heavy on the graphics and ram and I don't think the macs can handle it. With windows you have the option to upgrade graphics cards and alter the machine to your needs, but with mac it's not possible. I haven't followed the latest macbooks in awhile so they could be better at handling these programs, but if you're going to spend upwards of 2k, you can get a powerful windows computer that can handle everything, whereas the mac may not perform and lack the program support for our field.

I did love my macbook pro and would buy one again, but not for professional use.