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AndyMoore

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
307
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So after 14 years with a Mac, I moving back to a PC. My current iMac is from 2010 and I just can't afford to replace it. I have a windows bootcamp partition that I use to play ARMA 3 and other games but it's understandably pretty slow. I also use Light Room and that's also suffering under macOS.

I'm wondering about iCloud. Will I still be able to access / download my Photos library under Windows 10?
Is there anything that won't transfer over?

Thanks,

Andy.
 
Andy,

Your story is interesting. I've heard many people tell similar stories but they are all missing one huge important thing when talking about price. You aren't looking at the price of ownership over the life of a computer. You say that you can't afford to replace a 7 year old computer. I'm just curious as to how much you spent on that computer over the course of 7 years? I think if you look at the price of ownership over the life of a product, I think Macs are inline if not cheaper than Windows machines and if you add in the additional costs of having to pay for OS upgrades and the cost of anti-virus software, then Windows machines might be more. It also seems to me that Windows machines just aren't as long lasting as Macs.

Why not look at a used Mac? I have never owned a new Mac. I always buy used ones and I've never had any troubles and they are much cheaper. Just something to think about.
 
Andy,

Your story is interesting. I've heard many people tell similar stories but they are all missing one huge important thing when talking about price. You aren't looking at the price of ownership over the life of a computer. You say that you can't afford to replace a 7 year old computer. I'm just curious as to how much you spent on that computer over the course of 7 years? I think if you look at the price of ownership over the life of a product, I think Macs are inline if not cheaper than Windows machines and if you add in the additional costs of having to pay for OS upgrades and the cost of anti-virus software, then Windows machines might be more. It also seems to me that Windows machines just aren't as long lasting as Macs.

Why not look at a used Mac? I have never owned a new Mac. I always buy used ones and I've never had any troubles and they are much cheaper. Just something to think about.

I have a seven year old Lenovo laptop that runs fine with free virus software. I use Office 365 on my macs and pc's. No extra costs. Windows 10 was free for a long time. Upgraded, and have not had a need to spend more.

I recently compared similarly spec'd laptops at Best Buy. Apples cost more. Granted they are not as sexy or sleek, but if cost is the issue it's hard to beat a PC. Especially when something goes on sale. Every now and then an Apple product will go on sale for $50 or $100 off, but not like a PC that is being discounted $400 or more.

The bottom line for many is you can get more for less with a PC. At least that's my experience.
 
I have only purchased new Macs, but I find that the total cost of ownership is lower than Wintel PCs.

As MecaSpanky mentions, the Mac hardware is more useful for a longer time than PC hardware.

Second, Macs have a bunch of free bundled applications (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iTunes, Photos, iMovie, GarageBand) that are probably worth a couple hundred dollars for Windows users. Even stuff like an e-mail client, address book, calendar, etc. are all built into the macOS. Recent versions of Windows have integrated more of this into the OS, but really you needed to buy MS Office to get this functionality. Even today in Windows 10, it's mostly browser based on a standard install.

Then there are the intangibles. Those software packages and others are more tightly integrated with Apple's ecosystem and cloud services: notifications, data syncing, media purchases, etc. iBooks and its integration with iOS. Time Machine backups. The convenience of the App Store. Messages & FaceTime. Maps. Even the relatively weak Siri.

Another thing to note is the system administration load. Windows 10 is a very smooth user experience compared to earlier versions of Windows, but there is still a higher sysadmin and maintenance load with Windows than macOS. I remember when family members switched from PCs to Macs. All of a sudden, the calls for family tech support stopped.

Especially if you live near an Apple Store, you have the Genius Bar as technical support. With Windows you will bounce around various tech support groups and there isn't a standard physical place where you can bring your device and say, "it doesn't work, please fix it for me."

Trust me, I think Windows 10 is a very capable operating system and a very worthy successor to its predecessors. I have a copy running on a VirtualBox virtual machine (primarily to run Quicken).

But if I weigh owning a Mac over its lifetime and owning a Wintel box, I'd pick the Mac every time. At least for my purposes, I can run Windows in a virtual machine for the handful of tasks. I'm definitely not a gamer, but free VirtualBox is good enough for me.
 
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Thank you for your comprehensive replies, I hadn't thought too much about the total cost of ownership between the two and as far as support, both hardware and software, is concerned then Apple wins hands down and that's from personal experience.

Windows 10 is fine, I run it in bootcamp and it's different to macOS certainly but macOS is still my preference for day to day stuff, it just feels more "solid". I don't mean that windows crashes because it hasn't it's just that sitting here typing this in Safari just feels right. My first post above was written in MS Edge on Windows 10 and obviously you can't tell by looking but the feel wasn't the same. Now reading that back it sounds absolutely ludicrous and stupid but there is a feel to how these things work . . .

The thing is, right now, Apple just don't do a machine for me. I lucked out with this iMac being a games player, sometimes photographer and a music fan, it's been fantastic. The 1Gb graphics card and early i5 CPU really helped with all these applications and along with windows bootcamp has enabled me to play some of the latest titles to a degree. Now that's getting a lot harder. I purchased a PS4 a year ago to help and while that's fun, I've always been a mouse and keyboard guy and theres a fair bit I'd like to play on my desktop machine.

For me, if I wanted an iMac right now to replace what I have, I'd need £2500. If Apple update the iMac line shortly, which they are likely to then . . . I'd still need £2500 because the pricing is unlikely to change. A new PC with some nice specs would run less than £1000 which is where my budget ends. Yes, I'd lose the support that I'm used to with Apple but I'd still have access to the iCloud apps via the web interface. I think the only thing I will really miss is the iCloud Keychain and Safari auto fill of user credentials.

I have 1Password so will need to add a windows licence for that but it doesn't work so seamlessly as Keychain and Safari and there's no longer support for Safari on windows which is disappointing. I'm hoping that my Photos library will migrate easily but Lightroom should work just the same. iTunes works on windows too so my music will be fine.

I'm trying to think of something that I'll lose by the move . . . my current iMac is staying here, being passed down to my daughters who have been trying to do homework on a iMac from 2007, so I'll always have a fallback for anything urgent.
 
I have only purchased new Macs, but I find that the total cost of ownership is lower than Wintel PCs.

As MecaSpanky mentions, the Mac hardware is more useful for a longer time than PC hardware.

Second, Macs have a bunch of free bundled applications (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iTunes, Photos, iMovie, GarageBand) that are probably worth a couple hundred dollars for Windows users. Even stuff like an e-mail client, address book, calendar, etc. are all built into the macOS. Recent versions of Windows have integrated more of this into the OS, but really you needed to buy MS Office to get this functionality. Even today in Windows 10, it's mostly browser based on a standard install.

Then there are the intangibles. Those software packages and others are more tightly integrated with Apple's ecosystem and cloud services: notifications, data syncing, media purchases, etc. iBooks and its integration with iOS. Time Machine backups. The convenience of the App Store. Messages & FaceTime. Maps. Even the relatively weak Siri.

Another thing to note is the system administration load. Windows 10 is a very smooth user experience compared to earlier versions of Windows, but there is still a higher sysadmin and maintenance load with Windows than macOS. I remember when family members switched from PCs to Macs. All of a sudden, the calls for family tech support stopped.

Especially if you live near an Apple Store, you have the Genius Bar as technical support. With Windows you will bounce around various tech support groups and there isn't a standard physical place where you can bring your device and say, "it doesn't work, please fix it for me."

Trust me, I think Windows 10 is a very capable operating system and a very worthy successor to its predecessors. I have a copy running on a VirtualBox virtual machine (primarily to run Quicken).

But if I weigh owning a Mac over its lifetime and owning a Wintel box, I'd pick the Mac every time. At least for my purposes, I can run Windows in a virtual machine for the handful of tasks. I'm definitely not a gamer, but free VirtualBox is good enough for me.
I don't know why you think Mac hardware is useful for longer because macs and pcs use the same hardware and windows doesn't exclude computers capable of running the latest operating system like Apple did with sierra.
 
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They don't use the same hardware.

Apple typically selects better quality components than Wintel PC manufacturers. Set aside the CPU and GPU and consider the other components. Things like the display, backlight, power supply, all the various component chips, the battery. Apple's hardware is more expensive because they don't try to shave off ten cents from a capacitor, $0.25 from a USB controller chip, or $2 from a battery or $3 from an LED backlight.

The construction is better and buy choosing better quality components to begin with allows Macs to have a longer useful lifespan than a Wintel PC of the same manufacture date.

Even if you have a Mac and a Wintel PC that last the same long duration (let's say five to seven years), the PC will feel older since the original components weren't as good at the onset.

More than that is the long term ownership experience. Which one was a more pleasant to use over those 5-7 years? Is it worth saving $500 to have a less stellar quality of ownership? Is it worth paying the $0.25/day premium of owning a Mac over five years worth it? I think it is.

For me, the total cost of ownership isn't just a dollar figure. I also consider the long term ownership experience as well and the anticipated amount of satisfaction. Curiously, Mac owners report a higher level of satisfaction than Windows users. In a sense, maybe money can buy happiness, at least when it comes to owning a computer.
 
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