I'm just curious if you have ever found comfort outside of the Mac-ecosystem ? Have you tried or are you currently using other company's laptops ?
Yes, we as family did, actually. It developed gradually, though. The iPhones simply turned too expensive after the 5s models, regardless of direct purchase or part of a mobile package, to staff all our four family members with it. We started with Nokia Lumia 620 and a Moto E 2014. We trend to use Android for the time being. My wife still uses her Lumia 640 on Windows Mobile. The moment the software stops performing, we have to replace it. But the hardware and handling of it is perfect, we don´t want to give it up by any means! I wished this model would support Android or any other custom ROM. It´s really crazy. My daughter and I each still use a Moto X 2013 model, modded via rooting with additional security and mods to improve. They are still quite capaple devices and their form factor, unfortunately, is getting so rare. And we personally love the wooden back covers. All the mobiles sync via Onedrive/Dropbox/GDrive, to avoid lockin. I feel that the Oneplus 3 is a future candidate - LTS hardware so to speak – for us, with ample of custom ROM support. It´s not perfect, but sufficient for our needs in the years to come.
We still use two iPad 2 models, 16GB and 64GB, with screen/touch modules repaired several times ... and it´s not always the kids, mind you, who break them, haha. We won´t replace them at the moment, as they still perform core functions like internet research, Netflix, music streaming and occational games.But we don´t see much value in the new iPad models, especially with severe iOS 11 instabilities and workflow deficiencies at the moment. And they would, e.g., still require a PC/Mac for our daughter´s school work. The Surface Pro range from Microsoft does look good for this, especially the much better pen support on that platform. It is unfortunate, that Microsoft - and Google with Pixel - don´t see through their hardware quality problems - software is perfectly fine with me, at least. The moment those two concentrate on building trust with their hardware reliability, we get real hardware competition.
My wife still enjoys her Macbook 2008 unibody, updated to a 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM. At the job, she uses a Surface Pro 4 and while she hates the odd quirks the machine gives her on a regular basis, she loves the form factor for her specific workflow: deskwork combined with intense travels. Her Macbook still uses OSX 10.10 Yosemite. I do use 10.11 Sierra. We won´t upgrade to High Sierra for the time being, as long as all our software needs are perfectly fulfilled. We don´t see any security or usability needs enhanced by it. VirtualBox trains us to use Windows/Linux, too.
I built a 6 core PC for gaming, windows specific work loads and the future transition to a more powerful OX machine. I want to make it my OSX desktop, especially for the much more potent graphics card hardware selection, and at the moment I experiment to have a fast data transition from the boot drive of my Macbook Pro to the PC; best as a sole drop in replacement in case on of one the machines breaking.
My Macbook Pro is more stable with the DIY hacks than before, funnily, and I like the thunderbolt interface for docking it at home - I use a Caldigit Thunderbolt Station 2 and Lacie eSATA bridges. It´s rock solid. I haven´t tried it with thunderbolt equipped PCs yet, but if it performs as seamless, my last hardware barrier falls. I do dislike the USB-C implementations at the moment: It´s, frankly speaking, a big and ugly mess NOT being universaI. like Logic Pro X. But I make myself familiar with Ableton Live at the moment, which is a somewhat different, but adequate replacement. And it´s cross platform.
Should we need to get other computer/mobile hardware, Apple products wouldn´t be bought new, that´s for sure. Here in Germany, for us as a familiy, we can no longer afford them and the value/quality isn´t there anymore, unfortunately, neither in hadrware nor software. We won´t finance mobile/hardware purchases; the strict rule is they must be bought from the running budget. Used machines are a perfect value proposition for us and do support our way of life: We as a family purposefully train to use products as long as suitable and repair them as we go. Buy quality firsthand if possible, but always prolong it it fits your workflow. If you can´t repair it, we don´t want to use it - even if it´s cheap firsthand or called be the best on the block.
In the last few years we more and more do encourage and support cross platform products, letting use move our data freely between machines and services free from vendor specific burdens. Think about what you want to do first, not whom you need. Oh, it is hard to teach kids platform independence, when most of their peers celebrate it to the bone- be it Samsung, Apple, Nike ... you get the point, I guess.
