Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

marc55

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
872
217
For those who have switched to MBP recently from Windows 7 or 8.1, is the MBP and OSX all you thought it would be? How is the MBP experience better than your Windows PC.

The reason I ask is I'm trying to justify the expense, and while I can afford a MBP, I just want to try to ensure I won't be disappointed, as Windows 8.1 is really not that bad, albeit the touchpad on my XPS could be better.

So overall, is the MBP significantly a better user experience over your Windows computer?

Thank you

EDIT: I am retired, so this will be for general home use; letters, excel spreadsheets, surfing the web, etc.
 
Last edited:

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,308
So overall, is the MBP significantly a better user experience over your Windows computer?
I'm not a recent switched - been using OSX and before that apple's classic OS for years but I do use a PC at work and have extensive experience supporting and maintaining servers and desktops at work.

With that said here's my $.02.

I think OSX provides a more integrated and consistent user experience. Like any OS it has its own quirks and some things just operate different. One major advantage imo is that Apple designs both the hardware and software and I think the MBP/OSX combination is the best out there.

Instead of producing a list of features I like, which you may not find helpful, I will say its a solid stable operating system that allows you to work the way you want too.

What are planning on using the MBP for - What software and tasks?
 

nealh

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2010
535
70
I'm not a recent switched - been using OSX and before that apple's classic OS for years but I do use a PC at work and have extensive experience supporting and maintaining servers and desktops at work.

With that said here's my $.02.

I think OSX provides a more integrated and consistent user experience. Like any OS it has its own quirks and some things just operate different. One major advantage imo is that Apple designs both the hardware and software and I think the MBP/OSX combination is the best out there.

Instead of producing a list of features I like, which you may not find helpful, I will say its a solid stable operating system that allows you to work the way you want too.

What are planning on using the MBP for - What software and tasks?

1. I may just be ignorant, but is there a way to open a second find wind without having to right click the icon and open "new finder window"? Double clicking does not work like in win 7 to open another explorer window.

2. I have finder set to open new folders in tab, under preferences but this in not working unless I right click again.

I must be a moron:(
TIA
 

Hockin

macrumors member
Sep 30, 2013
50
2
England
I definitely wasn't disappointed. In fact I'm very happy. Not only is OSX really nice to use, the hardware it's paired with the best I've ever used...
 

Stunned Monkey

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2013
100
0
For those who have switched to MBP recently from Windows 7 or 8.1, is the MBP and OSX all you thought it would be? How is the MBP experience better than your Windows PC...

I bought my first MBP (or, first Mac of any kind) recently. I've been using Microsoft-based machines since DOS 3.2, before anyone ever heard of Windows, and I'm an IT admin managing a Windows AD environment. So I'm as MS based as you can get.

I like the MBP, and I'm trying to use OSX exclusively though I do have a Windows VM for a few work-based utilities (think vsphere and so forth) that do not run on OSx. I'm liking the experience, for the most part, though this notebook is my knock-around notebook not my main workstation, either at home or work. So I'm not a switcher. I do struggle sometimes with certain tasks. Finder is a horrible tool for file management compared with some of the Windows tools I've used (Directory Opus) and none of the 3rd party Mac tools for file management are much better. It'd be more of an issue to me if this were my main machine.

All in all, as a Windows guy, I like it. I'd be a long way from a permanent and total move to the platform for professional purposes, but for a personal notebook I like using it more than I do my Windows notebooks. It's beautiful hardware (which I appreciate) and the OS has a certain elegance to it.
 

Bergsorensen

macrumors newbie
Mar 24, 2013
6
0
1. I may just be ignorant, but is there a way to open a second find wind without having to right click the icon and open "new finder window"? Double clicking does not work like in win 7 to open another explorer window.

2. I have finder set to open new folders in tab, under preferences but this in not working unless I right click again.

I must be a moron:(
TIA


1. Cmd+n for new window cmd+t for new tab. Close window cmd+w
 

marbla

macrumors newbie
Dec 16, 2013
18
6
Greifswald, Germany
I moved from a desktop to a rMBP 15 and have been fairly happy. I have no particular dogmatic pro or con stance and it seems that macos does things just as expected. Some better some worse. Really the only letdown is calendar and contacts integration from outlook.com. Otherwise my imaging programs (Lightroom, Capture one) work great and the full screen mode is better, buy I am not quite as taken with office for Mac. Guess there will be a 2014 version coming for that soon.
 

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
1. I may just be ignorant, but is there a way to open a second find wind without having to right click the icon and open "new finder window"? Double clicking does not work like in win 7 to open another explorer window.

2. I have finder set to open new folders in tab, under preferences but this in not working unless I right click again.

I must be a moron:(
TIA

Open new window: Cmd+N. Double clicking or clicking on the icon only brings up any open windows.

What the second part means is that if you hold down Cmd while double clicking on a folder, it'll open in a new tab instead of a window. But I find this unnecessary, as I have Finder set to view as columns.

----------

I moved from a desktop to a rMBP 15 and have been fairly happy. I have no particular dogmatic pro or con stance and it seems that macos does things just as expected. Some better some worse. Really the only letdown is calendar and contacts integration from outlook.com. Otherwise my imaging programs (Lightroom, Capture one) work great and the full screen mode is better, buy I am not quite as taken with office for Mac. Guess there will be a 2014 version coming for that soon.

Why bother with MS Office when there's iWork for free, which is simple yet elegant to use? You can even save it as .docx or any Office formats too.
 

Stunned Monkey

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2013
100
0
...I am not quite as taken with office for Mac. Guess there will be a 2014 version coming for that soon.

Yeah, that too. Specifically for me, the mail options for using Exchange are comparatively poor in OSX. Outlook 2011 is currently terrible on the Mac compared to the Windows version, and other 3rd party options for Exchange integration are...meh. A solid MS Office suite with a more robust Outlook would be very welcome.
 

Dekard

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2011
394
2
Dallas, Texas
I recently switched from a dedicated gaming rig, been using Mac for my 'work' for a few years, decided recently to dump my gaming rig and just use the new macbook pro. (I know blah blah blah gaming) anyhow, I run Windows 8.1 still about 60% for my personal stuff (gaming, IM, email, etc) and do all my coding work and photo editing, etc on the mac side of things. If I could go over to the mac side more I would but I 'mostly' use the MBP for emails/gaming when I am not coding or studying coding for iOS.

So you 'can' have both..
 

Merode

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2013
623
617
Warsaw, Poland
I was only surprised with MS Office for Mac. I thought it's going to be about the same as on PC.

Well, the ribbon is organized different (it's not 1:1) so it's not a buttery smooth transition. In general MS Office for Mac is very sloooow and stutters. Excel or Word aren't really all that heavy programs, but on my Late 2013 rMBP Excel's macro interface is just lagging so much.. Not to mention that macros on Mac are so crippled that you simply can forget them + the macro interface is a mess. Well, and the whole suite is not retina optimized so in general looks like.. not nice. :)

In general, I still use Office on my PC and while iWork is all nice, my university accepts MS Office documents only.

Except for MS Office, everything's really fine. Surprisingly better than Windows experience. Xcode is a really great tool, so if you're into programming, you're going to like it.
 

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
I was only surprised with MS Office for Mac. I thought it's going to be about the same as on PC.

Well, the ribbon is organized different (it's not 1:1) so it's not a buttery smooth transition. In general MS Office for Mac is very sloooow and stutters. Excel or Word aren't really all that heavy programs, but on my Late 2013 rMBP Excel's macro interface is just lagging so much.. Not to mention that macros on Mac are so crippled that you simply can forget them + the macro interface is a mess. Well, and the whole suite is not retina optimized so in general looks like.. not nice. :)

In general, I still use Office on my PC and while iWork is all nice, my university accepts MS Office documents only.

Except for MS Office, everything's really fine. Surprisingly better than Windows experience. Xcode is a really great tool, so if you're into programming, you're going to like it.

You can export iWork docs into Office formats under File -> Export to -> Word/Excel/Powerpoint, depending on which iWork software (Pages/Numbers/Keynotes) you currently happen to be using.
 

Merode

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2013
623
617
Warsaw, Poland
You can export iWork docs into Office formats under File -> Export to -> Word/Excel/Powerpoint, depending on which iWork software (Pages/Numbers/Keynotes) you currently happen to be using.

Can Numbers (the newest version) handle Excel Macros? If not, it's useless for me atm.
 

marc55

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
872
217
I was only surprised with MS Office for Mac. I thought it's going to be about the same as on PC.

Well, the ribbon is organized different (it's not 1:1) so it's not a buttery smooth transition. In general MS Office for Mac is very sloooow and stutters. Excel or Word aren't really all that heavy programs, but on my Late 2013 rMBP Excel's macro interface is just lagging so much.. Not to mention that macros on Mac are so crippled that you simply can forget them + the macro interface is a mess. Well, and the whole suite is not retina optimized so in general looks like.. not nice. :)

Wow, I use Office a lot for personal stuff; is it really that bad? If so, I may just wait to purchase a MBP until Office for Mac 2014 comes out.

I just found this: "We’re happy to announce that Office for Mac 2011 (version 14.2.4) now supports Retina display for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Text everywhere is incredibly crisp and all key areas of the interface are now sharper than ever. We hope you enjoy this fantastic software experience!"

Does the update work??
 
Last edited:

Stunned Monkey

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2013
100
0
Wow, I use Office a lot for personal stuff; is it really that bad? If so, I may just wait to purchase a MBP until Office for Mac 2014 comes out.

FYI. Office 2013 runs fine in a Windows VM (I use VMWare Fusion) if you really want/need full featured Office. This works great for occasional purposes. If you live in Office all day every day then a Windows-based notebook probably makes more sense. I don't know much about what to expect from Office 2014, but history suggests that it'll still be a bit of a clunker compared to the Windows version. Hope I'm wrong.
 

Merode

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2013
623
617
Warsaw, Poland
Wow, I use Office a lot for personal stuff; is it really that bad? If so, I may just wait to purchase a MBP until Office for Mac 2014 comes out.

I just found this: "We’re happy to announce that Office for Mac 2011 (version 14.2.4) now supports Retina display for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Text everywhere is incredibly crisp and all key areas of the interface are now sharper than ever. We hope you enjoy this fantastic software experience!"

Does the update work??

Text is sharp, but the interface.. phew.. The presentations I made in PowerPoint are a ton crispier when I open them in Keynote. Unfortunately Keynote and PowerPoint aren't 100% compatible, so some effects etc. are broken.

When I open my presentations in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac I can clearly see pixels. Microsoft is so terrible at this, they consider us worse customers even though Office for Mac is more expansive.

On the other hand, Skype on Mac is much better than Windows 8 version.
 

SomeGuyDude

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2011
730
2
NEPA
I switched just over a month ago. It was MORE than I thought it'd be.

Back in 2010 I bought an MBP and never quite adjusted. OSX at the time was good, but still kinda flawed. At least in my opinion. Now? I got no complaints. I'm a full convert.
 

Bri in Mtl

macrumors member
May 29, 2013
85
5
I definitely wasn't disappointed. In fact I'm very happy. Not only is OSX really nice to use, the hardware it's paired with the best I've ever used...

I switched just over a month ago. It was MORE than I thought it'd be.

Back in 2010 I bought an MBP and never quite adjusted. OSX at the time was good, but still kinda flawed. At least in my opinion. Now? I got no complaints. I'm a full convert.

I'm with these guys -as some say, everything just works and works very well.
 

Brittany246

macrumors 6502a
Apr 21, 2013
791
0
I switched a couple of weeks ago, and while I do like OSX, I don't think it's a great deal better than windows 7, but I was one of those people who actually liked windows 7. lol The things I like the most are the track pad gestures, iMessage notifications, and having multiple desktops. One thing I miss about windows is being able to snap two windows next to each other. I know there's a way to do that with OSX, but I haven't really looked that far into it. I was hesitant about switching to a MAC because I need to download software for my job that is only available for Windows (which is ridiculous), but luckily I was able to get a "free" copy of Windows 8 from my university to run on my Macbook, so I get to use both on this computer.
 

SomeGuyDude

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2011
730
2
NEPA
I switched a couple of weeks ago, and while I do like OSX, I don't think it's a great deal better than windows 7, but I was one of those people who actually liked windows 7. lol The things I like the most are the track pad gestures, iMessage notifications, and having multiple desktops. One thing I miss about windows is being able to snap two windows next to each other. I know there's a way to do that with OSX, but I haven't really looked that far into it. I was hesitant about switching to a MAC because I need to download software for my job that is only available for Windows (which is ridiculous), but luckily I was able to get a "free" copy of Windows 8 from my university to run on my Macbook, so I get to use both on this computer.

Yeah the snap feature would be nice, but let me tell you, I use the F3 key so much it's stupid. That's just HOW I navigate. Browser stays on its own desktop, the rest float around, and I F3 like crazy.

Once you get a feel for the gestures and the organization, everything just moves so much nicer.
 

takeshi74

macrumors 601
Feb 9, 2011
4,974
68
So overall, is the MBP significantly a better user experience over your Windows computer?
Depends on what you're referring to, I guess. I mean either platform is capable of doing what the other does and if that's all you're comparing then there's probably no significant gain on either side of the fence. The areas where I found gains were in the build quality of the hardware and the usefulness of the Magic trackpad. My MBP has been more appliance-like and that's really what I wanted from my laptop as I spend all day fixing other people's stuff and don't want to have to go home to more of the same. I'd say overall it's significantly better but you can read all you want and still get nowhere.

Take one for a spin, see for yourself, and decide before your return period runs out. It's not a one-size-fits-all matter. Some don't see transitioning as worthwhile. It's impossible for us to tell you where your preferences will lead you.

Wow, I use Office a lot for personal stuff; is it really that bad?
Not in my experience. Probably depends a bit on your usage. I use Office 2011 quite a bit and haven't had any of the problems that seem to be commonly posted but I'm not a power user. While I agree with the comment above that Outlook 2011 isn't as nice as 2010 I have no problems with 2011.

I recently switched from a dedicated gaming rig, been using Mac for my 'work' for a few years, decided recently to dump my gaming rig and just use the new macbook pro. (I know blah blah blah gaming)
Generalizations are often useless. My games run perfectly fine on my early 2011 MBP. I'm sure there are new games that don't run well but I'm not playing them (yet).
 
Last edited:

melburstein

macrumors regular
Jul 3, 2012
153
19
For those who have switched to MBP recently from Windows 7 or 8.1, is the MBP and OSX all you thought it would be? How is the MBP experience better.

I was a PC user for nearly 30 years. The only apples I liked were those from the super market. I started with DOS and used every version of Windows including 7 and 8.1. I helped everyone in our extended family solve their PC problems. But most of my time was spent, solving my own Windows glitches as opposed to doing productive work.

Today, I am a happy user of an Apple rMBP purchased a year ago. I am still learning the differences between Apple and the PC; but I will never go back. I never thought I would say that. Any money I saved by buying PC's was spent with the thousand of ours spent solving technical problems.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.