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PC to MBP- Was it all you'd thought it would be?
- Thread starter marc55
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Merode
macrumors 6502a
It's mostly been a smooth transition for me (late 2013 rMBP).
It's not so dissimilar to windows that I'm completely lost and googling fills in all the blanks.
It's not as stable as I thought it would be though. A couple of times OSX hasn't shut down properly, either freezing on grey screen or after hitting shut down the menu bar disappears but the rMBP doesn't actually shut down. I then have to open another app so the menu bar is displayed then shut down again.
I've also had the system go unresponsive when watching videos off of my SSD in both quicktime and VLC, a force close and re opening the file seems to fix this, it's pretty annoying though.
My Windows 8 laptop actually seemed more stable. I will however persevere because even with those problems I'm still very much enjoying the MAC experience.
Actually, perhaps someone could help me with those queries please? 😛
It's not so dissimilar to windows that I'm completely lost and googling fills in all the blanks.
It's not as stable as I thought it would be though. A couple of times OSX hasn't shut down properly, either freezing on grey screen or after hitting shut down the menu bar disappears but the rMBP doesn't actually shut down. I then have to open another app so the menu bar is displayed then shut down again.
I've also had the system go unresponsive when watching videos off of my SSD in both quicktime and VLC, a force close and re opening the file seems to fix this, it's pretty annoying though.
My Windows 8 laptop actually seemed more stable. I will however persevere because even with those problems I'm still very much enjoying the MAC experience.
Actually, perhaps someone could help me with those queries please? 😛
Not too sure about that if I'm honest...unless you mean due to file formats. My university uses strict document formatting for work (margins, line spacing, font etc.) and when I do that in Pages and output to .docx it always takes up more page space with the same settings. Word is stupid like that...no idea what causes it but I do know I've had to delete chunks out of my work to meet deadlines as a result.
Well, you are badly mistaken here. Unless you are still on Snow Leo or smth.
Just look at the description of cut-paste equivalent in Finder.
You just need to accommodate different thinking, the end result is the same.
Hit your spacebar for a quickview and you can navigate with arrows. It works with docs and video as well
Could not have said it better.
Same story for me.
Although the only hold Windows still has for me is MS Office, as a heavy excel, word, powerpoint, project and access user - it's still their trump card.
As a long time PC user this is where Mac products get that Fisher Price feel to me. I've been (micro)managing files and folders for 25 years. I want to know exactly where my files are, and I want to be able to manually manage them however I want. Nothing gets me more than helping someone with their PC and asking them where their "X" files are stored and they say , "I dunno, on the computer I guess." 😱
File management and organization is the hardest part for me with regards to using a Mac. Apple doesn't want me to care, but I do care. And yeah, it's a leftover from the PC world, but I don't want to be the guy who says, "My files? I dunno, they're in the computer somewhere I guess."
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Yes, iWork is good at basic things, however with advanced documents it does even not know how to properly layout the document.
For example, I badly failed trying to edit in Pages the Word docs containing fillable forms and protected areas.
Whole document automation and VBA/macro area is plain terra incognita in iWork.
At the end of the day, even Windows Office doesn't know how to handle it's own docs across versions. Just discovered that Excel 2010 didn't format the Excel 2013 document properly!
BTW In my opinion, Keynote presentations look much more polished than PowerPoint's. IMHO that's the single app in this category, where Apple has edge over Office.
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Pages is missing some pretty major features, like cross-referencing in footnotes. Also, as you said, compatibility is very important and the entire world largely relies on MS office.
For a high school assignment, Pages is probably fine. In the working world, MS Office is required.
Orlandoech
macrumors 68040
melburstein
macrumors regular
The first few days I was like "why did I spend that much money". Then it was like "I can't get any help to connect to work VPN". Shortly later I realized, "they want me to work at home, they can buy me a laptop or get this thing connected", shortly after that I'm really missing it as it's on loan to my college daughter while I replaced the fan on her HP laptop.
This is one "all my life" windows guy that doesn't plan on ever going back. Once I started looking at laptops of similar quality as my MBP, I realized it was anymore expensive than the rest.
This is one "all my life" windows guy that doesn't plan on ever going back. Once I started looking at laptops of similar quality as my MBP, I realized it was anymore expensive than the rest.
nateofmelb
macrumors regular
I made the switch to Mac in October. I really didn't need to upgrade my Windows machine, but before I bought my PC laptop a year and a half ago, I wish I had of bought a Macbook Pro. When the MBP Haswell was announced, I bit the bullet and ordered one.
It is the best thing I have done. I will never look back. The overall experience with using OSX is a pure joy. The track pad is amazing, and I never feel the need to use a mouse. Even when purchasing the Mac over the phone, the representative was so friendly and helpful. I can't be more happy. The machine is so zippy, I have never had anything crash or not respond like I have had with Windows.
Make the switch.
It is the best thing I have done. I will never look back. The overall experience with using OSX is a pure joy. The track pad is amazing, and I never feel the need to use a mouse. Even when purchasing the Mac over the phone, the representative was so friendly and helpful. I can't be more happy. The machine is so zippy, I have never had anything crash or not respond like I have had with Windows.
Make the switch.
I'm a windows user since 1997, my desktop at home is a windows 8 dell xps. I bought my very first rMBP a month ago. It wasn't because I like OSX better, simply because there wasn't a new PC laptop that meets my hardware requirement and doesn't come with a major flaw at the same time, well the new ASUS UX301LA does, but it cost 2200 dollars and wasn't available back then.
I bought the std i5 8G 512 configuration for 1799, I'm very satisfied with the hardware and the performance, and the touchpad, the gestures, the smooth user experiences are all great, however, on the other hand, I am not as satisfied with the OS and the software that available to this ecosystem, since I run windows 8 on parallels, it's not a big problem.
1. Finder is not nearly as good as windows explorer on win8/8.1
2. Office for mac is only useful for basic tasks, and it is not seldom to see a 2 pages doc turn into a 3 pages document on office 2013 with a line or two on the third page.
3. There is no photo manager nearly as good as ACDSee Pro on windows, the expensive ACDSee for mac is a joke... Xee is good for viewing only, not managing. iPhoto is a jail house...
The mail app isn't good especially considering I rely on Gmail, the Airmail is pretty good though, solved my problem.
Some other software that available to both OS performs better on windows, such as Office, QQ, YTD downloader, adobe lightroom, Xunlei downloader, just name a few that I use most often.
I try to stay on OSX as much as I can, but I find myself switching to VM quite often.
the hardware of a rMBP is as good as if not better than any PC laptop out there, but personally I believe windows 8.1 may have a slight edge over OSX 10.9.1.
Don't get me wrong, after reading some reviews/hands on experiences of ASUS UX301LA, ATIV Book 9 Plus and Yoga 2 Pro in the past month (my original wish list before turn to Apple). I still think I made the right choice by purchasing this 13 inch retina macbook pro.
I bought the std i5 8G 512 configuration for 1799, I'm very satisfied with the hardware and the performance, and the touchpad, the gestures, the smooth user experiences are all great, however, on the other hand, I am not as satisfied with the OS and the software that available to this ecosystem, since I run windows 8 on parallels, it's not a big problem.
1. Finder is not nearly as good as windows explorer on win8/8.1
2. Office for mac is only useful for basic tasks, and it is not seldom to see a 2 pages doc turn into a 3 pages document on office 2013 with a line or two on the third page.
3. There is no photo manager nearly as good as ACDSee Pro on windows, the expensive ACDSee for mac is a joke... Xee is good for viewing only, not managing. iPhoto is a jail house...
The mail app isn't good especially considering I rely on Gmail, the Airmail is pretty good though, solved my problem.
Some other software that available to both OS performs better on windows, such as Office, QQ, YTD downloader, adobe lightroom, Xunlei downloader, just name a few that I use most often.
I try to stay on OSX as much as I can, but I find myself switching to VM quite often.
the hardware of a rMBP is as good as if not better than any PC laptop out there, but personally I believe windows 8.1 may have a slight edge over OSX 10.9.1.
Don't get me wrong, after reading some reviews/hands on experiences of ASUS UX301LA, ATIV Book 9 Plus and Yoga 2 Pro in the past month (my original wish list before turn to Apple). I still think I made the right choice by purchasing this 13 inch retina macbook pro.
The mac isn't as easy to use as windows but it definitely is more stable and I like it a little more on some ways, windows 7 in other ways.
Example, screenshots are so much easier on windows, you simply press printscreen, simple! With a mac you've got to press a few keys together which totally sucks..
Another example hiding files takes effort lol, on windows you right click and hide it, period. Super simple.
Overall I like my mac a little better but I really don't see how they got a reputation for being easier to use when after using it, it's actually the opposite
The "easier" thing is a throwback to 20+ years ago and just lives on in myth today. There is nothing easier about OSX than Windows in 2014. Different ways of doing certain things? Sure. And if you're used to one environment, then of course the other environment might seem "harder" to use.
But if you picked up someone who has been on a deserted island for 40 years and gave them both a Mac and a PC I doubt that one would seem significantly easier to learn than the other.
Wow, the more I read posts like these (65 +66), the more I'm rethinking about getting a MBP. I really like the overall quality on the MBP, to include the Touchpad and MagSafe charger which are fantastic, but I'm not sure if I feel like going backwards; simple screen shots shouldn't be 3+ keys.
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I'd still go for it, but I'm a techie so I do this lol.
Apple bases their PC's on Unix which is a lot more stable than windows.
Also the value that is retained with macs in unmatched, you can still run windows, OS updates are free now, and one other screen shot beauty is you can select a portion of the screen to capture instead of just the whole screen or whole window.
Maybe Im doing it wrong, But I manage my files on a Mac like I did on my PC.
I have a folder for Pictures, Music, Movies, dropbox and Documents that I keep quick access to my in my finder sidebar. I let iPhoto manage my photos but those are the only files I don't micro manage. My documents folder is where I store my taxes and important info, my movies folder has all local movies i keep on my machine and my music folder has an iTunes folder inside it which houses all of the music files I've add to iTunes.
I literally use the same approach I used for files as I used when I was a Windows user minus the photos which I find to be better on OS X because I upload directly to iPhoto and it organizes them for me. And when I export the iPhoto library to an external drive, it turns into a normal folder where I can then navigate to my pictures if I need to.
I send all my downloads to my desktop and then manually place them where I want them on the hard drive ( I always keep a clean desktop and clean it once or twice a week).
Not really sure what you mean?
Huh?
When you press print screen on Windows, dont you have to paste it in paint and then save a screenshot?
With OS X you press cmd+ shift + 3 for full screen capture that goes straight your desktop and thats it
or Cmd + Shift + 4 for a selection tool which again goes straight to desktop.
At my work, we use Macs and screenshots are a huge part of what we do day to day and i have found that no other OS does screenshots as easy as OS X
Ha you point out 2 Posts full of 3 pages of mostly positive results that tell you they will never use Windows again after using a Mac. Like everyone has suggested, buy it and return if you hate it. I doubt that you will but not buying because of screenshots is crazy (especially with how easy SS is on OS X)
Jbp915
macrumors member
As I have recently switched over, I am very pleased. Used to have a custom q6600 desktop for 6 years( Windows since 3.1). Played with mac when an ex of mine got one. Loved the OSX then and switch little by little. So when Santa brought me my own macbook pro this year I was shocked. 😎
I was merely responding the priitv8's comment that:
"Windows users want to manage files, Mac users manage their content. Ideally, you shouldn't care how or where the system organizes its data.
And that's the ideology behind all Apple suites (iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, iMovie, FCP, you name it)."
I know that you can still manage files and folders in OSX. My only point was that it's clumsier to do so on a Mac, as the OS (and 3rd party tools) don't seem geared towards that sort of thing the way Windows file management tools are. There is no question that Finder is nowhere near as functional as Explorer, and 3rd party substitutes like Path Finder are nothing like Directory Opus.
It's fine though. The Macbook is probably my favorite laptop of all those I've owned, and I like working with OSX. But yeah, I'd really like a nice file management tool.
I switched a bit over two years ago (to an MBA, though, not a MBP), and I've never looked back. I'm very happy with the user experience and how everything is well integrated, it's very stable, and i also really like a lot of the apps I've started using since. I'm extremely happy with the change.
ohbrilliance
macrumors 65816
Are you confusing certain apps with the OS? Apple apps such as iTunes and iPhoto may try to hide the real file locations, but even those have 'Show in Finder' options for files. But the operating system itself makes it very easy to find the location of files. Personal files are almost always somewhere under /Users/[name]/, rather than spread through a mess of pseudo accounts and documents structures. On Windows every program seems to have it's own favourite spot to drop you in for save and open dialogues, half of them never remember the last place you were in between saves and opens.