Scared To Take The Plunge! (macOS)

[monstermash]

HOWEVER...I'm absolutely terrified at buying a Mac!

Dude. It's a computer, not "gender assignment" surgery. There is nothing to be terrified about. If you end up not liking it, just sell it and go back to Windows.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Realize that buying a computer isn't necessarily a traumatic event. It's just a computer. Go spend $1000 and get one and if you don't like it, go back to your Windows machine. But you also need to go into it with an open mind. It WILL be different and WILL take some getting used to. Give it at least 3 months before you say "screw it" and go back to the miserable world of Windows.

If you're budget conscious and that terrified, consider buying from a place with a 90 day return policy, like Costco.

 

[raythompsontn]

Using Windows is a battle, using Macs is a pleasure.

Some things are easier to do on the Mac, some things are easier to do on Windows. Both are simply tools to accomplish a task. The real advantage to Windows is that the choice of that OS is not restricted to Apple hardware. And some could argue that is a problem with Windows because of multiple configurations with drivers that must be supported.

Sometimes, both are a battle.

 

[thebart]

I've used windows all my life. It's not a big adjustment to switch. I still even use a Windows keyboard. I had to get used to using the windowx key (Cmd key) instead of Ctrl for most things. I think there's a way to swap the keys but now I've gotten used to the Mac way and since Mac also has a Ctrl key it'd be too confusing.

The main thing missing from Mac os is window management. Which is why there's a ton of third party apps, but honestly they all do too much when my needs are very modest and i just want what windows has. That, and gaming is a pretty sad state of affairs that's not getting any better any time soon, if ever

If all your other stuff is Apple, getting a Mac makes sense because they'll all mesh together.

 

[Drewps5co0tt]

Then you might just as well get a brand new 14" for $1599 from Best Buy right now. Once you upgrade the M2 Air to 16GiB/500GB the prices are similar since the 14" for $1599 already comes with that configuration (and the SSD is faster, around 3GB/s read and write on the 500GB M2 Air, and 5GB read/4GB write on the 500GB 14").

The 15" Air with that configuration will likely cost at least $1599 as well if not more.

Yea but I really need a larger screen. I can't see myself using a 13" screen everyday. If I have to pay a little more, then so be it. It's best to wait and see what happens in June first.

 

[okkibs]

Yea but I really need a larger screen. I can't see myself using a 13" screen everyday.

It's 14" not 13" and the 15" Air has the same resolution as the 14". So even though the screen is larger, the amount of actually displayed content remains the same, i.e. everything will appear a bit larger on the 15". There is however the option to switch from the default scaled resolution of 1512x982px to 1800x1169px. If you know your eyes can handle that high resolution on 15", then you could fit more content on the screen. But everything would be really tiny. And this particular scaled resolution leads to a small performance hit because it requires additional calculation by the M2 chip.

Last but not least all these displays are 16:10.39 so on Macbooks you get more vertical space than on laptops with more common 16:9 panels, and you actually get slightly more than 16:10 due to the notch design. Below the MacOS menu bar on the very top, which shows menu items and the clock, the entire space left below is still the full 16:10 and can be fully used by applications.

This is of course true for the 15" as well, but my point is that the 14" has slightly more screen real estate than many other 14" laptops on the market (all 16:9 ones). Though if we compare apples with apples, so 16:10 with 16:10, the difference is very minor, it's 14.2" instead of 14".

 

[Drewps5co0tt]

It's 14" not 13" and the 15" Air has the same resolution as the 14". So even though the screen is larger, the amount of actually displayed content remains the same, i.e. everything will appear a bit larger on the 15". There is however the option to switch from the default scaled resolution of 1512x982px to 1800x1169px. If you know your eyes can handle that high resolution on 15", then you could fit more content on the screen. But everything would be really tiny. And this particular scaled resolution leads to a small performance hit because it requires additional calculation by the M2 chip.

Last but not least all these displays are 16:10.39 so on Macbooks you get more vertical space than on laptops with more common 16:9 panels, and you actually get slightly more than 16:10 due to the notch design. Below the MacOS menu bar on the very top, which shows menu items and the clock, the entire space left below is still the full 16:10 and can be fully used by applications.

This is of course true for the 15" as well, but my point is that the 14" has slightly more screen real estate than many other 14" laptops on the market (all 16:9 ones). Though if we compare apples with apples, so 16:10 with 16:10, the difference is very minor, it's 14.2" instead of 14".

Are you referring to the Pro model?