Switching to a Mac

[Lihp8270]

Personally I wouldn't bother with Parallels or boot camp, unless there is CAD software that will ONLY run on Windows, but it doesn't sound like the case. MS Office, including OneNote, is available for Mac without need to install Windows. I try to avoid anything Microsoft...

I wish Solidworks was available for Mac, but it's not. And being pretty much industry standard for small engineering firms (the other big CAD players aren't really compatible either) it's a bit of a pain.

Though I do use a mac alternative in (OnShape) for personal work, but I do have to keep a Windows machine around for using Solidworks when OnShape isn't capable.

But, I will not put parallels, or boot camp on my Mac machines. I hate the bloat, which is one of the things that brought me to mac a long time ago. I'd rather keep a cheap laptop knocking around for the times I use it every other month at most.

 

[techwarrior]

I can give you my use case. In teaching some Electrical Engineering courses I needed to demonstrate Windows-only software in class while at the same time run Keynote and screen capturing video. I've also had to maintain software for Windows and write/maintain software for Linux as well as embedded software for which the IDEs were Windows only. Bootcamp is ugly if you want to share data or move instantly between OSes. Back in the 1990s I used to quadruple-boot a PC to get different OSes I needed. In the early 2000's I used multiple computers and a KVM switch. Since getting the Mac I use virtual machines. Much easier!

I must say that today I rarely fire up Windows, and then only for software support of some programs I wrote "on the side". I'm basically 100% macOS since retiring last year.

Don't get me wrong, Parallels and Fusion have their place in the macOS world. But OP stated he has given up gaming and mainly uses One Note. So, for him, Virtualization apps are of little use given the plethora of native macOS alternatives.

The only reason I use Windows these days is for testing applications (my job) that are designed to run on PCs, and to use a handful of apps my company has never bothered to create Mac apps for (dwindling). For most users, an either\or approach will work just fine.

 

[theluggage]

Not sure why you would bother with Parallels.

...for that one bit of Windows software that you need to use and can't find an equivalent for. For some people its some bit of in-house software from their employer that they need for their job, including corporate websites that only work in Internet Explorer.

Since we'll soon, be tramping down the earth on Internet Explorer's grave (oh glorious day!) that use may be fading out - but it will be around for a while.

Or, for example, I occasionally need to do a bit of vector graphics, and I'd been using a bit of Windows software called Xara since before it was called that, so I'm just vastly more fluent with it than any of the Mac alternatives - plus I have lots of old files in that format. (I'll switch to Affinity Designer just as soon as they add arrowheads).

Of course, if you do any sort of development that targets Mac/PC - even web development - virtual machines are the beat thing that's ever happened when it comes to testing.

They are just upset because they lost a couple of old ports.

...no, they've lost a couple of essential ports that are still the primary ones used by the vast majority of people (and which are still used on the rest of Apple's current computer line-up) meaning we have to throw away our current display dongles and spare chargers and replace it with a new, even larger collection. If you're planning a clean sweep and re-fitting your Fortress of Solitude with an all-USB-C/TB3 workflow then that's fine and dandy.

 

[zarathu]

It really depends on what you are doing with the computer. I just bought a late 2013 MBP from PowerMax with a 150 cycle on the battery, 2.6 ghz Haswell processor, internal Iris Pro 5200, 16 gb RAM, 256gb SSD, 801ac wifi.

In the words of Steve Jobs from 1992, its wicked fast. Don't be drawn down into this idea that Apple hasn't upgraded their machines forever and that means they are bad. A year ago they updated the system El Capitan, and literally everything you did worked faster(sometimes as much as 4 times faster), and of course the system update was free. That's a PC concept for most of us. Windows gets more and more bloated, and if you don't keep upgrading the hardware it won't work. You can run El Capitan(which is almost exactly like Sierra) on an Apple machine built in 2007. Try that on a PC running windows 10.

The upgrade to Kabylake only helps people who are very very into video processing and raw graphics. If you don't do this for a job, you will never know if you menu opens 1/4 second faster than before.

Going to a mac is less about the hardware like it is in the PC world, and more about the system that the hardware runs on---unless you are using the machines for serious rendering and video. BTW, my son in law does that for a living, a very good living, and has no problem with the using the hardware that is currently available for his apple machines. His heavy lifting is done at home with a Mac Pro and a Bizon 2 running into external monitors, running a NVideo card that does almost 10 Teraflops.

But I thoroughly recommend buying a copy of David Pogue's El Capitan or Sierra: The Missing Manual. It will tell you things about how the system works that I didn't know in 30 years of using Apple.

 

[tjwilliams25]

Don't let the nay-sayers get to you. The Mac ecosystem, to me, is one of the best in the industry. The interoperability and ease of use is second to none. The one thing I hear more than anything else is that the new machines are running on old technology, which is technically true, but not nearly the "problem" they make it out to be. All of the systems are incredibly capable, and the MacBook I'm using to type on this is refurbished from 2015 and still running as fast as the day it was manufactured. It really doesn't matter which processor that you're using when the flash storage and RAM are so fast that your computer and programs start up in seconds. It seems like that is all you're really looking for in a machine, something that is going to be quick and seamless with all of your devices, which Apple has done.

 

[techwarrior]

...for that one bit of Windows software that you need to use and can't find an equivalent for.

Again, I acknowledge the merits of virtualization. I use VMWare daily for work, but not on my Mac (aside from managing vCenter). The OP referred to using Parallels to run his primary app, One Note. The Mac version of One Note is quite capable, not sure the differences between PC and Mac versions would be enough to justify the expense, both money wise or performance hit-wise.

A great alternative to Parallels and Fusion is Oracle's Virtual Box. Best feature of vBox is the price tag (free), and with Guest Additions (also free), VM running in vBox on Mac can run Windows apps in Seamless mode (aka Unity - Fusion or Coherence - Parallels). Oracle is updating vBox regularly, so it remains a very viable virtualization alternative for the occasional Windows needs.

 

[zaaach48]

...for that one bit of Windows software that you need to use and can't find an equivalent for. For some people its some bit of in-house software from their employer that they need for their job, including corporate websites that only work in Internet Explorer.

Since we'll soon, be tramping down the earth on Internet Explorer's grave (oh glorious day!) that use may be fading out - but it will be around for a while.

Or, for example, I occasionally need to do a bit of vector graphics, and I'd been using a bit of Windows software called Xara since before it was called that, so I'm just vastly more fluent with it than any of the Mac alternatives - plus I have lots of old files in that format. (I'll switch to Affinity Designer just as soon as they add arrowheads).

Of course, if you do any sort of development that targets Mac/PC - even web development - virtual machines are the beat thing that's ever happened when it comes to testing.



...no, they've lost a couple of essential ports that are still the primary ones used by the vast majority of people (and which are still used on the rest of Apple's current computer line-up) meaning we have to throw away our current display dongles and spare chargers and replace it with a new, even larger collection. If you're planning a clean sweep and re-fitting your Fortress of Solitude with an all-USB-C/TB3 workflow then that's fine and dandy.

Sounds like that's what he's doing

 

[JamiLynee]

So I'm really thinking about switching to an all Apple device ecosystem. Right now I've got a gaming PC that I built and would consider an "enthusiast" build. A dell XPS 13 and a Galaxy S7 Edge. I suppose I should tell you why I'm wanting to switch... I'm not into gaming anymore and ever since I stopped gaming I realized how much I didn't like Windows and Android. I've got a minimalist/OCD mindset to begin with and windows with all of its random popups, inconsistencies, and useless start menus, bugs, and glitches, it really annoys me and I hate the inconsistent experience I have between my desktop/laptop and phone. My XPS started having terrible coil whine after 2 weeks of buying it and it's a 1000 dollar laptop, my custom gaming pc won't go to sleep and stay asleep for more than 10 minutes. Anyways I just don't see a point in sticking with windows as I think the apple ecosystem would give me a lot more satisfaction. As far as use, I read a ton of books, articles, and do have been just doing a lot of research on things that interest me and taking notes might be starting my own business in the future but at this time and date it's not in the foreseeable future. Let me know what you guys think and if it's worth it. Thanks!

I have been on a purely Apple ecosystem in my home for about 4 year now. Best decision I've ever made. Everything connects and syncs seamlessly and it works every time. I can't promote this idea enough