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What do you use YOUR Macbook Pro for?

S

simplysly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 12, 2019
24
14
Melbourne, Australia
Lets be specific here. I'm sure we are all interested in how we all use our machines.


Ill start it off. I use Logic Pro X daily for my job as a sound engineer!

SS
 
I dont have one but I am saving up to get one for programming and video editing
 
Don't have a Macbook Pro yet, (many years ago though), but I would use it for art, graphic design, 3D modeling, light gaming.

I use an iMac at work, but a PC at home for personal projects. So I'm constantly annoyed by switching between Mac OS and Windows 10, especially command and ctrl. Windows 10 is fine on its own, but I miss certain things about Mac OS and the third party utilities I use with no similar options for Windows.

So I think the Macbook Pro 16 may be the perfect time to switch back and keep my PC for gaming.
 
Lots of typing, reference material in Safari/ other documents - could frankly do it easily on a MBA if they made a 15" version but there you go, at least we have a decent keyboard option with the 16" again now! 😄
 
I use my 2019 15" MacBook Pro for writing code in Visual Studio Code and Xcode (and all the apps that come with software development – Slack, Discord, iTerm, Docker, etc.), some basic video work in Final Cut Pro, photo editing in Capture One (and occasionally Lightroom), and general browsing.

Also, in just over a week, I'll also be able to use it for playing games via Stadia if I'm not at home with any of my bigger and better screens.
 
Last edited:
General day to day stuff - checking emails, web browsing etc.
Also FCPX for YouTube videos.
 
I work with SAP server infrstructure / databases / Unix / Windows... So I do the folllowing

- Virtualisation via Parallels and VMware Fusion (So I can use apps like MRemote, countless VPNs, SAP GUI, Xterm for SSH connections) - this is where I do my main work
- Terminal for SSH for some databases
- MS Office Suite
- Safari for work related web apps & normal web browsing
- Media content (Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime and etc)
- Twitter
- Forums... Like this one
- Light video editing and photoshop
- Listening to music and what not.
 
Adobe:
- Illustrator
- photoshop
- Indesign
- After effects
- Acrobat
- Audition

Logic Pro X

Safari (a lot, forums and youtube, etc)... and mail.

Spotify, of course.

And i sometimes use it to watch a movie on the projector.
 
I have three, one office-issued, one I use for work and one I use for personal. The office-issued model sits in a desk drawer. My work MBP: Thunderbird Firebiird, VNC, Notes, Calendar, Growly Notes. My personal computer: Think or Swim (heavyweight pro trading platform), Fidelity Active Trader Pro (another heavyweight pro trading platform), Firefox, Apple Mail, Notes, Calendar. Sometimes I run emacs on all of the systems. Sometimes terminal window. Sometimes TexMaker and lots of other programs for various types of work.

The biggest things that I run are the Trading platforms and I'd like to move up to 32 GB of RAM in a machine so that I don't need three machines.
 
Safari, Spotify. I used to do some Office-ing on it but now I have a corporate laptop. So I basically have a $1299 Netflix machine
 
MS Office, Bluebeam Revu (markup tool for architectural PDF’s), Autocad, OneDrive/DropBox/Citrix Files, Chrome/Firefox/Safari, Docker+SQLServer and Azure Data Studio. Looking forward to retiring my 2015 rMPB for a new 2019 at some point and getting 32GB of RAM. Bluebeam can really fill it up looking at 1-1.5GB PDFs of architectural plans.
 
Design: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Development: Visual Studio Code, Git, etc
Gaming: Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Sims 4
Spotify
General web browsing, email.
 
I have a 2018 15" MBP and I use it for my daily tasks such as Bluestacks for "mobile"gaming, web browsing, using Apple's suite of Pages, MS Office, internet browsing. I know its 100% overkill and a MB Air would have done the job for me, but I do enjoy future proofing myself as much as possible or in case I do require the added power it's there.

Sometimes its fun buying a Ferrari in a town where every road is 20mph.
 
  • Browsing the web (forums, FB, booking flights etc.)
  • Typing / writing in Word
  • Checking my emails
  • Statistical programing (MATLAB / Python)
  • Excel analyses and budget planning
  • Playing some games on Steam
  • Netflix and free Apple TV+
  • Light photo and video editing
  • Storing my 312GB music library, and my 64GB photo library
  • Listening to Apple Music
  • Porn (I won't be too specific here for obvious reasons)
 
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Coding and creating videos and presentation on software development. (PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audition)
Office work (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Photos (Lightroom and Photoshop)
 
Simple but relevant question, I'm actually curious to read other people's answers.

  • Browsing the web: for the university and also in my free time
  • Handling all of my emails
  • MS Office + Apple iWork suites
  • Light photo and video editing on Affinity Photo and Adobe Lightroom
  • Displaying my notes made with the Pencil on Notability
  • Streaming: Netflix, Apple TV+, Prime Video
  • Listening to Music on Spotify and Apple Music mainly
  • Organising my audio library: ripping CD's, converting them with XLD and importing them on Music.app
  • Productivity hub: Fantastical, Notes.app, Reminders.app, Notion (web version)
  • Specific software for some of my uni classes: Stata MP, PyCharm

What I would like to do in the future:

  • Heavier photo and video editing including 4K videos and RAW photos, done on an external display (reason why I might buy the new 16" MBP to replace my 13" current one)
  • Deeper coding with Python
 
I have 4 different businesses and then my photography hobby/work.

So for two business their is a Windows only application so I run Parallels and that app.
The other business I use a browser based management software, so primarily Chrome for that.

I also need QuickBooks in Windows for one set of business and QuickBooks Online for the other.

I do video ads and training videos so I use Final Cut Pro here.
Lightroom and Photoshop CC. I don't have a single primary workstation so being able to easily access any photos from any of my 4 offices makes more sense for me. Also use for personal as well.

Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Mail.

I use Splashtop Business to have access to any one of the 60+ workstations I take care of.
 
My Late 2011 MBP 15" replaced my Hackintosh desktop for me since ... late 2011. That was the first Mac I owned.

I have used it for more things I can recount here, but the almost everyday ones were:

- Extensive typing
- Office apps (particularly Word)
- iWork apps (Keynote and Pages)
- Graphic design
- Web design
- Email (native app/ Outlook/ web)
- Photo management
- Other entertainment/ business/ productivity apps (iTunes, QuickBooks, etc.)

I have also used the machine extensively for some video game titles that used the 6770m well.

This machine kept me happy till 2016 when I bought myself a 2016 13" MBP but for various reasons I won't go into here, sold in 2018. Went back to my 2011 for another 6 months and got myself an Air 2017.

Today, all my usage is handled in good time by this Air. Sure, I feel it could do with some power sometimes, but what I paid for it and what my everyday use is, this machine makes me happy every time I sit in front of it. Just like the 2011 did. I missed that feeling with the 2016.
 
eattherich said:
I use my 2019 15" MacBook Pro for writing code in Visual Studio Code and Xcode (and all the apps that come with software development – Slack, Discord, iTerm, Docker, etc.), some basic video work in Final Cut Pro, and general browsing. Also, in just over a week, I'll also be able to use it for playing games via Stadia if I'm not at home with any of my bigger and better screens.
Click to expand...


Just had to say I love VS Code. I have it running on everything from cloud VMs to Windows Desktops and MacBooks down to Raspberry PIs. One IDE for so many platforms!
 
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