All-in on Apple apps

[jbmadsen]

I would like to hear some experiences from people who are all-in on Apple products and applications. I'm considering switching everything to the Apple ecosystem from my current setup to achieve better integration and save on the cost of various app subscriptions.

My current situation is that my family has one Windows stationary computer and one Windows laptop. Everyone has an iPhone, and the children also have iPads.
We have a custom domain and use Proton Family for email and password management.
We also have a Microsoft 365 family subscription that gives us six user accounts with access to the Office applications and 1 TB OneDrive each.
I have a subscription to Todoist to manage my tasks.

We have an iCloud+ subscription to get the 200 GB data, and we will likely have to upgrade to the 2 TB subscription soon.

I'm considering buying a Mac (mostly because I like Macs) to replace the stationary Windows computer. Since everyone has access to Apple apps via their devices, it would make sense to move our mail domain to Apple and use the Apple Mail app and the new clever password app.

So, how well does the default Apple environment work? Is it feasible to stay within this and not have to add the other apps and services? Should I retain some of them, such as Todoist, if I switch?
Would we be able to access the files, etc., from the Windows laptop? I imagine we would have to use the online versions of Pages and Numbers after converting them from the Microsoft formats.

 

[Just_Kevin]

Office will run on a Mac, you can keep you 365 account if you wish. Or you can switch to the Mac versions. I imagine you can access files on the PC, I’ve never tried. I do have a NAS which I access from Mac & Windows with no problem.

Pretty sure Mac will open Office files, but if you save as Mac then Office will not open them.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Things generally work pretty well. For example, Pages will probably open up to all of your Word docs if they are not too complicated documents. It's the other way (saving/exporting) them where things can be disappointing. Pages can export Word but it works best if documents are simple. As you design more complicated/attractive documents, odds in exporting it perfectly to Word goes down.

Same with Keynote vs. Power Point. Import works pretty well. Export will likely lose some to many things.

Even the fanniest of fans will rarely argue Numbers is as good as Excel... but Numbers can readily import less complex Excel sheets pretty well and will export not-too-complicated spreadsheets to Excel.

Your PC will generally NOT work with any Apple specific formats, so unless there is an export option to a Windows format, you won't have much luck with anything but the simplest of files... or with apps that strive to make files edited on Mac open on PC and vice versa.

As Just_Kevin shared, you can get Microsoft Apps for Mac to have MORE compatibility with Windows counterparts than importing/exporting from iWork apps. You can either maintain a 365 subscription or buy the one-time 2021 or new 2024 apps. Either should be pretty compatible with any Windows files for the next few years at least.

There is also Windows emulation available on Mac. It is ARM Windows vs. full Windows so, while many things will work pretty well, other things won't work. So it's not as good as the old "Bootcamp" option but better than nothing.

So if you can "go Mac" and not really need to do much on Windows, you are probably fine. However, if you are hoping to "go Mac" but easily export to Windows, that's a shakier proposition... especially if you produce higher design things.

My household is mostly Mac (too) but I also have a PC for "old fashioned bootcamp." Anything that needs to be done in Windows is done in (full) Windows. A bonus in this approach is that anything exclusively doable in Windows (no Mac options) can still get done too. For example, if you want PC games, while the rumor of them "coming soon" is always eternal in Mac-land, reality is that they are already available on PC.

IMO: having at least ONE foot in the other world is just about always a good thing. There is a much greater amount of things available there that are not available on Mac. And when you need compatibility, 100% compatibility in the actual platform trumps all other options. There is no great prize to going "all Mac"- just limitations if you sometimes do need to play in the other sandbox.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I'm an Apple guy through-and-through for more than a decade. I don't bother with Office 365; anything I need to do (which isn't all that much) is easily accomplished by Numbers and Pages - and I'd rather take a beating than ever use PowerPoint vs. Keynote.

That said - @HobeSoundDarryl is right, there are things "exclusively doable in Windows." My hobby is model railroading, and the utilities to upload sound files to locomotives (Digitrax and ESU) are exclusively Windoze. Yeah, you can do it with Windows for ARM and a virtual machine, and I tried that for a bit, but keeping everything (not just Windoze but also the VM) updated and working through macOS version changes was a royal PITA. So I bought a refurb ThinkPad laptop for under $200, and that's what I use for those tasks. Fortunately it only gets dragged out a few times a year.

 

[Ben J.]

I think the mac ecosystem is great. It's able to do most things, even though it's apps are not as sophisticated as 3rd party apps might be. All the little things are cool, like; I make notes in the Notes app on my mac, and when I get to the store f.ex, I bring up Notes on my iphone to get my shopping list. It's synced. In Messages app we have a messages group for the whole family, which is very useful for planning family events etc. In Photos app, my daughter's family has a shared album, and new images of my grandchildren show up on my mac/iphone whenever they post.

 

[jbmadsen]

Thank you all for your input. I think I will go ahead and get myself a Mac once the new devices are released later this year. I think the point about having access to both Mac and Windows is really great - it gives more options without limiting you.
I think we will also continue with our Microsoft 365 subscription. It is such great value that it is hard to pass up. With the discount I get via my company I only pay ~500 DKK (80 USD) per year for everything.
And then I will figure out if Reminders can take the place of my Todoist.

My biggest concern is moving my mail domain from Proton to Apple. I know it is possible to use custom domains at Apple - I already tested it - but I do think the Apple Mail app is a bit limited compared to other mail clients.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't know much about Proton. If it is hosting (email) and is IMAP, you can just connect Mail to use it and leave it where it is. It continues doing the hosting but Mail will then be the app UI that accesses it. On the quietest of searches, I found this and it seems to support what you might be trying to do.

Apple doesn't have to host email for the Mail app to work as an email client. For example, my own hosts have been iPower and then HostGator for email, using the Mail app to do all email things.

Of course, maybe Proton is more than an email server/host. If so, perhaps there is a reason you have to "move."

 

[Alameda]

Ms Office runs natively on the Mac and opens the same files as the Windows version. I’ve used Office for Mac in Windows-based companies for about twenty years without ever having difficulties in sending my docs to work colleagues or receiving docs from them, besides rarely they use a font that I don’t have… which can happen with Windows, too.

You can have multiple User accounts on the Mac, so that each Family member can access their own documents and also their own iCloud data. You will be very surprised at how well iCloud integrates with the Mac… everything on your iPhone’s Calendar, Notepad, Reminders and Messages will sync seamlessly. You can sync all the photos from your phone to your Mac, and your Safari web browser history and bookmarks. All of this is selectable, so you can choose not to sync some items if you don’t want to.

 

[jbmadsen]

I don't know much about Proton. If it is hosting (email) and is IMAP, you can just connect Mail to use it and leave it where it is. It continues doing the hosting but Mail will then be the app UI that accesses it. On the quietest of searches, I found this and it seems to support what you might be trying to do.

Apple doesn't have to host email for the Mail app to work as an email client. For example, my own hosts have been iPower and then HostGator for email, using the Mail app to do all email things.

Of course, maybe Proton is more than an email server/host. If so, perhaps there is a reason you have to "move."

Proton includes Calendar, share drives, a password manager and other things, but I want to move because it is quite costly. It seems like I built my setup with so many different things that don't really work well together and cost a lot of money. So my goal is to simplify and reduce the ongoing subscription costs. I know buy Apple devices isn't exactly cheap either but it's not a permanent ongoing cost.