All Macs: How can I fit a Mac into my current tech situation?

[_Kiki_]

There is no emulation. Emulation is running on a different CPU architecture - e.g. running ARM code on X86. Emulation is quite inefficient. This is not emulation.

And performance is very close to Windows running natively without a virtual layer, in most cases.

I strongly recommend VMWare Fusion over the free options, such as VirtualBox, they have worked hard on optimized graphics, disk access, network access etc.

You are running Windows in a virtual environment. It makes Windows "think" it is running on bare metal. For best results, VMWare installs some drivers in your Windows installation - though they are not necessary.

Performance will be better in any case, though, with more memory, and more cores.

Most cases where some software won't run on a virtual machine is because the publisher does not want it to run. Not because it "can't".

can you run games with libraries DX11/DX12 or Vulkan?

 

[jtara]

can you run games with libraries DX11/DX12 or Vulkan?

At least for NVidia, yes.

https://docs.nvidia.com/grid/5.0/grid-vgpu-user-guide/index.html

 

[DeepIn2U]

Excel, as part of Office 365 on my corporate Windows 10 laptop, decided today to repeatedly try and tell me how to insert pictures into my spreadsheet right in the middle of me trying to enter text into cells.

haven't studied yet to see if Excel does this on the Mac....

I'd like to say that you'd enjoy having your iMessages on a Mac computer. My messages look the same on all three of my devices and I like that very much.

Haven't checked to see if you can do that with iCloud on a Windows PC, but that sort of thing might stave off your need to buy a Mac computer.

O365 Excel and pictures sounds like an End User created issue - even if the end user does not recall or understand they created it. I work and support O365 with local MS apps daily for Windows 10. Youd be amazed how many issues are created by End Users, not their computing platform of choice or service(s) chosen.

iCloud for Windows does not include iMessage; most likely for the reason you've pointed out.

Our host seems to be using Windows 10 Professional with an OEM license/issued build.

Cortana if not used fully disable it.
Windows phoning home, there are a few articles online to fully disable this: msconfig/services.msc/regedit.

The T480s is a nice piece of kit ... the T480 meh the change of internal components bother me. Keyboad is fantastic, yet the 2018 MBP keyboard I love as well ... I'm one of the few that actually love using it over the standard ThinkPad chicklet keyboards.
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Nonsense!

Of course a Mac can replace a Windows machine, if you have some "need" for a Windows machine.

If that's the case, OP should state exactly why they "need" a Windows machine.

If it is because they use Microsoft Office Suite, you can get it for Mac, and there is absolutely no reason why it has to be run on Windows.

If you run other software that is only available on Windows, I recommend running Windows under VMWare. Parallels is another option but one I am unfamiliar with. I think VMWare is the best way to run Windows (and other OSs) on MacOS.

There is very little overhead to running Windows in a good VM, so long as you have adequate memory. It is a good idea to boost memory if you are going to run a VM.

With VMWare, you can run a Windows desktop in a Mac window, but it's also clever in that you can set it up so that individual Windows applications have their own windows on your Mac desktop. The choice is yours and you can mix and match.

Dual-boot is just a non-starter. It's too inconvenient, and will give you little benefit.

Heck even if you have some obsolete software that runs only on Windows XP, or for that matter MSDos, you can run it in separate VMs. You can be running Windows XP, Windows 8, Windows 10, and multiple versions of Linux, all at the same time, given enough memory.

Hmmm. By experience ...

Microsoft Office Suite on Windows vs Mac:
Fonts, many fonts corporations have created are Windows based only; cannot directly import or use on OSX.
Outlook (Windows) can create PST/Archive files, Office for Mac (even 2019) still cannot.
- Microsoft's recommendation is to keep Mailboxes under 50GB (you can look this up); and when adding multiple shared calendars or access to other mailboxes via Exchange or Exchange Online (hybrid or O365 only) your mailbox of 4yrs can grow VERY quickly as it will include other content rather than just your own.

VMWare Fusion, not only allows you to run in hybrid mode (Windows Apps side by side Mac apps in MacOS/OSX environment) you can also enable drag'n'drop support between the two for files, html links, etc. MOST helpful!
@op,

Try to see if your "proprietary" VPN solution has setting that'll work in other VPN software. I've not seen a proprietary VPN solution in over 10yrs in the corporate space. I'd be very wary of it for small business to be honest. Find out the standard being used (IPSEC, etc) and see if you can use the settings within another app that is made for both Windows/OSX/macOS and even linux.