Having 2 Macs - Your Thoughts?

[miniConvert]

I'd have a separate machine for every occaision if I could

I certainly believe in having a full blown desktop and then a portable for travel needs. I currently have a Mac mini purely for fun, and will soon have a Mac Pro for business. I hope to replace my Sony Vaio T2XP with an Apple ultraportable as soon as one becomes available, but Apple seem to be snubbing that market right now. Then maybe a larger MacBook Pro too? Who knows!

 

[Dane D.]

I would like to have a portable Mac. I use two computers at home, one to capture video (PPC 8500) and the other (B/W G3) to do everything else. The video capture is slow but, it works, then just send it across the network to my main unit. I plan I buying another used G4 for daughter. So having 2 Macs, I say you can't have enough of them.

 

[YS2003]

I am also into having more than 2 Macs. I don't want to be in the position I cannot send in the machine for repair simply because I don't have the back up machine. As you can see in my sig, I have a few back up units. So, if my PB needs the warranty repair, I will send it in and I will keep working on my work with the other machines. Sometimes, I run 4 Macs at the same time (one for iTune internet radio, one for Word/Excel reporting, one for Photoshop work, one for Illustrator/Indesign or MX2004 files, each on separate machine.

I usually use one of those 100 GB or 120 GB external portable Lacie HD for keeping the master files. So, for example, if I do my Word/Excel work on my iBook, I just copy them into Lacie and move on to my other Mac if I need that file.

 

[dpaanlka]

A lot of people here have a lot more than two Macs.

 

[jrk07]

I only own one Mac and that is an iMac G5, and I really enjoy it but could see having a portable at times. I've been living at home since graduating college back in June, and have really enjoyed using my dad's powerbook around the house and taking it with me at times.

When I move out I could see myself getting a portable and a nice new desktop, but right now being able to use my dad's is just fine.

 

[mikes63737]

What alot of people are saying about having a backup machine makes alot of sense. I think that you should keep your old Mac as a backup.

I also think that unless you're doing work where you absolutely need a desktop (or don't think you would use a laptop enough), you should get a laptop and a monitor, keyboard, and a mouse. It's like 2 computers in 1. And, you keep your old Mac as a backup computer.

 

[classicnerdgrrl]

more macs!

i like old macs and have a hard time retiring useful machinery of any sort, but i did donate most of my stable to a re-use & recycling place last month. that leaves me with an ibook and an 8500 and a 5500 and a box of parts & pieces. i've always had at least 2 Macs since 1994. i go absolutely ballistic when i can't get online, i'm very rural and it's my line out to the world. So when one is not working (pilot error in adding new parts, upgrading, etc) there is another standing by.... we have satellite and a LAN out here at our community farm. i can wifi ibook in the orchard or record the band in the studio on the 8500. for someone who is heavily into their Macs for work and play, NOT having more than one seems weird.

 

[mkrishnan]

I also think that unless you're doing work where you absolutely need a desktop (or don't think you would use a laptop enough), you should get a laptop and a monitor, keyboard, and a mouse. It's like 2 computers in 1. And, you keep your old Mac as a backup computer.

At that rate you can just get a KVM and you'll have a real twofer!

 

[aswitcher]

As soon as they release a Mac that will serve well as a multimedia machine for the lcdtv I will have two.

 

[dsnort]

I have a 20" iMac intel core duo for home and a Black Macbook for work,( I travel a lot). I like my MB, but don't find the ergonomics of any portable as comfortable as a desktop, so i prefer my iMac whenever I'm near it.

 

[Kirbdog]

I only had the 12" PowerBook while I was in school, it totally fulfilled my needs at the time. Once I was finished school I really needed a large display for photo editing. I considered just getting a 20" or 23" display to hook to the PowerBook but I ultimately could not resist the 20" iMac. The two factor that swayed me was the preformance boost from the Intel chips and a refurbished iMac only a few hundred dollars more than a 23" display.
Have not regreted it for a minute.

 

[aaron.lee2006]

I have a MBP, but recently I bought a iMac G4 for the cuteness. Still, I actually like having two macs, lets me work on both...

I have an MBP but am looking into a g4 mini.

 

[Demoman]

I have multiple Macs, but they mainly serve three primary services. I use 2 (very soon to be 3) PM/MP's for rendering and encoding video. It is also nice to have your entire post-production flow on the screens at the same time.

I also have a PB 17" G4 for when I travel. We usually vacation 2-3 weeks at a time. So, I need a Mac to travel with.

I also have a G4 Mini that my wife uses. I became tired cleaning her machine of viruses and malware. She also has a couple Dell's, but she always uses the Mini for Internet and email. She also uses it for iPhoto, iTunes, Pages and Keynote.

The Mac faithful might be glad to know, as of yesterday, my entire family has been converted to Apple. It took 20 months, although all but three were done in less than 13 months.

4 Mini's
6 iMac's
2 MB's
2 MBP's
1 PB
1 PM
(plus me)

 

[Mrjynx]

i have a few macs.

First one started as the powerbook 12" in university. It allowed me to code on our Sun boxes anywhere on the campus network (ie. No smelly labs!). OSX was "powerful" enough to let me stream my xwindows apps through the os, something that was done very badly in windows(never figured it out).

Loved the powerbook, eventually bought the iMac 20" G5 2ghz. used that for awhile, and now I'm finally typing this message on my Mac Pro (waited a month!!!)

I have a few PC's left over in pieces, but they'll probably remain that way for the time being


MrJynx

 

[freebooter]

I've got a shelved B&W 350 mhz collecting dust, a mini which i will soon sell to get an iMac 20 or 24". I'm hoping to get an old powerbook G4 for cheap so I can read, look at stuff in bed, and do some things with it at work.

 

[timnosenzo]

Gotta have a portable and a desktop!

Easy to keep them synced up with .Mac. For me its the most valuable piece of that system. Bookmarks, mail, etc, all stay the same, and the iDisk is handy for transferring files around.

 

[Clix Pix]

I have long had at least two computers in the household, one desktop and a laptop..... When I switched to the Mac, I started out with the 20" rev B G5 iMac, fell in love with it and OS X and not too long after bought a PB for travel and mobility around the house. I knew that I would want to have a Mac on the road rather than my old Windows laptop. Later succumbed to the temptation of the MBPs and now I've got the three machines, the MBP being plugged into the 30" ACD I later bought in anticipation of my next Mac purchase, the Mac Pro.... Eventually when I've got the Mac Pro I'll put the MBP back to use as the travel machine and will sell the PB.....

I find it very useful to have more than one computer and would feel bereft if I had only one.....

 

[janstett]

Only two? No, I couldn't live that way

Let's see, I'll chime in to prove what a geek I am (I am a professional software developer)

- Mac Pro 3.0GHz on the way
- MacBook Pro gets taken to work
- Mac Mini in the kitchen, my wife's surfing computer
- IBM Thinkpad X60 for ultraportable work
- IBM Thinkpad X40 on 24/7 as a media server and download mule
- Dell XPS5 (dual core Pentium Extreme) as my main desktop
- Gateway 2.5 GHz P4 as my Fedora Core 5 desktop
- HP 17" laptop used as a media center PC with my 51" DLP HDTV.
- HP 3.0 GHz P4 used as my home theater PC.
- Compaq 1 GHz MAME PC (complete with arcade joystick and portrait-rotated CRT)

Then there's the semi-retired list
- Thinkpad A22P (1GHz, probably destined for Ubuntu)
- Fujitsu ultra-portable with broken screen (no idea)

Then there's the hall of fame in my basement, oldest being an Atari 400.

 

[slffl]

So the reason I like 1 mac is I like having all of my media in one place. Which brings me to my dilemma. It would be really nice to have an iMac as well as a laptop.

Does anyone here know of an easy, painless way to sync photos, music, etc between two macs on a weekly basis?

 

[sierra oscar]

or daily basis if you need = .mac

 

[scorpio8977]

i just have the one MBP 15" right now, couldn't be unfaithful to it. No, in all seriousness, a G5 is on the shopping list at some point, but I think I'll stop then.

 

[twoodcc]

or daily basis if you need = .mac

but what about if you're dealing with more than 1 GB of files? and you can't afford .mac?*

how is everyone with many macs keeping their files organized? this is my main problem

 

[tjwett]

i've been on two for a while now, laptop and desktop. i have a dot mac account for syncing that stuff but i think i'll be moving to a MacBook for my "only" working machine and put the mini in the livingroom. in the past the portables just didn't have the power, that's all changed now. i like simplicity personally.

 

[OldCorpse]

I believe in the Mac Pro on my desktop..
I believe in the Dell XPS M170 that goes everywhere with me...
I believe in the AMD 64x24400/dual 7800gtx sitting on another table next to the mac pro.
i believe in the 2.4ghz celeron system runing my TS server/fileserver on top of the AMD system...
I believe in the Apple //e I use to play Wizardry and Ultima 1-5 on

I would go on, but then you would all realize I am a total geek and have no life when not plugged in..... I'm trying to purchase a Mac Mini as I type

What?? Sorry, but this is nuts: "the Dell XPS M170 that goes everywhere with me". That monstrosity is 11 pounds. You lug 11 pounds everywhere you go??? You must either be built like Schwarzenegger to carry it constantly, or built like Quasimodo from your back being permanently crippled by this monstrosity.

Going around everywhere carrying that hideous thing like a millstone just so I can have a Windows experience... shudder. Some people never cease to amaze me. That's how I know that certain thing I'll just never understand.

To me, it seems logical that you'd want as light a laptop as you can for portablility (I didn't say necessrily "smal", just "light"), and as powerful desktop as you can manage for the heavy lifting of computing. And having a windows machine is not all bad, though at this point with bootcamp and paralells a dedicated unit seems no longer 100% required. YMMV.

 

[mkrishnan]

- IBM Thinkpad X40 on 24/7 as a media server and download mule

Just out of curiosity, why do you use a notebook for this when you have so many desktops?

By the way mad props for having a MAME computer. If only there were some way to run MAME on a Nintendo DS...