Lifelong Windows usr planning to buy a Mac

[campyguy]

Having said that, I see from your post that running Microsoft Excel on the windows virtual machine is quite easy. Could you please explain that a little more? How does a home user, who does not have a server or an office server, or another third party / cloud server get to use XL on a virtual machine?

Honestly, I do not know about virtual machines, so. you may have to start at beginner level... Thanks in advance.

AFAIK there are two different means/ways to run Windows on a Mac - via either a VM or Apple's Boot Camp. Either means is, in essence, a disk partition formatted to run an operating system - each has advantages and disadvantages relative to workflow. I prefer using a VM so that I can use OS X applications alongside Windows applications; a few different companies have created applications that allow running an OS inside a VM, and I prefer Parallels Desktop (PD).

One purchases PD (or one of its competitors), installs PD, uses PD to create a VM, installs an OS to run in that VM, and launches the VM when wanting to use the OS installed inside that VM. When I want to launch Windows, all I do is launch/run/open PD or the VM (using Spotlight is my preferred method). PD's performance is sufficient for my needs, after setting it up for my needs (allocating RAM, etc.). We also have a few Macs that boot directly into a Boot Camp partition (laptops and a Mac Pro) - they run Windows faster than most of my hopped-up PCs, and I know how to tweak a Windows box…

Cutting to it, I don't miss a Windows machine with my VM available whenever I need it. I run Excel/Access/Outlook 2016 for Windows as you would any PC. I used to carry two laptops, and now I carry only my rMBP. macOS's newer RAM compression schema in Sierra is almost unbelievably good, and I really can't wait to see what Apple has planned for their next OS. I really just wish that MS's macOS team would get their shi..., er, crap together. Patience, a few more weeks and it'll all be a bit clearer. Cheers!

 

[macjunk(ie)]

You have been getting very good advice OP. MacOS is awesome and the software written for it is great. So allow me to play the antagonist

Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware.
Running a virtual machine is not free. It consumes power and other resources like RAM and CPU. So if you are on the road frequently with your humongous excel files, you will experience less longevity on battery power. Also, if you are crunching numbers on a VM, I would definitely recommend the 15 MBP over the 13 MBP cause the 15 comes with quad core processors.

To me, for your use case where you rely on Excel, this seems to an unnecessary cog in your workflow. Lesser moving parts are always better Keep it simple- buy a windows machine and run Excel natively - iMO

Another reason why I would advise against this move is cost - initial purchase cost and maintenance cost.

As you might already know Macs cost a lot! for example, I recently bought a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 370 for 1800SGD. This includes a 3 year warranty, 7500u processor, 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. This also comes with a stylus that many students have found it to be good enough to replace notebooks. This is a very versatile notebook with an excellent spill-resistant keyboard. Built like a tank. A similar 13 MBP would have cost me 3556SGD!! I have been using Macs since 2007 and never have I found the price difference so vast! It is obscene! Makes me retch quite frankly.

Maintenance cost: not referring to the cost of running a Mac but the cost of fixing it when it breaks down. You need to buy AppleCare (costing additional hundreds) to cover your Mac for 3 years. Past three years, if anything breaks down you are screwed because the Macs are not user serviceable. You can't replace the RAM or SSD yourself cause on the newer machines, they are soldered! If you have an issue with your SSD, you will have to replace your entire logic board.

And also don't think that you will be getting defect free machines because you are paying such a high price. I lost my 2007 MBP and 2011 MBP to graphic card failures. Even when these laptops failed within their warranty, all Apple did was to replace the logic board with a similar refurbished one..and that would fail again after some time. Essentially, their repair policy was kicking the can down the road. I remember coding on my 2011 in a timed interview test and boom...screen artifacts on the display. This was after the laptop had returned from Apple service! I was literally sh*tting my pants.

I am on my third MBP now but this time I avoided the graphic card.

The reason I stuck to the Mac despite flaky hardware quality is because I love the OS. But, the recent obscene price hikes are vomit inducing and I feel I am being taken advantage of by Apple. I am ambidextrous when it comes to OS and this time I have enough motivation to make Windows work.

Of course, you don't have to care about the above if you are willing to spend the dough and have already convinced yourself that the Mac is for you.

 

[Rorosbutt]

Personally the 2015 would be great. Youll have legacy ports out the frame and they are cheaper! Transition fatigue depends on how quickly you catch on to things. Get AppleCare and you will have the best phone support. Apple provides their own version of MS office, word is Pages, PowerPoint is Keynote, and Excel is Numbers. These may or may not be enough for you. Some things are easier with apples version but MS office is sometimes needed. It all depends.

The Apple community is GREAT! When in doubt a simple google search will render the help you need.

 

[ZapNZs]

I agree that the 2015 and 2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch are solid options. Both are great computers. One may suit your needs better than the other. For example, the 2016 version can drive an ultra high-resolution 5k display, where as the 2015 cannot - if you are a die hard res junkie, then the 2016 is a go to. If you constantly use USB-A ports and do not want to deal with adapters or docks, then the 2015 is yours.

Much like many of the Members here that have already responded, I run Windows on my Mac via a virtual machine on a daily basis. On one of my Macs, I have Windows 10 1607, Win 10 1511, Win 2012r, 3 versions of Win 8.1 Pro, Win 7 Pro, Win XP Pro, Win 98SE, Win 95, Win 4.0 NT, Win 3.1, and I probably missed a few. The ability to virtualize these OS' makes Macs great, as does their ability to run Windows natively using Boot Camp (which comes free on ALL Macs.) Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 look absolutely brilliant on a Mac - and look and run better than it does on most native Windows PCs. My point here is you have a lot of options if you still have some Win-only Apps, or just want to continue using Windows (for example, you may find yourself preferring the 2007 version of Office over more recent Win/Mac editions, and virtualizing would be the way to go here.) And this does not stop there. I have versions of Linux, and older versions of OS X on my Mac too! Connected to two external monitors, so I have three displays running side-by-side, I can run one OS on each display and use 2-3 operating systems simultaneously, and this runs reliably (this is on a 15-inch model with beefier specs than the 13.)

If you have both Mac and Windows devices, they can run quite well together. For example, I like to sync files between them using either a cloud service, NAS, or a general-use wired drive formatted in FAT32. Additionally, I like how some Apps have great crossover. Microsoft just redid OneNote for Mac, which is free, and works great with Win 10 devices. I use it, synced with OneDrive, so I can see my "handwritten" notes created on my Surface Pro 3 on the screen of all of my MacBook Pros.

 

[Subu]

You have been getting very good advice OP. MacOS is awesome and the software written for it is great. So allow me to play the antagonist

Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware.
Running a virtual machine is not free. It consumes power and other resources like RAM and CPU. So if you are on the road frequently with your humongous excel files, you will experience less longevity on battery power. Also, if you are crunching numbers on a VM, I would definitely recommend the 15 MBP over the 13 MBP cause the 15 comes with quad core processors.

To me, for your use case where you rely on Excel, this seems to an unnecessary cog in your workflow. Lesser moving parts are always better Keep it simple- buy a windows machine and run Excel natively - iMO

Another reason why I would advise against this move is cost - initial purchase cost and maintenance cost.

As you might already know Macs cost a lot! for example, I recently bought a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 370 for 1800SGD. This includes a 3 year warranty, 7500u processor, 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. This also comes with a stylus that many students have found it to be good enough to replace notebooks. This is a very versatile notebook with an excellent spill-resistant keyboard. Built like a tank. A similar 13 MBP would have cost me 3556SGD!! I have been using Macs since 2007 and never have I found the price difference so vast! It is obscene! Makes me retch quite frankly.

Maintenance cost: not referring to the cost of running a Mac but the cost of fixing it when it breaks down. You need to buy AppleCare (costing additional hundreds) to cover your Mac for 3 years. Past three years, if anything breaks down you are screwed because the Macs are not user serviceable. You can't replace the RAM or SSD yourself cause on the newer machines, they are soldered! If you have an issue with your SSD, you will have to replace your entire logic board.

And also don't think that you will be getting defect free machines because you are paying such a high price. I lost my 2007 MBP and 2011 MBP to graphic card failures. Even when these laptops failed within their warranty, all Apple did was to replace the logic board with a similar refurbished one..and that would fail again after some time. Essentially, their repair policy was kicking the can down the road. I remember coding on my 2011 in a timed interview test and boom...screen artifacts on the display. This was after the laptop had returned from Apple service! I was literally sh*tting my pants.

I am on my third MBP now but this time I avoided the graphic card.

The reason I stuck to the Mac despite flaky hardware quality is because I love the OS. But, the recent obscene price hikes are vomit inducing and I feel I am being taken advantage of by Apple. I am ambidextrous when it comes to OS and this time I have enough motivation to make Windows work.

Of course, you don't have to care about the above if you are willing to spend the dough and have already convinced yourself that the Mac is for you.

Amazing reply macjunk(ie) !!!

Thanks for all the time, and effort to give me a reply wich I can understand easily

Hmm

Costlier Mac / machine - I had convinced myself

Double the price - I wasn't aware but I have figured out 50% .60% extra cost .. double .. uh

But flaky hardware poor quality replacements - this I never thought of

Hmm

Pendulum is swigging Mac - Win - Mac - win

Hmm
[doublepost=1495249899][/doublepost]What an amazing thread. What amazing contributors. Thanks everyone. There is goodness left in this world.
[doublepost=1495250087][/doublepost]Using virtualisation and running windows on my Mac machine will open the same can of virus worms, ransomware worms , need for multiple virus checking i suppose

 

[nia820]

Does anyone here have experience using apples versions? Numbers? Pages? Keynote?

How do they stack up against Microsoft office suite?

Welcome to the dark side. I made the switch to OSX five years ago after much resistance.

Honestly, apple's productivity suite is a pile of crap. I love many apple apps, but they really need to work on their productivity suite. Thankfully MS makes osx versions of their main office programs.

However, I have windows 10 installed on my MacBook (via parallels) and I still prefer to run office on windows. Although office for Mac is great don't get me wrong, but its a much smoother experience when I use word and excel on windows. And like someone mentioned in tend thread, certain office features are only available on windows.

 

[Subu]

Welcome to the dark side. I made the switch to OSX five years ago after much resistance.

Honestly, apple's productivity suite is a pile of crap. I love many apple apps, but they really need to work on their productivity suite. Thankfully MS makes osx versions of their main office programs.

However, I have windows 10 installed on my MacBook (via parallels) and I still prefer to run office on windows. Although office for Mac is great don't get me wrong, but its a much smoother to experience when I use word and excel on windows.

Yeah ! I've learnt this today

I don't understand have a company like Apple hasnt figured this out... In my humble opinion A large number of laptops are purhssed for use of such productivity tools

Even home laptops need good productivity software

 

[bopajuice]

Dear forum members

I have been a windows computer user through out my life. I'm considering buying a Mac, Mac pro or Mac air or Mac computer, Based on the good advise that I will get here.

Main reason I wish to buy a Mac computer is because I have seen that Apple's build quality (of its products ) is generally superior to that of windows computers. Also there are less glitches, less ransomeare et cetera.

I use my ( current windows ) computer for the most common of purposes. Spreadsheet, word processing, PowerPoint presentation, some browsing, webmail, Facebook, YouTube, some amount of instant messaging, printing ( to a printer) , connecting to a scanner, virus checking et cetera

I have absolutely no idea of the Mack operating system and have been a life long windows user. assuming I do not want to spend too much money buying other software like word processor spreadsheets browsers exedra does it makes sense to buy a Mac?

If I went for what could be called a mid-level specifications what model and what specification should I buy?

Thanks in advance for your time and answers

Best regards
Subu

You can run Windows on a Mac you know. If your main criteria is build quality you can buy a Mac and run a duel boot set up. Best of both worlds. If you have the time and patience to learn a new operating system, go for it. Mac OS is pretty intuitive but there is a learning curve, and you will learn soon enough OS X and iOS are not perfect. Granted ransomware and viruses are on a Mac are rare, but it is only a matter of time. I run a Windows 10 machine with virus protection. Never had a virus or issues with ransomware.

You mention word processing, Powerpoint, etc. If your use of Microsoft office is for personal use you should be fine with a Mac. If you are using these programs in a corporate environment, you may want to tread carefully. I have found my Apple computer running Office 365 sometimes glitches with my corporate co-workers running Windows. (PDF attachments don't always display the same, formatting is sometimes off with Word docs, etc.)

 

[Subu]

You can run Windows on a Mac you know. If your main criteria is build quality you can buy a Mac and run a duel boot set up. Best of both worlds. If you have the time and patience to learn a new operating system, go for it. Mac OS is pretty intuitive but there is a learning curve, and you will learn soon enough OS X and iOS are not perfect. Granted ransomware and viruses are on a Mac are rare, but it is only a matter of time. I run a Windows 10 machine with virus protection. Never had a virus or issues with ransomware.

You mention word processing, Powerpoint, etc. If your use of Microsoft office is for personal use you should be fine with a Mac. If you are using these programs in a corporate environment, you may want to tread carefully. I have found my Apple computer running Office 365 sometimes glitches with my corporate co-workers running Windows. (PDF attachments don't always display the same, formatting is sometimes off with Word docs, etc.)

Yet another good and relevant answer. Thanks for this. My Microsoft office suite is run on a set of a blender environment. I carry work home sometimes which means I have to use preach preach each yet another good and relevant answer. Thanks for this.

My Microsoft office suite is used on some
Sort of a blendes environment. I carry work home sometimes which means I have to use corporate spreadsheets or power point Presentations. And some of the spreadsheets are quite large and complicated. I will definitely need Microsoft office on windows

 

[bopajuice]

You have been getting very good advice OP. MacOS is awesome and the software written for it is great. So allow me to play the antagonist

Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware.
Running a virtual machine is not free. It consumes power and other resources like RAM and CPU. So if you are on the road frequently with your humongous excel files, you will experience less longevity on battery power. Also, if you are crunching numbers on a VM, I would definitely recommend the 15 MBP over the 13 MBP cause the 15 comes with quad core processors.

To me, for your use case where you rely on Excel, this seems to an unnecessary cog in your workflow. Lesser moving parts are always better Keep it simple- buy a windows machine and run Excel natively - iMO

Another reason why I would advise against this move is cost - initial purchase cost and maintenance cost.

As you might already know Macs cost a lot! for example, I recently bought a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 370 for 1800SGD. This includes a 3 year warranty, 7500u processor, 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. This also comes with a stylus that many students have found it to be good enough to replace notebooks. This is a very versatile notebook with an excellent spill-resistant keyboard. Built like a tank. A similar 13 MBP would have cost me 3556SGD!! I have been using Macs since 2007 and never have I found the price difference so vast! It is obscene! Makes me retch quite frankly.

Maintenance cost: not referring to the cost of running a Mac but the cost of fixing it when it breaks down. You need to buy AppleCare (costing additional hundreds) to cover your Mac for 3 years. Past three years, if anything breaks down you are screwed because the Macs are not user serviceable. You can't replace the RAM or SSD yourself cause on the newer machines, they are soldered! If you have an issue with your SSD, you will have to replace your entire logic board.

And also don't think that you will be getting defect free machines because you are paying such a high price. I lost my 2007 MBP and 2011 MBP to graphic card failures. Even when these laptops failed within their warranty, all Apple did was to replace the logic board with a similar refurbished one..and that would fail again after some time. Essentially, their repair policy was kicking the can down the road. I remember coding on my 2011 in a timed interview test and boom...screen artifacts on the display. This was after the laptop had returned from Apple service! I was literally sh*tting my pants.

I am on my third MBP now but this time I avoided the graphic card.

The reason I stuck to the Mac despite flaky hardware quality is because I love the OS. But, the recent obscene price hikes are vomit inducing and I feel I am being taken advantage of by Apple. I am ambidextrous when it comes to OS and this time I have enough motivation to make Windows work.

Of course, you don't have to care about the above if you are willing to spend the dough and have already convinced yourself that the Mac is for you.

"Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware."

What are you talking about? I am confused. What?... virtualize?.... Boot camp allows you to install a fully independent version of Windows on a separate partition on your Mac. Pretty much a PC on Apple hardware. Did I miss something?

 

[Subu]

"Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware."

What are you talking about? I am confused. What?... virtualize?.... Boot camp allows you to install a fully independent version of Windows on a separate partition on your Mac. Pretty much a PC on Apple hardware. Did I miss something?

///Boot camp allows you to install a fully independent version of Windows on a separate partition on your Mac. Pretty much a PC on Apple hardware///

That's it ? Buy windows license , install ??

For example I'd buy a Mac laptop, then I also buy or download windows purchased on the net, and straightaway install on the Mac machine using this booT camp??

Is this doable by a person who is not a IT geek ??

I am talking all Legitimate software, no jailbreak, no pirated ..... I am just talking about a normal non-IT geek user experience.

Thanks

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Double the price - I wasn't aware but I have figured out 50% .60% extra cost .. double .. uh
...

Yup....it changed with the release of their 2016 models

"Running excel: for an advanced excel user such as you, you need the windows version of Excel. To run windows on Mac, you need to virtualize Windows. This involves two things:
- a virtualization software. VirtualBox is free
- a Windows license cause you need to install Windows on your virtualized hardware."

What are you talking about? I am confused. What?... virtualize?.... Boot camp allows you to install a fully independent version of Windows on a separate partition on your Mac. Pretty much a PC on Apple hardware. Did I miss something?

Of course. That is an option too.
That is lighter on the battery too.

On another note, I have a few of my friends run only Windows on a Mac via bootcamp. It never did make any sense at all. Why pay the premium for a Mac if all you want to do is to run Windows?

 

[Stefan johansson]

I quit using windows at all about two years ago,never missed it. Of course,the change is a huge step,but in your case,the MacBook Pro 13inch would work perfect when you get used to it.

 

[c0ppo]

///Boot camp allows you to install a fully independent version of Windows on a separate partition on your Mac. Pretty much a PC on Apple hardware///

That's it ? Buy windows license , install ??

For example I'd buy a Mac laptop, then I also buy or download windows purchased on the net, and straightaway install on the Mac machine using this booT camp??

Is this doable by a person who is not a IT geek ??

I am talking all Legitimate software, no jailbreak, no pirated ..... I am just talking about a normal non-IT geek user experience.

Thanks

Yes, you can easily do that with literally 2 clicks. That's all that it takes to create a bootable windows installation and boot camp partition.

But I would advise against that. No point in buying a MBP and doing windows installation.
Just use virtualization. It is also pretty easy. Download Parallels to try it out, with just a few clicks you can run your MS Office without any problems inside MacOS.

And the best part is, you don't have to worry about viruses. Just don't use windows for mail/surfing and you are all set. If you want, don't even allow windows to use internet at all. Just you MacOS for that, and windows just for office.

Just to prove it how easy it is:

I didn't even watch that video. Just the first video on the youtube list when searching for parallels desktop.

 

[Subu]

Yes, you can easily do that with literally 2 clicks. That's all that it takes to create a bootable windows installation and boot camp partition.

But I would advise against that. No point in buying a MBP and doing windows installation.
Just use virtualization. It is also pretty easy. Download Parallels to try it out, with just a few clicks you can run your MS Office without any problems inside MacOS.

And the best part is, you don't have to worry about viruses. Just don't use windows for mail/surfing and you are all set. If you want, don't even allow windows to use internet at all. Just you MacOS for that, and windows just for office.

Just to prove it how easy it is:

I didn't even watch that video. Just the first video on the youtube list when searching for parallels desktop.

Thanks so much for the video. gives a new user a lot of confidence

So, ....

Not an easy decision considering all the additional cost costs considering all the additional cost

This is almost turning out to be like the search for a perfect Linux machine

Possible, but why take all the effort??

 

[c0ppo]

Possible, but why take all the effort??

Mac OS

Kinda hard to explain until you try it out for yourself

 

[Fishrrman]

As others have said, get the Mac version of MS Office and most of your stuff should open right up.

I'm not an Office user, but I have read some reports of small incompatibilities between the Windows and Mac versions of Office. Having said that, again, most everything should work "on both sides", and the things that don't can probably be "worked around".

I believe the same goes for both Word and PowerPoint.

There is also the free "LibreOffice" for the Mac, which can open Office files.

You should be able to export bookmarks in Windows, and then re-import them into your Mac browser (the default is Safari, but I also use Firefox, Opera, and Epic).

Something to consider:
IF you get a new Mac, DON'T put away the PC yet.
I suggest you keep both running side-by-side for a period of, say, 3-4 months at least, until you become familiar with "the Mac way" and have things moved over and working smoothly. If you have problems along the way, you'll still have the Windows machine there to fall back to.

 

[kis]

In all honesty - for what you use your computer for, I'd never pay the extra cash a Mac costs.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Thanks so much for the video. gives a new user a lot of confidence

So, ....

Not an easy decision considering all the additional cost costs considering all the additional cost

This is almost turning out to be like the search for a perfect Linux machine

Possible, but why take all the effort??

You have got some sound advice but as far as I know to get the optimum performance for your excel you need to run in Bootcamp and not a virtual environment

Excel on a MAC cannot utilise all the cpu cores it can only use one where in W10 on a Windows laptop or on a MAC using Bootcamp it will use all the available cores

Up until recently I use to run all my MAC's exclusively in Bootcamp and yes you pay quite a bit of a premium for this setup however I liked the hardware however the latest generation of MBP does not appeal for many reasons but that does not mean they are a sound laptop for many

If you can afford the premium you have little exposure to risk simple as if the MACOS does not suit you can ignore it and run exclusively as a WIN10 laptop. Many may suggest it's not the optimum configuration for Windows as the W10 drivers are not updated as regularly by Apple for the few unique components (all the other updates you are use to are not affected by this) but I found this never to be real problem for day to day use.

As a side issue I would note the new touch bar only functions as normal function keys under bootcamp and generally on large spreadsheets I have always found a mouse if far better than a trackpad so the larger one on the MBP may not be as useful as you may imagine

 

[aevan]

The reason I stuck to the Mac despite flaky hardware quality is because I love the OS.

Flaky hardware quality? Did you even try to use a Windows laptop? Come on....
[doublepost=1495356070][/doublepost]

Thanks so much for the video. gives a new user a lot of confidence

So, ....

Not an easy decision considering all the additional cost costs considering all the additional cost

This is almost turning out to be like the search for a perfect Linux machine

Possible, but why take all the effort??

Look, don't do that, compare every bit of data and go into every detail. Computers are a personal thing, people here will tell you different things. My advice: buy what YOU feel like buying. The truth is - both Macs and PCs are powerful, capable devices and you can do your work. They have advantages and disadvantages.

But it comes down to this, in 99% of the cases I've seen:

If you even just think you would enjoy a Mac - you almost certainly will.
If you aren't even thinking about a Mac and know Windows is for you - it almost certainly is.

Macs attract a certain group of people and they are almost never disappointed. Other people don't even consider them. It's that simple.

BTW, you can run the Windows version of Excel on a Mac, in Boot Camp or with Parallels, but you probably don't need to. Here are the only differences, so see if this is important to you

 

[fokmik]

Flaky hardware quality? Did you even try to use a Windows laptop? Come on....
[doublepost=1495356070][/doublepost]

i think he refers to cpu gpu and ram

 

[aevan]

i think he refers to cpu gpu and ram

I don't think he meant that. Besides, the RAM situation is fine on Macs, if you're reffering to 16Gb RAM on MBPs, that issue only exists within the dark corners of MacRumors Forums. Besides, it is clear that, based on their requirements, the OP doesn't need a faster GPU or more than 8Gb RAM.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Flaky hardware quality? Did you even try to use a Windows laptop? Come on....

Everyday...I have opted for Windows at work. Even owned a Dell Precision 4800 till as recently as last year. My current machine at work is Thinkpad T460P. Use it everyday for 9 hours - Mon to Fri.

I don't think he meant that. Besides, the RAM situation is fine on Macs, if you're reffering to 16Gb RAM on MBPs, that issue only exists within the dark corners of MacRumors Forums. Besides, it is clear that, based on their requirements, the OP doesn't need a faster GPU or more than 8Gb RAM.

Did you read my post? I was clearly referring to the GPU situation on the Macs. If you have experienced it, you will know how painful it is.
I know you love Apple but ...come on!

 

[SteveJUAE]

A little more info for you re excel as there are more important speed and programing differences than just some pivot table actions and C&P between office applications than suggested above:

Source http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/office-software/excel-for-mac-review-3612548/

"Entirely unscientifically, we benchmarked Excel 2011 and Excel 2016 using the older ExcelTrader benchmark from 2011 (the newer version failed to work in either version). This tests rapid graphical updating using stockmarket data. Excel 2011 completed the test in 14 seconds, while Excel 2016 took 1 minute 35 seconds, although it reported the document contained unsupported content.

Our testbed was the fastest MacBook Pro you can get but, whatever the case, this doesn't actually make much difference because Excel 2016 is also single threaded, meaning it can't fully exploit the extensive CPU power of modern Macs. To make things worse, all the main Office 2016 for Mac apps are 32-bit, rather than 64-bit, which fundamentally limits Excel's number-crunching performance. (Windows users get to choose between 32- and 64-bit versions of the Office suite.)

Macros are a fact of life for many Excel users, especially in the corporate environment, where Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is used. The VBA editor in Excel 2016 for Mac has been rebuilt from scratch and lost nearly everything in the process, reduced to little more than a bare editing window.

Microsoft refers to this as "simplified" and cheekily advises interested parties to create VBA macros and add-ins using the Windows version of Excel, before testing them in the Mac version. Obviously, if the Mac is your primary platform then this is unacceptable. The good news in that Microsoft has begun work to port the old editor from Office 2011. The bad news is that there's currently no ETA. "

As I noted before Bootcamp or Win10 laptop IMO

 

[aevan]

Did you read my post? I was clearly referring to the GPU situation on the Macs. If you have experienced it, you will know how painful it is.
I know you love Apple but ...come on!

Missed that, sorry. But seriously, even just talking about GPUs when someone is asking for recommendations for an Excel machine....