Long time Windows user considering move to a Mac

[radamo]

Hi everyone,
I am very strongly considering a move to a 27" iMac this year. I have been building my own PC's for years but not looking to do again. I mostly use my PC for raw photo processing/editing and related tasks. At this time all of the major applications I use are available on Mac OS.

Anyone else on here made this move? How did you make out? Any regrets?

 

[techwarrior]

The majority of Mac users were PC users in the past, or use both.

It is a fairly easy thing to do, a few different ways of doing things, but you will catch on fast.

 

[oddnalo]

I don't know if my case will help, but I was a longtime macbook user. When it broke last year I bought a PC and man I was so frustrated. The retina displays on Mac are much better than any Windows PC or laptop, and the peripheral support is outstanding. I could connect a wacom tablet and just work, whereas on window I had to install and go through a lot of settings. Also it's an industry standard, so airdroping files and tools compatibility is a welcomed addition that saves time. And the workflow and performance with photos is much better than any of I've ever worked with. More importantly, Macs last a lot of years, my MacBook lasted 5 years, and it would've lasted more if I hadn't dropped it. So yes, a Mac is the best option when working with photos.

 

[radamo]

I made the plunge. Had my iMac just under a week and almost fully setup. Kept my windows box in case I need anything else from it or can't figure out how to do something in mac land. The 5K display is stellar. My photos POP. Going to make processing my raw files a pleasure. Found a few frustrations early on but worked through them. Apple support has been outstanding... although many requests had to go to second level to get real answers.

Biggest gripe is that when syncing an iPhone or iPad there is NO indication of how far along you are or what step is actually being accomplished.

 

[oddnalo]

I made the plunge. Had my iMac just under a week and almost fully setup. Kept my windows box in case I need anything else from it or can't figure out how to do something in mac land. The 5K display is stellar. My photos POP. Going to make processing my raw files a pleasure. Found a few frustrations early on but worked through them. Apple support has been outstanding... although many requests had to go to second level to get real answers.

Biggest gripe is that when syncing an iPhone or iPad there is NO indication of how far along you are or what step is actually being accomplished.

Glad you took the chance, you won't regret it. Ill suggest Macmost site or YouTube channel, it has a lot of tips on managing OSX for begginers to more experienced users. Good luck!

 

[radamo]

Glad you took the chance, you won't regret it. Ill suggest Macmost site or YouTube channel, it has a lot of tips on managing OSX for begginers to more experienced users. Good luck!

Thank you. I will check out that site.

 

[CooperBox]

I made the plunge. Had my iMac just under a week and almost fully setup. Kept my windows box in case I need anything else from it or can't figure out how to do something in mac land. The 5K display is stellar. My photos POP. Going to make processing my raw files a pleasure. Found a few frustrations early on but worked through them. Apple support has been outstanding... although many requests had to go to second level to get real answers.

Biggest gripe is that when syncing an iPhone or iPad there is NO indication of how far along you are or what step is actually being accomplished.

Just for interest, which 27" iMac did you buy, was it new?
As you've been building your own PC's for years, you may already know that iMacs are a delight to work on, with practically all the components user-replaceable. Many shy away from opening an iMac, especially the Retina models, but if you ever wish to change/upgrade components, iFixit is a godsend which takes you through the process step by step.
Enjoy your new iMac!

 

[radamo]

Just for interest, which 27" iMac did you buy, was it new?
As you've been building your own PC's for years, you may already know that iMacs are a delight to work on, with practically all the components user-replaceable. Many shy away from opening an iMac, especially the Retina models, but if you ever wish to change/upgrade components, iFixit is a godsend which takes you through the process step by step.
Enjoy your new iMac!

I actually saw their kit to open the iMac and it peaked my interest but NOT while under warranty... 🙃
I got the 27" with the 8 core CPU and the Radeon (non_vega) graphics card. It came with a 1Tb SSD and now has 40Gb of RAM. Would have loved to get a bigger internal but could not justify the added cost to an already pricey purchase.

 

[Plett]

...
I got the 27" with the 8 core CPU and the Radeon (non_vega) graphics card. It came with a 1Tb SSD and now has 40Gb of RAM. Would have loved to get a bigger internal but could not justify the added cost to an already pricey purchase.

You won't regret it. I left during the 90s and came back in 2010 after my wife who had Macs issued to her from her employer over the years, she finally convinced me. I haven't looked back, and never said "wish I had a Windows machine". We ran our Photo business for 5 years on Macs without issue.

 

[radamo]

Getting comfortable quickly. Love the mouse although at first I didn't think I would. Have to work on fonts a bit... sometimes the look of browser pages (specifically Firefox) reminds me of old Linux distros. Not pretty.

 

[Thirio2]

I have been living in the Mac environment since we "upgraded" from Dell laptops to a MBP in 2010. The MBP was my wife's wish. At work I still used Windows. I will say the Dells (one old and one ancient) were still going strong (but slow) long after the 2010 MBP bit the dust. In my case, I still use Windows for critical things and the Mac for casual use. The good news is that if you find you don't like Apple or don't want to buy Mac versions of all your software, you can still install Windows on your Mac. One other thing; Apple has quality control issues just like any other manufacturer. If you think there is something wrong with your new Mac, don't hesitate to take it back and/or exchange it.

 

[radamo]

I have been living in the Mac environment since we "upgraded" from Dell laptops to a MBP in 2010. The MBP was my wife's wish. At work I still used Windows. I will say the Dells (one old and one ancient) were still going strong (but slow) long after the 2010 MBP bit the dust. In my case, I still use Windows for critical things and the Mac for casual use. The good news is that if you find you don't like Apple or don't want to buy Mac versions of all your software, you can still install Windows on your Mac. One other thing; Apple has quality control issues just like any other manufacturer. If you think there is something wrong with your new Mac, don't hesitate to take it back and/or exchange it.

Glad to hear you had good experiences with Dell. We have been using them for years in my office. One generation of Latitude laptops we had a RASH of harddrives die on us. When you call them for support they are quite annoying to deal with.

Conversely, reaching out to Apple for support has been a pleasure. They really are able to help.

 

[960design]

Biggest gripe is that when syncing an iPhone or iPad there is NO indication of how far along you are or what step is actually being accomplished.

Stop syncing like its 2007. Turn on iCloud. Take a picture on iPhone... it magically appears on iMac ( and iPad, if you wish ).

 

[radamo]

Stop syncing like its 2007. Turn on iCloud. Take a picture on iPhone... it magically appears on iMac ( and iPad, if you wish ).

Sure, but that would cost me another $120 per year. I sync photos TO my phone from my digital camera. I am not so worried about the ones I take with my phone .

 

[960design]

Sure, but that would cost me another $120 per year. I sync photos TO my phone from my digital camera. I am not so worried about the ones I take with my phone .

Syncing your iPhone or iPad shouldn't cost anything. Syncing photos to your phone from your camera was not mentioned.

We have a Pentax K-1 for travel, but noticed our iPhone takes just as amazing images. The K-1 only shines in planned, artificially lighted scenes. I just pull out the sd card and plug it into the iMac27.

 

[radamo]

Syncing your iPhone or iPad shouldn't cost anything. Syncing photos to your phone from your camera was not mentioned.

We have a Pentax K-1 for travel, but noticed our iPhone takes just as amazing images. The K-1 only shines in planned, artificially lighted scenes. I just pull out the sd card and plug it into the iMac27.

Backup to iCloud NEVER works for me. I even deselect Photos and it will not work. I get the message "You do not have enough space to backup this device". No additional info provided so I don't have any idea what to even look at.

 

[960design]

Backup to iCloud NEVER works for me. I even deselect Photos and it will not work. I get the message "You do not have enough space to backup this device". No additional info provided so I don't have any idea what to even look at.

Settings > User > iCloud > iCloud Backup = OFF
Settings > User > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photos = ON

I feel that backing up a device that saves information locally and in the cloud is a backup of a backup.

 

[radamo]

Thanks for your suggestion... I have been trying for over two years to get this to work.

But...
Step 1, no issue
Step 2, Phone says it is going to Delete my 13K photos which I have synced to my phone. I can copy them back so I let it go... Will see how this looks in the morning.

However, this has two major limitations which may not matter to you but do to me.
1. This does not backup my phone
2. This eliminates me having my real photo collections on my phone easily accessible
[automerge]1576671871[/automerge]
... and the 5Gb is now full and my photos (iphone only) are not fully backed up. So back to using the manual backup method.

 

[Spudlicious]

Thanks for your suggestion... I have been trying for over two years to get this to work.

But...
Step 1, no issue
Step 2, Phone says it is going to Delete my 13K photos which I have synced to my phone. I can copy them back so I let it go... Will see how this looks in the morning.

However, this has two major limitations which may not matter to you but do to me.
1. This does not backup my phone
2. This eliminates me having my real photo collections on my phone easily accessible
[automerge]1576671871[/automerge]
... and the 5Gb is now full and my photos (iphone only) are not fully backed up. So back to using the manual backup method.

5GB is rancid and is the reason I use Google Drive and Photos. Sure I know Apple is a business, but how does it makes sense that somebody who spends cash with them gets exactly the same cloud space as a person who simply creates an icloud email address and spends zero with the company? I don't expect anyone here to answer that, just having a Wednesday rant!

 

[zarmanto]

The heck with iCloud backups... I'm still quite happily backing up all of my iDevices to my Mac, like it's 2007.

That said... what do you mean by this?

Biggest gripe is that when syncing an iPhone or iPad there is NO indication of how far along you are or what step is actually being accomplished.

I mean, I know that Apple doesn't give a lot of detail for the backup process, but it does at least give a rudimentary progress bar with a line of text stating which step it's on and such...

 

[radamo]

The heck with iCloud backups... I'm still quite happily backing up all of my iDevices to my Mac, like it's 2007.

That said... what do you mean by this?



I mean, I know that Apple doesn't give a lot of detail for the backup process, but it does at least give a rudimentary progress bar with a line of text stating which step it's on and such...

Not on the Mac finder version. If there is any text I didn't see it. Windows version very clearly tells you which step it is on. The find just had a spinning pair of arrows (in a circle) next to the device.

 

[tarsins]

If you need Windows for any reason, rather than dirty your Mac you could keep your Windows machine lying around and connect to it using RDP. I do this because I have to maintain some Windows development and it works really well; I actually find that using RDP (Jump Desktop) works better than using the Windows machine itself.

 

[radamo]

If you need Windows for any reason, rather than dirty your Mac you could keep your Windows machine lying around and connect to it using RDP. I do this because I have to maintain some Windows development and it works really well; I actually find that using RDP (Jump Desktop) works better than using the Windows machine itself.

I thought of that but my windows box is running the Home version and does not allow RDP.

 

[LarryNyquil]

I thought of that but my windows box is running the Home version and does not allow RDP.

If it's for personal use, you could use TeamViewer. If you're worried about that for some reason, though, you can set up a VNC server on your Windows machine.

 

[radamo]

If it's for personal use, you could use TeamViewer. If you're worried about that for some reason, though, you can set up a VNC server on your Windows machine.

Forgot about Team Viewer... That might be a good option. But so far I have not even had to turn the windows box on.