My return to Mac !!

[panhandlemac]

I haven't owned a Mac in probably 10 years. For some reason, I never was a huge fan for some reason. I always like other Apple devices, but I wasn't fond of OSX. So, I returned to various window computers over the past decade.

I fell in love with my iPhone 15 Pro Max when it came out, and it still is my favorite phone ever and I use it to this day. I've got an iPad Air that I also enjoy, and of course the Watch. I started to get tired of trying to get files from my iPhone to my windows PC, not being able to have a cloud photo share on my desktop, not being able to send/receive text messages from my desktop through my iPhone, and just the Windows experience overall. I also was beginning to get into doing some video editing, and I wasn't crazy about Premier or the other editors I found on the platform.

A friend of mine showed me what they had done with their Apple suite of products and their Mac mini, and I was impressed. So much in fact that I went out and purchased a 14" M4 Pro MBP. And you know what,I'm really enjoying the user experience this time around. Everything seems just so, polished, well thought out (mostly), and my goodness this thing in snappy! I love the messages and iPhone mirroring, both fantastic. I've just started learning FCP and enjoying that so far. I still have my displays hooked up to my PC as well, but it's getting less and less use. I've all but stopped gaming, which was one of the reasons I also stuck with Windows. If I want to play a game, I enjoy sitting on my couch with the PS5. This just...works.

I've got the studio display on order it should arrive tomorrow. I can't wait to see what an improvement it is over this 38" 2k ultra wide I have hooked up via HDMI now.

I'm still trying to get things the way I want them, and I'm sure there are lots of apps and tools that I should have already installed but just haven't researched.

I'm glad to be back here as well after a long time away!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Welcome back. Enjoy your new tech.

The ecosystem is what binds a lot of fans to Apple. It still mostly "just works."

If ASD feels horizontally constraining since you are accustomed to ultra-wide, consider returning it and replacing it with an ASD-like, higher res ultra-wide. I chose the Dell 5K2K 40" ultra-wide and could never go back to a squarish screen. All that width is just too useful. You may miss it too once you try to work within the constraining width of ASD. I came from an ASD-type screen in iMac 27" and the Dell looks just like it, except there's a lot more horizontal space. It works just fine with Mac.

Since you have 10 years of Windows, there is probably Windows things you'll miss... and/or Windows-only apps you'll wish could run on Mac. Such apps MIGHT run through emulation but you might want to hook a PC (too) to a monitor like that Dell with more than only 1 input. In Apple terms, this might be called "old fashioned bootcamp" but it's basically the one-monitor path to "best of both worlds." There is a great abundance of apps that run on Windows but don't exist for Mac.

If desired, that PS5 could plug into one of the other inputs too. There's 4 inputs on that Dell (but only 1 on ASD).

I prefer Mac myself but have somewhat gone the other way in the last few years since Apple Silicon basically killed the fantastic bootcamp option and I have clients that need me to run Windows-only apps. You may not miss any of them but there may be some that you do miss. Since you already have a PC(s), you may want an easier way to hook them to your new, best(?) monitor. Windows scales to 5K2K just fine. It will look much better than a 2K res.

I hope you enjoy your new stuff. There IS a lot to like in Mac-land.

 

[Admiral]

That Dell monitor is amazing.

 

[panhandlemac]

Yeah I wish I knew about that monitor before I got the ASD. The ASD arrived today and I got It setup (VESA), it certainly is stunning. I still have a 32" 4K display I could use for added screen real estate, but I'd want to find a good docking station that has both TB4 and a HDMI port. Any suggestions on this one?

Really enjoying the move. My windows machine didn't even get booted today

 

[960design]

... and just the Windows experience overall.

I have several windows machines in the office running 4090s for ML / AI / LLMs.

My recent Windows gripe:
Have you tried updating the Windows software lately? One of my systems was running Windows Pro 11 22H2.
To update to 24H2 I had to first login into microsoft and download a .exe.
Started the .exe and it requested that I download a verify application to ensure my computer could run 24H2.
Downloaded the verify app and it verified my system could handle 24H2.
Then I started the .exe again and it agreed with the verify and allowed me to download 24H2.

I'm glad to be back here as well after a long time away!

Welcome back. We missed you!