Agreed, there is far too much of that sort of behavior, and not just in computer related areas. :^(
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What made you choose this over a windows laptop?
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Agreed, there is far too much of that sort of behavior, and not just in computer related areas. :^(
Speed. Battery life. Heat. Productivity apps written for Mac is much better and more variation than in Windows. Even office already available in Mac.
Agreed it's avalabile as an extra cost on some Windows laptops but those are mostly targeted as small buisnesses without a dedicated IT department. I remember when Dell and many other PC makers offered tech support for consumers but that slowly transitioned to cheap disposable computers. It breaks you toss it in the trash and buy a new one. Apple didn't go that route with their consumer products. The CD drive in my MacBook failed and I was able to get the Apple store repair it by the next day. I needed it ASAP for travel. If that was a Windows laptop my only option would have been to buy a new one. I just had to deal with Razer tech support for their Core X and what a steaming pile of ? that was. After two months of emailing back and forth to India for a DOA unit they send me the wrong model as a replacement. I was so frustrated and didn't want to wait another two months for the correct model I just gave up.
I remember when my non Apple phones would malfunction the carrier would just say "Call this 800 number for your insurance, pay the deductible, and they will mail you a refurbished device". The manufacturer and carrier offered zero support for their products. Then I saw Apple where you could walk into a store and speak to a person that had more knowledge than just how to sell phones. They could fix minor hardware problems and troubleshoot software ones.
As to Windows I've used Catalina and I will say for the general user experience it's far superior. I didn't have any major issues with Catalina and I don't with Windows 10. Both have been relitively stable. My biggest issue with Windows is how they do updates. Unless you're an enterprise user you don't have control over them. Sure you can pause them but that's not a fix. Something simple like notify me of the update and let me as a user choose when to install it. Microsoft won't give their users that much control. I don't know how many times I've seen people lose data over forced updates. I'm not talking about Microsoft updating causing data loss because that's another can of worms but just restarting while there was unsaved work.
About people here being biased and preferring macOS ummm this is a Mac forum. I bet if you go to a Windows forum you will find most people there prefer Windows and in a Chevy truck forum you'll find most people prefer... Chevy trucks. Now of course I'm sure they get the occasional Toyota Prius owner who wants to tell them how terrible Chevy trucks are so if you want to tell us how bad Apple is by all means do so
MS Office for Mac is crap. I'm using Outlook with Win and Mac - and Outlook for Mac has nowhere near the range of functions as its counterpart under windows
I've been considering another MacBook Pro after many years of waiting for the right machine. macOS Big Sur makes me wonder whether I want another Mac laptop computer.
My mid-2012 MacBook Pro is good still and I have an Omen by HP laptop computer from early 2018. Windows updates have caused great havoc but Windows 10 has been okay. Catalina has been more consistent, although it's still buggy.
The direction Apple is going with their operating systems will probably push me to stop buying their products.
My mid-2012 MacBook Pro is good still and I have an Omen by HP laptop computer from early 2018. Windows updates have caused great havoc but Windows 10 has been okay. Catalina has been more consistent, although it's still buggy.
The direction Apple is going with their operating systems will probably push me to stop buying their products.
Same for me.
But it's not that easy to find adequate hardware for windows/linux as a mac notebook. Maybe the new X1 Nano Notebooks from Lenovo.
Dell XPS looks nice, but a lot of issues with it's beeping power supply, fan noise,...
Windows. The fact that windoze comes on a windows laptop.
I use Office 16 for Mac for my jobs during pandemic. Outlook, ppt and word are best adoption IMO. The worst one is excel, where it still nowhere from Windows version. My outlook in Mac even faster than outlook in my windows laptop.
I use Excel all the time on my Mac but I don't use any of the "power features". I guess I could run it in Windows under Parallels if I wanted to compare but it's doing what I need it to do. I have a feeling Microsoft updates the version for their own OS a bit more. I mean if I was them I would LOL
No opening of .pst files (big big issue in business - so no chance to open mail-archives - a bummer!), no separate reading pane adjustment per folder (want to hide reading pane within sent objects), sync errors with mac and company exchange servers, search is broken, no favorites sync with server, no public folders,....
Outlook for Mac is crap if you like to use it intensively.
I first used a Mac when I studied graphic art in college - it was the first iMac (G3?). I was immediately struck by how different it was to all the Windows PCs I'd used up to that point, with the Sony Trinitron CRT, the speakers, the mouse (for better or worse), the OS... It was like a SAAB car in that it was very quirky, but the design just made sense. I never looked back.
To be clear I didn't have many issues with Windows 98 or XP, but I think the introduction of OS X and the modern hardware made the Mac-PC distinction night and day for many years.
That distinction has somewhat muddied as devices and their usage have changed, but I still plan on upgrading to an M1 Mac because I just find the OS friendlier and more common sense. Windows is pretty reliable these days, but the lack of consistency - particularly with the Metro and classic U.Is - absolutely baffles me. If I'm not mistaken, there are still icons there that appear to be from the 98/XP era?
To be clear I didn't have many issues with Windows 98 or XP, but I think the introduction of OS X and the modern hardware made the Mac-PC distinction night and day for many years.
That distinction has somewhat muddied as devices and their usage have changed, but I still plan on upgrading to an M1 Mac because I just find the OS friendlier and more common sense. Windows is pretty reliable these days, but the lack of consistency - particularly with the Metro and classic U.Is - absolutely baffles me. If I'm not mistaken, there are still icons there that appear to be from the 98/XP era?
That’s my stumbling point, the quality of the hardware so far seems very hard to beat on the macs. I can find equally or more powerful windows machines on the price range. But... there’s always the “but” whether that’s terrible battery life, washed out screens, terrible keyboard or track pads etc...
The Biggest things holding me back on the macs is the OS, it’s very unfamiliar to me, and that any higher end gaming is just never an option. And that’s not so much a hardware limitation as it is software.
I’ll either die from insanity or from my wife murdering me for driving her insane lol.
Curious as I’ve never used the Mac OS. What is it they are changing that seems to be turning people off of them?
Being on Windows exclusively since 1998. And never though of switching to MacOs just because I'm so comfortable on Windows.
Three weeks ago I walked into a showroom and just touched the trackpad of the Macbook Pro and oh boy I felt in love. Navigated a little through the OS and found it's simple, elegant and exciting.
I decided to do a complete Mac switch starting with M1 Macbook Pro for now and planning to get a Mac Mini with the next M chip maybe one or two years later.
A big part of this experience I believe is the M1 performance and the BigSur system looks and visuals. There's no better time to do this switch and very happy with it.
Three weeks ago I walked into a showroom and just touched the trackpad of the Macbook Pro and oh boy I felt in love. Navigated a little through the OS and found it's simple, elegant and exciting.
I decided to do a complete Mac switch starting with M1 Macbook Pro for now and planning to get a Mac Mini with the next M chip maybe one or two years later.
A big part of this experience I believe is the M1 performance and the BigSur system looks and visuals. There's no better time to do this switch and very happy with it.
Unfortunately my local stores actually took away all their demo models that you could touch and use due to covid restrictions. I did manage to find one MacBook Air on display, an older intel one and the curser was frozen on screen lol.
Welcome to the word of Macintosh! I hope your experiences continue to be positive.
I have been using Macs regularly since around 2002 and I prefer them over Windows and Linux. Nothing wrong with Windows and Linux, I have computers with both OS at home and I use Windows at work, but I just love Macs.
First off, ProSupport Plus is aimed at anyone who wants to buy it on a Dell. You don't have to be a small business customer to buy it. I have it on my Latitude 7390. Just because the website says "small business" and not "home" doesn't mean a home user can't buy it.
Second off, Apple ABSOLUTELY went that way with their consumer products. If your RAM fails, it's a defective logic board and the out of warranty repair on a defective logic board is just shy of the cost of a new computer. Same with SSDs on anything M1 or T2 based that isn't a Mac Pro; if the SSD fails out of warranty, throw the computer out and buy a new one. It's the same on iPads, iPhones, and iPods as well.
Actually, no. Depending on the brand and your warranty plan and/or nearby service providers, you could've had someone at your house that next day fixing it. Incidentally, authorized service providers for Dell, Lenovo, and HP are everywhere. The only thing missing from that side of the equation is a shiny retail establishment (which, at times, is a plus).
Razer is a boutique brand. Your support options there won't be as amazing. But Razer is also not Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo, etc. It's Razer, a brand that is still relatively new to selling personal computers (again, a boutique brand).
Both Samsung and Google have stepped this up considerably in recent years. Again, you lack the warm cozy feeling of the Apple retail store, but you also lack the backlogged appointments due to the Genius Bar being poorly suited for the repair and replacement of the one device type that we can't be without for too long.
The updates you are worried about not having control over are security and stability fixes. (9 times out of 10, these are good things.) Also, so long as you're using Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, you absolutely have control over deferring them. In most cases, there are more reasons to install them than to not install them. But the system of Windows updates is far better in Windows 10 than the mess it was with 8.1 and earlier. Microsoft has also given control to defer a new Windows 10 release up until a few months shy of the version you're on leaving security update support (which is a good thing). It's simple, predictable, and, for the most part, stable.
Also, as many many many articles and forum threads (not just here) will showcase, you are in the minority regarding Catalina being a smooth ride.
I know how many times I've seen people lose data over forced updates. 0. Furthermore, they have settings in place to not update your computer during active hours of use. This is not an obscure feature that you have to go into the Registry or Group Policy to enable, it's right there in Settings, clear as day! If you care about what you're working on, save your work. It's really that simple. The OS does a good job of accommodating you beyond that. I say this as someone who supports Windows (and Mac) users for a living.
I'm not here to tell anyone how bad Apple is. You can have an appreciation for Apple without having a bias against Microsoft. Love of one isn't mutually exclusive from appreciation for the other. Except here, for some insanely asinine reason.About people here being biased and preferring macOS ummm this is a Mac forum. I bet if you go to a Windows forum you will find most people there prefer Windows and in a Chevy truck forum you'll find most people prefer... Chevy trucks. Now of course I'm sure they get the occasional Toyota Prius owner who wants to tell them how terrible Chevy trucks are so if you want to tell us how bad Apple is by all means do so
That said, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Windows Vista, original Windows 8, or Windows Millenium Edition were good OSes. They weren't. I'm also not going to sit here and defend how insane it was that Apple released macOS High Sierra with a blank root password and that it went unnoticed until midway through the .1 release (no one did anything during the beta or the initial .0 release). Apple had to make a rare "we goofed" public statement with no positive spin. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Apple did a good job on that one. Similarly, Catalina is garbage. The amount of glitchiness I've experienced on that OS (and I'm far from alone here), especially compared to its immediate predecessor, is utterly mind-boggling.
But that's the key difference between being biased and calling out things when they suck. Apple's hardware (especially with Apple Silicon and ESPECIALLY now that the butterfly keyboard is dead) is awesome! The quality control on their annual OS releases is not. This isn't me as a Windows fanboy saying that. This is me as a multi-platform and multi-ecosystem technologist saying that. Nothing wrong with a little objectivity.
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It might be a part of the human condition, as it were.
I don't do windows.
For a desktop/laptop that means there's but macOS that has the commercial applications.
So the M1 based mac mini I have bought is
- just to see for myself what Apple is doing and
- were they're going before they get to the Mac Pros.
- It's to learn
It is also to replace a 2014 mac mini used in a home theater role where it was heavily underpowered when trying to decode H.265 in 4K. I'll sell the 2014 mini once the COVID thing is contained on the 2nd hand market.
For a desktop/laptop that means there's but macOS that has the commercial applications.
So the M1 based mac mini I have bought is
- just to see for myself what Apple is doing and
- were they're going before they get to the Mac Pros.
- It's to learn
It is also to replace a 2014 mac mini used in a home theater role where it was heavily underpowered when trying to decode H.265 in 4K. I'll sell the 2014 mini once the COVID thing is contained on the 2nd hand market.
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Appreciate the honest input on the matter. I’m not a fanboy of either platform, for phones I do love my iphones, tried the android world a few times and wasn’t for me. On the computer side of things, it’s always been pc/Xbox, kids came along and haven’t had a pc in years now, but Im still the tech support guy for my wife’s windows work pc lol. I appreciate what both sides have to offer, it’s just a matter of which suits me the best.
Now to put a bit of a spin on this, I’m ruling out gaming on the checklist. I just think for my needs (ultra light with great battery life) that I’m asking too much. Even most higher end lightweight windows gaming laptops can’t actually game that great off battery for both battery life and performance. Honestly I’m very happy with my Xbox set up anyways, hooked up to a 27” 144hz Lg monitor, it does great.
When I take the gaming factor out of the equation, the MacBook is definitely pulling out ahead for me because of the eco system factor. My biggest usage factor now is browsing the web, videos, some zoom meetings and some light photo editing for my iPhone pictures.
I just wish I had access to a MacBook for a week to see if I like the OS. I personally like the windows 10 OS, but it’s also very familiar to me so I’m biased that way having no Mac experience
Fully agree with you on that: for a spouse it might be a bit different (mine is mac-only for years now, so no recent experience), but for the rest of the family: there's no way I'll touch their windows machines in any way as it's essentially a bottomless pit if you give even the slightest impression you can fix things on windows.
I'd rather have them think I'm weird in not knowing any of the basic stuff about windows than have to spend forever on fixing their crap (for free).
Those that have a mac: first off the odd of them having issues they cannot fix themselves are far and few between. Even an 80 yo does fine with a mac after all. And when they painted themselves in a corner, it's also not that much os a hassle to get it all working again.
So in the end: they have a choice:
- If they want my help, they'd better get a mac first.
- If they don't: that's fine by me too.
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If you can: go to an Apple Store (yes I know 2020 ... not the right year) and use one. They will let you use a mac at will, no questions asked, no pushing for you to buy anything. Apple stores can get really busy, but in normal years you can walk in and use anything they have there at will, for as long as you like.
If you need help getting started: a mac has a tutorial on it. It's pretty basic but it's there: ask one of their staff to start it for you as it will not start on it's own on their machines (only notifies you on a newly installed machine it can be started)
Try it for yourself.
If you can't: get one you can return easily should it not be what you assumed it would be.
I've given intro sessions to new employees in a mac-only SME. We needed them to be up&running with a mac from day one as well as on policies and all things IT.
It took me about 1 hour to go through everything with them, and they were off on their own. Few ever needed any further help. Most of that hour was spend on policies and services, not on the mac itself.
But there are a few things and default settings on a mac that are hard to adapt to for a long-time windows user.
Once you know them, it becomes easy enough to adapt and/or change them.
- The menu for any and all application is not on the top of a window, it's at the top of the screen
It's seems trivial now, but remember it when looking for a menu: top of the screen
I used to trigger it a few minutes after I told this by making a small window in the far lower-right part of the screen and them get them to do something that's available from the menu ... Do it once and you'll never have the "I don't know how to do this" anymore.
- "natural" scroll direction is opposite of that you know and it can really screw some people up
Change it in > System Preferences > Mouse (or Trackpad) > Point & Click
- While at it: "Right click":
- right click is called "secondary click" in apple terminology
- set secondary click to "Click on right side" or the entire mouse will just left click no matter what
- same for trackpad: bottom right is what windows users tend to prefer
Know that the trackpad (and mouse) have more options and lots of gestures they support:
ignore them for now, they're too hard to remember on day one, but do remember that you can turn them off should you keep on accidentally triggering things like a 4 finger pinch or something like that.
And you can see a movie on how to do them right in the settings as well.
View attachment 1692776 - When changing most settings a word of warning: the changes are instant - no reboot needed, no apply needed, but also no cancel: so don't change settings with clicking on everything and then hoping there's a cancel to not save that: it will be applied already by then. (There's a few exceptions in the more advanced settings).
- Don't look for drivers. You're very unlikely to need them in your first days. If you do need them don't use old stuff you might have on a CD or something. Your mac is mostly plug and play: try that first, if needed look at the vendor for their latest drivers for mac on their website.
- Don't be afraid of software updates: they more than usually just work, just let them install.
(I did support for all of the company - never had any issue with anybody installing updates too soon)
- Time Machine: while I set that up for them, you'll have to set it up yourself. But do it! it's easy, unobtrusive and can save you a ton of headaches if you store any data on your machine.
If you leave a Time Machine drive connected: I'll make hourly backups of changing files and restoring them is easy enough if you ever need to.
- Spotlight: it's your local "search engine" on your mac. It'll find stuff inside documents, emails, etc. that resides on your machine. It's extremely fast once it got everything indexed in the background. Give it that time at least once. After that you'll just have fast searching into everything on your mac.
- Go over the menu bar, the dock the settings etc.
- Now use the mac (no windows) for a few days. Persist a bit to wean you off of windows. And you'll never want to go back.
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To me, ASUS and Razer have the most interesting laptop computers. I've had few issues with my Omen by HP, but it's definitely not like a MacBook Pro. I had a Lenovo Flex 3 14 and it was acceptable but very slow.