Moving to a MacBook?

[Philip Watkins]

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I switched primarily to using macs at home and work around 2007. I'm now (just) onto my third MacBookPro which I bought in March.

My previous MBP was still running strong after 7 years, my initial one I ran for 3 years and sold for a tidy sum on eBay at the time. The only thing I had to replace on the previous MBP was the battery as the capacity had dropped off so I bought a good quality replacement off Amazon for £60. Everything else was perfect including the original factory SSD from 2010. I've killed other SSDs fitted to machines in that time.

......
Just Do It!

I have a 2000 Powermac (old PPC processor) still in use, it's had 2 replacement power units. A Powerbook 17" from 2006 not in use due to needing a battery (it's had one previously) and screen cable (it's breaking up in the hinge). Current machines are a 27" iMac (2010) no faults yet, a 17" MacBook Pro that had a new battery under warranty, and daughter's 13" MacBook Pro that's also had a new battery plus while I was in there replace HDD with a bigger capacity SSD and increased the RAM.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I have a 2000 Powermac (old PPC processor) still in use, it's had 2 replacement power units. A Powerbook 17" from 2006 not in use due to needing a battery (it's had one previously) and screen cable (it's breaking up in the hinge). Current machines are a 27" iMac (2010) no faults yet, a 17" MacBook Pro that had a new battery under warranty, and daughter's 13" MacBook Pro that's also had a new battery plus while I was in there replace HDD with a bigger capacity SSD and increased the RAM.

The previous two MBPs I had were both 17". They were lovely as desktop replacements, but slightly chunky to lug around. I didn't really mind.

This new one is a 15" with 2.9 GHz i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. It's "controversial" - the only ports it has now are the 'universal' USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 in Apple speak, even for the power. Mind you the plus is that any of the 4 such ports can be used to power the laptop. It will easily run a 10-12 hour day on a single charge - even running W10 in the background. It is amazingly stingy on power. Processing speed is great. Its also running the 'infamous' touch bar (which I quite like actually) and the fingerprint reader/doubling as a power switch - laptop will power on automatically when you open the lid, just use the fp/reader to unlock the screen when it goes to s/saver.

The previous model from 2010 was also an i7 but a 1st or second generation of that processor family with dual-core 2.6 Ghz and 500GB SSD. The new one has 4-cores, but is running much faster memory and its a 6-th generation of the processor family, so they've sped it all up significantly. The previous one was the fastest at the time and had the largest amount of memory I could go for at the time (8 GB), however 7 years later it was starting to lag behind a bit.

I'd say this new one is comfortably 2 to 3 times as fast. I can click on the Window 10 icon and its started Parallels, with W10 started, fully ready, logged in and going in 12 seconds! Shutting down Windows takes under 4 seconds.

 

[Philip Watkins]

@Pheasant Surprise my MBPr is the 2.3 i7 with 8gb ram and 750 gb hdd bought second hand.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

@Pheasant Surprise my MBPr is the 2.3 i7 with 8gb ram and 750 gb hdd bought second hand.

None of our have been wasted, the build quality and longevity is good enough that they will run and run. There is always a second life!

My daughter has inherited my wife's 2008 iMac and she also has her late grandmothers 2012 15" MacBookAir. My eldest son has been gifted a 2011 11" MBA which is teamed up to a (frankly amazing) 27" display in his room.

Sweat the asset, then recycle it to the kids

 

[Notquiteretired]

Take the leap, you won't regret it. Lots of nice little links if you also own an iPhone e.g. Copy on the phone and then paste it in your MBP ;o) Im a bit of an iSheep and also own an Apple Watch for some software Im developing and it unlocks my MBP / controls speakers around the home.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Take the leap, you won't regret it. Lots of nice little links if you also own an iPhone e.g. Copy on the phone and then paste it in your MBP ;o) Im a bit of an iSheep and also own an Apple Watch for some software Im developing and it unlocks my MBP / controls speakers around the home.

They seem to have gotten iCloud right now, it was a bit rough and ropey in the early days of mobile me. Everything is now very seamlessly sync'd up - email, email account settings, documents, photos, iTunes. The lot.

I really like the little desktop pop-up when you have your phone next to your computer and just open the current webpage from your phone to your computer - it disappears when you move off Safari on your phone - very neat. Of course if you want you can click the "page" icon in safari and open whatever tab you have on any other device to the current device. When you have sixty plus tabs open...it helps

They are really getting the cross device integration done right.

 

[Philip Watkins]

They seem to have gotten iCloud right now, it was a bit rough and ropey in the early days of mobile me. Everything is now very seamlessly sync'd up - email, email account settings, documents, photos, iTunes. The lot.

I really like the little desktop pop-up when you have your phone next to your computer and just open the current webpage from your phone to your computer - it disappears when you move off Safari on your phone - very neat. Of course if you want you can click the "page" icon in safari and open whatever tab you have on any other device to the current device. When you have sixty plus tabs open...it helps

They are really getting the cross device integration done right.

My macs are too old for some of the newer features.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

My macs are too old for some of the newer features.

I think it's mostly (all?) down to iOS and MacOS. Appreciate there's a limit to what hardware will run the most recent versions of each. The 2008 iMac I mentioned will run the latest version of macOS, 10.12 (Sierra) but there's an old Mac mini on the shelf that is marooned on Snow Leopard (I think). Admittedly I haven't checked all the features work on that 2008 machine running Sierra.

 

[Philip Watkins]

I think it's mostly (all?) down to iOS and MacOS. Appreciate there's a limit to what hardware will run the most recent versions of each. The 2008 iMac I mentioned will run the latest version of macOS, 10.12 (Sierra) but there's an old Mac mini on the shelf that is marooned on Snow Leopard (I think). Admittedly I haven't checked all the features work on that 2008 machine running Sierra.

I'm running Sierra and iOS10. The biggest hurdle in linking the mac to iOS is the bluetooth chip. Most of the really "clever" stuff like auto unlocking the mac when your mobile is close needs bluetooth v4 which wasn't used in a mac till the 2012 model year. My newest is 2011 with bluetooth v2. The iCloud link-ups are fine, it's the proximity tricks that don't work.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I'm running Sierra and iOS10. The biggest hurdle in linking the mac to iOS is the bluetooth chip. Most of the really "clever" stuff like auto unlocking the mac when your mobile is close needs bluetooth v4 which wasn't used in a mac till the 2012 model year. My newest is 2011 with bluetooth v2. The iCloud link-ups are fine, it's the proximity tricks that don't work.

Of course didn't think about the Bluetooth aspect!

 

[Philip Watkins]

Of course didn't think about the Bluetooth aspect!

Airdrop between mac and iOS is another bluetooth chip stumbling block.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Airdrop between mac and iOS is another bluetooth chip stumbling block.

Get the soldering iron out.

 

[Philip Watkins]

Get the soldering iron out.

Don't think a soldering iron is required, just a lot of deconstruction to get at the chip (and sourcing a v4 replacement). I have considered it.

 

[The_Swede]

So, Parallel or VM Ware fusion - someone please explain the very basic fundamentals...?

Can I have the windows derived program running via either of these with other 'apple' ones running simultaneously and be able to tab between them easily enough?

Also I've just thought, it would be useful to be able to log in to an Office365 account and use some of the features - I assume this is perfectly doable online exactly as per a windows machine?

 

[Philip Watkins]

Parallels of VMWare Fusion are applications that run in MacOS, Windows then runs inside them (as virtual machines). You will need a copy of Window OS. Yes you can then swap between Apple apps and Windows apps.

Regarding Office365, it is available for Mac's but I don't know whether you will need to pay again for the Mac version or whether your current subscription will cover you.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Parallels of VMWare Fusion are applications that run in MacOS, Windows then runs inside them (as virtual machines). You will need a copy of Window OS. Yes you can then swap between Apple apps and Windows apps.

Regarding Office365, it is available for Mac's but I don't know whether you will need to pay again for the Mac version or whether your current subscription will cover you.

We run 365. One sub covers installs on up to 5 machines of any type.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Yeh so I do what PW says and run Parallels. The Windows 10 license for x64 Professional costs me about £17 for one off. I'll post a link to where I buy from. You then install W10 as you would normally (actually Parallels now automates most of the install and settings) you should be up and running on W10 in less than 15 minutes start to finish.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

The other beauty with Parallels (other virtualisation software works the same) is that you can do a dead quick easy 'snapshot' of a W10 virtual machine. This means you have an exact copy of the W10 machine that you can safely hive off to to big USB stick etc. and simply open again should the W10 machine have any serious issues, not that would ever happen as W10 is great

 

[Philip Watkins]

......and simply open again should the W10 machine have any serious issues, not that would ever happen as W10 is great

 

[yorkie]

Hardware problems, like most laptop type devices can be difficult to fix.
Operating system problems are no biggy, as ios is derived from Linux. Plenty of info available online for that, should any problems arise.
What puts me of Apple, is being locked into their system with things like iTunes and so on. With Windows, there are many free versions of most pieces of software and I can get them from various sources.

The belief that Apple are immune to viruses and the like is no longer true, a large user base now means it can be pretty lucrative to target Apple based systems as well as Windows.

Another reason I stay with Windows is I like to build my own machines.

Having said that, I know of many people who have made the switch and are very happy with their choice.

found a way round it going to build a pc both mac oc and widows should be fun but will cost less and have better performance and be reparable