Office computer. iMac

[Stuarts]

Hi all , I’m looking to upgrade my office pc. Fed up with windows. I use an iPhone and iPad and I am thinking about an imac so I have a common platform system with the added advantage of auto sync with devices. Has anyone done the same and is there any problems with interaction with cattle movement portals or dept of ag portals ? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Northern territory]

Hi all , I’m looking to upgrade my office pc. Fed up with windows. I use an iPhone and iPad and I am thinking about an imac so I have a common platform system with the added advantage of auto sync with devices. Has anyone done the same and is there any problems with interaction with cattle movement portals or dept of ag portals ? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Used mine for cattle movements and bps etc. No issues. Makesure you get the dearer one though that can get upgraded memory. I made that mistake and getting slower now. I like the Mac a lot though.

 

[deleted user 837354]

As above, make sure it has 16GB of RAM and that all your software will run on a Mac or can be purchased in a Mac variant. Only downside is Apple hardware is crazy expensive.

Get the biggest monitor you can or run two of them. You won't ever go back to using a vanilla PC again.

 

[Highland Mule]

I’d go Mac, but couldn’t advise iMac. Would always buy a laptop (MacBook) and separate monitors, keyboard etc. You’ll find it much easier to do work if you have a portable machine for odd jobs.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I’d go Mac, but couldn’t advise iMac. Would always buy a laptop (MacBook) and separate monitors, keyboard etc. You’ll find it much easier to do work if you have a portable machine for odd jobs.

Trouble is with that you are paying laptop money for a laptop that is going to spend much of it's life chained to the wall in the office.

 

[Highland Mule]

Trouble is with that you are paying laptop money for a laptop that is going to spend much of it's life chained to the wall in the office.

I bet it won’t though - it will end up being used out and about as well - do the movement records on the sofa, update the accounts whilst watching tv, etc. Is the portable premium that much either?

 

[deleted user 837354]

I bet it won’t though - it will end up being used out and about as well - do the movement records on the sofa, update the accounts whilst watching tv, etc. Is the portable premium that much either?

I couldn't tell you what the difference between prices would be but generally, a laptop is more expensive to manufacture as you have an integral screen and a battery etc, meaning spec for spec, the price of a desktop should be lower (this is Apple we are talking about after all) but the components inside will be higher spec as well.

I'm not a fan of laptops generally it has to be said. I like desktops as I think a correctly configured one makes most work a breeze. I'm sort of warming toward a 2 in 1 portable job but they are all hideously expensive.

 

[Highland Mule]

I couldn't tell you what the difference between prices would be but generally, a laptop is more expensive to manufacture as you have an integral screen and a battery etc, meaning spec for spec, the price of a desktop should be lower (this is Apple we are talking about after all) but the components inside will be higher spec as well.

I'm not a fan of laptops generally it has to be said. I like desktops as I think a correctly configured one makes most work a breeze. I'm sort of warming toward a 2 in 1 portable job but they are all hideously expensive.

Fair enough. Laptop (MacBook) and docking station for me. Convenience is the key, and I don’t like being tethered to any one desk.

 

[Exfarmer]

I have an Imac, they are good , but take some adapting to. A lot of filing can be far more complex than the old PC, but I have not run windows for ten years now.
The suyncing with all apple products is fantastic, but that can work on all their computers of course.
photo handling I am certain they do not have the edge they once did.
some products such as MS Office are not as good on the Mac And I miss that.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Fair enough. Laptop (MacBook) and docking station for me. Convenience is the key, and I don’t like being tethered to any one desk.

To be fair, I have never used a Mac laptop and docking station or seen one in use so I don't know what they can offer in that regard.

There are many PCs now which approach the Apple ecosystem and nearly mimic their hardware and OS. Linux (and therein, Chromium) can be configured in a way that begins to replicate the Apple OS. Still, more choice for users can never be a bad thing.

It's a shame that MS don't elect to make Windows into less sell, sell, sell and more streamlined. There is obvious scope for it.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

An imac is a quality piece of kit though a bit overpriced. It takes a bit of adapting to the Apple way of doing things but, once you do, they are great. If you need to you can run Windows 10 on it as well and either reboot into native windows or run Windows in a "virtual machine", sort of in its own window.

Time Machine, the Apple built in backup system, is excellent. If only Windows had as good a backup option.

MS Office for Mac is much better than it was.

Anything web based will be fine on a Mac.

Give it a go.

If you buy one from "Deecies" on eBay then it'll come ready setup to run Windows as well.

 

[Exfarmer]

one very good thing about Mac they suffer far less from Viruses

 

[dudders]

I changed to a desktop Mac a few years ago and have been fine with it, although no experience with livestock systems or portals. I like how it's silent and the whole computer's in the monitor - no humming tower on the floor. My repair guru keeps saying I should switch from Microsoft to Apple as it's way better for things like Word and Excel, also he can't believe I'm still using Outlook for email when, he says, Apple Mail is better and more secure. I'm sure they could be, it's just the fag of switching and adapting to new systems.

 

[spark plug]

I’ve just moved from a windows laptop to a MacBook and wondered why I didn’t do it years ago. Everything just seems to work especially syncing with other Apple products.

yes you pay a premium but the whole package, both software and hardware are finished much better.

 

[Stuarts]

Thanks all.
Looks like the nudge I needed to go for an all apple system. Think it will be first on the shopping list post harvest. Great info on how it works with a farming business. And the bit about the higher spec one to go for will be handy when I start looking.
cheers guys

 

[Cowabunga]

Hi all , I’m looking to upgrade my office pc. Fed up with windows. I use an iPhone and iPad and I am thinking about an imac so I have a common platform system with the added advantage of auto sync with devices. Has anyone done the same and is there any problems with interaction with cattle movement portals or dept of ag portals ? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm a big iMac fan. There is no issue whatsoever with anything, if only because you can have Windows running on it as well as Mac OSX. Not that I use Windows much at all.
Cattle movement portal works fine, as it works in a browser and I use Apple Safari mostly but my cattle management program prefers Google Chrome, which again works seamlessly. I often have multiple tabs open on Chrome and Safari at the same time.

It is less than a month since I bought a new iMac 27" with a few extras. Be aware that if you specify many options it will be built in Ireland, not China, but there is massive demand and a waiting list for factory orders.
I would advise you to buy from an authorised corporate reseller rather than an Apple shop for a better deal. I got mine from Deecies in North Wales, bought through eBay.
Be aware that new models are on the horizon with larger screens apparently, but I have upgraded from a 2011 21" machine and am perfectly happy with the style of the current model.

My 2011 machine works perfectly fine and if anything better than ever, having had extra memory added this year. Everything ported across from the old one to the new one without any issues whatsoever, including the bridging software between Microsoft Excel and the VAT. Almost incredible.

Currently I have both machines on the table and I could, if I wanted to, use the old machine as a second screen for the new. Or I could use the iPad as a second screen. The reason I've still got both is that I have yet to copy the Windows files over and I'm having trouble with W7 crashing on the old one. Not sure yet whether to run W10 on the new one in a partition, like the old one, or to run it as a virtual machine from within OSX. The problem with running in a partition [which they call 'Bootcamp'] is that to switch between OSX and Windows requires a machine restart.

I purchased the W10 and other programs as a package through Deecies and they installed it and the extra RAM before shipping onwards to me. The machine has a Core i9 processor and SSD drive rather than the Apple hybrid 'Fusion' drive. Whatever you do, get the SSD drives rather than the standard Fusion and do not hesitate to get the 27" over the 21"
The basic 21" may sound like good value but it doesn't even come up to the spec of my 2011 21" machine. It is meant as a student or bargain basic special with a spec to match. One step up is a giant step. A 27" with SSD is another giant step. Another thing is that you can easily upgrade the RAM on the 27" models yourself where the 21" models are sealed and it is a big job.

The 2011 machine still gets security updates but is not now supplied with operating system updates. However it works just fine with High Sierra. The current new machines run a version called Catalina but will soon have a free upgrade to a substantially revised OS Big Sur.

Yes everything syncs with iPhone and iPad, even YouTube and Chrome. One thing to remember is to use mostly Safari browser if you want your passwords to be remembered and sync'd using Apple's 'keychain'. If you join a site using Chrome, then yes the password will be remembered and synchronised between devices as long as you are using Chrome. If you use Safari to join a secure site that requires a password that was initially stored in Chrome, it will not remember across the two browsers. Use one or the other browser as a habit or use a third party password management app that will work across systems and browsers.
EDIT...
You can look up your password and use it to enter a site on the other browser of course. For instance, I have TFF remembered on both Safari and Chrome so it doesn't matter which I use it automatically connects to TFF. Indeed I often have a tab with TFF open on both browsers at the same time and just use a two fingered mouse swipe to change between browsers, or have them both side by side on the screen. Once you have done it on one of your devices, the other devices get the log in details automatically from both Safari and Chrome.

 

[ajd132]

I was thinking of buying a Mac mini and an aftermarket massive screen off amazon.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I'm a big iMac fan. There is no issue whatsoever with anything, if only because you can have Windows running on it as well as Mac OSX. Not that I use Windows much at all.
Cattle movement portal works fine, as it works in a browser and I use Apple Safari mostly but my cattle management program prefers Google Chrome, which again works seamlessly. I often have multiple tabs open on Chrome and Safari at the same time.

It is less than a month since I bought a new iMac 27" with a few extras. Be aware that if you specify many options it will be built in Ireland, not China, but there is massive demand and a waiting list for factory orders.
I would advise you to buy from an authorised corporate reseller rather than an Apple shop for a better deal. I got mine from Deecies in North Wales, bought through eBay.
Be aware that new models are on the horizon with larger screens apparently, but I have upgraded from a 2011 21" machine and am perfectly happy with the style of the current model.

My 2011 machine works perfectly fine and if anything better than ever, having had extra memory added this year. Everything ported across from the old one to the new one without any issues whatsoever, including the bridging software between Microsoft Excel and the VAT. Almost incredible.

Currently I have both machines on the table and I could, if I wanted to, use the old machine as a second screen for the new. Or I could use the iPad as a second screen. The reason I've still got both is that I have yet to copy the Windows files over and I'm having trouble with W7 crashing on the old one. Not sure yet whether to run W10 on the new one in a partition, like the old one, or to run it as a virtual machine from within OSX. The problem with running in a partition [which they call 'Bootcamp'] is that to switch between OSX and Windows requires a machine restart.

I purchased the W10 and other programs as a package through Deecies and they installed it and the extra RAM before shipping onwards to me. The machine has a Core i9 processor and SSD drive rather than the Apple hybrid 'Fusion' drive. Whatever you do, get the SSD drives rather than the standard Fusion and do not hesitate to get the 27" over the 21"
The basic 21" may sound like good value but it doesn't even come up to the spec of my 2011 21" machine. It is meant as a student or bargain basic special with a spec to match. One step up is a giant step. A 27" with SSD is another giant step. Another thing is that you can easily upgrade the RAM on the 27" models yourself where the 21" models are sealed and it is a big job.

The 2011 machine still gets security updates but is not now supplied with operating system updates. However it works just fine with High Sierra. The current new machines run a version called Catalina but will soon have a free upgrade to a substantially revised OS Big Sur.

Yes everything syncs with iPhone and iPad, even YouTube and Chrome. One thing to remember is to use mostly Safari browser if you want your passwords to be remembered and sync'd using Apple's 'keychain'. If you join a site using Chrome, then yes the password will be remembered and synchronised between devices as long as you are using Chrome. If you use Safari to join a secure site that requires a password that was initially stored in Chrome, it will not remember across the two browsers. Use one or the other browser as a habit or use a third party password management app that will work across systems and browsers.

I second the 27" iMac. Once you've sat in front of a screen of that size and clarity anything else feel cheap. The extra screen space also makes working on 2 open documents at once easy and relaxing.

It feels like a lot of money to spend but after 7 years with ours I'll buy another without hesitation.

 

[Cowabunga]

I have an Imac, they are good , but take some adapting to. A lot of filing can be far more complex than the old PC, but I have not run windows for ten years now.
The suyncing with all apple products is fantastic, but that can work on all their computers of course.
photo handling I am certain they do not have the edge they once did.
some products such as MS Office are not as good on the Mac And I miss that.

I have nearly 100,000 photos, videos and scans on my iMac, well nearly 1TB on a 2TB external drive actually, not on the main drive because my old 21" iMac only has a 500GB hard drive for storage. This is backed up to a second external drive using the standard 'TimeMachine' and photos backed up further to Google Photos in the Cloud and all other files to Apple iCloud apart from Office and Adobe Acrobat, which are backed up to their own dedicated clouds. About two thirds of photos and videos on the superb Apple Photos app onto which I have several further editing plug-ins. The rest in a separate 'pictures' folder, which mostly comprise of scans of old family prints.

MS Office works exactly as it does for Windows as far as I can see, including Microsoft365 [formerly Office365].
Filing is also very similar and I have no issues with either Windows or Apple filing systems. Must say that I have yet to work with Windows 10 as of yet on my new machine.
When I first had my iMac, in 2011, I don't recall any issue with using it compared to using Windows7 but far less bother with virus scanning and constant security updates and so on. Far fewer crashes and reboots also. Plus a whole lot of software comes as standard.

 

[Salt'n'Pepper]

Does anyone run sage on their mac/iMac?
Any issues?