Any Windows user switched to Mac only?

Has anyone like completely switched to Mac and ditched Windows completely? If so, please share your experiences ranging from how you like the OS, how you managed to find alternatives for all your Windows apps that you've been probably using for years, what was better? etc...

 

You can buy Parallels and run Windows side by side w/o any issue or Use Bootcamp. You can't get rid off MSFT Win 10 because some apps are so much superior and just works like always.
You need to use mouse quite often to todo even most basic tasks.
I tried Mac during Yosemite era so I might be outdated with solid info and I never liked it aside from Spotlight search which works by pressing Ctrl+Space.

 

I tried it when I bought a MBP a few months ago. Couldn't get the hang of it, so to speak, so I returned it to the Apple store about a month later (holiday return policy). The first-party applications were pretty neat and of course worked very well (was especially happy with the iPhone functionality of making/receiving calls from the laptop). However, using third-party applications outside of the application store (which is the majority of my computer use case, regardless of OS) was a major sore point for me, even for applications with an OSX/macOS version. For a device that is supposed to be dead simple and thoughtless (when it comes to the "just works" mentality), it was a bit of a disappointment in my experience. Eventually, I replaced the MBP with the Insprion 7577 in my sig; while it's not as small/thin as the 13 MBP I had nor has a similar battery life, it's something I can use pretty well and as I bonus I don't have to lug my mITX gaming desktop around when I visit family.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the keyboard (2017 MBP nTB), given what I've read about it prior to purchase, as well as my own notions of what is an acceptable amount of key travel.

 

Someone like Phoenix will hate OS X after a week or two. OS X needs more clicks and less keyboard usage.
If you want a easier syncing and restore of a iphone and want a PC that just works w/o any frills or chills use a Mac and enjoy. For pure productivity and gaming, I still lean towards Linux and Windows.

 

You can use macOS pretty easily with the keyboard (it does come with a decent terminal, like Linux/BSD), but if that’s the goal you’d probably be better off using Linux/BSD (or Windows + PowerShell if that’s youre thing) assuming there’s no dependence on macOS-only software.

 

I meant keystrokes are different, everything need Cmd plus anything. Opening File explorer needs a mouse click instead of opening file mgr using keystrokes.
Mac OS is slick, intuitive for users who haven't used a PC at all! Its like using a smartphone.

 

Oh, well that’s to be expected when you move from one environment to another.

 

Well Linux simply closes the UI gap, almost same keystrokes for cut, paste or commonly used shortcuts.

 

Experiment with Hackntosh and see if you can tolerate mac.

 

Never fully - always with a Windows virtual machine in use (Virtualbox). In my experience, there have always been several apps that just don't have a MacOS equivalent. On the other hand, most of the software that I regularly use has native support, so it's not a huge issue. Losing a large amount of disk space for the VM is however quite an annoyance, which also doesn't have an easy solution, while still providing good performance and portability.

 

I have a Mac Mini. I like it as something different, but I wouldn't say it was any better or worse than Windows or Linux. The only thing I was forced to give up was Photoshop, but the Gimp works well enough as a replacement as I only touch up with it.

 

Why'd you have to give up Photoshop on Mac?

@Jarhead Tell me more about the application experience.

I remember 4 or 5 years ago I bought a MBP and here is my experience:

1) I turned it on, very nice packaging neatly done.

2) Entered my Apple ID....... logged in......

3) that's it! I'm like what? there is nothing that I need to configure, update, install, NADA, I loved that it's ready for action immediately unlike Windows 10.

Now THAT was what bothered me, there was nothing for me to really tinker with other than watch movies, or browse the web. I felt like I'm in a different world........that is not bad, just different to what I'm used to but now that I have many things on my table I certainly would appreciate the ease of use and not having to ever deal with Windows and it's stupid updates again

4) As I remember from my past experience I was able to find alternatives to almost every app that I use except for a video player which plays movies @ 60 FPS like SVP. but now SVP supports Mac I believe so that shouldn't be an issue......

 

The experience should be ditto like your iphone X and other Apple products. Simple to setup and easy to use. No settings or bloatware to uninstall/change.

 

Before you go and buy a Macbook, I highly encourage you to go and try the keyboard in person because I personally could not stomach the garbage key travel of the "new" mb/mbp.

 

For me, the tinkering wasn’t much of an issue. The operating system has a terminal very similar to the Linux terminal, so that was an environment I was already familiar and comfortable with. And of course anything related to Apple (first-party software, integration with my iPhone, etc) worked very well.

For me, the major turn-off was how it handled third party stuff as I’d mentioned before. One of the programs that I had tried, which I thought would be simple to use in macOS, was Steam (I have a lot of visual novels, 2D games, and older games which the MBP hardware can handle). Downloaded the macOS installer from Steam’s website (because it’s not in the App Store), installed it, and it seemed to work just fine. However, for some odd reason I had to have had the .dmg mounted before it would open. Same story for another piece of software I tried: Katawa Shoujo (also has a macOS installer). While it’s not a difficult thing to do, having to mount images for the software I want to use before using it would be a major hassle for me when I want to run more than a few third-party applications at once. Given that almost all the software I use is third party (be it in macOS, Windows, or Linux), this was a bit of an issue.

That said, it was pretty nice as a travel laptop given its weight for the screen size (compared to my Elitebook). This served to be pretty useful when I was spending a few weeks in the hospital (family member was going through cancer treatments). Due to the software annoyances, I mainly only ever used it as an internet browsing machine, but I could have just as easily done that with my phone and saved even more weight.

Honestly I don’t want to keep around a laptop that mainly functions as a ~$1,300 website browser, especially since I’m not particularly attached to any macOS-only software. I’m heavily pragmatic when it comes to materialistic things, and I couldn’t justify carrying around a MBP when used in that manner and for that cost of entry. While I do lose out on some of the portability and battery life when I used the refund money to get the Inspiron 7577, I could at least forego lugging my gaming desktop several hundred miles to play games every time I went to my family’s house, which was a major plus for me with regards to that purchase. At any rate, I could always just set up a macOS virtual machine for the next time I want to try out the environment again for the low price of whatever the OS disc is selling for these days.

 

Unless this is a bug that cropped up recently, I was always able to install Steam on MacOS by downloading the .dmg, dragging the file to applications folder, and going from there. No need to re-mount anything.

 

Well that's not very encouraging for me after reading your user experience. You see, I have a big in my personality, I'd either go for the best or I won't go at all. So if I were to buy a MacBook Pro it will be the best and most expensive one costing north of 4000 USD and I definitely cannot justify that price for an internet browsing machine as you called which was pretty much my experience when I tried MacOS 4 years ago. It was a cool ipad with a keyboard.

What I am interested in learning though are the Mac apps. I heard that Final Cut Pro is good and I always wondered, why is it when you watch a movie and see a laptop in that movie, 90% of the time it's a Mac? am I missing something here? or is this just an ad for Apple and they provide the movie makers with these laptops....

 

That could have possibly been the issue. I had merely just double-clicked on the installer and followed the prompts; I don’t recall ever dragging anything anywhere.

Would have figured that something like that would be automatic, like how Windows will dump the program files to C:\Program Files or how Linux distros handle such things (it will run anywhere you put it on the system).

 

That was definitely your problem. Double clicking an application from inside the .dmg just runs it. You have to drag/drop it to the folder in order to not need the container mounted. At least that's how it works for most programs. Some do contain an installer within the .dmg that you can double click and use like in Windows.

 

More like your car IMO.
Macs are pricey and built to last (like they write in their website). When you're a Pro in the Cinema Industry and don't know much about tweaking OS and other tech things, Macs simply de-clutters all that you want w/o worrying about tweaking OS, so they earn 10x the amount and spend 2x on a Mac. I have seen developers who earn a lot invest on a Mac for less cumbersome IDE configuration and easy setup.
See for example, iTunes on Mac simply works better and faster than Windows counter-parts and doesn't feel bloated at all!
FCP X on mac = Adobe SW on Windows because MS compilers generalise optimal code paths for all paths rather than Apple sticking to Intel Compiler or use Gcc for O2 or Full Optimisation.

 

For everyday personal computing I switched from Windows to macOS about two and a half years ago. Not because I think macOS is superior, it's because I really have come to love Macbooks (and 5k iMacs ) and the integration of my iphone with the Macs is very convenient and works very well.
I do have an external SSD with W10 running on my iMac because the CAD/CAM software I use is not available on Mac.

 

How you type on that keyboard, I don't know. I wanted to throw the macbook I was issued at work straight into the garbage and go back to my old thinkpad

 

Hi Phoenix. I did that 15 years ago. Life on MacOS was easier. But since Steve Jobs left Apple seems to be completely lost. Tons of problems with hardware and also software.

Today I am returning to Windows for good. Buying a new PC and that's it.

 

This.

I was issued a Macbook Pro 15 2016 from a client and the keyboard was just trash. The spacebar gave out then the Q then the spacebar again. Two top Bezel replacements and eventually they were able to get me a 2017 model which is just as bad in regards to travel and feel. I eventually was able to convince them to let me use a 2015 ("why do you want to use older hardware??" "Because the nMBP keyboards are the worst I've ever used on a laptop....ever" "Oh".) simply for the keyboard.

If I end up having to go back to a 2016/2017 (their cost not mine), I will find a way to get a small, compact portable keyboard I can attach some rear elevation on and place it over the Macbook keyboard airspace. That keyboard is simply terrible. I still use an Apple Extended Keyboard II for home and work.

Apple's nMBP 2016/2017 keyboards make Clevo's keyboard feel like mechanical bliss in comparison.

Don't get me started on the TouchFail.....

Apple - We want everybody to type on a iOS touchscreen so we'll slowly transition you to it with each passing laptop

 

I tried to switch 3 times. Each time I came to the same conclusion. 1. Hardware is no where near what you get with a windows based system. 2. MacOS is a horrible OS for user friendliness. 3. Besides the usual "fluff" like imessage, facetime, and garage band, Windows 10 is a much better OS, plus you get touch, pen, and a variety of devices that are better. Now with dell mobile connect, imessage is a non issue for me as I get all my imessages from my iPhone on my dell computer.

Bring on the hate!

 

I got both. Macbook Pro 13 Touchbar for everyday use and a Clevo PDM3 for gaming.

 

I made the switch from Windows laptop to a Macbook Pro in January of 2015. I was on the market for a new laptop and took a leap of faith with a Mac because it was a nice machine and I wanted to get used to using Unix. It turned out to be a great decision as I really loved the retina display and the touchpad which allowed me to not have to use a mouse at all, especially when writing code. It also ran extremely quiet and cool, neither of which my previous Windows laptops were able to achieve. In particular there were many times when I maxed out all 4 cores and it was able to hold turbo speeds for hours and hours without any problems, and the temperatures barely reached 70C like that. I used it heavily for two years and it was perfect.

Since then I've moved on to a Lenovo P50 and now a Clevo P775 for more heavy duty processing power (and 64gb ram). However instead of Windows I'm running Ubuntu as it has the best tools for what I do. My Macbook Pro is still being used heavily by my girlfriend and it's been great for her as well, with the only problem being the anti-reflective coating issue. We got a screen replacement for free and it's been doing well since. I am fairly concerned about all of the problems with the more recent Macs, but this new generation could be a good one thanks to 32gb ram and faster processor. Will probably get a new one for my girlfriend later this year if there aren't any glaring problems.

 

I’ve tried twice. The first time was more of a “I wonder if these guys do something better than windows?” Since one of the biggest reasons you hear people switching to Mac is they can’t stand windows. But, from my perspective it was the other way around. Windows seemed to have so much more functionality and ease of use that I couldn’t bring myself to stick with it more than a month.

And the second time I tried Mac OS this year actually and was just gonna give it a second go and it wasn’t four days into it I told myself I’d never try Mac OS again.

At this point I wouldn’t use it even if my job required it.

 

Like any good developer, I am always switching platforms (Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac, other) so as to stay flexible and nimble. So Linux is my default state, MacOS is my compromise for proprietary programs and for mobile, then and only then I use Windows if I must. This is always fluid. I switched to Mac OS X ten years ago.


@Phoenix posted:
>"Has anyone like completely switched from Mac and ditched
> Windows completely? If so, please share your experiences
> ranging:
> 1) From how you like the OS,

macOS is functional enough and has enough software titles for me for 90% of the time. The other times, I access another machine or VM it. I find what desktop that is presented, the polish of it is good and built to high quality. The flip side of this is, it is a tad boring.

The wifi supplicant tends to always work (like Windows, unlike Linux). OS recovery, cloning, backup & restore options on macOS are pretty good.

Trust me. If you're a tinkerer, you'll need to find something -- programming, robotics, machine learning, AI, drones, rovers -- , anything else -- or you'll get bored.

>2) How you managed to find alternatives for all your Windows
> programs that you've been probably using for years,

I usually google "Mac OS X replacement for xyz". Failing that I reach out to my professional network and ask the few Mac guys what they use. Failing that, I always manage to chat up other customers a few times a year at one of the Apple stores. Or just see what software is on the shelf at one of the Apple Stores in town. Back in the dark ages (pre-1994) I used to use printed software catalogs from publishers I'd get in the mail.

There are some proprietary programs I have not yet replaced. One is MathCad. Another is SolidWorks. Still another in Origin (like spreadsheets but on steriods for Physicists). Another is Beyond Compare but Araxis Merge comes close, so does rsync. I still need a Windows PC or Server to manage Active Directory or Group Policy, or other admin tools for Windows. I typically RDP/RDC into a Windows host to do that. There are a few Linux utilities I haven't replaced on Mac but those aren't worth mentioning here.

For these proprietary programs, I run a Windows host. Ditto for gaming. Gaming on Mac is worse than Linux (thanks to Steam). About 1/3 to 2/3 of my games are Linux native. About 0 of them are Mac native. Gaming on Mac is that bad.

> 3) What (programs, etc.) was better? etc. ...

macOS seems to combine the Unix like experience with a desktop about as good as Windows. I like Unix and free software tool chains (Linux, too) in terminal or a text editor. If you do, too, then you'll like Linux or macOS, too. Otherwise, macOS will feel like Unix but with Office, and Photoshop, and Final Cut Pro, but without 99% of the Windows + DOS catalog.

The backup, cloning, restoring programs are better, IMO and IME. I'm talking about Time Machine backups, cloning with Disk Utility from the install media, booting to external drives (USB or firewire), cloning back from the clone (without opening the chassis), cloning or migrating with WinClone for Mac. The reliability of these tools are IME excellent.

Spotlight search (command+space) is better IMO & IME than Cortana or Windows search.

Strange wifi settings and access to various wireless facilities are sometimes to time demanding on Linux and work better on macOS.

I like the built-in mail program. I really like it. It's my go-to daily IMAP mail program. I like it that much. In fact, I run Pantheon desktop environment on top of Debian Linux or Arch Linux, since Pantheon mail (fka Geary mail) looks and behaves like mail on macOS. This is a preference of mine not what's best for you.

I think Terminal is better. You get an actual Unix shell instead of cmd.exe or powershell or wmic.exe or putty.

The print dialogs can natively save as PDF files with no add-on software needed. That's nice.

The built-in family utilities on earlier OSs like iMovie and iDVD were good for home movie production. For bigger stuff, I like Adobe Premier.

Being able to play back movies on macOS does not interest me. I proof my final projects on a Windows 7 Thinkpad T43 and an Android tablet. If it works there, it works for everyone. 100% I'm making or editing movies for someone else, not me. If I'm watching a movie, I'm doing it on a PlayStation 4 or using mplayer on Linux.

I had less problems streaming movies or music (or syncing movies) from iTunes on mac to AppleTV (connected to the TV and the stereo system). But that was back in 2008. I never tested later versions iTunes on Windows with AppleTV.



> 4) Why'd someone have to give up Photoshop on Mac?

Prior to creative cloud, lots of creative types had to stay on old versions of macOS because newer OSs tended to deprecate old plugins and old extensions for photoshop or other programs. There isn't as much backwards compatibility, so you'll need to keep your 3rd party tools up to date or find replacements when a tool is abandoned by the developer or when they go out of business.

Personally, I never run into this particular problem ever. My Photoshop and my macOS upgrades always work 100% of the time, even on the Hackintosh.

> 5) Tell me more about your application experience.

Intuit Quicken, Intuit Turbotax, Microsoft Office, and Adobe creative cloud are mostly the same as the Windows versions though Quicken in all fairness does have less features I think. But it's enough for me to manage my finances, savings, Federal state and local taxes, and investments on Mac.

Mac Excel doesn't support Visual Basic nor Visual Basic for Apps (VBA). Also there is no MS Access equivalent. That's a big problem as Excel+Access is good for doing ad hoc data reporting (aka Business Intelligence), quickly, in a business setting. You can use another database platform (mySQL, postgreSQL, Oracle) another with PHP or some datastudio front end to the DB. But sometimes a solution in Access is quicker/faster to code. Time is money.

There isn't an equivalent to Visio Professional (now owned by Microsoft). So that's another strike against Mac.

iWork suite - Pages, Numbers, Keynote were okay but they definitely have a home feel or a school book report feel to them. You can't really exchange files with most other people unless you use Microsoft Office. Although I can see where someone would like Keynote -- it's pretty slick -- but again, you can't really give the file to someone else. You'd need to present from your machine or just print it out. But for environments where you don't need PowerPoint, maybe.

NeoOffice - a version of openoffice for Mac. After using it, can't see myself using it since I can afford Microsoft Office.

IBM Lotus Notes - you only get the Notes client. You don't get the (server) Administation client nor do you get the Designer client (for building XPages apps or building Domino databases/apps). Linux has the same limitation, so you need a Windows partition somewhere....

Keepass (3rd party password vault) runs about as well as it does on Windows. Although Apple provides Keychain Access, natively, for password management.

Python runs about as well as it does on Linux and a little better than on Windows (compared with anaconda (spyder+iPython) on Windows). Python is a programming language for writing C code quickly.

Java IDE runs about as well using NetBeans or Eclipse IDE or a simple text editor.

Powershell is available for macOS and on Linux now for that matter. They gotta make sure we don't forget about Azure.

Skype runs on mac okay. It lags a little behind Windows on features but it is no where near as behind as the Linux client is. On Linux I've had problems with 3-way or 4-way group chats with video, where it defaults to audio only. Whereas on Mac, I don't ever remember there being any problems like that with group video chats.

If I need to runs VMs -- which I don't on my Macbook Air -- on my Hackintosh I would use Parallels Desktop. I find it has good 3D acceleration and good 3D video card pass through for CAD. Plus you can share a Parallels Windows partition with Apple Boot Camp (Apple's dual boot function).

Scrivener is good for novel + screen play writing. Better than Word, IMO. Until recently is was macOS-only. It's really a workflow or IDE for novel writers, especially LONG books. My wife is a professional writer and she uses Scrivener on the iMac for her work. Ulysses didn't impress her. I don't recall why.

macOS can natively handle ZIP files using the GUI but more power is only exposed via Terminal (command line). For edge cases like making password encrypted .7z files (AES-256), I use a paid tool like Keka or Entropy, because 7-Zip is not available for Mac.

I have good experience using BBedit or TextWrangler as a color coded text editor for HTML, PHP, etc work. It's also possible to use Adobe Dreamweaver. There isn't a replacement for Visual Studio (some use that for web development). I use BBEdit as a replacement for Notepad++ on Windows. Xcode isn't half bad. But using it seems like overkill since I'm not doing iOS nor mac app development.

I don't have the problems others have noticed installing software on the Mac. It's simple once you understand how it works. It's also simple to remove it.

> 6) I turned it on, entered my Apple ID ... logged in ... that's it!
> I'm like what? There's nothing that I need to configure, update,
> install, NADA. Now that is what bothered me, there was nothing
> for me to tinker with [since it's functional program feature-wise
> for basic computer tasks out of the box].

Yep.

> 7) But now I have many things on my table I certainly would
> appreciate the ease of use and not having to deal with Windows
> and its stupid updates again.

Yep. I agree. There is (the potential for) less sysadmin overhead on Mac = time savings.

The caveat here is some creative types get into plugin hell or extension hell, adding things to Photoshop that tend to break OS upgrades. But they have dozens of plugins and don't know where to start. Here having a time Machine backup saves you. But the solution there is wipe and reinstall without the problem plugin.

Don't forget to assign drive for Time Machine backups!

> 8) As I remember from my past experience I was able to find
> alternatives to almost every program I use except for a video
> player which plays movies @ 60 fps like SVP, but now SVP
> supports Mac I believe so that shouldn't be an issue.
> 9) What I am interested in learning though are the Mac
> programs. I heard that Final Cut Pro is good and I always
> wondered why is it when you watch a movie and see a laptop
> in that movie, 90% of the time it's a Mac?

It depends on if you're talking about scientists who prefer a Unix environment or VFX people who are accustomed to tool chains and workflows built on Mac.

> 10) Am I missing something here? or is it just an ad for Apple
> and the provide the movie makers with these laptops.

No comment.


In closing, the mac is the-computer-for-the-rest-of-us. It isn't the-computer-for-the-most-of-us nor the-computer-for-the-all-of-us. That's how the Mac has always been marketed. Also with Apple, you can't fight City Hall. You'll save yourself grief if you just do things the Apple Way. Not everyone wants to do that. I respect that. That's why alternatives exist.

A big thing about Mac in software houses was that in the early '00s, Microsoft wasn't interested in web browsers nor in web development. After IE6, and winning the browser wars and winning the web server wars (against Netscape and Sun Microsystems), MS considered IE6 a finished product and let it languish. So the community built free and open source tool chains and did it using platforms other than Microsoft (Linux and Mac) so as to not be dependent on Microsoft (understandable). So that's how we end up with all those Silicon Valley developers using Mac and Linux with command line tools and Linux cloud VMs. So now some people prefer to use Mac or Linux, with a mature stack of web development tools, when they could just as a well use Windows tools, except they don't.

VFX is in a similar boat. Historically Apple and Mac catered to these guys so there is a decent tool chain of programs there. They could just as easily use Windows (I guess) but the tool chains are mature here so culturally they still use Macs on the desktop but farm the heavy lifting out to Linux clusters (cheaper) on the backend.

With that said, someday I won't be a Mac customer either. It's just for now, what I have works. It's the comprise between Linux and Windows. The current Apple machines, don't interest me. Though a Macbook Air 13 2017 for $899 from Microcenter would if this MBA 11 were to die on me today.

 

Back in 1990, I recall looking through a software catalog from a publisher. Back then, publishers put of these catalogs several times a year listing the titles available: box pictures, screen shot, a short description, diskette physical sizes, and platforms supported. Even back then prior to DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0, it was clear that DOS and DOS PC compatibles were where the most titles were. And some titles, were PC exclusive. The funniest were games. Most of the video games were on DOS, which was funny, because other platforms like Amiga or Atari ST were ridiculed for being glorified video game computers rather than a serious business computer. lol. so when it was time to replace my Commodore 64, I wanted an Amiga, but when I saw literally all of the games -- and most games that interested me -- where on DOS so I ended with a 386 running DOS and later upgraded to Windows 3.0 and later versions of MS-DOS.

Microsoft seemed to come out of the gate with an early lead (after CP/M) and once they had the lead, they never gave it up to the competition. So we're still in the same boat today (everything is on Windows).

 

It’s a bit of a Catch 22: A dev shop is not going to want to spend time and money porting an existing Windows app (or creating a new macOS app) when they don’t see themselves making up the costs and some profit, and people won’t buy macOS machines in enough numbers because of the lack of software (compared to Windows).

Apple could work towards solving this Catch 22 by paying more attention to macOS (right now it seems they mostly only care about mobile and iOS) and releasing more, cheaper machines (like Walmart cheap) to push the OS share up. But that’s highly likely never to happen.

 

I know this is an old post, but an answer for your question. I'm working on set all the time and can confirm most people use Apple or wait for it...Alienware. The power/repair service would be the main reasons behind it. Both manufactures have best in class when an issue arises if you have Applecare/Dell onsite repair. When you're working on a $100 million plus movie or expensive show, you can't afford to be without a laptop for more than a couple days. The only difference is Dell taking forever on the phone. Probably why most people have a Mac.

 

Try Dell Precision, Hp ProBook or Lenovo Thinkpad W/P series with complete coverage w/ NBD. You have better Linux and Windows 7/10 support as well minus the huge cost.

 

I will buy a macbook pro 15'' 2018 from best buy and test it. If I'm not used to it then I will return it.