jonc

Having spent most of my life using MS Windows, from Windows 3.0 through to Windows 10, and having spent many heated hours on here arguing the virtues of Windows and how Mac was crap with JackClark, I only went and bought a MacBook Air I figured why not since my 10 year old Thinkpad T420 is now incompatible with the up and coming Windows 11. And you know what I am thoroughly impressed with it. The Retina screen is beautiful to look at, the keyboard, whilst not quite as tactile as the Thinkpad, is nice and solid to type on and the Force touch trackpad with all the different gestures is excellent. No doubt I'm going through the honeymoon period, I only got it yesterday, but the quality and engineering that has gone it to making it a solid, silent and slick bit of IT kit is mightily impressive and if the reviews are to be believed, the M1 processor should mean it should have massive performance potential.

That said, it's not all been plain sailing as I try and get used to the intricacies of getting my head around and navigating MacOS; it's hard not to compare what would have been a simple task in Windows is frustrating in MacOS, eg, adding a shortcut icon on the desktop or reverse delete. I'm sure I'll figure it all out as I get used to it more. But when I'm not trying to configure it like Windows, everything "just works" . I still have my main desktop which I'll upgrade to Windows 11, but looking at the reviews, it also looks a little like MacOS. Maybe Apple were right after all, I'm now a convert!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I'm slowly heading the Apple way. It's was fine at win7 but it just went downhill from there and Win 10 has killed it for me...I held out in hope the incremental updates would polish up the rough edges of a OS that was incomplete and buggy from the day it was launched (Vista was solid after the final release). But Win11 from what I've heard it appears to be more of the same.

I actually use my iphone more than my PC because windows 10 just faffs around so much. Even trying to print something it'll decide it can't find the network printer. iPhone...boom straight there, don't even need a print driver.

Same with IoT. And of log in/wake up speed, whilst I know disabling microsoft account would speed it up....but Apple does the same and give me a usable device without waiting, even with a glitchy internet?

Oh and at work I need access a remote anonymous/guest shared folder...Everytime it does a big update it gets permissions errors where 5 win10 PCs once again refuse to access it even though it's still perfectly accessible on Win vista/7/POS/8/iOS/Mac. Have to mess around in the registry on each win10 PC to get it working again. Then about a month later, update, back to square one again.

So when my PC dies or I see a good deal on a Mac, that's what I'm getting next.

IdonthaveaScooby

My ipone is trouble getting to connect to printer , thats why i use bluestacks on dell laptop ( only 5 years old)

jonc

To be honest, I’ve had no real issues with Windows 10 and has been working fine for me, brought a new lease of life to my tired old Thinkpad. There are a few things with Windows 10 I don’t like, the user interface looks nice but seems less efficient in use compared with Windows 7 in my opinion, but everything else Windows 10 was far superior to Windows 7. I’ve found it’s been rock solid, especially in the last couple of years.

I’ve now gotta work out whether I need MacOS versions of the software I’ve been using in Windows, like whether I need to buy a new version of MS Office license or if I could get by with just the in built Pages and Numbers applications for example. Also MacOS doesn’t fully support NTFS so I’m gonna have to transfer all the files off my external drives and reformat them to exFAT and restore back the files, that or buy software to support NTFS!

It’s funny to think that Windows 10 was released 6 years ago and that this was supposed to be the last version of Windows….now Microsoft have just released Windows 11! It’s not game over just yet, Windows 10 will continue to be supported until it becomes end of life in October 2025. Should give Windows 11 time to overcome those initial teething problems before I upgrade my desktop to Windows 11….assuming the upgrade will still be free by then….I guess we’ll just have to wait and see….

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I've got lots of small gripes that when added up makes it regularly feels like the extra layers added to make it better (one account login, search web from start, cortana etc.) just get in the way and slow it down (especially if the internet is glitching) and the gubbins to fix/adjust stuff so to speak is still split across the settings app and the old control panel...despite microsoft saying control panel will be phased out on win10 we're still after six years left with this messy halfway house to change/adjust system setting, today it still feels unfinished. Win 11 appears to carry on this trend and claims continue to migrate to the settings app as updates come along....to me that means ITs STILL NOT FINISHED LOL

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

I used to be all things MS but when I moved into more software development/agile companies, the goto is Mac, so I started to use. For a while I had both (mainly because one program needed to be run on MS) but the one I used day to day was the Mac. I even ran the Mac version of office but have slowly migrated to the Google versions, though I still use Mac Excel for preference. I even went and bought my own Air. The fact its pretty linked to my iPhone is also a bonus.
Offered a brand new either/or these days and it would be a Mac without hesitation

jonc

Well after nearly 2 weeks I have to say that getting used to the MacBook has been pretty easy. Probably also helped that it's also pretty similar to Linux! Got it all setup to how I want it (after watching a few Youtube tutorials!) and the Mac versions of the Windows apps are installed and working. Have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the MacBook Air so far. The battery literally lasts all day, the apps are rock solid and runs with zero lag and pretty easy to use once setup. This is the best laptop I've used in a long time. Would I recommend it, yes if this is your first computer, but if you're not tech savvy and only used ever used Windows and nothing else, probably not, not unless you have a tech savvy friend to set it up! Apple announced the new MacBook Pros with newer faster processors, but to be honest, the base level M1 MacBook Air is pretty much all you need for the majority of people. I don't think I too will ever choose another Windows laptop if I can help it.

JackClark

Never too late to migrate to Mac and never too late to buy Bitcoin. I'm eyeing up the new MacBook but my wallet is saying no, £2500 on my current 11 year old was outrageous at the time but paid for itself over the years, not working away anything like as much so not sure I can justify £3500.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My last few iphones have been graded/open box. Fairly good discount over new and device itself was as-new, suspect my next laptop purchase will be either refurb or graded.

I know they come in a nice box when new...but...yeah they're a lot of money now.

JackClark

My current iMac is a refurb, seem to remember saving a load on it but the current refurbs don't look like such good value.

Fail1

I also had this, try installing the software work monitoring