Macbook review from an exclusive lifetime Windows user

When it comes to OS’s, I guess I’m bi-curious... I got my base 16�
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

There are countless YouTube and written reviews out there, and they are
generally all positive, so this isn’t so much about the machine as the OS,
and the hardware compared to most Windows laptops.

Hardwa I have a Windows PC that I use for photo and music work. It’s an
i7 with 32GB of memory and SSD, so it’s got plenty of horsepower. I
compared the MacBook using Cinebench, Geekbench, and an SSD tester. This
MacBook is at least twice as fast on almost every test. In PS and LR, this
thing is very fast and smooth. My main test was spot removal in LR. Whenever
I selected a large area in a raw file, the PC would choke as I moved the
source selection around. On the MBP, it still chokes if I select about 1/3 of
the photo - something you don’t do in real life - and the fans will come
on, but with a reasonable selection, there is no stuttering at all.

The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful - and it looks
like the Touch Bar will also be a big help after I learn to use it. The
relatively glossy display is not a problem at all - no glare problem so far.
And everyone knows what Retina displays are, so no comment is needed there.

Finally, the OS: This was my biggest concern - learning something completely
new. For anyone else who has thought about it, it’s really nothing at all
if you are willing to spend some time learning it. There are separate user
guides for both the hardware and MacOS, and they are very clear and helpful.
And what I’ve learned as I go along is that you can Google any questions
you have, and there is lots of very direct help out there. I would just
Google "Alt-Tab on a MAC�, and then any other keyboard shortcut I always
use, and I can now get things done at least as easily as on Windows. So
anything I need to do, I just Google it. And speaking of Windows, it appears
to be pretty easy to install Windows with Boot Camp, and I believe that
Windows is now effectively free, but there are enough apps for Apple out
there that I might never bother doing that.

The main negative so far is network connections. My PC’s will not find the
MacBook, and the MB sometimes loses the entire Network section in the Finder
app. When I do connect, it works great, but I need to look further into it.
And finally, the most general negative I’ve heard stated about MacOS is
that if you want it, you are stuck with Apple hardware, and during those
periods when their hardware just sucks (butterfly keyboard?), you are
screwed, ignoring Hackintoshes.

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple stuff,
I’d say go for it.

In article
l-september.org, Bill
W wrote:

When it comes to OS¹s, I guess I¹m bi-curious... I got my base 16²
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

you'll be getting your indoctrination papers soon, along with where to
go to get the secret implant. it's a painless procedure, although there
might be a little soreness for an hour or two after the anaesthetic
wears off.


The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful -

mind****: the trackpad is a fixed piece of glass and physically does
not move.

and it looks
like the Touch Bar will also be a big help after I learn to use it.

get better touch tool:
https://folivora.ai
and golden chaos:
https://goldenchaos.net/goldenchaos-btt.html

The
relatively glossy display is not a problem at all - no glare problem so far.

the gloss is minimal and not noticeable when actually in use.

And everyone knows what Retina displays are, so no comment is needed there.

not everyone. plenty of people have never seen, let alone actually used
a retina display and do not have any idea how dramatically better it
is.

in fact, it's so good that you can increase the display resolution for
more screen space and everything is still just as sharp.

Finally, the OS: This was my biggest concern - learning something completely
new. For anyone else who has thought about it, it¹s really nothing at all
if you are willing to spend some time learning it. There are separate user
guides for both the hardware and MacOS, and they are very clear and helpful.
And what I¹ve learned as I go along is that you can Google any questions
you have, and there is lots of very direct help out there. I would just
Google "Alt-Tab on a MAC², and then any other keyboard shortcut I always
use, and I can now get things done at least as easily as on Windows.

you can change keyboard shortcuts to be whatever you want for just
about any app, although it's best to initially leave them at the
defaults and decide later if a change is warranted.

So
anything I need to do, I just Google it. And speaking of Windows, it appears
to be pretty easy to install Windows with Boot Camp, and I believe that
Windows is now effectively free, but there are enough apps for Apple out
there that I might never bother doing that.

it's actually faster to install windows on a mac than on a pc.

The main negative so far is network connections. My PC¹s will not find the
MacBook, and the MB sometimes loses the entire Network section in the Finder
app. When I do connect, it works great, but I need to look further into it.

that's more than likely something on the pc side.

make sure smb is enabled. go to system preferences, sharing pref pane,
click file sharing in the list, then click the options... button, tick
smb and set any account options if you want.

also keep in mind that mac os does not support the outdated and very
insecure smb1 protocol, which you may need to disable on the pc side.

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple stuff,
I¹d say go for it.

"but it's so expensive"

On May 27, 2020, nospam wrote
(in ) :

In article
l-september.org, Bill
W wrote:

When it comes to OS¹s, I guess I¹m bi-curious... I got my base 16²
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

you'll be getting your indoctrination papers soon, along with where to
go to get the secret implant. it's a painless procedure, although there
might be a little soreness for an hour or two after the anaesthetic
wears off.

I’ve been dreaming of this day. And I’m assuming the implant is what will
allow me to stand in line for 48 hours for the latest iPhone, right?

The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful -

mind****: the trackpad is a fixed piece of glass and physically does
not move.

I swore it was moving, and never would have known if you hadn’t told me. Is
that like a haptic thing I feel?

and it looks
like the Touch Bar will also be a big help after I learn to use it.

get better touch tool:
https://folivora.ai
and golden chaos:
https://goldenchaos.net/goldenchaos-btt.html

I’ll look into those.

The
relatively glossy display is not a problem at all - no glare problem so far.

the gloss is minimal and not noticeable when actually in use.

And everyone knows what Retina displays are, so no comment is needed there.

not everyone. plenty of people have never seen, let alone actually used
a retina display and do not have any idea how dramatically better it
is.

in fact, it's so good that you can increase the display resolution for
more screen space and everything is still just as sharp.

Finally, the OS: This was my biggest concern - learning something completely
new. For anyone else who has thought about it, it¹s really nothing at all
if you are willing to spend some time learning it. There are separate user
guides for both the hardware and MacOS, and they are very clear and helpful.
And what I¹ve learned as I go along is that you can Google any questions
you have, and there is lots of very direct help out there. I would just
Google "Alt-Tab on a MAC², and then any other keyboard shortcut I always
use, and I can now get things done at least as easily as on Windows.

you can change keyboard shortcuts to be whatever you want for just
about any app, although it's best to initially leave them at the
defaults and decide later if a change is warranted.

That’s the plan right now.

So
anything I need to do, I just Google it. And speaking of Windows, it appears
to be pretty easy to install Windows with Boot Camp, and I believe that
Windows is now effectively free, but there are enough apps for Apple out
there that I might never bother doing that.

it's actually faster to install windows on a mac than on a pc.

The main negative so far is network connections. My PC¹s will not find the
MacBook, and the MB sometimes loses the entire Network section in the Finder
app. When I do connect, it works great, but I need to look further into it.

that's more than likely something on the pc side.

make sure smb is enabled. go to system preferences, sharing pref pane,
click file sharing in the list, then click the options... button, tick
smb and set any account options if you want.

It was already checked. With a search, it appears that this has been an
ongoing issue for years, and I didn’t see any one fix. It’s not important
yet, so I’ll get around to it later. For now, I can transfer files as
needed.

also keep in mind that mac os does not support the outdated and very
insecure smb1 protocol, which you may need to disable on the pc side.

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple
stuff,
I¹d say go for it.

"but it's so expensive"

Eh, you can’t take it with you, right? It looked like Adorama and B&H were
in a mini price war, and I got this for 2100, or $300 off, and paid no tax.
So I got this, a dongle, and a 1TB external SSD for less than the original
list price. And after a lot of research I saw that comparable Windows PC’s
weren’t much different. I’m happy with it overall. I wanted something
that could replace all 3 of my PC’s, and this handles photo work very well,
so I’m sure it will also do audio work just fine, too. I have a good photo
monitor - it’s either 100% adobe RGB or very close, so I can use that if I
need something larger, and I can use my iPad Pro as an editing tablet with
sidecar. I should be all set.

On May 27, 2020, RichA wrote
(in ):

On Wednesday, 27 May 2020 18:53:13 UTC-4, Bill W wrote:
When it comes to OS’s, I guess I’m bi-curious... I got my base 16�
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

There are countless YouTube and written reviews out there, and they are
generally all positive, so this isn’t so much about the machine as the OS,
and the hardware compared to most Windows laptops.

Hardwa I have a Windows PC that I use for photo and music work. It’s an
i7 with 32GB of memory and SSD, so it’s got plenty of horsepower. I
compared the MacBook using Cinebench, Geekbench, and an SSD tester. This
MacBook is at least twice as fast on almost every test. In PS and LR, this
thing is very fast and smooth. My main test was spot removal in LR. Whenever
I selected a large area in a raw file, the PC would choke as I moved the
source selection around. On the MBP, it still chokes if I select about 1/3
of
the photo - something you don’t do in real life - and the fans will come
on, but with a reasonable selection, there is no stuttering at all.

The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful - and it looks
like the Touch Bar will also be a big help after I learn to use it. The
relatively glossy display is not a problem at all - no glare problem so far.
And everyone knows what Retina displays are, so no comment is needed there.

Finally, the OS: This was my biggest concern - learning something completely
new. For anyone else who has thought about it, it’s really nothing at all
if you are willing to spend some time learning it. There are separate user
guides for both the hardware and MacOS, and they are very clear and helpful.
And what I’ve learned as I go along is that you can Google any questions
you have, and there is lots of very direct help out there. I would just
Google "Alt-Tab on a MAC�, and then any other keyboard shortcut I always
use, and I can now get things done at least as easily as on Windows. So
anything I need to do, I just Google it. And speaking of Windows, it appears
to be pretty easy to install Windows with Boot Camp, and I believe that
Windows is now effectively free, but there are enough apps for Apple out
there that I might never bother doing that.

The main negative so far is network connections. My PC’s will not find the
MacBook, and the MB sometimes loses the entire Network section in the Finder
app. When I do connect, it works great, but I need to look further into it.
And finally, the most general negative I’ve heard stated about MacOS is
that if you want it, you are stuck with Apple hardware, and during those
periods when their hardware just sucks (butterfly keyboard?), you are
screwed, ignoring Hackintoshes.

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple
stuff,
I’d say go for it.

There is no one more vociferous about alcoholism than a reformed drunk.

There won’t be any vociferocity coming from me. Even if I end up thinking
it’s the greatest ever, it’s still just a laptop and OS. There’s more
important things...

In article
l-september.org, Bill
W wrote:

When it comes to OS1s, I guess I1m bi-curious... I got my base 162
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

you'll be getting your indoctrination papers soon, along with where to
go to get the secret implant. it's a painless procedure, although there
might be a little soreness for an hour or two after the anaesthetic
wears off.

I¹ve been dreaming of this day. And I¹m assuming the implant is what will
allow me to stand in line for 48 hours for the latest iPhone, right?

additional information is not for pubic consumption.




The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful -

mind****: the trackpad is a fixed piece of glass and physically does
not move.

I swore it was moving, and never would have known if you hadn¹t told me. Is
that like a haptic thing I feel?

yep, it's haptics. press it with the computer fully shut down and when
it's booted to see the difference. it's crazy how good it is.

a major advantage is you can press anywhere. no more diving board.

some apps support pressure (aka force touch), such as quicktime player,
where you can click on the forward or reverse buttons and the playback
speed is based on how hard you press.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204352



Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple
stuff, I1d say go for it.

"but it's so expensive"

Eh, you can¹t take it with you, right? It looked like Adorama and B&H were
in a mini price war, and I got this for 2100, or $300 off, and paid no tax.
So I got this, a dongle, and a 1TB external SSD for less than the original
list price. And after a lot of research I saw that comparable Windows PC¹s
weren¹t much different.

as i've said many times, prices are comparable for similar specs.

and then there all of the features that are unavailable on the pc
side...

I¹m happy with it overall. I wanted something
that could replace all 3 of my PC¹s, and this handles photo work very well,
so I¹m sure it will also do audio work just fine, too.

check out garage band (free):
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id682658836?mt=12

I have a good photo
monitor - it¹s either 100% adobe RGB or very close, so I can use that if I
need something larger, and I can use my iPad Pro as an editing tablet with
sidecar. I should be all set.

sidecar is very slick.

On May 27, 2020, nospam wrote
(in ) :

In article
l-september.org, Bill
W wrote:

When it comes to OS1s, I guess I1m bi-curious... I got my base 162
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

you'll be getting your indoctrination papers soon, along with where to
go to get the secret implant. it's a painless procedure, although there
might be a little soreness for an hour or two after the anaesthetic
wears off.

I¹ve been dreaming of this day. And I¹m assuming the implant is what will
allow me to stand in line for 48 hours for the latest iPhone, right?

additional information is not for pubic consumption.


The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful -

mind****: the trackpad is a fixed piece of glass and physically does
not move.

I swore it was moving, and never would have known if you hadn¹t told me. Is
that like a haptic thing I feel?

yep, it's haptics. press it with the computer fully shut down and when
it's booted to see the difference. it's crazy how good it is.

a major advantage is you can press anywhere. no more diving board.

some apps support pressure (aka force touch), such as quicktime player,
where you can click on the forward or reverse buttons and the playback
speed is based on how hard you press.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204352

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple
stuff, I1d say go for it.

"but it's so expensive"

Eh, you can¹t take it with you, right? It looked like Adorama and B&H were
in a mini price war, and I got this for 2100, or $300 off, and paid no tax.
So I got this, a dongle, and a 1TB external SSD for less than the original
list price. And after a lot of research I saw that comparable Windows PC¹s
weren¹t much different.

as i've said many times, prices are comparable for similar specs.

and then there all of the features that are unavailable on the pc
side...

I¹m happy with it overall. I wanted something
that could replace all 3 of my PC¹s, and this handles photo work very well,
so I¹m sure it will also do audio work just fine, too.

check out garage band (free):
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id682658836?mt=12

Already invested in the Studio One world, although Garage Band is pretty
good. I’ve played around a bit on my iPad.


I have a good photo
monitor - it¹s either 100% adobe RGB or very close, so I can use that if I
need something larger, and I can use my iPad Pro as an editing tablet with
sidecar. I should be all set.

sidecar is very slick.

Yep. There’s a Windows app version that I believe was written by the
Sidecar developers (Duet?). It works well, and is useful for photo editing.

In article
l-september.org, Bill
W wrote:

I1m happy with it overall. I wanted something
that could replace all 3 of my PC1s, and this handles photo work very
well,
so I1m sure it will also do audio work just fine, too.

check out garage band (free):
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id682658836?mt=12

Already invested in the Studio One world, although Garage Band is pretty
good. I¹ve played around a bit on my iPad.

the mac version is a bit different.

I have a good photo
monitor - it1s either 100% adobe RGB or very close, so I can use that if I
need something larger, and I can use my iPad Pro as an editing tablet with
sidecar. I should be all set.

sidecar is very slick.

Yep. There¹s a Windows app version that I believe was written by the
Sidecar developers (Duet?). It works well, and is useful for photo editing.

apple developed sidecar and is part of macos. duet is from a company
that was founded by ex-apple engineers and supports mac & windows.

On 27/05/2020 23:53, Bill W wrote:

When it comes to OS’s, I guess I’m bi-curious... I got my base 16�
MacBook Pro onSaturday, and this is what I think:

There are countless YouTube and written reviews out there, and they are
generally all positive, so this isn’t so much about the machine as the OS,
and the hardware compared to most Windows laptops.

Hardwa I have a Windows PC that I use for photo and music work. It’s an
i7 with 32GB of memory and SSD, so it’s got plenty of horsepower. I
compared the MacBook using Cinebench, Geekbench, and an SSD tester. This
MacBook is at least twice as fast on almost every test. In PS and LR, this
thing is very fast and smooth. My main test was spot removal in LR. Whenever
I selected a large area in a raw file, the PC would choke as I moved the
source selection around. On the MBP, it still chokes if I select about 1/3 of
the photo - something you don’t do in real life - and the fans will come
on, but with a reasonable selection, there is no stuttering at all.

The touchpad is great - the use of gestures is really helpful - and it looks
like the Touch Bar will also be a big help after I learn to use it. The
relatively glossy display is not a problem at all - no glare problem so far.
And everyone knows what Retina displays are, so no comment is needed there.

Finally, the OS: This was my biggest concern - learning something completely
new. For anyone else who has thought about it, it’s really nothing at all
if you are willing to spend some time learning it. There are separate user
guides for both the hardware and MacOS, and they are very clear and helpful.
And what I’ve learned as I go along is that you can Google any questions
you have, and there is lots of very direct help out there. I would just
Google "Alt-Tab on a MAC�, and then any other keyboard shortcut I always
use, and I can now get things done at least as easily as on Windows. So
anything I need to do, I just Google it. And speaking of Windows, it appears
to be pretty easy to install Windows with Boot Camp, and I believe that
Windows is now effectively free, but there are enough apps for Apple out
there that I might never bother doing that.

The main negative so far is network connections. My PC’s will not find the
MacBook, and the MB sometimes loses the entire Network section in the Finder
app. When I do connect, it works great, but I need to look further into it.
And finally, the most general negative I’ve heard stated about MacOS is
that if you want it, you are stuck with Apple hardware, and during those
periods when their hardware just sucks (butterfly keyboard?), you are
screwed, ignoring Hackintoshes.

Anyway, for anyone who has thought about switching - or adding - Apple stuff,
I’d say go for it.

I bought one in somewhat similar circumstances five years ago. Very
nicely made and both hardware and software seem reliable. I've used it
for video, audio, and photo editing (sometimes connected to a bigger
screen). It's now my random use portable laptop (for example I take it
on holiday and backup photos to it) but I can't say I have ever really
got familiar with the OS and UI (compared to Windows). Whenever I am
using it for something slightly different I almost invariably have to
rely on having an internet connection to look up some help.

I don't (often) rely on direct network sharing at home, I'm more likely
to put stuff in the cloud when away from home, and pick it up from there
when I get back. Because it's easy to set up windows-like folders in One
Drive, etc.

I have an iPad but not an iPhone (yet). I'm torn between the view that
Apple geeks are ultra fashion conscious people with more money than
sense, or the position that as an engineer I can easily afford to pay
for high performance, build quality, and long life.

In article ,
newshound wrote:

I have an iPad but not an iPhone (yet). I'm torn between the view that
Apple geeks are ultra fashion conscious people with more money than
sense,

a view that has zero basis in reality.

or the position that as an engineer I can easily afford to pay
for high performance, build quality, and long life.

that's valid.

On May 28, 2020, Whisky-dave wrote
(in ):


One thing I use regularly on the Mac that I find a pain of a PC is capturing a specific part of the screen.
Just cmd-shift-4 and I can select any part of the screen and it save the file to the desktop. Its quicker than even saving a photo at a reduced resolution of so
to send to facebook, where quality isn't a priority.

Yup! Screen, Window, or Area captures with a Mac are simple:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361

--
Regards,
Savageduck