Author Topic: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS  (Read 14304 times)

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Offline DiTBho

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #75 on: September 13, 2023, 03:32:07 pm »
Having just pulled apart and reassembled my macbook pro....apple used at least 3 screw head types in the one device. Phillips, torx head and one way tri-lobe screws.

... speaking of computers, the comparison is better if you analyze how PCI and ePCI cards are made: often almost identical to PC ones but with small firmware differences which on the Linux Kernel side need to be compensated for with "quirks", and this is because Apple, like SGI, like HP, NEVER fully respects Intel specifications, and does so deliberately to make you compare cards that are approximately identical to PC ones but which won't work on a Mac unless you hack them.

On Linux we don't care, and 97% the hack is in kernel space.

Anyway, I've seen fiber optic cards that had a specific piece of firmware for x86/PC, rather than for ppc/Mac, rather than for MIPS/SGI, rather than for HPPA/HPUX, while the chip and everything else on the card was practically identical,  but sold in four different options

  • for PC
  • for Mac (differente price+)
  • for HP (differente price+++)
  • for SGI (differente price++++)

it's a bit like saying, I'll sell you a screw and a bolt, the body of the screw is always the same, but on PCs they are cross-shaped, on Macs they are Torx and on HPPA they are star cone, and for SGI they are star cone with 7 points, so you need 4 screwdrivers , or a small cutting disc saw to "hack" the screw head so that it can always be tightened and loosened with the same chisel screwdriver.

The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow
 

Offline DiTBho

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #76 on: September 13, 2023, 03:43:12 pm »
During the J.Ive's PowerBook-G3 era (~2000) we only needed one Daystar screwdriver!

You could disassemble and reassemble the entire { Lombard, Pismo } laptop with just one Daystar screwdriver!
A common screwdriver shipped to all Apple repair centers, just on one side it has a cross tip, on the other a torx tip.

J.Ive wanted it that way, and the battery was designed to come out like a drawer, you could open it and change all the charging elements, common cylindrical batteries.

The only "glue" was that of the label on the battery compartment cover, and it came off easily with a little WD40 (used improperly).

... I am afraid that talking about kind of screws and batteries, ~2000 was an enlightened period, unfortunately passed, and things have changed, for the worse.
The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow
 

Offline SilverSolder

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #77 on: September 14, 2023, 08:39:07 pm »
SilverSolder: If you can't drop Windows, I'd atleast imprison it inside a VM. That way you can keep it offline, and both prevent forcible updates which could mess up its ability to run the Windows only software you need Windows for, and avoid having any need for updates either (no need for a security patch for a system that is kept offline). The way Windows is headed I wouldn't trust being reliant on it as the main OS on a PC, if its in a VM when it crashes you can still use a reliable Linux host OS to search online for how to debug Windows. You can't search online for how to fix serious Windows crashes when Windows is your host (we'll assume you're travelling with a single laptop or something, so no second PC to hand).

Yes, that's what I do - wrap it up in VMs. 

I don't find Windows unreliable at all -  once set up, it can run for years with no issues.  Obviously this is true only if nobody (including Microsoft) is constantly messing with it!
 

Offline bd139

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #78 on: September 14, 2023, 08:45:19 pm »
During the J.Ive's PowerBook-G3 era (~2000) we only needed one Daystar screwdriver!

You could disassemble and reassemble the entire { Lombard, Pismo } laptop with just one Daystar screwdriver!
A common screwdriver shipped to all Apple repair centers, just on one side it has a cross tip, on the other a torx tip.

J.Ive wanted it that way, and the battery was designed to come out like a drawer, you could open it and change all the charging elements, common cylindrical batteries.

The only "glue" was that of the label on the battery compartment cover, and it came off easily with a little WD40 (used improperly).

... I am afraid that talking about kind of screws and batteries, ~2000 was an enlightened period, unfortunately passed, and things have changed, for the worse.

Caveat back then was the thing had to be taken apart very regularly!

The service manuals are now available for most recent Apple products. Mine for example: https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2085/en_US/macbookpro-14-2021-07300326A-repair.pdf

Still some pentalobes in there but it's mostly Torx.

The only inexcusable bit is that the keyboard / battery / top case is considered one part at the moment. This is being sorted in a future generation based on the general trends on their designs being more repairable per revision.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #79 on: September 14, 2023, 08:46:06 pm »
SilverSolder: If you can't drop Windows, I'd atleast imprison it inside a VM. That way you can keep it offline, and both prevent forcible updates which could mess up its ability to run the Windows only software you need Windows for, and avoid having any need for updates either (no need for a security patch for a system that is kept offline). The way Windows is headed I wouldn't trust being reliant on it as the main OS on a PC, if its in a VM when it crashes you can still use a reliable Linux host OS to search online for how to debug Windows. You can't search online for how to fix serious Windows crashes when Windows is your host (we'll assume you're travelling with a single laptop or something, so no second PC to hand).

Yes, that's what I do - wrap it up in VMs. 

I don't find Windows unreliable at all -  once set up, it can run for years with no issues.  Obviously this is true only if nobody (including Microsoft) is constantly messing with it!

More recent versions, such as 22H2 and any Windows 11 release make it extremely difficult to not require messing with it.
 

Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #80 on: October 02, 2023, 03:37:58 am »
MacOS 14 (Sonoma) was released last week and when you think Apple's UI couldn't get more polished and friendly, it just got even better. Absolutely love the update and some of the new features it brings.

My only major gripe with Apple today is they still insist on putting the charging port (which is still the stupid Lightning connector) for their current "Magic Mouse" on the bottom of the unit. This means:
  • I wouldn't be able to use the mouse while charging
  • I'd need to leave it upside down on the desk while it's plugged in
  • I would need a USB-C to Lightning cable, which none of my other devices use, just to charge the mouse (although one is supplied in the box)

Until they fix this rather stupid design flaw, I don't see it being worth AUD$139. The choice to place the charging cable on the base of the mouse was idiotic back in 2015 when the Magic Mouse 2 was released, and it's just as (if not more) idiotic to keep this same design in 2023.
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #81 on: October 02, 2023, 05:22:10 am »
Yeah, the charging port location for their mouse is ridiculous. I don't get why they haven't fixed it while probably millions of users are irritated. (But if the suckers still buy it, I guess Apple has a right not to care.)
I find their magic mouse horrific to use personally anyway, but I fully understand that to each their own!
 

Offline HalcyonTopic starter

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #82 on: October 02, 2023, 09:53:14 am »
Yeah, the charging port location for their mouse is ridiculous. I don't get why they haven't fixed it while probably millions of users are irritated. (But if the suckers still buy it, I guess Apple has a right not to care.)
I find their magic mouse horrific to use personally anyway, but I fully understand that to each their own!

I'll stick with my Dell Premier Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo (P/N: KM7321W). For the same price, I get both a 3-channel keyboard and mouse, which actually has both decent range and battery life. Keyboard inputs are encrypted with AES-128 (if that's important to you).
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #83 on: October 02, 2023, 07:51:17 pm »
Not personally a Mac user - but from what I've seen, many of them use a third-party mouse rather than Apple's magic mouse. It may be "magic", but it's pretty bad from an ergonomics POV.
As to the keyboard (for desktop use), I've seen less hate for Apple keyboards, even though they just plain suck IMHO - all this ultra-flat "design over function" thing.
 

Offline John B

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #84 on: October 02, 2023, 08:57:17 pm »
I almost updated my Hackintosh to Sonoma, but held off after seeing that a fair amount of hardware support was dropped from the kernel, including broadcom drivers needed for wifi functionality. The functionality of my thunderbolt ports have also been getting worse since Catalina.

So Monterey might be my last MacOS experience. When I moved to Linux I knew eventually I'd have to replace MacOS too, as they will eventually drop Intel processor support altogether.
 

Online David Hess

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #85 on: October 03, 2023, 08:21:12 pm »
Not personally a Mac user - but from what I've seen, many of them use a third-party mouse rather than Apple's magic mouse. It may be "magic", but it's pretty bad from an ergonomics POV.
As to the keyboard (for desktop use), I've seen less hate for Apple keyboards, even though they just plain suck IMHO - all this ultra-flat "design over function" thing.

Unfortunately other manufacturers are copying Apple's poor human factors engineering in keyboards, mice, and screens.  Fortunately there is a large enough market to support much better third party products.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #86 on: October 03, 2023, 08:36:58 pm »
Not personally a Mac user - but from what I've seen, many of them use a third-party mouse rather than Apple's magic mouse. It may be "magic", but it's pretty bad from an ergonomics POV.
As to the keyboard (for desktop use), I've seen less hate for Apple keyboards, even though they just plain suck IMHO - all this ultra-flat "design over function" thing.

Unfortunately other manufacturers are copying Apple's poor human factors engineering in keyboards, mice, and screens.  Fortunately there is a large enough market to support much better third party products.

To be fair their screens are top notch although some of the higher DPI ones in the PC market are good and 1/3-1/2 of the cost.

I'm with you on the mice and keyboards though. Turds.

Bought a fairly hefty PC workstation a week or so ago on a whim and I haven't touched my Mac since if I'm honest. Might rescind my comments from earlier :-DD
« Last Edit: October 03, 2023, 08:38:38 pm by bd139 »
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #87 on: October 03, 2023, 09:24:48 pm »
Apple displays are really good. For the most part.
The one thing that has been copied, went out of fashion but seems to be coming back are glossy displays. While it gives a "satistfying" appearance compared to matte at first sight (and yes, it does have a bit better contrast and brightness as the matte finish tends to absorb some light), reflections are utterly annoying.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #88 on: October 04, 2023, 09:20:00 am »
The matte displays have reflections too. They are just larger and more amorphous so they don't poke you in the eye as much. They are still annoying as hell though.

Gloss displays vary somewhat. There are good ones and bad ones. I have three here. The first on my Apple Studio Display is pretty good and there is an anti-reflection filtering - no complaints. The second is the 14" MBP which is the same. No problems. But I also have a Dell Precision 7670 with the top end OLED option (Work laptop - I didn't pay for it!) and that is completely unusable for anything with a black background as I can see myself over the text! I have to run the background of everything white and turn the brightness up just to use it. Total turd.

But I'm mostly sitting in front of two Dell P-series displays now. They are a good compromise on price / performance.
 

Online David Hess

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #89 on: October 04, 2023, 02:21:25 pm »
The matte displays have reflections too. They are just larger and more amorphous so they don't poke you in the eye as much. They are still annoying as hell though.

Gloss displays vary somewhat. There are good ones and bad ones. I have three here. The first on my Apple Studio Display is pretty good and there is an anti-reflection filtering - no complaints. The second is the 14" MBP which is the same. No problems. But I also have a Dell Precision 7670 with the top end OLED option (Work laptop - I didn't pay for it!) and that is completely unusable for anything with a black background as I can see myself over the text! I have to run the background of everything white and turn the brightness up just to use it. Total turd.

But I'm mostly sitting in front of two Dell P-series displays now. They are a good compromise on price / performance.

One of my friends uses all Mac stuff and has several different Apple screens.  In an ideal environment they all look great, but I do not understand at all how he can put up with his Apple laptop screen in a typical not so well controlled laptop environment.  Compared to my cheap matte screen on my Lenovo Thinkbook, and my cheap Asus matte desktop screens, the Apple screens seem unusable to me.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #90 on: October 04, 2023, 04:28:00 pm »
The matte displays have reflections too. They are just larger and more amorphous so they don't poke you in the eye as much. They are still annoying as hell though.

Gloss displays vary somewhat. There are good ones and bad ones. I have three here. The first on my Apple Studio Display is pretty good and there is an anti-reflection filtering - no complaints. The second is the 14" MBP which is the same. No problems. But I also have a Dell Precision 7670 with the top end OLED option (Work laptop - I didn't pay for it!) and that is completely unusable for anything with a black background as I can see myself over the text! I have to run the background of everything white and turn the brightness up just to use it. Total turd.

But I'm mostly sitting in front of two Dell P-series displays now. They are a good compromise on price / performance.

One of my friends uses all Mac stuff and has several different Apple screens.  In an ideal environment they all look great, but I do not understand at all how he can put up with his Apple laptop screen in a typical not so well controlled laptop environment.  Compared to my cheap matte screen on my Lenovo Thinkbook, and my cheap Asus matte desktop screens, the Apple screens seem unusable to me.

Depends which one it is. If it's the cheaper end ones they are pretty terrible. That includes the pre-M1 MacBook Pros and the base model M1/M2 MacBooks. The Micro-LED one in the 14" and 16" M1/M2 macbooks is absolutely ridiculously good in comparison.

I have a Lenovo T14 gen 3 though myself and that's good enough!

(dang I have too many flipping computers  :-DD)
 

Online David Hess

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #91 on: October 04, 2023, 04:30:47 pm »
(dang I have too many flipping computers  :-DD)

I soon will be down to 3 including my laptop.  Instead of building a big NAS, I upgraded the storage on my workstation and am transferring everything from 2 other systems over to it.
 
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Offline PartialDischarge

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #92 on: October 04, 2023, 05:34:29 pm »
I did convert to Mac on 2008, when I *wanted* to buy a PC but only Windows Vista was available, which was the worst thing ever.
So I did buy an iMac, and its been all Macs ever since, for personal and work use

 

Online David Hess

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #93 on: October 05, 2023, 12:58:21 am »
I did convert to Mac on 2008, when I *wanted* to buy a PC but only Windows Vista was available, which was the worst thing ever.
So I did buy an iMac, and its been all Macs ever since, for personal and work use

I stayed on XP long enough to skip over Vista, 7, and 8.
 

Offline khantroll

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Re: After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS
« Reply #94 on: October 24, 2023, 03:14:07 pm »
I'm on this particular bandwagon as well. I've been in IT for two decades at this point; I was mostly a Mac user through the G4/G5 era, then went to Windows and Linux for both home and work when they transitioned to intel hardware. About 8 years ago I picked up a great deal on a used Macbook Pro, and it was my portable for a few years. Windows 11 and the increasing cloud integration/buggy bug fixes that I have to deal with at work, however, have forced (without much arm twisting I admit) to bounce Windows from my home. For roughly two years there hasn't been a Windows computer in my house...and life is good. :)
 


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