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After 30 years of Windows... I'm switching to Apple Mac OS

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Halcyon:
A few days ago, I purchased my first ever product from Apple and this wasn't an impulse purchase either. It's taken me months of decision making and homework, and arguably many years of using Windows to come to this decision.

I've posted on a number of threads now, that for the past 8 years or so, Linux has been my daily driver at home (this isn't going to change anytime soon). This is after growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.x in the early 1990's, right through to Windows 7 which was the last version of Windows I chose to use for myself.

At work, I use Windows 10/11 because I'm essentially forced to, not because of some silly corporate policies (I'm the CIO/CTO) but because most software applications used in the digital forensics/cybersecurity industry run exclusively on Windows (with some designed for Linux). With the exception of Grayshift's GrayKey (that works via a web browser), all the big names are pretty much all Windows-only; Cellebrite UFED/Physical Analyser, Magnet AXIOM, X-Ways Forensics, etc...

But that specialty workflow aside, most of my (and my employee's) daily requirements rely on a web browser and few office applications. After giving Windows 8/10/11 years of attention, I've come to the conclusion that it's all entirely rubbish and Microsoft have lost the plot. Everything from duplicated settings strewn all around the OS to stupid decisions essentially forcing people to use Microsoft's cloud environment, or excluding certain features unless you pay more, I've had enough. Even the absurdity which is Microsoft 365's back-end and the numerous administrative portals leaves little to be desired.

I've hated on Apple for years, even going as far as calling them "toys" compared to other offerings. For me, iOS is still very much still playing catch-up with Android in some respects, but that's another matter. I'm not about to replace my Pixel 7 any time soon. But Mac OS has become a rather nice balance of what Windows should have been with a nice sprinkling of Linux/BSD. These days it's highly refined and simply "just works". A lot of the annoyances are gone and you're left with what is actually quite an elegant operating system. With the unbeaten battery life of the Apple M1 and M2-based laptops, in a slim form factor, it's hard to pass-up. Whilst Apple's M-series chips won't set the world on fire with multi-threaded performance, for most users, it's still a snappy and smooth experience for most workflows, and dare I say "quite adequate" overall. In the past, some of Apple's design decisions have been outright dumb, with utterly brain-dead placement of ports (or lack of I/O altogether) to high voltage rails running so close to data lines that even relatively minor liquid damage would fry the mainboard. I'm hoping a lot of these mistakes have been ironed out with their current offerings.

At this stage, I won't be replacing my main workstation at work just yet, but it's a strong contender. I'm looking to virtualise our Windows-only forensics workflow leaving the gate open to all kinds of possibilities when it comes to the daily machines used by our staff. If someone wants to use a Mac, they should be able to, without limitations (or Linux or Windows for that matter). I'm of the view that if it means that end-users can do their jobs effectively at the expense of more work for the IT department, then so be it, I can always hire more staff to handle back-end tasks.

For me, this is about being flexible and trying something entirely new, that I haven't done before. I'll come back to you after 3 months with some further thoughts.

I share this because I'm sure there are plenty of others in the same position as me, whether it be just for their personal computing, or for more professional applications. I'd also love to hear from others who made "the switch" before me.

1 Week Update: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/after-30-years-of-windows-im-switching-to-apple-mac-os*/msg4978534/#msg4978534

2 Month Update: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/after-30-years-of-windows-im-switching-to-apple-mac-os*/msg5050360/#msg5050360

brucehoult:
What took you so long? :-)

My personal journey has gone VAX/VMS -> MacOS -> Linux when RedHat on CD became available (PPro 200, Athlon 700, 1800, 3200) -> OS X when it came out -> OS X on Hackintosh on i7-860 then i7-4790K -> linux on i7-6700K then TR-2990WX to OS X on M1 (still use the TR daily via ssh).

I've sometimes bought hardware with DOS or Windows pre-installed but it's never stayed longer than needed to verify that the hardware isn't DoA. Well, until my current 6 core Zen2 Thinkpad, bought this time in 2020, which still has Windows 10. I was going to put Linux on it, but WSL2 works ok. I only use Windows itself for web browsing (Chrome). I don't use it much at all. Just when travelling or when I have to sit in a cafe for a couple of hours waiting for a vehicle to be serviced or something like that.

Had to use NT 3.5.1 on PPro200 at one job, with VC++. That was kind of ok. Except for the PVCS. That really sucked. Had to use Server 2003 at another job. It was ok once I turned off the stupid XP UI. And we were using SVN there, which was better.

Someone:

--- Quote from: Halcyon on July 16, 2023, 01:46:29 am ---Whilst Apple's M-series chips won't set the world on fire with multi-threaded performance
--- End quote ---
Um, thats exactly what they did do. Unless you go for comparisons to massively parallel server/workstation processors using 2-3-4 times the power and/or price?

brucehoult:

--- Quote from: Someone on July 16, 2023, 02:30:29 am ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on July 16, 2023, 01:46:29 am ---Whilst Apple's M-series chips won't set the world on fire with multi-threaded performance
--- End quote ---
Um, thats exactly what they did do. Unless you go for comparisons to massively parallel server/workstation processors using 2-3-4 times the power and/or price?

--- End quote ---

Last time I checked, Apple maxes out at 16 performance cores. [1] That's plenty for most people, and the multi-threaded performance is very good compared to x86 with similar numbers of cores.

Doesn't compete against 32/64/128 core servers of course.

[1] the efficiency cores add about as much performance as hyperthreading on x86 i.e. maybe 15% or 20%. Better than a poke in the sys with a blunt stick, but only just.

John B:
Mac OS is well polished and sleek, but I only use it for certain software. Other than that, Linux is far more flexible.

The big hurdle for staying with Macs for me is the hardware is expensive, but carries a lot of financial risk when it comes to warranty work, coupled with the difficulty with 3rd party repair. So it's a very unbalanced risk. Not to mention getting a hardware combination that you need for your purposes is difficult unless you accept a huge premium.

Then there's the security aspect of the OS. Some time back there was the issue of a daemon scanning local files in order to upload data to apple servers.

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