question for mac users

[jennypenny]

I'm finally buying an apple laptop. I had my heart set on a MacAir because I like the keyboard better for typing and the longer battery life will be useful when traveling. However, my DD has a Pro and loves it, and so do most of my colleagues. Am I missing the appeal of the Pro? What does it offer that the Air doesn't?

[DutchGirl]

What do you want/need to do with it?

[A Life of FI]

I have an Air also have had a Pro previously. I prefer the Air as it is easier to move around (lighter) and easier to type on. I think the Air and Pro both have close to the same battery lives now (9 or 10 hours). The Pro has a faster processor though, but I do not notice any slowness in the Air - or any other deficiency in the Air as compared to the Pro. If I were to buy a new computer now I would buy another Air or a Macbook (the version that came out about a year ago which is very similar to the Air but a bit lighter)

[BRUTE]

brute currently uses the Pro. would not buy again. doesn't seem to be actually faster or better than the Air at anything, but is much clunkier and heavier. brute doesn't do video editing, which is maybe the one thing requiring the firepower of a Pro.

[jennypenny]

What do you want/need to do with it?

Mostly typing. I also compile large documents frequently and run timed backups every two minutes. The compiling/backup is really slow on the computer I use now.

I may go look at the new macbook again. It's a little smaller than the Air, but I didn't realize it was lighter and slimmer which is appealing.

Thanks for the help everyone. I have trouble spending money on this kind of stuff (even though it's my business ) so I tend to overanalyze every aspect.

[BRUTE]

the keyboard on the MacBook (vs. Air) is very different, but not necessarily worth. jennypenny should try it out before buying. for the work she mentions, it sounds like any MacBook, regular, Pro, or Air, should do fine.

[Noided]

I would probably go with the Air, maybe even a refurbished one or a last gen model at a store. Out of the three existing MacBooks it is the cheaper and it does the job perfectly.

BTW, I have a 13" Pro but I would buy an Air today

[jacob]

I would not buy a mac [again]. My reason for not buying one would be the same as my reason for initially buying one. Apple controls the entire eco-system. If they decide to stop updating the software, e.g. operating system, nobody else will/are allowed to do it. Meanwhile, many of your files are now proprietary mac-specific, so if you want to keep working on them, you either have to convert the whole show, or buy a new mac.

There are thus two lock-ins that keep you buying macs. Apple controls the software updates and therefore can selectively decide that your still functioning hardware has been deprecated; so by controlling the software, they control the hardware. The software is non-standard and with that strategy, they control you via your files.

Of course there are workarounds but they aren't trivial.

[BRUTE]

brute has used Mac and Linux and switched relatively seamlessly. if depends on the file formats. sure, if one goes with the super proprietary ones, they won't work on other systems. but the same is true in reverse. brute usually opts for standard file formats that work on most systems.

and until Apple decides to make SHTF, unfortunately, MacOS is just the better UNIX. MacOS might become terrible in the future, but Linux (for consumers, not servers) is terrible now.

[GandK]

I would not buy a mac [again]. My reason for not buying one would be the same as my reason for initially buying one. Apple controls the entire eco-system. ...

Of course there are workarounds but they aren't trivial.

Yup. This is also why I won't own Macs and iThings. After being a developer, the idea of not being able to modify the hardware, software, etc. that I already own without either spending more money or playing a lengthy game of "Mother, May I?" with Apple's licensing nazis is so abhorrent that it doesn't warrant consideration. And that's before we even get to digital property such as songs and movies.

I get that this is my thing, and it's not everybody's. And I do not really want to know more about some other things because I can't be bothered. My car, for example. As long as it goes, I'm good, even though I know this mindset prevents certain lifestyle optimizations. But it would be very hard for me to go the Apple route because I do have optimization-level knowledge about certain technologies, and I want to implement that knowledge without the company who made my widgets telling me that I cannot use them as I see fit.

[FBeyer]

... verges on an artistic masterpiece...

Using your choice of imagery: I'm still just eating the paint, 3 years later.

I've come to love vim and makefiles, but understanding how linux actually works-works?

[BRUTE]

But you must first learn to love the command line, after that osx is like those overly fruity drinks that give you a stomach ache.

brute uses the command line 24/7 on OsX. OsX actually has the better command line - as powerful (it's a full-fledged UNIX, after all), but better integrated.

[Forskaren]

Chrome books may be an inexpensive option for users with simple needs. I think the latest sales figures was that it was more chrome books being sold than Macs. It feels like a waste to buy a Mac, if you are sitting all the time in the web browser. The only reason to buy a Mac that I can see is if you are already heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem or a developer for that eco system. Apple seem to be prioritizing Macs less these days, update the models less often and tend to sell them with old hardware.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... e-pc-sales

I have given my mac and my two old iPads to my dad. I got an iPad air 2 myself. I am writing this on my 3 year old linux laptop and I got a a Windows 10 gaming desktop that is four years old and a two year old chrome box. At work I work in windows 7.

Generally for private use, I use my onedrive through a web browser to create and edit documents with the free Microsoft office. I think chrome books and chrome boxes works for most that I do privately. I rarely need more “power”. I seldom print things these days that is not work related.

Power up google chrome on your computer and try if you can manage just using that. Generally Microsoft and Google are far better than Apple when it comes to cloud services, so trying both of those free services could be a good start. By services I mean mail, free document editor in web browser, calendar, contacts, search, news etc,

[BRUTE]

yea the closed off Apple ecosystem is a nightmare. but brute doesn't do any Mac/iOS development, just regular open stuff, so it never bothers him.

package management with homebrew works well most of the time.

[JamesR]

Holy A bunch of fricking people soapboxing!

Jennypenny,

If you have to ask, you probably don't need a Pro. The Air is gonna be good enough for 99% use cases. It's gonna be great for web surfing, doing spreadsheets/documents, watching movies, etc.

Personally I have a Retina Macbook Pro for 2 reasons - I've got slight astigmatism and I find a Retina display much more comfortable on my eyes. The other reason is because I sometimes do heavy duty stuff that would benefit from the extra power.

If you desire the Retina display, you can also look at the "Macbook" (12") which is smaller than the Air, but it's got a slight drawback of one connector, so you'd need to buy all sorts of adaptors or work around that. Personally I'll probably get the "Macbook" in 2-3 years (I prefer to wait until the 3rd revision, since most issues have been ironed out by then, and the power has caught up).

Protip:
You can check out
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac to find out when the next revision of macs might be coming out
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals I usually buy refurbished to save a few hundred dollars.

[JamesR]

@jacob

It sounds like you haven't used a Mac in a loooong time, perhaps before they switched to Mac OS X & started using Intel for the CPU?

I can't think of any proprietary files that I might have on my macbook. I would have no issue moving all my files over to windows or linux.

As to regarding ecosystem lock-in, personally I don't really notice it. I'm a linux user that uses a Mac for the hassle-free "everything just works" experience, I install tons of UNIX (posix compatible) tools locally and also get to enjoy the high production values of typical mac apps. There are some slight annoyances where the GUI is a bit too locked down for some extra customization, but it's not really enough to force me to switch.

If we're talking about the mobile phones, I can see that the iOS is more locked down than Android. On the other hand, it's probably somewhat tricky to get the full Android experience without being locked into Google. Choose your poison?

[jacob]

@JamesR - I still use a 2009 MacBook Pro. However, parts of the ERE book (75% of the graphs) are in proprietary mac formats as far as editing goes. My old Mac used powerpc. This one is intel.

[JamesR]

I guess I have a habit of saving my files into cross-platform formats, like if I was using a spreadsheet app to make graphs, I'd try to save as .odt or .xls instead of whatever the mac spreadsheet app uses. Or I'd use something like OpenOffice (now LibreOffice). And generally I find it pretty easy to find a tool to convert file formats if I'm stuck with something proprietary.

Ironically .xls isn't really "truely" cross platform, but usually supported on both sides (an older version of xls at least)

[BRUTE]

@JamesR - I still use a 2009 MacBook Pro. However, parts of the ERE book (75% of the graphs) are in proprietary mac formats as far as editing goes. My old Mac used powerpc. This one is intel.

cmd+a, open a text file, cmd+v, cmd+s. all the text is now freed. jacob is welcome.

[jacob]

If simple cut&paste or "saving in another format" solved the [incompatibility] problem, I wouldn't be complaining