Windows to Mac advice

Mark Anthony

Mark Anthony

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Hi all,

I'm thinking strongly about moving from windows pic to a 15" MacBook Pro and was just looking for some advice.

Everything from what spec to look out for and best way to move all my software over, I have LR, PS and Nik collection.

I've never used Mac so know absolutely zero but after downloading the Nik collection last night it's made my windows vista pc really show it's age so thought I'd upgrade to a decent system now.

Any help or pointers hugely appreciated.
 
if youve never used a mac out of interest why are you considering one? if your machine is showing its age any new system at that price point of either platform should be a significant performance increase.
 
without starting a mac vs pc thing, "industry standard" is purely a legacy thing. trust me in that we have a floor of macs all using CS4 and they could all do exactly the same job on a PC.

the only difference is the operating system layout (providing cross platform software is available).
 
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Hi Mark

I've been using my iMac for a couple of years now and the thing I love most about it is really the screen. The operating system itself is same but different if you see what i mean.

Nowadays the operating system is merely a launchpad for applications. So you just click Lightroom/PS or your browser. Rarely do you use the OS for anything else.

So...as for changing to mac, it really is a hardware decision. Is the hardware different enough and better to justify what will be a hefty premium? Only you can decide that. For me the convenience of having an all in one with a top quality IPS monitor was enough for me to justify the cost of my imac. But your mileage may vary.

Your big mistake here is still using Vista. If you are happy enough with the hardware then I'd suggest downloading yourself a copy of Windows 8 and try that first. You will see a big performance jump.

Vista sucks eggs and I refuse now to help anyone with it. I remember a long time ago at work someone accidentally ordered the wrong licenses and we ended up with a box full of Vista licenses. Now under normal circumstances those packets would have grown legs and wandered off but there the box sat in the open for weeks and noone in the IT team bothered to take one even for 'personal testing'.
 
Main reason I guess is performance, I downloaded Nik collection just last night and it won't display the images just a grey box, their help says it gpu? drivers.. So I followed their instructions to get latest one etc and still no joy.

Just kind of made me think why waste time or money on a 5 year old computer that could die soon anyway.

Which then got me thinking about macs.
 
Mark Anthony said:
Just kind of made me think why waste time or money on a 5 year old computer that could die soon anyway.
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If you have a 5 year old computer (and particularly if it wasn't top-of-the-range when it was bought) even a piece of wet string will be faster....

Macs = PCs (well, approximately) of the same spec. Buy because you want/prefer a Mac, not because you believe it is something superior performance wise. As has been said above - once you launch the program, you can't really tell which system you are running on anyway.
 
I went from PC to mac last year. I spent the first month wanting to drop the thing in the pond, but now I wouldn't go back.

it's simple and straightforward (once you've got your head around it) it's intuitive, fast and it integrates so well with everything else.

The touchpad thing is wicked, and from a girly perspective... it's very pretty! :LOL:

get yourself into the apple store and have a play, and when you buy yours, make sure you get the one year training thing (about £80) which is fabulous :)
 
Mark Anthony said:
Everything from what spec to look out for and best way to move all my software over, I have LR, PS and Nik collection.
Click to expand...

If you do move over remember your existing copy of LR is for PC and MAC, so just re install it. Phone Abode and they'll switch your PS license over for a very small fee.
 
A 5 year old machine is end of life really. If you don't run the latest versions of things then they will last longer. Unless there was a compelling reason to run whatever you just upgraded then I'd un-install it and go back to the previous version if that worked ok. Then you'll have longer to decide what to do.

If there is a branch of John Lewis nearby they usually have a reasonable range of decent quality laptops. No substitute for going in and manhandling a few to see what you like.
 
Don't rush out and buy a Mac, without trying one first. ( and I own 3). Try the MBP first and see how you like it.

Go to an Apple store if you can. They tend to have the latest software loaded usually Photoshop as well. Take some images along with you to try. If you can make an appointment, that way they will know you are coming and know what you want. You should also have help on hand if you need it

KRCS are in Wakefield. They are an Apple reseller, so I'm not sure what there policy is about loading files onto their Mac's . A phone call will sort that out. Failing that the Apple Store in Leeds
 
i fully agree about going to apple store and playing around a bit. It will help to make decisions on form factor and ergonomics vs price. If you get fed up with glossy screens you can always get a mac mini and buy a nice non-glossy dell panel

As for the mac vs pc I see lots of reasons to move over. Mac = no antivirus, and that is already very significant. User interface is so much better (I've had plenty of time with win, linux and mac), and you get full *nix compatibility as well, can compile your own things with ease, etc. Upgrades are dead easy - just plug in your backup disk and new machine is fully restored, simply amazing
 
daugirdas said:
Mac = no antivirus
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I will keep on saying it. No "anti-virus" = leaving yourself open to browser exploits which are todays biggest threat.

If you want to not run any form of protection, please do that, but do NOT advise others to do the same. You are giving bad advice.
 
arad85 said:
I will keep on saying it. No "anti-virus" = leaving yourself open to browser exploits which are todays biggest threat.

If you want to not run any form of protection, please do that, but do NOT advise others to do the same. You are giving bad advice.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It's not like modem av packages are resource hogging monsters.. Even the mac ones ;)
 
Mark Anthony said:
I here what your saying.. i guess as they're renowned for being industry standard.. It will be used solely for photos.
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Photoshop, or Lightroom is exactly the same on a Mac as it is the PC. "industry Standard" is just a legacy from when there were very real differences between platforms. Sure, Mac OS and Windows are different, but you're already used to Windows, so why give yourself a learning curve you may not need?

PC hardware is cheaper and more powerful on a pound for pound basis too.. and more upgradeable, customisable.

I'm not saying don't get a Mac if you want one, but if the reason you want one is because they're "industry standard" think again. It will do nothing for your photography or workflow, just because it's a Mac.

daugirdas said:
As for the mac vs pc I see lots of reasons to move over. Mac = no antivirus, and that is already very significant. User interface is so much better (I've had plenty of time with win, linux and mac), and you get full *nix compatibility as well, can compile your own things with ease, etc. Upgrades are dead easy - just plug in your backup disk and new machine is fully restored, simply amazing
Click to expand...

Macs get viruses, hence why you can buy anti-virus software for the Mac. Historically Macs didn't get them because no one bothered to write them for the Mac. That's changing. Carry on with your head in the sand if you want.

Upgrades are easy? Ok.. go and buy a new 22" iMac and upgrade the RAM then... I dare you :) Back up? My PCs back up automatically and incrementally without me doing anything... the server also mirrors and syncs to another server, also without me having to lift a finger. What makes you think easy back up is exclusive to the Mac?

I use both. PCs at home, Macs at work. There's no great difference for most people... except Apple's are designed to look nice rather than be truly functional.

User interface? Well.. Windows can look exactly as you want it to. Mine is all monochrome, with custom key mapping and a dock just like Mac OS. It's the best of both worlds.

And the final reason for me... price. To get a Mac as powerful and featured as my PC I'd need to spend over £4K.. without the monitor. My PC cost me just under £2K without the monitor, and it's faster, looks better, and I can use much more high end components, more easily and cheaper.

Basically.... to the OP. Go to the Apple store and use a Mac for a while... see if you like it. If you do, buy it, if you don't, don't. Simple as that really. One way or the other, the applications you will be using for Photography will be the same if you're using Adobe products. If not, then you also have much more choice of free software available for image editing on the PC than you do the Mac.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
PC hardware is cheaper and more powerful on a pound for pound basis too.. and more upgradeable, customisable.


And the final reason for me... price. To get a Mac as powerful and featured as my PC I'd need to spend over £4K.. without the monitor. My PC cost me just under £2K without the monitor, and it's faster, looks better, and I can use much more high end components, more easily and cheaper.
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As a counterpoint to that resale value is far higher. It'd be interesting to see how much the relative cost of ownership was, not just the purchase price.

I know a really high end mac pro would set you back £4k + from the apple store, but most people buy them and upgrade for far cheaper, & FWIW I bet I sold my 3 year old mac pro for far more then you could sell you PC at the same age for.
 
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boyfalldown said:
FWIW I bet I sold my 3 year old mac pro for far more then you could sell you PC at the same age for.
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Most people buy £400-£600 laptops and are happy with them (you can get a perfectly good laptop that will run LR/PS for that). Unless you sell your 3 year old MBP for around £100-£200 less than the amount you bought it for, the difference in cost is negligible - especially as you don't have to have £2k tied up in a computer for 3 years.

Taking a desktop. My desktop cost about £1300 to build. If I upgrade to Haswell when it comes out, the cost will be about £400 to upgrade to the fastest i7 available at launch (I will swap processor and motherboard) if I junked the current mobo/CPU (2600k). I reckon I should be able to sell a decent mobo/CPU for at least £150, so cost of ownership/upgrade will be about £250. Plus I've only tied up £1200 in my PC whilst a Mac Pro you've had to have many £ks tied up in it.

Yes, residuals are higher, but the counter to that is you have to tie up your money in the machine in the first place and most people won't be worried about resale or it costing them £100 extra to upgrade in 3 years.

TBH: if you're basing your argument around cost of ownership as the outstanding reason to buy a Mac, it just goes to show there is no overriding reason why someone should choose one other than personal preference - it's certainly not down to superior editing software/ability etc...
 
arad85 said:
I will keep on saying it. No "anti-virus" = leaving yourself open to browser exploits which are todays biggest threat.

If you want to not run any form of protection, please do that, but do NOT advise others to do the same. You are giving bad advice.
Click to expand...

AVs are big resource hogs and they keep growing fatter.. Many don't stop some infections either (first hand experience). Obviously it is usually users fault for clicking things they shouldn't but thats the human nature. All mac viruses require user entering admin password [if you run as admin you deserve infections and ID theft]

Browser exploits, do happen, but if you avoid porn sites and other dodgy ones it is not so risky.. In the worst case use one browser locked down (no JS, java, etc) for that and another one for private things... Also don't forget to edit /etc/hosts to kill ads and other tracking junk (same for windows)

You could probably explain why my 5 year old spare MBP works a lot faster than many 2 year old win laptops (yet they run a lot better on linux)
 
arad85 said:
Most people buy £400-£600 laptops and are happy with them (you can get a perfectly good laptop that will run LR/PS for that). Unless you sell your 3 year old MBP for around £100-£200 less than the amount you bought it for, the difference in cost is negligible - especially as you don't have to have £2k tied up in a computer for 3 years.
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If you are happy with substandard TN screen and lots of plastic then yeah... Many don't even support anything more than HD res output. Or you can have rMBP and enjoy the best tech in one nice package
 
daugirdas said:
AVs are big resource hogs and they keep growing fatter..
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Some are, some are not. If you wish to think that, please do so, but do not generalise.

daugirdas said:
Browser exploits, do happen, but if you avoid porn sites and other dodgy ones it is not so risky..
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The problem is with hacked sites, not dodgy ones. Almost ANY site can be hacked - no A/V, no protection.

daugirdas said:
You could probably explain why my 5 year old spare MBP works a lot faster than many 2 year old win laptops (yet they run a lot better on linux)
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Yes. The Win laptops have a lower spec'd CPU. Linux may well run better, but it has a whole host of other issues (and yes, I run all sorts of *nixes here).
 
daugirdas said:
If you are happy with substandard TN screen and lots of plastic then yeah... Many don't even support anything more than HD res output. Or you can have rMBP and enjoy the best tech in one nice package
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And be £2.5k poorer.
 
arad85 said:
Most people buy £400-£600 laptops and are happy with them (you can get a perfectly good laptop that will run LR/PS for that). Unless you sell your 3 year old MBP for around £100-£200 less than the amount you bought it for, the difference in cost is negligible - especially as you don't have to have £2k tied up in a computer for 3 years.

Taking a desktop. My desktop cost about £1300 to build. If I upgrade to Haswell when it comes out, the cost will be about £400 to upgrade to the fastest i7 available at launch (I will swap processor and motherboard) if I junked the current mobo/CPU (2600k). I reckon I should be able to sell a decent mobo/CPU for at least £150, so cost of ownership/upgrade will be about £250. Plus I've only tied up £1200 in my PC whilst a Mac Pro you've had to have many £ks tied up in it.

Yes, residuals are higher, but the counter to that is you have to tie up your money in the machine in the first place and most people won't be worried about resale or it costing them £100 extra to upgrade in 3 years.

TBH: if you're basing your argument around cost of ownership as the outstanding reason to buy a Mac, it just goes to show there is no overriding reason why someone should choose one other than personal preference - it's certainly not down to superior editing software/ability etc...
Click to expand...


Hang on - I'm not basing my argument around anything - simply pointing out that there is another side to the 'it costs more' point PC fanboys are so fond of.

I've never argued anything other the personal preference thing.
 
Mark

Lots opf good advice above but the exam question is "why do you want to move to Apple?"

I have both Windows laptops and a MBP and prefer the latter but I know I could get a high performing desktop/laptop running Windows OS and it'll be cheaper than the equivalent Mac.


Having said that, I prefer the Mac for many reasons and these reasons are a wide spectrum not just pure processing power or aesthetics etc.

Would heartily recommend you go and visit an Apple reseller and make sure you like the OS and the way the Macs will work for you in your business.

The Mac vs Windows always is and always will be a personal thing a bit like buying a car - do you prefer Vauxhall to Ford, BMW to Audi - they ultimately do the same thing but in different ways and different costs.

Happy hunting!
 
neil_g said:
avast is currently using a mind blowingly high amount of ram...

5Mb
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You sure that's not just the UI portion (AvastUI.exe). My AVast is 100M (AvastSvc.exe). Still not a lot in 16G (or even 4G).
 
neil_g said:
(y)

avast is currently using a mind blowingly high amount of ram...

5Mb

:thinking:
Click to expand...

It's not RAM, its CPU and constant HDD access that really makes it very painful. The more you do, they more Av is getting in a way

If we put aside some cookies, macs don't need anywhere near the amount of baby sitting. I am not aware of a single virus where user doesn't need to type in a password
 
daugirdas said:
It's not RAM, its CPU and constant HDD access that really makes it very painful. The more you do, they more Av is getting in a way

If we put aside some cookies, macs don't need anywhere near the amount of baby sitting. I am not aware of a single virus where user doesn't need to type in a password
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nope, opening a few large files and CPU usage against those tasks doesnt even register and files are only scanned when accessed and even that is minimal compared to the task of actually opening the file.

on your second point, how much windows malware gets through because people have (mistakenly) disabled UAC or are running as admins.. ;)
 
neil_g said:
nope, opening a few large files and CPU usage against those tasks doesnt even register and files are only scanned when accessed and even that is minimal compared to the task of actually opening the file.

on your second point, how much windows malware gets through because people have (mistakenly) disabled UAC or are running as admins.. ;)
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If you have something producing lots of temporary or otherwise files (photoshop, lightroom, video stuff) it will be slow. And everyday the thing insists on scanning the whole HDD. That is so painful. I can see why people disable it (bad idea) and you can't even do that on managed systems. Most corporate win desktops I've seen take over 10min to boot up!

People who disable security mechanisms do deserve the outcome. MS and apple should however step up their efforts scaring people from doing so
 
daugirdas said:
If you have something producing lots of temporary or otherwise files (photoshop, lightroom, video stuff) it will be slow. And everyday the thing insists on scanning the whole HDD. That is so painful. I can see why people disable it (bad idea) and you can't even do that on managed systems. Most corporate win desktops I've seen take over 10min to boot up!
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The resources Microsoft security essentials takes up is negligible, and has just as high a detection rate as any other. In Windows 8, this is called Windows defender and is built into the OS, so you don't really need to add any extra security for home users.

From the sounds of it, you haven't actually used an up to date Windows machine because most of what you are saying is nonsense in today's Windows systems.
 
daugirdas said:
If you have something producing lots of temporary or otherwise files (photoshop, lightroom, video stuff) it will be slow.
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sorry but any slowdown is minute if at all noticable. cant say i notice any difference with and without on access scanning enabled.

And everyday the thing insists on scanning the whole HDD.
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every day? thats overkill, if your software is doing that then change it/install something else.
 
joesmith said:
From the sounds of it, you haven't actually used an up to date Windows machine because most of what you are saying is nonsense in today's Windows systems.
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I had win7 for a year managed by our IT. I couldn't get on with both the OS and the awful hardware. (yes, the same stinking TN screen, and VGA only output not capable of properly supporting a monitor :wacky:) Dumping it and using my own mac was the very best decision ever. No more pain now :)

I have no intention of personally owning win 8 at any time soon.
 
daugirdas said:
I had win7 for a year managed by our IT. I couldn't get on with both the OS and the awful hardware. (yes, the same stinking TN screen, and VGA only output not capable of properly supporting a monitor :wacky:) Dumping it and using my own mac was the very best decision ever. No more pain now :)

I have no intention of personally owning win 8 at any time soon.
Click to expand...

So, you are basing your whole experience of Windows on poor hardware? :bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang:

I have a 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitor and a 21" 1080p IPS monitor, a decent spec'd system, 3.5GHz quad core 12GB RAM 256GB SSD, and it is brilliant.

My parents are using an 8 year old nasty laptop with a hard drive that runs slower than a slug which has Windows on it though, so all Windows machines must be crap :bang::bang::bang::bang:
 
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joesmith said:
The resources Microsoft security essentials takes up is negligible, and has just as high a detection rate as any other. In Windows 8, this is called Windows defender and is built into the OS, so you don't really need to add any extra security for home users.

From the sounds of it, you haven't actually used an up to date Windows machine because most of what you are saying is nonsense in today's Windows systems.
Click to expand...

joesmith said:
So, you are basing your whole experience of Windows on poor hardware? :bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang:

I have a 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitor and a 21" 1080p IPS monitor, a decent spec'd system, 3.5GHz quad core 12GB RAM 256GB SSD, and it is brilliant.

My parents are using an 8 year old nasty laptop with a hard drive that runs slower than a slug which has Windows on it though, so all Windows machines must be crap :bang::bang::bang::bang:
Click to expand...

I have enough brain to separate awful HW experience from the dislike of the OS. Windows is the least intuitive OS once you leave the familiar Office (and similar) and are left with something not intended by MS. Take *nix for example and you have nice underlying standard POSIX system, compilers and lots more control. (lets hope Apple doesn't destroy os X in the fashion of iOS)
 
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