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It's impossible to leave OS X - there is no competition!
- Thread starter ostrykolesz
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I sadly went through a mess in trying to move to Dell in 2017. They’re on my skip list. I am glad they work for you though and thanks for the tip.
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I am ready to try Windows again. The critical video conversion software I need no longer works with macOS after Sierra, and I just cannot justify spending upwards of $3.5k for a decent spec’d iMac. I cancelled three iMac orders this week as I keep coming to this decision. I just have to move past my unease and try a little harder with Windows.
While I love drawing on the iPad there’s too much frustration with hardware problems and software glitches.
I think I’ll either go Wacom or traditional too.
Yes, trackpads, mice borks, and not knowing Windows - oh my!
I’ll see what Asus and HP are available at Microsoft & Best Buy tomorrow. I’ll make sure I’ll tell the folks at both stores what I need. If the Asus Mini Pro Art started at $2.5k I would jump, but I need to have a long talk with the OEMs and Microsoft reps and see what they suggest.
You can figure Windows out if you stick with it. Just need to be patient realize that there will be some ups and downs that come with the switch. You won't master Windows in a week or two, but stick with it, keep seeking solutions and it will become easier and easier
You can figure Windows out if you stick with it. Just need to be patient realize that there will be some ups and downs that come with the switch. You won't master Windows in a week or two, but stick with it, keep seeking solutions and it will become easier and easier
This is so true. Thanks. At least I know not to mess with the settings. And I will definitely look at wired mice.
While I’d love to get a Surface Book 2, I think I will definitely try my starter machine Mach II idea from earlier attempts. Besides the SB3 might be released this Fall, and now that I’ve come to some terms about drawing digitally (or not), this would be a good idea to start with a mid tier machine and go from there.
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This is so true. Thanks. At least I know not to mess with the settings. And I will definitely look at wired mice.
My wife really like her Microsoft Arc mouse, but of course it’s not wired. I haven’t used a wired one in over a decade. No idea what’s out there in the wired mouse world
I liked the idea of the Arc mouse, but will skip for now, given my Arc mouse blues. Still use a wired mouse at one job so I am not too concerned with that. Will have to make a note that I need 2 USB-A ports at least.
Just advice to those going to swindows, seagate has software that can work in both osx and w10 for easy file transporting.
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I have 2 usbA adaptors plugged into the 2 usbC ports which were 15 bucks and work great
I agree, Microsoft is making plenty of good moves. Eighteen years ago, I switched from Windows PCs to Macs so I could get access to Unix. If I was starting school today, although I still prefer macOS, I'd feel no real incentive to go with a Mac over a PC.
Not the new ones, and like most malware Shadow Hammer is easily verified as being present. Asus servers were hacked and a number of specifically targeted computer's were infected. Asus subsequently updated the compromised app delivering the malware payload and have a tool to specifically check for Shadow Hammer.
There's no need for concern, I've an ASUS ROG GL703GS and it has no issue and this is old news
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Thank you for that and everything else.Not the new ones, and like most malware Shadow Hammer is easily verified as being present. Asus servers were hacked and a number of specifically targeted computer's were infected. Asus subsequently updated the compromised app delivering the malware payload and have a tool to specifically check for Shadow Hammer.
There's no need for concern, I've an ASUS ROG GL703GS and it has no issue and this is old news
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I just found out the new 15” HP Spectre will be available in a couple of weeks from Best Buy, unfortunately a lot of early 2018 specs in it for more money. I guess those chassis cannot handle six core CPUs, still I like it. I wish more of the Asus models were incoming (thought I saw a $5999 price tag for the Mothership).
I like this one...except I wish it came with 32gb RAM. I appreciate the keyboard is not higher up on that base panel.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-1...lid-state-drive-black/6319979.p?skuId=6319979
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The hex core mobile CPU's need room to breath so to speak so they need robust cooling solutions or it will be the same situation as the MBP with heavy throttling.
Regarding the Zephyrus your paying a significant premium for RTX and still 8th Gen CPU and a little thinner. I'd make certain you really have the need, as an 8th Gen CPU & GTX GPU will be a good deal cheaper, or I'd wait on the 9th Gen CPU with RTX. The Zephyrus may also be limited to 24GB RAM This why I opted for a ROG GL series and at the time and no Zephyrus 17"
The Zephyrus is still a very powerful and excellent notebook, equally Asus is pushing the pricing. The GL series is also far easier to upgrade and has dual drives (1xM.2 MVMe SSD & 1x2.5 SATA bay HDD or SSD) GL703GS with 8750H, GTX 1070, 256 SSD, 1TB SSHD and 16GB is around $1900 and that's worth considering, especially given you can swap out the RAM and drives with ease...
FWIW I really like the 17" Zephyrus
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Thank you very much. I learned this morning, yes, I do have to make the switch away from Apple. I’ve been gently nudging myself into letting go over the last few days.
The funny thing is I am not sure if the Zephyrus’ tilt will work for me as far as typing.
I will definitely look into laptop models with GTX cards. I do not need a RTX card machine (and jumping in with a StudioBook seems ridiculous in my case). Also, I am skittish about doing surgery on these given my unfamiliarity with working on PCs.
For me, Asus names for their laptops are super confusing. I’d love a 17” with a glossy screen (some matte screens are tough for me to get used to). Microsoft had an Asus 17” that had a huge bezel but it boasted a glossy IPS screen.
Besides the little Spectre MS had, I liked one of the Razers and that behemoth Asus (I did not remember it’s name). There is a new 15” Spectre coming in the first week of June, but it has an MX card and is tariff priced. I love their screens and keyboards though...
I’ll go to other Best Buy branches with a list of what I want, which is something be comfortable to type on and look at, with a GTX card that will run Final Draft, Word, video conversion software, Affinity Photo & Publisher, drive a Wacom tablet & art software (probably Painter and ClipStudio Pro), and allow me to multitask without throttling. Decent battery life, 7-8 hours is fine. I’ll need at least two USB-A ports because I want to use a wired mouse.
Am I asking too much of a laptop?
Anyway, many thanks for the detailed thoughts. I’ll seek out the Asus model you mentioned, and make a list of the specs I need for software I am running now or will add.
I am frustrated because I seem to know more about PCs than any of the staff at the Best Buy’s and the Microsoft store I can visit. B & H Photo is out because they do not allow returns and they’re super nasty to talk to.
Thank you very much. I learned this morning, yes, I do have to make the switch away from Apple. I’ve been gently nudging myself into letting go over the last few days.
The funny thing is I am not sure if the Zephyrus’ tilt will work for me as far as typing.
I will definitely look into laptop models with GTX cards. I do not need a RTX card machine (and jumping in with a StudioBook seems ridiculous in my case). Also, I am skittish about doing surgery on these given my unfamiliarity with working on PCs.
For me, Asus names for their laptops are super confusing. I’d love a 17” with a glossy screen (some matte screens are tough for me to get used to). Microsoft had an Asus 17” that had a huge bezel but it boasted a glossy IPS screen.
Besides the little Spectre MS had, I liked one of the Razers and that behemoth Asus (I did not remember it’s name). There is a new 15” Spectre coming in the first week of June, but it has an MX card and is tariff priced. I love their screens and keyboards though...
I’ll go to other Best Buy branches with a list of what I want, which is something be comfortable to type on and look at, with a GTX card that will run Final Draft, Word, video conversion software, Affinity Photo & Publisher, drive a Wacom tablet & art software (probably Painter and ClipStudio Pro), and allow me to multitask without throttling. Decent battery life, 7-8 hours is fine. I’ll need at least two USB-A ports because I want to use a wired mouse.
Am I asking too much of a laptop?
Anyway, many thanks for the detailed thoughts. I’ll seek out the Asus model you mentioned, and make a list of the specs I need for software I am running now or will add.
I am frustrated because I seem to know more about PCs than any of the staff at the Best Buy’s and the Microsoft store I can visit. B & H Photo is out because they do not allow returns and they’re super nasty to talk to.
The problem you all to often run into at Best Buy is that the sales associate that is trying to assist with your PC purchase was probably working a fast food window and asking if you “would like fries with that” the week before. My experience with Best Buy is they are poorly trained to do much other than look up specs on their own website. Yeah.... I can do that at home before I go.
It’s too bad the MS Store near you doesn’t seem to be able to help. I have seen/heard them help people when I have been in. Particularly business customers who make one of the one to one concierge type appointments and they are very knowledgeable and very helpful, spending a lot of time listening and suggesting both their own products and other product they carry (Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Razer, Huawie, etc.)
But I suppose that has more to do with the manager and how they hire/train than anything else
Mac is better in some parts of window management than Windows (for instance, I prefer its fullscreen implementation and mission control). Window resizing and snapping is a whole other league in Windows, that's true. But if you don't mind paying 99 cents, you can get the best of both worlds on a mac.
Pain is not really a must-have app for most people. Still, Preview can do everything Paint does.
This to me is a god-send. Mac's implementation allows you to:
- Close a programme and open it again to find every window as you left it.
- Close all windows but still keep services running in the background (notifications, music, downloads)
- Keep commonly used applications open.
That's very annoying. But you can change it with some quick terminal commands.
Those are completely optional.
I think this really depends on the use case for every people.
LOL! Too true about most Best Buy staff*. I had to tell a gentleman who was buying a Razer Blade at one Best Buy that the brand was Razer. The sales associate was stunned, he just called it a Blade.
Just as bad was the Apple person. They did not have the regular 27” on display, only the Pro. She said, “Oh, it’s the same size.” I gruffly replied, “Yeah I know. I own an older 27” and am not buying a Pro, so I will not test one.”The MS people do not want be there. To be fair, Apple hires the same type of people now too.
Currently looking one of MSI’s late 2018 Prestige models on Amazon. While it has a matte screen, I could probably live with that. It ticks off my other wants as far as a machine. Will look at similar Asus and see what I can come up with. At least with the MSI Prestige line I have a starting point.
*One young woman at my local Best Buy was fantastic in regard to info regarding the use of a Wacom with the Spectre laptop I ultimately returned. Of course, she could only sell what they have in stock laptop-wise.
Anyway, this is exciting.
Thank you very much. I learned this morning, yes, I do have to make the switch away from Apple. I’ve been gently nudging myself into letting go over the last few days.
The funny thing is I am not sure if the Zephyrus’ tilt will work for me as far as typing.
I will definitely look into laptop models with GTX cards. I do not need a RTX card machine (and jumping in with a StudioBook seems ridiculous in my case). Also, I am skittish about doing surgery on these given my unfamiliarity with working on PCs.
For me, Asus names for their laptops are super confusing. I’d love a 17” with a glossy screen (some matte screens are tough for me to get used to). Microsoft had an Asus 17” that had a huge bezel but it boasted a glossy IPS screen.
Besides the little Spectre MS had, I liked one of the Razers and that behemoth Asus (I did not remember it’s name). There is a new 15” Spectre coming in the first week of June, but it has an MX card and is tariff priced. I love their screens and keyboards though...
I’ll go to other Best Buy branches with a list of what I want, which is something be comfortable to type on and look at, with a GTX card that will run Final Draft, Word, video conversion software, Affinity Photo & Publisher, drive a Wacom tablet & art software (probably Painter and ClipStudio Pro), and allow me to multitask without throttling. Decent battery life, 7-8 hours is fine. I’ll need at least two USB-A ports because I want to use a wired mouse.
Am I asking too much of a laptop?
Anyway, many thanks for the detailed thoughts. I’ll seek out the Asus model you mentioned, and make a list of the specs I need for software I am running now or will add.
I am frustrated because I seem to know more about PCs than any of the staff at the Best Buy’s and the Microsoft store I can visit. B & H Photo is out because they do not allow returns and they’re super nasty to talk to.
Have you looked at the 2019 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme, it might check all the boxes with the 4K display (glossy) and some members own them.
ROG GL703GS is a 1080p matte display and battery life is poor as it only uses the GTX 1070, 4x USB A ,1xUSB C, HDMI, Ethernet, SD Card reader, mini DisplayPort. As ever a powerful notebook may struggle with your expectation for battery life, but maybe others have more experience with their own W10 notebooks.
Like I said there's a lot of favour for the X1E and now it's just had the GPU (GTX1650) revised which is getting closer to a GTX 1060 which isn't too shabby for a relatively thin and light machine.
StudioBook is more specialised and I dare say not a cheap, especially with the Xenon option. I'd set a budget and stick to it, or things easily spiral and over specifying does not guarantee longevity. TBH outside of video conversion your needs are relatively modest, you should also budget for an external drive to back up to as there's going to kinks in the road transitioning to W10. If your system is fully backed up it's not a drama, just part of the learning curve.
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Thanks. Definitely going to buy at least 2 drives to start with. I will probably also back up my writing to a cd-rom (yes I know), but that should be an easy way to move those documents over.
Yes, a clean back up of the system is necessary.
I’ll look at the Lenovo Extreme. I tested a couple of Yoga and other models several times since December, but the keyboards were not comfortable for me. I will superficially admit, I think Lenovos are not my style of machine either.
Yes, StudioBook is out of my league. I am definitely setting a budget.
Thanks for the suggestions!
My 2014 15" MacBook Pro served me well, but it had the CPU voltage issue which caused it to crash all the time, I finally rectified it with a $10 app. Now I somehow cracked my screen. I decided to save some money and decided to try a Windows laptop - a surface Pro 6. The hardware wasn't that bad, Microsoft is getting closer and closer to the level set by Apple - but they are not there yet. Windows is still clunky and buggy. So I returned it and bought a base 2018 15" MacBook Pro. OS X is fluid and responsive. You don't have to pay for Office. And yes, everything just works. The keyboard is fine - I don't mind it (I did get a 4 year warranty - just in case). I still question the decision to remove the USB A port and the SD port - still, there are dongles
To each there own.
People should use what's best for themselves and not worry about what other people are using.
W10 is very easy on hardware. Likely as it has to run on so many systems with many being relatively old or basic business machines where performance is not a priority.
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OMG I hate the sales associates at best buy. Even there geek squad doesn't have a clue what is going on. One time, probably around 2010 I went in best buy deciding I was going to swap the Super Drive out of my MacBook Pro and but in a 7200rpm HD in its place. Already had swapped out the Primary HD and replaced it with another 7200 rpm HD. Went up to the geek squad counter and asked if i bought the hd could they do it there and pay them for convenience instead of me going and buying the crazy screws apple uses and taking the time. The guy straight up told me that what I was doing was straight up impossible, that I cant just take the CD drive out and replace it with a HDD. After that, I never even tried to use best buy for anything again...
Not my part of the world, although I have shopped at Best Buy in the US. I rather go in knowing exactly what I want and the only thing I want of the staff outside of courtesy is a discount, seems a workable arrangement to me
To be fair it's pretty much the same all over. No criticism intended, as it's down to many factors, I have dealt with some very knowledgeable retail staff although rather the exception than the norm. Same as any other industry those that are far more capable will progress to management or likely move on...
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Mission Control isn't all that different from the analogous setup in Windows (spaces/desktops). Yes BetterSnapTool will fix it for $4 but there's no excuse to not have full snapping capability at this point.
That's a good point. I would say that it's a tool that should come with each OS as part of the tasks it can do out of the box, IMO.
This is effectively what the "System Tray" is for. Applications can close/minimize to the tray so you can still see that they're running, with their own dedicated UI for controlling right from there (similar to the implementation in macOS at the top). I don't see how anything is being lost, except that it's easy to not realize all kinds of applications are still open in the background.
Was never able to get it to work, sadly. Even disabling animations leaves the input-blocking component in there, which makes it worse since it's even harder to determine when it will let you act.
I'm not sure that updates are all that optional for security reasons. You can go at most 3 years with updates before you have to upgrade macOS. If you have any legacy software that hasn't been updated, there's a reasonably high risk that it won't work properly anymore.
By contrast, Windows seems to support running even quite old software (like 15-20 years even) without much of an issue.
You're right of course that everything depends on the use case for each individual. Lots of it comes down to preferences, and ultimately they're just platforms to run your software. I use them all and that's just my take on it at this point in time.
Ordered a Lenovo P72 today. I'm going to continue to use my 2015 MacBook Pro 15 though for Mac stuff and the Lenovo for a few applications that run better on Windows. The Lenovo was cheap and very expandable though I expect the trackpad to be awful. The keyboard is supposed to be best in class and I don't look forward to running Windows but my use case is to start up two programs, email and a browser and then mostly just let them run through the day. I'm waiting for Apple to get their laptop act together and I think that they'll need a few years to get back on track. They're just too proud to admit that they are wrong.