How Mac Changed Your Life?

[roosevelt]

I'm curious how you have benefitted by switching to a Mac. I will start off the thread with my own experience. I pretty much was born into the Windows world and had a great run with it. My first exposure to a Mac was back in middle school with an iMac. I was not fond of it at all and found the design bit weird for my taste.

So, over the years I've used Windows 98, XP, Vista, and 7 significantly. The common problem I ran into has always been random crashes, bugginess, and the constant need to scan and optimize the file system or the registry. As I got more into web development and programming, a friend of mine suggested that I try out a Mac. At this point I was avoiding Mac because of its price.

As I got more acquianted to Apple, Steve Jobs and the whole Mac culture, I decided to get a Macbook Pro. And since VMWare was already supporting Windows on top of a Mac, I did not see any reason not to. Initially, I did not like it as much and it was a different experience all together. However, over the course of the years I have been going away from Windows and it reached a point where I'm no longer interested in Windows at all. The HoloLens is the only thing that excites me.

Here are some of the things I've gained a lot from a Mac:

1. Smoothness. Applications rarely crash or freeze on a Mac.
2. The advanced guestures, productivity applications, and powerful accessories like the mouse or trackpads are outstanding.
3. The peace of mind in terms of Mac security is great!
4. The Linux terminal. You can't beat that!
5. Opensource solutions seem to compliment Macs very well. Made me lots of money .
6. The apps designed for a Mac, have a very different cool factor to it. Makes it easier to focus on work

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I just find the workflow from content import, through manipulation and output to be significantly smoother.

[Pork Chopper]

Eating Big Macs made me gain 20 pounds. :-)

[greenwizard88]

Seriously? <snipped>

I'm currently on a mac. I'm currently dreading September 30th, because it means El Capitan and iOS 9 and all of the bits for all of the updates will be released. That means I'll have to upgrade my OS, in order to continue developing. That means I'll have to update VirtualBox, VMWare, and all of the other programs, that need to be compatible with 10.11. But since 10.11 is so new, I'll get a new slew of bugs. My hard drive is mostly full, so chances are I won't even be able to update until I move some files off... 

Of course the apps are great, they're just as buggy as their Windows counterparts. If it wasn't for iOS, I'd be using a PC.

[Mockingbird]

I gave up eating Big Mac and other unhealthy food a long time ago. Now I have a much healthier lifestyle.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Seriously? <snipped>

I'm currently on a mac. I'm currently dreading September 30th, because it means El Capitan and iOS 9 and all of the bits for all of the updates will be released. That means I'll have to upgrade my OS, in order to continue developing. That means I'll have to update VirtualBox, VMWare, and all of the other programs, that need to be compatible with 10.11. But since 10.11 is so new, I'll get a new slew of bugs. My hard drive is mostly full, so chances are I won't even be able to update until I move some files off... 

Of course the apps are great, they're just as buggy as their Windows counterparts. If it wasn't for iOS, I'd be using a PC.

Nobody says you have to upgrade OS X or iOS.

[MikeChipshop Member]

Well for one they keep me dry in the rain, meaning less illness, meaning far greater productivity.

[Nogib]

I used a Mac once about 15 years ago.  And then I promptly wanted to beat the ###### out of whomever created AppleTalk.  It was a nightmare to work with.  That proved to me right then and there that I would never use a Mac again.  My IT life has been so much better, smoother, and stress-free as a result of not touching Apple's junk after that.

[Aergan]

It was certainly life changing for me at the tender age of 3. I really got into it and used to be eager to keep it going for hours despite the age.

It was a nice farm too, pity about the animal neglect case due to overcrowding.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I used a Mac once about 15 years ago.  And then I promptly wanted to beat the ###### out of whomever created AppleTalk.  It was a nightmare to work with.  That proved to me right then and there that I would never use a Mac again.  My IT life has been so much better, smoother, and stress-free as a result of not touching Apple's junk after that.

And yet if anyone else based their opinions on a single incident 15 years ago, that would be ridiculous... 

[mr_han_solo]

I liked challenges and I wanted to see what the entire mac thing was about. So in early-2010, I built a hackintosh with Snow Leopard. After running it for a few years I purchased a 2012 Mini. The integration with my iphone is a plus, and I like itunes. It does seem to run more stable than my PCs did, but I have had crashes on my mac as well.

I recently upgraded from the mini to a mac pro and I hope to keep this computer for many years. I must say that I do use Windows in parallels for ArcGIs so i'm not 100% mac. One of my complaints about OSX is the way Preview handles files. I hate having to open multiple pictures in one folder versus windows viewer where i can just scroll through after opening once.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

I'm curious how you have benefitted by switching to a Mac.  

I look much prettier now! 

[greenwizard88]

Nobody says you have to upgrade OS X or iOS.

Actually, after ~Feb if memory serves correctly, unless I update Xcode to support iOS 9, Apple won't allow me to publish any apps. And since I can't update Xcode without updating my OS, Apple is actually forcing me to update. Sept 30th starts the timer ticking...

[+Warwagon MVC]

I'm Broke. Just kidding, I got some pretty awesome deals on the Mac's I have.

[shockz]

Actually, after ~Feb if memory serves correctly, unless I update Xcode to support iOS 9, Apple won't allow me to publish any apps. And since I can't update Xcode without updating my OS, Apple is actually forcing me to update. Sept 30th starts the timer ticking...

So in other words, you have time to prep and it wasn't all doom and gloom. You're a developer, I'm sure you'd have to update plenty of things on the Windows side whenever a significant update occurs.

[Tuskd]

Everyone has their workflow, so great if you have benefitted after switching to Mac. I spent some time on my friend's Mac, great hardware but when it comes to true productivity and versatility, nothing beats Windows. I could argue with some of the points you gave out, but as long as it helps you, I can't really complain. For me, as someone said, Macs are $2000 Facebook machines.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I own and use a MacBook Air as my laptop, did owning a Mac change my life? No, not at all.

I purchased a MacBook Air at the time because I wanted an ultrabook style laptop, I still had access to the Apple higher education store, so could get 15% discount. That made the MacBook Air cheaper than an equivalent spec Windows ultrabook, so I thought it would be nice to save some money learn and learn how a different operating system worked.

I think its a great laptop and the thing that impressed me the most was the trackpad with gestures, been able to swipe between virtual desktops on a laptop was really handy. However I really would not say owning a Mac was a life changing experience. I can simply now appreciate what OSX does better than Windows and what Windows does better than OSX. I think its nice to use both at the end of the day without having to be a die-hard fanboy of either.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Actually, after ~Feb if memory serves correctly, unless I update Xcode to support iOS 9, Apple won't allow me to publish any apps. And since I can't update Xcode without updating my OS, Apple is actually forcing me to update. Sept 30th starts the timer ticking...

Hmm, you may be right. I never thought about Xcode. I stand corrected. Anyways, I've been using Yosemite for some time now and it's rock solid. Loving this OS. If only MS paid this much attention to polish.

[greenwizard88]

So in other words, you have time to prep and it wasn't all doom and gloom. You're a developer, I'm sure you'd have to update plenty of things on the Windows side whenever a significant update occurs.

Besides being a straw man argument, you're also wrong. I have a coworker who uses VS2012, and the majority of what I do involves "sudo apt-get update" when there's an update - Hardly the day of headaches that iOS creates for me.

[shockz]

Besides being a straw man argument, you're also wrong. I have a coworker who uses VS2012, and the majority of what I do involves "sudo apt-get update" when there's an update - Hardly the day of headaches that iOS creates for me.

You're doing it totally wrong, if you are serious, most of what you're trying to accomplish can be done via scripts. A few lines of codes (which should be no issue since you're an acclaimed developer) would save you any hassle you're complaining about.

[Crisp]

Mac backwards spells cam, I think Apple are spying on us

[Aergan]

Mac backwards spells cam, I think Apple are spying on us

Illuminati confirmed, Apple are rising up against the Free Masons

[DConnell Member]

He saved my life with a pencil and a bent paper clip!

[+virtorio MVC]

The built-in screen zoom functionality is superior to what Windows offers, which benefits me as I can barely use a computer without it. 

[Cnónna]

Eating Big Macs made me gain 20 pounds. :-)