How Mac Changed Your Life?


Recommended Posts

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 :D.
6. The apps designed for a Mac, have a very different cool factor to it. Makes it easier to focus on work :p

  • Like 3
Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1272592-how-mac-changed-your-life/
Share on other sites

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.

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.

  • Like 2

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.

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.

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... 

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

  • Like 2

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.

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.

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.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I'm still on Windows 10 22H2 because I didn't want to deal with all the issues in Windows 11, so I waited almost a week before installing the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5094127), I went ahead and did it, and it was a huge mistake—ever since then, my File Explorer has seen a performance drop of about 30% when transferring large files... Once again, Microsoft has outdone itself! This update cannot be uninstalled, either through the Control Panel (via Settings) or by accessing Advanced Startup Options. The only possible alternative would be to use system restore points, but I’d have to reinstall all app and driver updates (and there’s no guarantee it would work). Or there’s the “nuclear option” of a in-place repair without losing files or apps, but even then, all my customizations would be lost! Microsoft just can’t help but mess everything up! Way to go, Microsoft! But I still don’t want your c****y Windows 11!
    • Microsoft: Windows 11 could finally solve a major issue across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs by Sayan Sen While Microsoft has been trying to improve it, Windows 11 is definitely not flawless, as even today some issues are taking a year to publicly acknowledge. However, one area of trouble that may finally see much better results soon is graphics driver crashes. Work on graphics driver timeouts, also called Timeout and Detection Recovery (TDR), is not new as the latest WDDM 3.2 also has specific improvements regarding it. Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 is supported on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. However, with the upcoming version 26H2, TDR crash diagnosis could go to the next level as Microsoft is introducing a new DirectX 12 API feature called "DirectX Dump Files". Similar to how system memory dump files work when a system crashes or freezes or encounters any such major issue, DirectX Dump Files (DDF) will essentially record a snapshot of the GPU execution right at the moment a graphics-related crash or hang or freeze occurs, so that developers can better understand and diagnoze these TDR and timeout detection errors. The dump will be available as a .dxdmp file for analysis and it will be a comprehensive dump file generated with detailed insights about the hardware, drivers, Windows, as well as the affected application. This should be another welcome change in this department. Earlier at GDC 2026, when the technology was first debuted, Microsoft had shared more details regarding it. The company had explained how DDF is designed to gather data from every layer of the graphics stack into a single file, eliminating the need for developers to manually correlate logs from multiple tools. As mentioned above, the dump can contain a lot of useful details like GPU hardware state information such as register values, shader program counters, page fault virtual addresses, shader memory data, and command buffers. Alongside that, it also captures DirectX runtime and kernel information, including D3D objects, pipeline state objects, device error data, adapter details, and CPU call stacks. Microsoft says the feature has been built around two primary use cases: retail device removals and local device removals. The former allows developers to collect crash information from end users' systems in the field, while the latter helps QA teams and developers investigate issues on test machines. Developers will also be able to include up to 2 MB of custom application data through new D3D12 APIs, providing additional context for troubleshooting. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three dump collection modes ranging from zero-overhead capture, which has no runtime performance impact on supported hardware, to higher-detail modes that collect more vendor-specific debugging data. On compatible Tier 2 hardware, zero-overhead dumps will be enabled by default, meaning developers may begin receiving useful crash diagnostics without making any code changes. The table below explains the three tiers: Tier Description NO_OVERHEAD Enables crash capture with no runtime cost and is suitable for broad deployment MEDIUM_OVERHEAD Provides a balance, capturing additional diagnostic data with moderate impact HIGH_OVERHEAD Collects the most detailed GPU and driver state available, enabling deeper investigation at the cost of higher runtime overhead In terms of availability, the company expects broader release to be around the fall of 2026, which should be right around the time when Windows 11 version 26H2 lands. Right now, DirectX Dump Files are available as a preview and currently, only AMD has the compatible AgilitySDK Developer Preview driver version 26.10.07.02. You can find the official announcement post here on Microsoft's website.
    • And with SO much better perf than the laggy mess that is Files.
    • BrowserOS 0.46.0 by Razvan Serea BrowserOS is a free, open-source Chromium-based browser that runs AI agents natively, offering a smarter, more productive browsing experience. It supports Chrome extensions and integrates AI agents to automate tasks, fill forms, and streamline workflows. Your data stays on your computer: you can use your own API keys or run local models via Ollama, making it a privacy-first alternative to tools like Perplexity, Comet, or Dia. With built-in productivity tools and app integrations, BrowserOS boosts efficiency while keeping control firmly in your hands. Being Chromium-based, BrowserOS lets you effortlessly import your bookmarks, passwords, and Chrome extensions in just a few clicks. BrowserOS works with OpenAI GPT models, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and local AI models via Ollama or LMStudio. You can use your own API keys and effortlessly switch between providers. BrowserOS Agent Your AI productivity assistant that organizes and manages your browsing effortlessly Quickly list, group, or close tabs Save and resume browsing sessions Search your history and organize bookmarks Switch instantly to the tab you need BrowserOS Navigator – Automate web tasks with ease Navigate websites and search automatically Interact with pages without manual effort Handle repetitive tasks in seconds What makes BrowserOS special Feels like home - same familiar interface as Google Chrome, works with all your extensions AI agents that run on YOUR browser, not in the cloud Privacy first - bring your own keys or use local models with Ollama. Your browsing history stays on your computer Open source and community driven - see exactly what's happening under the hood MCP store to one-click install popular MCPs and use them directly in the browser bar (coming soon) Built-in AI ad blocker that works across more scenarios! BrowserOS 0.46.0 changelog: Run Claude Code & Codex right in your browser — We've extended the agent harness to bring full coding agents into BrowserOS. Claude Code and Codex now come bundled and plug straight into the assistant, so you can drive your browser with the agent — and the subscription — you already use. A brand new experience — A redesigned new tab, a calmer composer, and a rebuilt command center for switching between agents. The whole assistant is cleaner, faster to reach, and easier to live in. New MCP tools — We rebuilt the browser tool surface from the ground up — a tighter, more reliable set of tools for agents to drive the browser. Plus one-click install of BrowserOS as an MCP server into the agents you already run, with automatic URL sync. Chromium 148 — Updated to the latest Chromium base with all recent upstream fixes and security patches. Streamlined — We've pulled back a few features that weren't getting much use — Skills, Soul, and Memory — so we can focus and ship better versions of them soon. Download: BrowserOS 0.46.0 | 181.0 MB (Open Source) Download: BrowserOS for macOS | 485.0 MB Links: BrowserOS Homepage | Github | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jordan Smith earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      591
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      187
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      77
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      75
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      67
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!