PC by day, Mac by night?

[Matt Meiser]

I use a PC 8-10 hours a day at work, mostly in a docking station with dual 24" displays and a full keyboard. My home laptop is waiting for Dell to visit for second time in two weeks and I've been wanting to get something slimmer for a while anyway so that might be a sign now is the time. I've kind of narrowed it down to a Dell XPS13 with touch, a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, or a MacBook Air. The Dell gets great reviews but on my list gets dinged for the poor service on the current machine, though long term I've had good luck with them. The Surface the huge pro is tablet mode and the pen, but gets dinged on my list for its keyboard and the kickstand configuration which some reviewers say makes it less desirable as a lap-top laptop and I use it in a recliner quite a bit. The MacBook of course is a whole different ecosystem, plus the comparable machine to the other two only has 4GB of ram and no touch screen. The pro of course is the legendary service. It seems like the other Ultrabook options are not i5's which is why I've pretty much focused on these three options.

My primary uses will be web browsing (Google Chrome either way) and Microsoft Office (mainly OneNote and Excel) which used to be a ding for the Mac but Office 2016 is now out for Office 365 subscribers for the Mac and seems to get good reviews. OneDrive would be my cloud service of choice since I have 1TB of storage there with my Office 365 subscription.

So question for those that switch between PC and Mac--do you find it frustrating to change OS's day and night? Changing my Day OS isn't even remotely an option before anyone mentions that.

[Scott Shepherd]

So question for those that switch between PC and Mac--do you find it frustrating to change OS's day and night? Changing my Day OS isn't even remotely an option before anyone mentions that.

I don't find it frustrating at all. Several years ago, I took, after using PC's since they first came out on a daily basis, I bought a used Macbook Pro for personal use. Shortly after that, I bought an iMac for work and another Macbook Pro for work. My iMac at work is networked to a network drive that all our files are on, and I create files all day long on my iMac, as well as another employee that creates on anyone iMac. The machines that run the files, wide format printers, cnc routers, lasers, etc, are all hooked to Windows machines. It's seamless to save the file from the Mac, open it on the PC and get the job done.

I don't run Office 365, but have Office for the Mac. It appears to work well, although I don't use it too often.

[Frank Drew]

Matt,

I use PC at work and an iMac at home and, honestly, I don't notice the difference in any meaningful way. That is, there are differences but they're not particularly bothersome and don't slow me down or anything. I mainly us the home computer for email and browsing the web.

[Daniel Rode]

I switch between PC, Mac, IOS (phone, ipad) and sometimes Linux. I often choose apps that are available on all platforms. Chrome rather than IE, for example. I use Evernote rather the Onenote. I use IOS and Mac Mail & Calendar in place of Outlook except on the PC where I use Outlook. Word processing is pretty easy. Google Docs, Open Office, etc. all work well in conjunction with Office. Spreadsheets and presentations are not so simple. Reading them is no problem, but editing them is more complex and less predictable.

It's not much of a issue for me. I rarely create work spreadsheets on my Mac. If I need to do do something I'm able to use Remote Desktop over VPN to access my work PC. I find the "2x" RDP client works better than Microsoft RDP on Mac.

Give a choice, I'd use a Mac at work and home. While I think MS Office is very good, I find little value in Windows.

[Jim Becker]

Matt, I bounce back and forth between MacOS and Win7 on my BYOD Work Macbook Pro r13 all day long. I honestly don't have any issues with that; "in general" things work similarly and your mind easily jumps to adjust when there are minor differences. More and more of what I do for work can be done purely in MacOS now, too. And the IT folks actually try to help since so many folks have ponied up their own money for Macs (BYOD), including many executives. LOL

I've been using the Office 2016 on both my Macs since it was released (Office 365 subscription) and it's been solid. Outlook "2016" has actually been out for sometime now. Windows users will have a new Office version available in a month or three, from what I hear. Mac just got it first because it was much farther behind.

[Mike Cutler]

Matt

I've been going back and forth for a long time now, and it's never been a problem. MS Office is a little bit different on a Mac, but not any morevdifferent than going back and forth between different rev's of Office.

[John McClanahan]

My opinion on touchscreen is, don't spend any extra money to get one. I have a Panasonic Toughbook with a touchscreen (the kind that doesn't require a stylus) and I find reaching up to touch the screen repeatedly is tiring and slower than a trackpad.
When Apple refused to add a touchscreen to their laptops they knew what they were doing.


John

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I use windows at work, and windows , a Mac or Linux at home no problems switching between them though Linux and the Mac sometimes make me more annoyed at Windows, particularly windows update taking forever and windows printing being a pita when I upgrade printers. B

[Matt Meiser]

I've pretty much decided I don't need touch, unless its convertible. Being able to use the pen would be a nice feature. That drives the price of the Dell XPS13 down to $1100. Still have a hangup with them over the service on the current machine though that is going to be tough to get over in my mind. Looks like they might have only shipped half the parts for my "next day" support call though the second package could just be CDs or a product key. We'll see today, maybe.

Is 4GB ram enough for a Mac? 8GB Macbook Air is available but special order, about 2 weeks out.

Best Buy has the Surface Pro 3 in stock and a 15-day full refund policy so I'm seriously thinking of taking one for a 2 week test drive. But then I also found the HP x360 which they also stock in the same price range. More of a laptop that can work as a (heavy) tablet in a pinch instead of a light tablet that can work as a laptop in a pinch. But you can buy a pen, lay the thing flat on a table and take notes which is what attracts me to the surface. I already have an iPad mini for when I want a very light tablet (which the SP3 doesn't really qualify as either.)

[Ole Anderson]

I agree on the touchscreen. Might work great for a waiter to punch in an order, but sitting down for long periods IMHO you are better off with most any other way of communicating with your computer. I am a PC guy with an iPhone. Trying to comment on a forum or post even a long sentence by touch is frustrating. But then I am all thumbs.

[Scott Hearn]

Yes it is frustrating. Because after about 5 minutes on a Mac you are kicking your own butt for not going to Mac sooner. Yes they cost more. But they will last for several years, never need rebooted, don't need anti-virus (yet anyway), you never pay for a O/S update and the screen looks 10 times better than any windows machine I ever had.

I bought a mid 2011 iMac and it's still running along just fine. I generally got about 1.5 years out of a windows machine before it needed a clean install to fix all the bugs it would develop. I would have already been through at least 1 windows machine for certain depending on how willing I was to nurse it and reinstall and I'd probably be close to looking for a 3rd now. So I've really saved money on the iMac not to mention time. They practically configure themselves, they just work like they are supposed to without all the windows headaches that you shouldn't have to endure.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Most off the shelf Windows machines are built to be as inexpensive as possible. Build a custom windows machine who's cost is comparable to a mac, and it will be usable for many years.
My last Windows machine was built in 2007, and I just replaced it in January. It was still as fast as a 1 year old lower end Dell or similar.

[Peter Kelly]

Most off the shelf Windows machines are built to be as inexpensive as possible. Build a custom windows machine who's cost is comparable to a mac, and it will be usable for many years.

Completely true. Try putting together a Windoze box with similar specs to any Mac and you end up with about the same cost if not more. The hardware is all pretty much the same anymore.

The ChromeBook Pixel seems not bad as long as you don't need to travel with it.

[Matt Meiser]

Well it was a hard decision but I'm currently setting up my new HP Spectre x360 with Windows 10. Like it so far. We went to Best Buy and I checked out a Macbook Pro 13 with an i5, 8GB RAM, and a 250GB SSD, the Surface Pro 3 with the same specs, and the HP with the same specs except an i7. Its not a spectacular tablet but will work as a notepad on a table which is my most likely tablet scenario where I wouldn't use my iPad Mini. I bought the active stylus pen for that use. Seems to be a great laptop in laptop mode.

[Jim Becker]

For future reference, if you don't get any Apple discounts through employer benefits, B&H Photo in NYC has excellent prices on Mac products. That said, enjoy your new computer!