Windows to Mac

[garrardrj]

Well i am certain that i shall be doing this . But when going from one computer to a new one it has been so much hassle and time consuming in the past that it is putting me off . I want the Retina screen , the quality , the lack of malicious virus etc and the futureproofness of a Mac . I also understand that Macs don't slow down like Windows based machines do . Also when using Itunes on my windows 7 it is really slow and takes ages even to just open the programme . I click the icon and it sometimes takes nearly a minute for the itunes screen to open !
Will Itunes work better on a Mac ?
Will Apple (in store) transfer all my stuff onto the Mac .... Like email contacts (Windows live mail) Itunes music photos etc
I have worked out about the word documents , excel documents on my ipad is there anything about a Mac that i wouldn't be able to do that i do on the Windows machine?

[vRS Carl]

The only things I have come across that I can't do on a Mac is the likes of VCDS, ETKA and Elsawin. However I use parallels and run a virtual machine so that I can still use them on my MacBook Pro.

iTunes will work better on a Mac as that's what it was initially designed to run on.

Apple won't transfer your stuff in store you will have to do that yourself. If you store stuff in the likes of Gmail then you can setup that to pull your contacts into the Mac. Not sure on Windows Live Mail as never used it.

It took me about an hour or so to get to grips with the way OS X works (I switched to Apple in 2007) and about a week to be fully happy with it.

If you're ever stuck when you go into the settings and can't find something. Type the Windows name for it in the search box and it will highlight the correct portion for you.

Best bet is to book yourself a Genius Bar appointment when you go in to buy one. Make yourself a list of questions and then go through with the sales/genius rep.

I didn't do that when I bought mine. But luckily the guy I got was very enthusiastic and spent 2.5 hrs with me. He even tried to get me to buy a cheaper MacBook Pro as said I didn't need all the oomph I was after. But he understood why I wanted to have the extra for future proofing. I'm on my 3rd MBP now and I always get the non retina so that I can upgrade the Ram and HDD. So mine is a 2.5ghz Core i5 with 16gb of Ram and a double SSD Array totalling 752gb (512 Samsung 840 Evo main SSD and a OCZ Vertex 3 240gb Data storage SSD for photos)

I don't have any issues with it even running El Capitan in beta form (I have a developer account). I get the odd beach ball (Apple version of Windows egg timer) but that's due to the beta. They only last a second or so. But otherwise it flies.

The one thing I love is that there aren't constant updates and patches to do on it.

I upgraded my Virtual Machine to Windows 10 the day it went public and within 2 days it had 12 different updates and patches to do!

[Eccie]

Well i am certain that i shall be doing this . But when going from one computer to a new one it has been so much hassle and time consuming in the past that it is putting me off . I want the Retina screen , the quality , the lack of malicious virus etc and the futureproofness of a Mac . I also understand that Macs don't slow down like Windows based machines do . Also when using Itunes on my windows 7 it is really slow and takes ages even to just open the programme . I click the icon and it sometimes takes nearly a minute for the itunes screen to open !
Will Itunes work better on a Mac ?
Will Apple (in store) transfer all my stuff onto the Mac .... Like email contacts (Windows live mail) Itunes music photos etc
I have worked out about the word documents , excel documents on my ipad is there anything about a Mac that i wouldn't be able to do that i do on the Windows machine?

I moved over to Mac about 3 yrs ago and it was a painless experience and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to you. I've since only ever used my old windows laptop for VCDS and just recently, downloading station logos for my MK7 Gti (which won't work on the Mac ) other than that; the switch has been a dream.

[RetroRaz]

Once you go Mac,  you dont go back

[garrardrj]

Ok thanks chaps ....

If i get a good spec Retina Mac Pro from a couple of years ago , it would save alot of cash , but what issues could i encounter ? Paying near on £2000 for a laptop frightens me ! What would be the benefit of buying new apart from the warranty ?

[tony_danza]

£2k??? Really?

Unless you're going to do some seriously intensive processing, such as rendering video - go light on the options. A Mac uses its RAM etc in a different and much more efficient way, so a seemingly lower quality machine can easily outperform its Windows based equivalent.

[rich83]

1200-1600 depending on which size MacBook Pro you want.

[tony_danza]

I get corporate discount, so I paid sub £1k for my 13" Retina. Even so, I can't imagine what £2k gets or who 'really' needs it.

[garrardrj]

Thats interesting .... So cheaper than i had expected ..... How come quite alot of Secondhand ones are near to £1000 ? Is it because they retain their value so well ? There is one locally to me a late 2012 and wants £999 .... SSD seems to be the expensive thing nowadays , is is worth the extra ? I am not going to be doing anything taxing or complicated on it . To some degree its mainly for storing and viewing photos , music , the odd document spreadsheet etc and storing all my older stuff. The reason i am now looking for a new laptop is that i am running out of space on my Hard drive and want to future proof the capacity . I may store stuff separately on wifi linked storage system , so perhaps don't need such a high HD , but 1tb seems to be a minimum imho . My 320gb hd is nearly full .
Also as we only view photos on a computer nowadays i am thinking larger screen than smaller.... At least the 15" or 17" ? This adds to the cost quite alot ...I did one of those price up your laptop on Apple and it was coming out near to £2k but then i generally opt for the highest quality or size . I think i may spend some time in the Apple store .... Going to Edinburgh today , hence up at this hour !

[rich83]

All the MacBook pros come with SSD anyway

[Degudodger]

My late 2011 17" MBP (last one they made) has been upgrade over the years and now has 16GB of RAM and 500GB SSD. Boot time is literally a couple of seconds and it absolutely flies!

After 4 years it's going strong and still holds 5+ hours of battery charge.

With that said I am thinking about upgrading soon.

[tony_danza]

People take the p*** with used, buy new for the little difference it makes.

You don't need a big SSD, just be intelligent with your storage. Shove stuff in the cloud and back it up with a HD.

The current 15" with 256/16gb for £1599 is more than enough for you and you'll see a good 5 years out of that. Most big companies get corporate discount, ask a mate/relative to check and buy for you?

[Degudodger]

People take the p*** with used, buy new for the little difference it makes.

You don't need a big SSD, just be intelligent with your storage. Shove stuff in the cloud and back it up with a HD.

The current 15" with 256/16gb for £1599 is more than enough for you and you'll see a good 5 years out of that. Most big companies get corporate discount, ask a mate/relative to check and buy for you?

MBPs tend to hold their value as they are well built and a quality product. While you may not need lots of storage others, like myself do.

[tony_danza]

Sorry, that was more aimed at the OP's needs.

[Degudodger]

Sorry, that was more aimed at the OP's needs.

No worries Tony