Apple is dead to me... I'm switching to Windows

[TheBigT42]

Good sign when a tech site has a biased article, I like osx and windows they both have their pro's and cons for every user I have no beef with either but please dont post why apple is dead to you because it doesnt do what you want it to lol

THE TITLE WAS "Apple is dead to me... I'm switching to Windows" ME being the key word.

 

[Tanstar]

As always, I'm contrary to this topic and will never use win/10. I have a laptop with win/7 only to support a corp infrastructure and if win/10 is my last resort, I'll kick the wife off our Mac and go back to simple and it just works.

btw: not ONE of the listed applications is compelling to a programmer OR business user.

What MAC-only software is compelling to programmers or business users?

 

[Rockstarrrr]

Its quite clear that Apple is slowly giving up on PC market. They got their iTunes/App Store/iPhones, they are satisfied. Its a damn shame that company built on home computers is now cellphone designer if you ask me. And I don`t even like Apple, but competition is always good. Now we`re stuck with Windows 10.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Makes a lot of sense really... considering how anemic and basic the MacOS operating system is, and how Windows is now becoming the same, it would be easier to transition. Back in the day Windows was powerful, all about giving the user the power to do things the way they wanted. Sure it was a bit harder to learn but once you had it, using Mac was frustrating. Now Mac and Windows are both equally crap and difficult to use from the standpoint of a power user.

The concept of a PC, or really more of a workstation will never die. It may evolve where the computers get smaller, more mobile friendly, and capable of integrating with other systems but in the end people will always want to sit down in front of a monitor, keyboard, and mouse in order to get some real work done.

 

[Squid Surprise]

World famous as in Donald Trump famous? A name that everybody knows, or just well known to only those who find his work interesting? I've certainly never heard of him and if I mentioned his name (not that I took note of it before I started skimming through the article) to every single person I know, I'm sure they'd all just gawk at me blankly.

World famous PHOTOGRAPHER.... that is, if you are into the world of photographers, you will know who he is... There are plenty of world famous people who few people have heard of since their fields are often obscure... for instance, I couldn't name you any world famous etymologists... but I'm sure that those interested in that field will be able to name you a dozen....

Or world famous cribbage players.... I know of some guy with the nickname Squid Surprise who is ranked #1 in the world... at least, the internet seems to believe that is true, so it must be

 

[soonerproud]

Good sign when a tech site has a biased article,

Of course it's biased. That's what opinion pieces are. Doesn't make the authors experience any less valid.

 

[TechHeadKeta]

- but in the end. Mac is the absolute beast, when it comes to making music fx. I think about software like Logic Pro X.
Other than that? Windows all the way, baby.

 

[Igrecman]

The only Mac I want is a Big Mac.

 

[Burty117]

32 Comments in and no one has seen the glaring issue with his setup?

Step 4 – The great storage adventure
Starting with the My Cloud Pro, first think about how you want your storage configured. My NAS is the 16TB model and it arrived set to 2x8TB mirrored (basically 8TB of storage with the 2nd drive used to keep a separate copy of every file an automated process). I used the web interface for the NAS to re-configure the drive to show as a single 16TB volume.

He said during the article he had 12TB of data to store on it and the first thing he does is disable the RAID redundancy?! That's living on the wild side considering how much data there is to lose if one drive failed.

 

[Squid Surprise]

32 Comments in and no one has seen the glaring issue with his setup?



He said during the article he had 12TB of data to store on it and the first thing he does is disable the RAID redundancy?! That's living on the wild side considering how much data there is to lose if one drive failed.

He had 12 TB of data and bought a 16TB ddrive.... it wouldn't have fit had he used RAID - it would only have been 8TB... and he did mention numerous times that he was using Dropbox to sync most of his stuff - I'd assume he had multiple backups of his other stuff as well...

 

[texasrattler]

Liked the article but a Pixel phone really, with all its hardware problems that Google have said likely cant be fixed till the Pixel 2 cimes out. There are better Android phones without hardware issues.

Also, you dont need a gfx button, which I didnt even know existed. Just go into the nvidia control panel, set the nvidia processor and set the power management mode to maximum. Dont use optimal. With these settings youll be good to go at all times. You will only need to check the settings when you update the video driver.

 

[Warren007]

I loved this article. The sheer joy of computing reminded me when I was a young man trying to master the intricacies of what was then a whole new way of doing things. Thank you and enjoy!

 

[Skjorn]

Never was a fan of Apple or their closed off systems.

 

[Skjorn]

Also never had ANY of the headaches people complain about with Windows10. Been a great install so far.

 

[kapital98]

Honestly. there are people out there who just don't want to mess the the computer, they just want it to work. and out of the box, the OSX machines seem to be fine. just don't expect more. set your bar low and you will never be disappointed.
But if you desire disappointment... give windows 10 a boo. can't wait for tuesday!

It seems like he does most of his work on the road. He mentioned getting the MSI while on a 'world tour'. Now, this author sure loves to bask in his own greatness... but he has a point. If you're on the road, get a great gaming PC + super portable laptop with great drawing. If he was located exclusively in one region then he could be looking at a proper desktop or even a server (Xeon) oriented architecture if his software can use it.

 

[kapital98]

This is a really great article (clickbait title not withstanding). This guide should be pinned somewhere for easy access on this site. Akin to buying guides for graphics cards or CPUs.

First, I hate the 'creator' label. It's such a pretentious BS title for everyone and means nothing.

Second, the hardware is painfully obsolete in Macs. Their ~$2,000 macbook pro is decent for a laptop but cannot compete with desktops that are half the price (or even much cheaper gaming laptops). The iMac is a bad alternative for serious professionals. The Mac Pro, point blank, cannot compete with even moderate gaming desktops or commercial workstations. The vast majority of advances in codec/image rendering has been in utilizing the GPU. The author chose a $4k commercial laptop with a very nice Quadro card.

Time is money. The Mac's take significantly longer and mac users are left holding the bag. Even if you want an extremely poweful Mac, they just don't exist. The Windows platform is significantly better for people working with photos and video. As mentioned, that Quadro card is going to save him an incredible amount of time when editing. As a hobbyist, the difference in rendering something in minutes vs. hours/days is a game changer.

Third, I'm really curious why this guy doesn't have a dedicated 1440p or 4k IPS monitor. The laptop has a very nice 4k IPS monitor but I have a hard time believing it comes close to a Dell UltraSharp. It seems a little strange for a professional photographer.

 

[Burty117]

He had 12 TB of data and bought a 16TB ddrive.... it wouldn't have fit had he used RAID - it would only have been 8TB... and he did mention numerous times that he was using Dropbox to sync most of his stuff - I'd assume he had multiple backups of his other stuff as well...

Still, he spent all this money, and he has a 16TB NAS and if one drive died, he basically loses all the data. I mean, really? Would it have been that difficult to have bought one or two more drives? It makes me cringe seeing him disable it and just Stripe it instead. It can only go badly.

 

[DOA]

As a professional with secrets to protect I cannot recommend Windows 10 at this time.
Search all you want on this, no one really knows what Microsoft is getting off your computer, all they know is they get a LOT of info even with all possible privacy settings.

 

[sauri]

Apple is so obsessed with not losing the edge that it fails to notice that it lost the blade long time ago.

 

[infiltrator]

Mate, I couldn't applaud you more! You've done the right thing, ditch Apple for a PC. I have used a few Apple products before, and I am glad I don't use them anymore.

 

[Arris]

Good sign when a tech site has a biased article, I like osx and windows they both have their pro's and cons for every user I have no beef with either but please dont post why apple is dead to you because it doesnt do what you want it to lol

It's not biased, I know several creative types that have switched from Mac because they simply don't offer a good enough performance per price ratio and too restricted an ecosystem. I'd say this is an article quite indicative of a real phenomena.

 

[Arris]

Nice article Trey, and cool to see a known photographer writing an article at my long time favorite tech site.

A few points:

Step 4 : Storage

"WD My Cloud PR2100 NAS
WD My Book Pro
WD My Passport Wireless Pro"
​

For you I'd guess there are still residual effect sfrom being a "Mac" user. WD MyBook products have a Mac styling and similar look to AirPort. I've had WD MyBook products in the past and they are quite simple to set up and go. but as soon as there is a problem or you want to have more precise control over things the basic WD interfaces (they may have improved but never seen much recommendation for their stuff in recent years) don't do you any favors. I guess you wanted a time machine/airport type solution.

I would say that Synology, QNAP, Drobo or even Netgear NAS would have been a better choice. I'm sure many tech enthusiasts would agree.

Step 6 : Get your color right

"By default, your new PC will have a different color profile than your Mac. At the very least you’ll have to open your color preferences and adjust the saturation until it is the same as your Mac. I recommend you pull up your 10 favorite photos and put them side by side, adjusting the saturation and color on your new PC until they are the same. Even though this system is calibrated at the factory by MSI (and has built in color profiles) this is a mistake I made and for about a week, my photos were a bit off and more de-saturated than I like. I only noticed when I looked on my wife’s mac and my photos looked less colorful than I preferred."
​

For someone with an established photography career this seems quite lackadaisical. Even if you aren't calibrating for screen to home printed consistency, you shouldn't be adjusting the display just for your preference. I've seen this suggested in the past "get your favorite photos up and adjust your screen until they are how you remember then in real life" or "adjust them until you like them". Adjustments to them to get them "how you like them" should be done in the editing software, not the calibration of your monitor. You should be calibrating with a tool such as i1Display Pro, Colormunki or Spyder devices, and on a regular basis. Your photos might look just how you want them on your device, but then they are going to look considerably different on other calibrated screens and devices from what you see on your screen and possibly in print.

To quote myself under my other posting name used at dpreview.com :
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58167181

The major benefit in calibrating is that your photo will look the same on other calibrated monitors. Deciding you don't like the calibration and adjusting your monitor/calibration would result in the image appearing differently to other users viewing it on calibrated monitors and when you print it. Would it not be of more use to adjust the image's saturation to be as you wish it to be so that others using calibrated equipment will not see an over saturated, too red picture?

Saying calibration is an approximation to me seems counter intuitive. To me adjusting the calibration to what you consider displayed a single "familiar scene photo" to look correct would be the approximation. The calibration process is performed to give you a consistent base for working from that will result in expected results across other calibrated equipment (printers, other displays, other users calibrated displays/devices) rather than providing a "looks like the real life scene to me" preference, that is for you to achieve when editing. By adjusting the calibration to one familiar scene that was at a certain time of day, with one particular white balance, and possible reflected colours from objects within the scene, etc. etc. etc. you really aren't going to be getting a useful calibration in my mind.

Bonus Step 8 – Use your Nvidia graphics card with Adobe products

"This wasn’t obvious and was nowhere in the documentation. But the MSI computer has a “GFX” button under the power button to the left of the keyboard. When you click that, it asks you to reboot to use the fast Nvidia card at all times. This can have performance benefits in some applications such as Lightroom which by default use the less powerful Intel GPU rather than auto switch to the Nvidia which happens when gaming. Now I just keep that Nvidia GPU on all the time (no need to reboot). On the downside, it eats up more battery, but I am connected to power most of the time."
​

Both Nvidia and AMD have had graphics switching solutions for some time. In fact it was problems with AMDs solution that had me opt for Nvidia (at a premium) over them in my last gaming/productivity laptop. They have profiling systems to set which GPU should be used for which applications, and I think even Lightroom (not so sure about PS) has settings to control which is used. But having it jump between integrated Intel HD/Iris Pro and discrete GPU can give the impression of your computer not being able to handle the processing as it can result in sluggish jerky responses at times. Very good point to make.​

 

[Arris]

Why didn't he just post a few tweets from an Android device to his followers instead of writing a whole essay on his reasons? It must be a slooow week.. or he could just be marvelling in his new found freedom after being paroled from that claustrophobic Apple ecosystem.

Cause he's a good writer as WELL as being a world famous photographer.... This was simply reposted on Techspot as interesting reading.... You don't have to make such a big deal about it....

And it's not like anything he's said is really that controversial or even "new".... Macs have always offered inferior hardware at premium prices but offered a better "package" that looked great and was easy to use...

Now that PCs and Windows 10 look just about as good, are just as easy to use AND remain more powerful and cheaper, it's really a no-brainer as to what to buy...

World famous as in Donald Trump famous? A name that everybody knows, or just well known to only those who find his work interesting? I've certainly never heard of him and if I mentioned his name (not that I took note of it before I started skimming through the article) to every single person I know, I'm sure they'd all just gawk at me blankly.

If you are into photography you would probably have stumbled across his name before. I know I have quite a few times over the years.

 

[Paul SK08]

- but in the end. Mac is the absolute beast, when it comes to making music fx. I think about software like Logic Pro X.
Other than that? Windows all the way, baby.

Plenty of excellent music software out there for windows - Steinberg anyone?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

If you are into photography you would probably have stumbled across his name before. I know I have quite a few times over the years.

That's true.