New iMac

I'm a life-long Windows user, but this new 16" MacBookPro, either with the M1 Pro or M1 Max cpu looks interesting.

What would the transition be like going from Win to the Apple OS? An extensive learning curve?

https://www.apple.com …y-mac/macbook-pro/16-inch

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19308965
I'm a life-long Windows user, but this new 16" MacBookPro, either with the M1 Pro or M1 Max cpu looks interesting.

What would the transition be like going from Win to the Apple OS? An extensive learning curve?

https://www.apple.com …y-mac/macbook-pro/16-inch

I did the transition 16 years ago and haven't regretted it for a nanosecond. Not too hard, only slightly harder than changing to back button focussing.

Pippan wrote in post #19308985
I did the transition 16 years ago and haven't regretted it for a nanosecond.

That's a comment I hear often. Thanks.
I'll do some reading and see what Apple brings to the table (vs a Win 10 laptop).

Me too. Switched to Mac about 12 years ago and never regretted it. I have a laptop with Windows 11 for some games but I can't stand Microsoft or Windows.

Swap to Mac OS. You will love it. But.....(man this is a long post, coffee and keyboard, yackityack)

I first used Mac's in 1990 in my residency. The hospital had all Mac's for clinical work, but it was very early in the evolution of useful electronic medical records. Most were used by the residents for writing papers and such but slowly lab results began to be sent via the computer network. I had an MSDOS machine at home not for writing papers, but for gaming LOL, my first self-built PC, Intel 486Dx2, the then hot processor LOL. There were some Mac based games that came out in 1992 or so and they were pretty good. I played a few when I had time. One of the nursing supervisors had a MSDOS machine in his office and I had a copy of Wolfenstein and no computer to play it on, we became friends and I got access to his office after hours LOL, sounds pathetic, but working every other night for 5 years, you find time to have some fun when it's slow). That is when I broke down and built the DOSBOX. I had a WANG PC that ran MSDOS and had the WANG labs word processor and spreadsheet software, but that thing would not run games.....and there was no update path as Wang PC's were no longer marketed and it was all proprietary hardware.

After residency I was just using Windows computers for work. So MSDOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows 98, 98SE, Windows ME, Windows VISTA....etc....I have Windows 7 still running in Parallels on my mac's so I can use my 2004 version of Quicken and a database I use on my iPhone. My kids have Windows 10 (we call it the Windows 10 Virus as it self installed over 7 with odd backward logic 'do you want to not proceed with not updating to windows 10 at this time, don't click here' I got very good at using Microsoft office and had a copy that I installed on several machines, personal use, and those ($&%)(*W() began to control how many computers you could use the software on. So if you got a new computer, you were *(&^*(& out of luck with your older software.

I had many Windows Laptops and several home build gaming systems over the years. My first office network was all MSDOS with just two of the computers running Windows for Workgroups. The practice database as all DOS based.

For photography I used Windows and an early version of Photoshop 4 LE which I think came with a video game or something, and then I founds Picture Window Pro 3.1 which I liked and used for ?10 years. I got pretty good at calibrating printers and scanners, like the Canonscan 4000.

I was getting sick of new Windows based programs coming with their own DLL's that would mess up other programs that were designed with a prior DLL. Windows got to be a pain in the &^*( frankly. Get an up date and all of a sudden your printer does not work. (wait that happened on a Mac too dam it, but fixable below) You get where I am going with this yet? I actually had to buy new printers with each upgrade in Windows as backward compatibility was never on Bill's short list.

I had read that photographers and 'artsy' people used Mac's but that they were "much more expensive." But are they? The last much longer. My Alienware super gaming laptop, was very nice, but died after less than 3 years of use and they could not fix it. Could not or would not? I sent it for repair, they said they fixed it, but it never worked again.

By 2007 I had my first iPhone and already had a couple iPods. Quality products. After struggling with proper color balance on Windows machines I read about Aperture for Macs and found Apple's Mobile Me. Got me thinking maybe I'll buy a Mac.

I then began to look at the MAC OS and how it worked. ummmm "Sand box" I think was the term used....

On a Microsoft Windows machine if you install a program on it the software often includes all sorts of hooks that get installed all over the hard drive and interact with the OS. So the Dynamic Link Library that comes with this years version of Turbo Tax messes up your three year old copy of Window Picture Pro and your copy of Quickbooks. NICE. That was always fun to work through. Then when you removed a program from Windows, you had to trust the 'uninstall software' to remove all the hooks and not mess up the DLL's on the way to the trash can. Don't get me wrong I was masterful at tweaking my Windows based machines, you had to if you wanted to use it for its real intent.....screw spreadsheets, online Mechwarrior LOL>

On the MAC, software gets installed IN ONE DIRECTORY. Software that can run on a MAC cannot mess with the OS. When you want to remove that program, delete what one file? Much nicer.

But this began to slowly change.....like when an update to the MAC OS nuked my printer. Fortunately I had backup of the critical printer files on my TimeMachine backup. Which works FLAWLESSLY. I similar type of backup on Windows to Mag Tape was notoriously unreliable. Yes I had a backup tape. I'm that old.

I bought my first Mac in 2011, 27 inch i7, 2TB fusion drive, it was repaired under warranty a week before the Applecare ran out and then ran of another 2 1/2 years after the repair. Yes the Genius Bar was able to fix my 3 year old Mac without an issue. And THEY DID NOT WIPE MY HARD DRIVE WHEN DOING IT. Imagine that. When I got my Alienware computer back from 'repair' they had wiped the hard drive (not a new hard drive mind you). I used that Mac for 5 years and 5 months. It worked great. It probably died because I left it on all the time. My bad. On the Mac my old Epson photo printer worked perfectly (Epson Stylus Photo 2200 - still does it's 19 years old LOL and I can still find ink for it, from Epson...Jinx) It could use my older HP scanner without an issue. It worked with my CanoScan 4000 negative scanner. No compatibility issues (until the OS update that messed the printer up).

I bought it's replacement in 2017 which has the 5k Display LOL. Very nice computer. It's 4 years and 5 months old. Jinx. Again maxed out....don't skimp you will be sorry. I added the max RAM DIY, easy upgrade. Beware of the iMac Pro.....super nice, super fast, but super expensive.

I used my Canonscan on it the Mac 2011 and since again more recently. The colors were about perfect without any tweaking. WTF? On Windows it was a nightmare, on the Mac it was PLUG AND PLAY. Go figure.

I have a 2014 MacAir (typing it on this now) that has i7, 500 GB SSD, 8Gig RAM, still works great and I use it every day. I put a new battery in it 6 months ago and its like new. Do NOT skimp on your Mac, get it loaded and you will use it longer. Sure I can afford to buy the 16 inch super mac book with 8 TB SSD, no problem, but why? Photoshop runs great on this MacAir LOL.

Alas, MAC's OS has been becoming a bit of a PITA over time. But not as bad as Windows by any stretch of the imagination. I recently was able to install the latest OS at the time (High Sierra) on three MacBooks that someone GAVE ME and supposedly I could not install that OS on them, but I did and they run great. My kids use them. One needed a new hard drive so I put a SSD drive in it. The others were fun just needed new OS as the person who gave them to me wanted the hard drives WIPED as part of the deal.

When the M1 processors came out, people wear concerned over Intel based programs not working on it. MAC was way ahead of that with their emulation software. So it was never an issue. But as developers have made the code native to the M1 - WOW....before I put the new battery in this MacAir I was considering getting the 13 inch with the M1.

Their hardware lasts. The keyboard all work still, the mouse pads all work, on several MacBooks that we have. Yes, as time goes on you need to upgrade as eventually mac's OS's are no longer going to run well on the older machines. I have a Mac Mini that I got in 2009 that still runs, it's just painfully slow and thus not used. I replaced it with an Apple TV as it was used to play movies.

I had one USB Mac keyboard die on me but it was used for 7 years. The keys were mechanically fine, but something electronic died.


Mike

(Long post, on vacation, done with choirs, bored I guess...I put the snow tires on M5 today, earlier this week oil change on Boxster, put the snows on the kid's Civic, clear leaves (twice), put up Christmas lights......staycation​.....choirs....LOL - I deserve that new 300 mm F2.8 Canon lens dam it..)

I have the Time Capsule 3 TB unit at home. Can I back up my current iMac to that (I do routinely) and then install all my files on the new M1 Mac?

duckster wrote in post #19309219
I have the Time Capsule 3 TB unit at home. Can I back up my current iMac to that (I do routinely) and then install all my files on the new M1 Mac?

Not only all your files but your entire setup (assuming you are backing up with Time Machine).

TimeMachine works great. I have restored computers from it as a way of 'defragging" a Mac with a spinning drive since there is no Mac software to defragment your hard drive like there is in Windows. The computers with SSD don't usually need to do that, but with a spinning drive your OS updates get scattered on to slower parts of the physical drive. Restoring your NON crashed unit results in the latest OS you had being installed fresh and then the data. It's great way to clean up an older mac get it running faster. No so much and issue with SSDs as I understand.

I have a TimeCapsule Router with 2 TB hard drive to which I back up my wife macbook and the mac mini when it was up and running. It's also houses about 600 gig DVD's I ripped with handbrake and put on it. The backup is wireless over wifi.

So you can do that as a way to set up your new mac, or just use the Migration Assistant. We have used with great success.

Mike

Interesting comments, Aronis. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I should have added that.

That was the part that was worrying me, backing up the stuff off the iMac to the new one. Not a lot of photos, only 15,000 or so.

Back up always worries me too. I have crazy redundant back ups of all my photos. It's like a crazed obsession.

Now with my Smugmug account, they are all there and they now allow full res raw photos. That is done via LIGHTROOM so it's pretty easy.
Also have redundant (JPEG only) backup on my Lightroom account, but I keep forgetting how to set that up LOL. It's done when you create a "Collection" Pet Peeve, it puts the collections in the root directory and you then have to manually move it to where you want. Not a big deal.

Also I have THREE, count them, THREE LACIE RAIDS. LOL. each has copy of the photos.

and.....I used to put them on my kids gaming rigs (S) and I have a Network Storage device (no longer used.)

and I have most of the older photos on my TimeCapsule drive...

and I have four, yes four, M2 SSD, each 1 TB, in little cases with yet more backup.

I need HELP!!!!!

LOL

Backup is really cheap these days. You can get a WD 12 TB external hard drive for $250. Assuming it lasts a few years, you can back up to your hearts content. But I would not trust a single drive that large unless it was part of a RAID. The better option is multiple smaller drives like the Lacie 2 TB rugged drive for $99.00.

You can configure TimeMachine to JUST back up your photo folders. I do it manually to all the other drives, but Lightroom automatically puts a backup on one of my RAIDS when I import. It does not however, maintain the proper folder hierarchy on it's own. You have to change the copy point yourself and the folders get named in one way and you can't modify that. Doh.



Mike

I have al my RAW files on one drive. They are backed up daily to another drive using CCC. I have two portable drives which I update about every 3 to 6 months and one lives in our banks safety deposit box. I guess the cloud would be easier but lots of time to maintain that.

You can easily add external SSDs, so the thing you must upgrade at purchase time on the 24" is the RAM. I just got one with 16 GB and it typically will use around 12 GB of that. I checked on another Mac and the same apps use more memory if you have it available.

I upgraded the RAM to 16 and the internal SSD HD to 1 TB when I ordered it.