While it’s still Sunday somewhere!
We welcomed a new family member yesterday, a bouncing baby MacBook. Although we’ve gradually migrated all our mobile life to iOS over the past couple of years, this is our first real foray into OS X.
A few years ago I borrowed a MacBook for a month, and I learned a few things that began the erosion of my staunch anti-Apple attitude:
- The hardware is unbelievably refined in its design. I call it, engineering porn. No Windows laptop has even approached this level of refinement.
- The support at the other end of that phone line is superb. I know it’s hard for other companies to fund that kind of quality at scale because pretty much only Apple gets to charge the premium they charge, but it really does make a difference.
- The software itself is not 100% to my liking, but I am not the daily user of this new machine so, OK.
Also, when it comes to the software: it’s not Windows. From a security point of view, that removes a gigantic target from the back of our computing base here Chez Frier. This new machine retires our last Windows machine, not counting VM lab rats.
This is not to say that Macs are immune to malware, they are just a lot less targeted. Ultimately it’s a numbers game: malware authors are going to go for where the greatest number of machines in the business world are, and that is Windows.
Brad
Welcome to the light side! I went from Windows to OS in 2012 and will not be going back. However, I doubt I will be upgrading past Mojave, since I will not use “the cloud” and it looks like that will be a requirement for the next release.
David Frier
You already use “the cloud” so I am not sure what your objection is. “The cloud”, as you scare-quote it, is just “other computers.” You’re reading my blog and you’re present on social media. Do you have DropBox? Do you do anything at all on any Google property? On your Mac, do you use iCloud for anything?
Of all the major companies I observe managing computing resources on behalf of their users/customers/clients, Apple is probably in the top quartile, at least, for competence and trustworthiness.
Brad
I guess I use the cloud while I’m on-line, but I do not store private information there, which is what I think about when I think “cloud.” All of my data is stored, and backed up, on my iMac, with Time Machine on a separate, removable, HD.
When I went High Sierra, I had a hell of a time keeping my data on the PC, since it automatically signed me up for iCloud and started uploading all my files, which would then not be available when I am off-line, which is where I spend most of my computer time. And, with the amount of stuff that I would have had up there, it would have cost me a -lot- of money for the space.
Right now, I’m working on coding my own financial system because the program I currently use is trying to force me to update to a yearly subscription format with auto updates, few of which have ever made things simpler for me.
I’m thinking I’m a sort of digitally semi-adept luddite, but after using computers since the 70’s, I’m a bit stuck in my old-fashioned ways. I have uploaded a few files to DropBox for my brothers to download, then deleted them. I do run the Chrome browser currently, and have a presence on YT, but I think that is it.