New MacBook Pro owner; what are your apps/tips for a first time user?

[Dr Shroom]

I'm still pissed about Microsoft Office being an annual subscription.

install an older version? it's office, what new features are they going to add to Word or Excel? I'm still using Word 2002.

 

[joe8]

I'm still pissed about Microsoft Office being an annual subscription.

I think all of Microsoft's products, including Windows 10, are moving towards being products you download and buy a subscription or license for, rather than buying a disc from a shop.

 

[Heinz]

I think all of Microsoft's products, including Windows 10, are moving towards being products you download and buy a subscription or license for, rather than buying a disc from a shop.

No one buys Windows on a disc from the shop, what is this the year 2001?

 

[joe8]

No one buys Windows on a disc from the shop, what is this the year 2001?

Any software that I buy, I still prefer to buy it on disc. I can't speak for other people. It feels more like you own it, if you have a disc.

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

Any software that I buy, I still prefer to buy it on disc. I can't speak for other people. It feels more like you own it, if you have a disc.

You own your keys.

 

[joe8]

You own your keys.

Yeah, but will the keys always work (if it's online activation)?

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

Yeah, but will the keys always work (if it's online activation)?

unless you are talking about microsoft office products that are pre-2000...they all get activated online at some point. the initial activation just makes sure that the key fit the specific scheme they have defined.

 

[Rot]

OS X Catalina only works with Mac Office 2019... as it's 64 bit...

UNLESS of course you managed to get a upgrade of Mac Office 2016...

It's all fooked up... I managed to get a version of Mac Office 2019... for "evaluation" purposes....

xROTx

PS. It's upto you if you want to PM my ass...

 

[fake]

I'm not sure how Windows breaks down? Or grinds to a halt? This sounds like old person whining because they installed 20 toolbars, countless programs, a desktop covered in shortcuts and a hard drive that's on it's last 1gb of space.

I built a tower for my parents in 2007 or so. It originally had XP, and I maintained it and made sure they weren't doing stupid shit like installing toolbars and whatnot. Once it started to slow down, I upgraded it to Windows 7, which was pretty good; it didn't slow down like XP used to. When I personally used XP, I'd have to reinstall every few years. As 7 got garbled up (again, not too bad, but you get none of this on macOS) I added more RAM - I think two sticks of 8GB. They were concerned about security stuff now that 7 is being retired so I just upgraded to 10 which seems like a huge pain in the ass. I messed around with it and don't like it at all. It's slow as fuck, but that may be because it's on a 12-year-old system (it was beefy when I built it), but aside from that, it's just not intuitive to use. XP and 7 made sense as long as you were familiar with Windows. With 10 it takes me a while to find what I'm looking for, mapping the network drive was next to impossible, blah blah.

Also, I bought an Alienware Alpha several years ago, which came with Windows 8. That shit never ran well, and it was such a turnoff that I ended up barely using the computer. I wish I had an external drive and some 7 discs so I could wipe it and downgrade. The Windows 8 install has gotten even worse. Every time I turn it on, it takes about 12 minutes to load, requires a ton of updates, and takes hours to turn off while it performs the updates.

I've had none of these problems with OS X / macOS, but like I said, I don't care what other people use. If Windows works for you, use that.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

None of that stuff is necessary anymore, with WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.

There are fundamental reasons why a shared medium (i.e. the air around the office) is never going to match having individual media for each link (i.e. Ethernet cables between switches). If you work with lots of data, cables are not going away. WiFi is fine for watching YouTube videos and shitposting on Facebook, no doubt. But this is sold as a "pro" computer, and that carries the implication that it's going to help you doing computer work. It's not, without a tangle of peripherals to make up the difference.

If I seem a bit annoyed by this, I am. 10 years ago these were excellent workstation machines, with an unmatched OS and durable, sensible hardware, in a very portable package. Now it seems like Apple has just abandoned the idea of making useful tools, in favor of soaking in iPhone subsidies and taking their 30%. I'm in a place now where I can buy one, and they're all gone.

 

[Heinz]

I built a tower for my parents in 2007 or so. It originally had XP, and I maintained it and made sure they weren't doing stupid shit like installing toolbars and whatnot. Once it started to slow down, I upgraded it to Windows 7, which was pretty good; it didn't slow down like XP used to. When I personally used XP, I'd have to reinstall every few years. As 7 got garbled up (again, not too bad, but you get none of this on macOS) I added more RAM - I think two sticks of 8GB. They were concerned about security stuff now that 7 is being retired so I just upgraded to 10 which seems like a huge pain in the ass. I messed around with it and don't like it at all. It's slow as fuck, but that may be because it's on a 12-year-old system (it was beefy when I built it), but aside from that, it's just not intuitive to use. XP and 7 made sense as long as you were familiar with Windows. With 10 it takes me a while to find what I'm looking for, mapping the network drive was next to impossible, blah blah.

Also, I bought an Alienware Alpha several years ago, which came with Windows 8. That shit never ran well, and it was such a turnoff that I ended up barely using the computer. I wish I had an external drive and some 7 discs so I could wipe it and downgrade. The Windows 8 install has gotten even worse. Every time I turn it on, it takes about 12 minutes to load, requires a ton of updates, and takes hours to turn off while it performs the updates.

I've had none of these problems with OS X / macOS, but like I said, I don't care what other people use. If Windows works for you, use that.

For a start this 2007 machine had a HDD and not an SSD so that's 90% of the problem and then you upgraded to Win7 which upped the system requirements on what would've been a 3 year old machine by then. To top it off you erroneously tried running Win10 on this same machine. I feel for your parents and you for wasting so much time, you could have bought an SSD in 2011 or so, wacked on Win7 and called it a day. No more defragging, no more seek times etc SSD's really do solve a lot of these issues.

 

[evil wasabi]

For a start this 2007 machine had a HDD and not an SSD so that's 90% of the problem and then you upgraded to Win7 which upped the system requirements on what would've been a 3 year old machine by then. To top it off you erroneously tried running Win10 on this same machine. I feel for your parents and you for wasting so much time, you could have bought an SSD in 2011 or so, wacked on Win7 and called it a day. No more defragging, no more seek times etc SSD's really do solve a lot of these issues.

So you’re saying that Windows PCs need SSD in order to compete with MacBook pros? Makes sense.

Buy from the neostore!

 

[RAZO]

So you’re saying that Windows PCs need SSD in order to compete with MacBook pros? Makes sense.

Buy from the neostore!

Yes, it's a must unless you like to wait. It's the difference between waiting minutes for Windows to load up and seconds. You could buy a Crucial MX500 for $65 on Amazon. You will no longer hate your Windows PC. It makes a world of difference.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Get a M.2 SSD if you board supports it. Windows 10 boots in under ten seconds for me.

 

[fake]

For a start this 2007 machine had a HDD and not an SSD so that's 90% of the problem and then you upgraded to Win7 which upped the system requirements on what would've been a 3 year old machine by then. To top it off you erroneously tried running Win10 on this same machine. I feel for your parents and you for wasting so much time, you could have bought an SSD in 2011 or so, wacked on Win7 and called it a day. No more defragging, no more seek times etc SSD's really do solve a lot of these issues.

Uh, actually, I upgraded to an SSD when I installed Windows 7.

 

[Heinz]

So you’re saying that Windows PCs need SSD in order to compete with MacBook pros? Makes sense.

Buy from the neostore!

I find it hard to believe MacOS doesn't suffer from an HDD like Windows does.

Uh, actually, I upgraded to an SSD when I installed Windows 7.

I don't know what you're doing wrong then? I have an 8 year old dual core toshiba lappy that runs Win7 and has an SSD. Runs like a charm...

 

[famicommander]

I still have a first gen i3 Toshiba Satellite that runs great. I upped the ram from 4 GB to 8 GB and I added an SSD, but it was still running Linux Mint okay before I did that. But now it flies.

I mostly use a third gen i7 Thinkpad. It's newer and faster than the Toshiba, but the Toshiba has a better keyboard, trackpad, screen, and speakers by far.

 

[fenikso]

Get a M.2 SSD if you board supports it. Windows 10 boots in under ten seconds for me.

This. NVMe SSD on my new computer boots faster than my monitor.

 

[RAZO]

I'm thinking my motherboard doesnt support this since it's about 5-6 years old but how does someone clone their solid state to one of these. I use a Startech hard drive duplicator.

 

[Heinz]

I'm thinking my motherboard doesnt support this since it's about 5-6 years old but how does someone clone their solid state to one of these. I use a Startech hard drive duplicator.

You'd have to get an NVMe to SATA adapter board and then you could use it in the HDD duplicator.

 

[RAZO]

You'd have to get an NVMe to SATA adapter board and then you could use it in the HDD duplicator.

Ok got it. Going to peek inside my pc later and see if I have the slots.

 

[Dochartaigh]

Really, the only feature I'm jealous of is how you can split windows and snap them to each side of the screen.

Go and buy HyperDock. Problem solved.

 

[fake]

Go and buy HyperDock. Problem solved.

I'll check it out. I used to be into this stuff and had a MacWorld subscription, but got lazy and am a bit out of the loop.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Ok got it. Going to peek inside my pc later and see if I have the slots.

You probably won't have one if your board is really that old. The M.2 slot is usually located near the PCI Express slots.

 

[Heinz]

You probably won't have one if your board is really that old. The M.2 slot is usually located near the PCI Express slots.

Not sure about AMD but with Intel support for NVMe starts at the 90 series chipset. 5-6 years ago? We're talking maybe 70 or 80 series, possibly 60 series.