For personal reasons it became an opportune time to refresh the device that I use for ‘home’ and for the first time I chose an Apple MacBook.

You did what?

There are people for whom the choice between Windows and Mac is almost a religious one, I’m a bit more pragmatic than that, I want what makes me productive.

A long time ago there were the famous and celebrated Get a Mac adverts which pitched PC v Mac, these adverts had the opposite effect on me and pushed me away from the Mac.

For most of my working career I have been a Microsoft Windows user, before that I was a DOS, VMS, UNIX and MVS user. If you don’t know what most of those acronyms mean, then don’t worry about it all they indicate is that I have been using Windows for about as long as it has existed.

In many ways, Windows is how I think when I look at a screen.

My ‘smart’ mobile life, however, has been almost exclusively Apple iPhone and iPad. Again, there was a time before the iPhone when I spent a lot of my life bashing away on a Blackberry Keyboard, but that’s a different history.

For the last couple of years, I’ve also been an Apple Watch wearer. So even further into the Apple ecosystem.

My employer is heavily Microsoft Windows, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon, so Windows isn’t going anywhere for much of my life.

I considered not having a “home” laptop at all, after all surely I can do everything I need to do on an iPad? Why do I even need a full-fat operating system?

Decisions are always a mixture of logic and feelings; in this case it was the feelings that won. There really wasn’t a deal breaker with any of the options I was considering, there were some things I really liked about the MacBook, so I purchased a MacBook.

Impressions so far

My first concern was how long it would take me to become productive.

So much of what we do on our devices has become instinctive, we don’t really think our way through the menu options or the keyboard shortcuts, we just use them when we need them. I have developed a way of working in Windows that I think is efficient, would the MacOS get in the way of that?

There has been some frustration along the way, but for the most part things are working quite well.

Thankfully I’ve not had to replace any apps, what I use is either available on both Windows and Mac, or I already prefer the Apple version from my iPhone.

Some time ago I switched to a desk setup that made use of a USB-C switch the connected to a suitable power supply for my work Windows Laptop, peripherals, monitor, etc. I was delighted when I first plugged my MacBook into this set-up and everything just worked.

It took me less than a half a day to get to a working setup that gave me 80% to 90% of what I needed to be productive.

I’ve found most of the interface changes easy to get used to, even the closing of a window which is in the opposite corner for a Windows person.

Further Joys

I might be giving up on Windows for personal use, but I’m not giving up on Office just yet. I use OneDrive for storage, my email is in Outlook, I’m used to using Excel, Word and PowerPoint. In the past Office on Mac was clunky and didn’t really feel like it was either Office or a truly Mac. From my experience so far those days are thankfully behind us.

I’m a big keyboard-shortcut user and for the most part these are the same between Mac and Windows, although some of the keys are in different places. The basic set using the same letters – cut (command+x), copy (command+c), paste (command+v), undo (command+z), select all (command+a).

Before I purchased the MacBook several people raved about the Apple processors and the amazing battery life that this enabled. So far, I agree with them wholeheartedly. I’ve been working away from home for a few days this week and several times a day I’m having to find power for my work HP Z-Book, but the MacBook that I’ve used almost as much is still sitting at 70% battery. I didn’t think that the battery issue was one that would really impact me, but I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve noticed it, or rather, not noticed it, I just assume that the MacBook has power.

I am loving the ecosystem integrations. Having photos on my MacBook is brilliant, when I write the Graham’s Guides having the photos there, on a map, is excellent. Not having to switch to my iPhone to send a message is another one.

I am privileged to have a Windows laptop with a camera that supports Windows Hello for authentication, something that just works. I wasn’t looking forward to using the fingerprint reader on the MacBook, but little did I know that Apple had built in Apple Watch proximity recognition so for most of the time I don’t need to.

The physical build quality of the MacBook is so good.

Some Frustrations

My primary annoyance is that some keys are in different places, the main one being the swap of the @ and the “.

The other strange one that keeps interrupting my flow is the position of the command key in comparison to the ctrl key on Windows keyboards. I’m still having to look down to find the command key, finding the ctrl key on Windows is still second-nature.

I do miss the home key and the end key; it’s taking me a long time to make the mental shift to command+right-arrow and command+left-arrow. This is particularly irksome when I use an external keyboard that also has a home and end key that both do something very different to their function on Windows.

Another key I miss is the Windows key as a rapid way to access the Windows Start screen. I quite regularly start applications by pressing the Windows key and typing the name of the app. Spotlight via Command-Space is another mental shift I haven’t yet got used to.

Mouse scroll direction is another interesting one. When I sit at a desk, I like to use an external keyboard and an ergonomic mouse. The mouse has a scroll wheel – the default scroll on the MacBook is in the opposite direction to Windows. I can change this, but I haven’t yet decided whether I want to, I don’t want to be one of those people who buy a Mac and set it up to work like Windows. I’ve also toyed with the idea of changing the direction on my Windows setup.

When I am working on multiple screens, I would love the Mac Dock to be visible on all of them, that’s a personal preference I know, but seems like such an obvious thing to do. The option to automatically hide and show the Dock goes part way there and may become my option of choice.

Yet to be Fully Explored

I can’t honestly say that I’ve properly explored the capabilities of the MacBook trackpad. I’ve never been a huge fan of any of the trackpad technologies, even on Windows, so I’ve got some way to go before I can honestly say I’m proficient.

I like the way on Windows that you can navigate to the window that you want from the taskbar, control+click on the app icon in the Dock doesn’t yet feel as intuitive.

The Apple Watch recognition works most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t and then I need to enter my password. I’m not sure why this is; the cause doesn’t seem clear.

Finder and the way it’s structured still feels a bit strange, I’m not even sure I know what it is, but something makes me wary of it. One little example is the file save dialogue in applications, on Windows it seems obvious how to create a new folder, this isn’t obvious to me on the MacBook.

Other Oddities

I have a Bluetooth keyboard and ergonomic mouse that support multiple connections. I’ve used this combination to support both my work and home laptops at the same time on my desk. This makes for relatively easy switching from device-to-device, I say “relatively” because the keyboard switch is very easy having physical keys dedicated to the different input, the mouse also has a button to switch, but it’s tiny and it’s on the base of the device. Having to pick up the mouse and press a tiny button only takes a few seconds, but the fact that it’s a two-handed operation makes it feel like an utter faff. I suspect that there is a combination of keys on the mouse that will do the switch, but the manual for this model doesn’t mention one. I may have to investigate an alternative; I’ve had this mouse a long while.

This blog, and others, was first written in Typora, a markdown editor, the license nicely includes the ability to run more than one device. I was really pleased to experience that the Typora app on the MacBook is just as good as the Windows version and I can run both at the same time.

Concluding

I’m very happy with my purchase; the joys are outshining the frustrations. There is certainly some confirmation bias in this statement, but it would be a strange situation if there wasn’t. There isn’t any buyers remorse.

Header Image: This is Crummock Water on a glorious day just before we went for a swim. Crummock can get quite busy in places, but it can also be gloriously tranquil if you know where to look.