windows

Joining The Dark Side: How a PC Geek Switched to the Mac

Romey

My first memorable exposure to computers was when my parents purchased an IBM PS/2, which ran Windows 3.1 on an Intel 286 processor. They bought it in the late 80s, making me an avid Windows user for over 35 years.

Not my family’s PS/2

I have vivid memories of upgrading to Windows 95, 98, then opting for the NT kernel (starting with NT4 and then moving to Windows 2000). I loved PC’s so much that my 16-year-old self’s dream job was my internship at HP (which turned into a 23-year-long stint).

Needless to say, I’m deep in the trenches of the Windows ecosystem. So why did I decide to make my next upgrade a Mac?

I wanted to prove to myself that I can still learn new technology. While learning OS proficiency isn’t about picking up a new programming language, there is still quite a learning curve when it comes to being efficient in a different OS, especially being the hotkey fanatic that I am.

These M-Chips are outperforming the PC equivalents. Windows ARM chips are starting to come online, but the app ecosystem and refactoring are years behind macOS’s transition. Four years in, virtually every meaningful software title is compatible with the M-Chips.

I wanted to free up my Dell Laptop for my kids. My daughters primarily use tablets and Chromebooks, but they are starting to dabble in photography and digital art, and I want them to feel like they don’t have to wait to use my laptop. My Dell XPS 15 is still quite powerful and will likely handle what they’d like to throw at it.

I ended up going with the M4 MacBook Pro 14″, going with the Pro because I’m doing more with photography, video editing, and graphic design. One of the most significant advancements with the M4 is the ability to plug in multiple monitors at once (it was previously limited to one monitor), which made it easy for me to use all of my home office hardware.

My “Harry Potter” home office

Three months in, the transition has been easier than I expected. It helps that I also purchased a Magic Mouse and configured it to utilize right-clicks (I’m not a big fan of trackpads, even one as well-made as the MacBook’s). I was surprised by how easily it was to get productive on the Mac, although it’s been a challenge keeping the keyboard shortcuts between my Mac and work PC, contemplating the Severance procedure to avoid confusing the CTRL and Command keys.

In setting up my Mac, Homebrew was my first install. Homebrew is a package manager that allows you to install and update software from a command-line interface. For the last five years, I’ve been using Chocolatey and Winget on my Windows machines. Package managers allow you to put together a list and then install dozens of applications all at once.

At that point, it’s been a matter of finding equivalent apps for all of my Windows tools that I’ve relied on over the years. Over the last three months, here are my results, based on my manifest:

Windows SoftwareMac Equivalent (So Far)
Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Premiere)= (Direct Equivalent)
AntRenamerMacOS Default File Renaming
ARSClipMeccy
AudacityAdobe Audition
Bitwarden=
Bleachbit? (Haven’t Looked/Found One)
Discord=
DrawIO=
DupeGuru?
FFmpeg=
Freeplane=
Git / GitHub=
Google Drive=
HoneyviewPreviews (MacOS) / Pixea
Local=
Mullvad VPN=
NanaZipKeka
PowerToys*Raycast
ShareXMacOS Screenshots
SumatraPDFPreview (MacOS)
TeraCopy?
Visual Studio Code=
Vivaldi (my browser of choice)=
VLC Media Player=
Windows (Remote Desktop)=
Windows TerminalWarp
Zoom=

As I explored software, it quickly became apparent how much equivalence exists between the two platforms. There are things I miss from Windows (mainly Honeyview and a lot of the cool features from PowerToys), but it’s been a fun experience evaluating the macOS equivalents. It’s easy to get caught up in finding and installing different utility apps. I’ve been using ChatGPT and the macOS Reddit to find recommendations.

This has been a fun experience, and I am enjoying my Mac, but I don’t think that any of my Windows-loving friends are genuinely missing out. Ultimately, it comes down to computers being tools, and that productivity comes from using the most comfortable tools.

Backup Gripes: Mozy (Re-)Backup

Jeromey Balderrama

Given that the majority of my life is stored on a computer now (photos, tax returns, other important docs), it has become all the more critical for me to have safe, accessible backups of my machine. For the last year I have set up 2 tiers of backups.  The first is a weekly job that backs data up to an external hard drive connected to the machine – this is in the scenario of my machine going down or simply deleting a file I shouldn’t have.  As a second tier, I have been using Mozy’s MozyHome Unlimited for about the last year – this covers the need for off-site backup, should something happen to our home that would wipe out the computer & the drive.

Yesterday I was forced to rebuild my Vista desktop, reformatting the hard drive and doing a fresh install of the OS.  Everything came up without incident, and when it came time to restore the files I used my external drive (obviously the faster solution).  I’ve had pretty good luck in restoring my computer.

Then came time to install Mozy, revealing my gripe with them. I installed Mozy using the default settings on the same computer, that has the same machine name, on the same OS, with the files in the same location.  The files retained all of the same date-stamps as pre-backup.  I was hoping that Mozy would figure out “Oh, you’ve already got a similar backup already on our servers, would you like to scan that backup for changes?” Unfortunately not.

Mozy treated the backup as a brand new backup set, wiping out my current backed up files and attempting to upload all of my files again.  With all of the pictures and documents I have, we’re talking nearly 30 GB of bandwidth that’s going to flow through the pipes.  In the age of bandwidth-conscientious ISP’s, a 30 GB bandwidth increase isn’t exactly what I was hoping for.  At the same time, I’m wasting Mozy’s money in uploading 30GB of the same files that were already on there server.

This is obviously a lose/lose situation for the both of us.  For a backup company, I wish Mozy had a more graceful way of dealing with restored PC’s.  Now I’m going to be uploading data for the next 2 weeks.

Update: I have to give Mozy some credit. I started the large backup and it somehow failed, when I tried to re-start it, it somehow saw the rest of the files and took those into account.  Now I’m just uploading a few GB of data rather than the entire backup set.  I still wish that the Mozy interface would allow you to say “Hey, this is the same computer, use the previous backup set”.

Vista Business SP1 = No pretty Alt+Tab?

Jeromey Balderrama

I just upgraded my desktop here at work (which runs Vista Business) over to SP1, only to find that I no longer have the pretty Alt+Tab interface.  I loved that interface, where I pressed Alt+Tab to switch between programs, then while holding it down, was able to click on the program that I really wanted (I am notorious for having tons of windows open).

What the heck?  Was my Vista Business not supposed to have that in the first place?  Did it think my graphics card was good enough Pre-Sp1 and now it’s not?  I still have Aero Glass, so I don’t know what is going on with this.

Argh, that’s what I get for adopting things early – and in this case when it’s released to the public.

Update: A reboot seems to have refreshed my graphics driver.  It reset my resolution to very low, but after adjusting it I once again have my pretty Alt+Tabs.  Note that this reboot took place after it said the Installation as complete (and already rebooted my system).

Update2: This seems to be rooted within how windows switches back and forth between Remote Desktop and how Windows switches between Windows Basic and Areo.  It seems when I just do a disconnect from Remote Desktop, Vista stays in the Basic form until the next reboot (I haven’t tried the logout yet).  This is better than RD on my home computer, which simply goes to a blank screen that I need to lock my computer and then unlock to fix.  The Remote Desktop experience has been quirky to say the least.