MacBook Pro to Microsoft Surface

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I'm on a 12 year old hand-me-down MacBook Pro. It's dying.
It can no longer be updated.

BORING: It came with Garage Band, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Microsoft Document Connection, Microsoft Messenger, Microsoft Excel & Word, Time Machine, Remote Desktop Connection, iMovie, Photo Booth, Notes-Reminder-Calendar-Contacts, iPhoto, Safari, Messages, Mail, Dashboard, App Store, Launchpad, Finder.

I use Dashboard occasionally for the calculator
I use Mail everyday
I use iPhoto
I use Contacts and Calendar
And a few files are on Word and Excel.
I installed Chrome years ago. It fails to open pictures at an ever increasing rate.

I looked at the largest Microsoft Surface machine and it appears to come with nothing installed.
For example, I'd have to use a $20 per month subscription to play with my photos beyond cropping and mailing them.
Someday I would like to edit some video clips.

Is there a menu list somewhere for laptops or is functionality all based in the cloud such that subscriptions are now the norm?
 
You can buy standalone versions of Word and Excel. I suspect you need neither app though. Upload your DOC and XLS files to Google's "office" cloud apps and convert them. Their tools are quite powerful and probably suitable for 90+ % of MS Office users.

Not sure what extent of functionality you need beyond "playing with photos" so can't comment further on that.

Chrome is a web browser. Why would you use it to open photos ?
 
If you like your Mac, get another. People love 'em. Really good for editing pictures and videos.
I am not sure what cloud service is $20 per month; that sounds high.
Perhaps you are talking about Office?

The Surface is a high end computer, like the Mac. There are a world of other choices in the Windows world.

Depending on what your needs are, a Chromebook might be a solution.
I love my Chromie for everyday stuff but I do serious programming on a high end Dell.
 
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If a Microsoft Surface lasts the 12 years that your Mac has, you will have spent $2,880 on that $20 per month subscription. Perhaps you should consider another Mac to avoid the cost of subscription software. If you want to work in a Windows environment, you can boot the Mac to run Windows and still have the ability to use Mail, iPhoto, Contacts, etc., with which you are familiar, that will easily migrate to a new Mac.
 
Originally Posted by Kira

For example, I'd have to use a $20 per month subscription to play with my photos beyond cropping and mailing them.
Someday I would like to edit some video clips.


?!

May I ask who wants to charge you that kind of money for something that there are LOADS of no-cost applications to do?
 
I have an older Surface Pro 5 and love it. It's a great iPad and portable machine. Came from the Mac side of things and, well, they now are WAY overpriced and have less functionality than a decent Windows machine.

The photo tools that come from MS are basic but get the job done. There are plenty of options that are not subscription: Affinity Photo, Photoshop Elements, ACDSee, etc. All offer lots of editing functionality for cheap and no subscription. Even the Adobe suite of Lightroom and Photoshop is $10/mo and probably would be overkill for you. Darktable is a free option that seems highly regarded.

If you want video editing on a personal level DaVinci Resolve is an awesome FREE package for personal use.

The subscription version of Office comes with 1TB of Onedrive so it's like buying storage and getting Office free.
 
Originally Posted by csandste
I love Linux and I love ChromeOS and would never pay the kind of money you're talking about. I'd rather take a nice vacation.

Chrome OS *is* Linux
smile.gif


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_OS
 
As said, there are free options out there.

I've used both OpenOffice and LibreOffice. I don't have any particular preference as to which is better, but know that there are die-hard adherents to both out there. I haven't used recent versions, but have used some older versions of both. I've found them a bit clunky but at the end of the day just as capable for most tasks as MS Office. I have no doubt that newer versions have improved over what I've used in the past.

If you buy a new Mac and/or are running a reasonably current OS, you have access to iWork(Numbers, Pages, and Keynote) for free. In a sense, I find iWork to be the opposite of the FOSS equivalents-all the programs are very polished, elegant, and easy to use but ultimately not as capable. That's not a huge deal as, for example, most people don't even scratch the surface of what Excel is capable of doing. I find it easier to get nicely "polished" presentations in Keynote vs. PowerPoint.
 
You should check out the iPad Pro with the Smart Cover with keyboard. That compares better to the Surface. I know people who went from laptops to the iPad Pro and they would never go back.

It depends on what you want to do with it.
 
Originally Posted by uc50ic4more
Originally Posted by csandste
I love Linux and I love ChromeOS and would never pay the kind of money you're talking about. I'd rather take a nice vacation.

Chrome OS *is* Linux
smile.gif


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_OS

OK, I love Ubuntu Mate and I love ChromeOS . If you're counting my ChromOS as Linux, then we can throw my Android phone in there too. Point is I don't buy aps and I don't pay thousands to rent them either.
 
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Originally Posted by PimTac
You should check out the iPad Pro with the Smart Cover with keyboard. That compares better to the Surface. I know people who went from laptops to the iPad Pro and they would never go back.

It depends on what you want to do with it.


That folks would go from laptops to iPads makes no real sense to me. Even with a few "folders" on the ipad and iCloud drove, it's nothing close to a real file system.

Personally I'd just buy another Mac. As I recall, the surface does have a file system and something more capable then iOS, but as I also recall, they're pretty expensive to get high functionality compared to other (windows/windows functionality) laptops.

I'd but a Mac and dual boot to windows if needed.

I routinely run a 2010 MacBook Air and have no issues with photos, including 25MB+ FX full frame digital photos. I also run chrome as one of my browsers, and other than being a memory hog with lots of tabs, it works fine and loads photos.
 
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Originally Posted by PimTac
You should check out the iPad Pro with the Smart Cover with keyboard. That compares better to the Surface. I know people who went from laptops to the iPad Pro and they would never go back.

It depends on what you want to do with it.


That folks would go from laptops to iPads makes no real sense to me. Even with a few "folders" on the ipad and iCloud drove, it's nothing close to a real file system.

Personally I'd just buy another Mac. As I recall, the surface does have a file system and something more capable then iOS, but as I also recall, they're pretty expensive to get high functionality compared to other (windows/windows functionality) laptops.

I'd but a Mac and dual boot to windows if needed.

I routinely run a 2010 MacBook Air and have no issues with photos, including 25MB+ FX full frame digital photos. I also run chrome as one of my browsers, and other than being a memory hog with lots of tabs, it works fine and loads photos.


iPad pro is awful. Beautiful hardware, but iPad OS is just terrible. I agree that not having a real file system is the #1 issue with it.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
You should check out the iPad Pro with the Smart Cover with keyboard. That compares better to the Surface. I know people who went from laptops to the iPad Pro and they would never go back.

It depends on what you want to do with it.


Yes, definetly.

I have a 2015 Macbook Pro 15, before that I had several Windows laptops. Nowadays the only thing I use when out and about is the iPad Pro. It's simply such a fantastic device. But so is the Surface Tablet. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
I like the battery life on the iPad Pro which surpasses the Surface, iPad OS is a better tablet OS than Windows. Everything works out of the box, very intuitive and easy to use. Everything is very polished.

The Surface on the other hand has the better keyboard cover, it can easily connect to an external display (so can the iPad, but it's simply more useful on an Surface). It can easily connect to an older printer, scanner or whatever USB device you want to use. (Something the iPad Pro is definetly lacking, even tough becoming more and more available).

The filesystem issue has gotten progressively better over the years, in my experience the hardest thing is to adapt to a new workflow. on iPad's you don't save files in traditional folders, you save in apps. After you've came over the fact it's pretty self explaining and intuitive. The only downside I see is a manual offline file backup - but even that is somewhat doable.
 
I would suggest another Mac. You can get into a new MacBook Air for around $1,000 and even get the 256GB SSD model for that much when it's marked down. Based on your usage, I think a new MacBook Air would be more than up to the task. Another option is the older Air model on Amazon for $750, though it has a 128 GB SSD. This may or may not be a deal breaker for you - depends on how much you use now.

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBoo...acBook+Air&qid=1579422904&sr=8-3

I use a MacBook Pro for work, and an iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard for personal use. I'm typing this post right now on an iPad Pro. I love the iPad, but if I had to pick just one, I would still pick the MacBook. I wouldn't say the iPad isn't capable - it's very capable. But the MacBook is still better at certain things - mostly if you deal with a lot of files. Or need several windows open at once. That said, I've gotten used to the iPad OS multitasking features, and I find they work well.
 
Originally Posted by RonRonnster
I would suggest another Mac. You can get into a new MacBook Air for around $1,000 and even get the 256GB SSD model for that much when it's marked down. Based on your usage, I think a new MacBook Air would be more than up to the task. Another option is the older Air model on Amazon for $750, though it has a 128 GB SSD. This may or may not be a deal breaker for you - depends on how much you use now.

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBoo...acBook+Air&qid=1579422904&sr=8-3

I use a MacBook Pro for work, and an iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard for personal use. I'm typing this post right now on an iPad Pro. I love the iPad, but if I had to pick just one, I would still pick the MacBook. I wouldn't say the iPad isn't capable - it's very capable. But the MacBook is still better at certain things - mostly if you deal with a lot of files. Or need several windows open at once. That said, I've gotten used to the iPad OS multitasking features, and I find they work well.


I have to admit to being a bit biased against the MBA, even though I have a few(2008, 2009, 2011 11", which is barely larger than an iPad, and 2012). I'll also add a BIG asterisk that my experience with the new model is limited to just playing with them in the store. My fiancée has a 2014(I think) she bought new and uses as her primary computer-I actually need to convince her to let me put a bigger drive in it as she's nearly filled up the stock 128gb. In the next few months, I hope to put a 1tb NVMe drive in my 2015 Pro(that model works perfectly with them as long as the firmware is up to date and you use a simple passive adapter) and will have a 512gb drive I can drop in hers.

With that said, I find the low-spec processors a bit limiting.

Several months ago, I was looking for a lightweight and portable travel laptop as my 2012 15"(non-retina) is just too big and heavy when flying. I ended up buying a 2015 13" Pro. When I'm really hammering on it, it's slower than my 2012 15", but thanks to the fast PCIe drive(NVMe is even faster) it feels faster in day to day use and is more up to things like crunching 36mp RAW files on the road than an Air. The screen is also a lot better than the Airs of that age. The footprint is similar to the air. It's a bit thicker than the air, especially since it lacks the "wedge" design, and is a bit heavier. It still has the "all day" battery though(I regularly get 7-9 hours out of it). I paid $500, and then added a 512gb Apple AHCI drive for around $120-I'd have gone the NVMe route if I'd know that was possible/not buggy(I'd originally researched it on a 2013, which I had planned on buying, and they ARE buggy on those).
 
+1 on the MacBook, though I'd go for a Pro. Better CPU on them vs the Air. I absolutely love my 2017 non touch bar 13", though I do wish I would have gotten a 256gb model instead of the 128.
 
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Originally Posted by Skippy722
+1 on the MacBook, though I'd go for a Pro. Better CPU on them vs the Air. I absolutely love my 2017 non touch bar 13", though I do wish I would have gotten a 256gb model instead of the 128.


You're actually not totally out of luck since the non-TB 13" has a removable/replaceable drive(unlike the TB models, which have all the storage soldered to the board). It's, of course, an Apple proprietary interface, but they do turn up for sale on Ebay. If you get friendly with an AASP, you might be able to order one from Apple, although it won't be cheap.
 
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