# mmmmmmMAC ir wwwwwwWindows?



## wblink (Jan 7, 2013)

Hi,

In some time (maybe 6 months from now) I will need (no, want to buy) a new comp. Everytime the difficult dissision: MAC or W?
Now I have (next to my comp) a Dell XPS15 with 350Mb SSD (or so) storage on W7/64. Very nice and fast.

I am more and more using my iPhone and iPad (Photosmith and Photogene) for LR. Hmmm, not real;y LR alone.

Could you give me an advice about the next comp?

W8 (No, I don't like that touch-screen method for my desktop). MacBook Pro 13 Retina with SSD, iMac or what?
Keep DELL?

Whish I could try all those nice things.


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## clee01l (Jan 7, 2013)

About 4 years ago I wrestled with a Mac/Win decision. Having just retired, I no longer needed the portability of a laptop and decided that I would get a more powerful desktop. Because my personal computer needs did not have a work requirement that dictated Windows only software, I was no longer constrained to a Window OS either.
I priced Mac Pros, ignored iMacs because of the upgradability issue.  I found that for $600USD I could get a comparably equipped HP running Vista while a MacPro would cost over $3000USD.  That was a no brainer, I bought the HP. 
Fast forward to Jan 2012, I now own an iPhone & an iPad.  The Windows OS still requires a lot of maintenance and end user under the hood knowledge.  And while at one time being a computer mechanic had some geek appeal. I really wanted to focus my time on just using the computer as an aid in my other endeavors (mainly photography).  So, I spent $3000 on an iMac knowing that it would never need an upgrade before I was ready to buy a replacement. 

I figured out that the ipad was about all I needed to be portable and that worked well up until I went on a two week photo trip. the 64GB ipad is not sufficient to store or backup two weeks worth of images coming out of my 36mp D800. So now in addition to the iMac, I now have a 13" retina MBP for travel.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 7, 2013)

What do you use the computer for?  And what programs?  Much money invested in Windows software that you'll continue to need?

And what is it that's tempting you towards a Mac?

(I love my Macs and there's no way I'd switch back to Windows in a million years, but they are just tools)


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## wblink (Jan 8, 2013)

clee01l said:


> I figured out that the ipad was about all I needed to be portable and that worked well up until I went on a two week photo trip. the 64GB ipad is not sufficient to store or backup two weeks worth of images coming out of my 36mp D800. So now in addition to the iMac, I now have a 13" retina MBP for travel.



Thank you for getting me into am $$$ buy. 
I am glad (and I meant that!).


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## SnapShot (Jan 8, 2013)

Well for me personally I prefer windows, well not really just windows but an x86 machine for my tinkering etc. While I'm not a mac guy I can understand it's place. Likewise I know apple also sells units with Intel chipsets that you can dual boat both the MAC OS and the Windows OS on the same machine, so have you considered both :crazy:. Of course I don't know any specifics on that model(s) but either way you could also run parrallels for windows stuff when needed. I guess the point is you don't have to purely pick one or the other. 

I suspect for me, I will remain a windows guy for the forseeable future given that I have certain constraints software wise but aside from that I also still like the upgrade aspects, and competitive pricepoints that's not so propietary. Good luck on your decision process.

Oh side thought.... Virus aspect (Just throwing it out there to be fair)


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 8, 2013)

Yep, all of the current Macs are Intel processors so you can dual boot on any of them, or run Windows in a window.


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## wblink (Jan 8, 2013)

Victoria Bampton said:


> What do you use the computer for?  And what programs?  Much money invested in Windows software that you'll continue to need?
> 
> And what is it that's tempting you towards a Mac?
> 
> (I love my Macs and there's no way I'd switch back to Windows in a million years, but they are just tools)



Good questions!

Topdown:
- Because I love my iPhone and iPad and the way they work I want to be able to use :"Numbers" on my Desktop (or rather MacBook Pro with some sort of Desktop-connection).
- I use my W-machine for many different tasks. There are no VERY expensive prgms on it (like PS CS), but a lot of nice goodies. Main prgms are Agent (mail), Mailwasher (mail), RSSOWL (you know) and (I was looking) really an whole bunch of prgms I am using, but I was  not aware of. Hmm you opened my eyes a bit!


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## clee01l (Jan 8, 2013)

I have Fusion running on my Mac. It hosts Win8 as a virtual machine and does a fine job of it.  I have only one or two Windows only apps that don't have a Mac equivalent.  I also use it to run a Win64 version of LR4 to help when I need to research some Windows specific LR amswere on this forum. 
As for Virus scanning, I don't run one on the Mac although the anti-virus folks would like me to succumb to their fear tactics and buy one.   Anti-Virus software is perhaps one of the biggest performance hits on any Windows computer.


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## seaduck (Jan 8, 2013)

I have a Dell Windows desktop running W7 -- maybe out of inertia because it's familiar and I do have a few oddball Windows programs -- and an 11" MBA, cuz it's small and beautiful.  I use Parallels on the MBA in "coherence" mode which means that I see both Win and Mac programs in the bottom toolbar/dock thing and swapping among them is completely transparent.  No need to fire up the Windows desktop as a separate window or switch from Mac to Win environments in any obvious way.


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## Randy McKown (Jan 9, 2013)

Mac .. they might cost more but you definitely get what you pay for and then some. If you're already using numbers on iPad then you'll love having a Mac to sync to. I'm pretty attached to having apps like Messages, Notes, Reminders & Calendars all synced between my Mac, iPad and iPhone. When I do need access to something in Windows, I have parallels 7 installed .. just swipe two fingers across the trackpad and your instantly in Win 7 .. it's pretty sweet.


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## Karayuschij (Jan 9, 2013)

SnapShot said:


> well not really just windows but an x86 machine for my tinkering etc.



All last Macs are Intel machines


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## urho (Jan 9, 2013)

Is the catalog database identical on both win and mac? So you can just copy the catalog and images from one to the other.


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## clee01l (Jan 9, 2013)

urho said:


> Is the catalog database identical on both win and mac? So you can just copy the catalog and images from one to the other.


The catalog stores the location of the master image files. It stores both the absolute path and a relative path.  In Windows, an absolute path contains a drive letter. Drive letters do not exist in OSX.  The relative path is relative to the location of the catalog. If the image files are not on the same drive as the catalog, you can not have a valid relative path. If you have a valid relative path, LR can find the image location when moved from a Windows system to OSX. Otherwise, you will need to correct the path in the catalog after you move the catalog. Yjere are no other differences in a LR catalog on Windows and on OSX.


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## wblink (Jan 9, 2013)

Thank you all for advise.
I forgot that I can run W7 on a MAC, so it will be a MacBook Pro 13 with lots of storage (SSD, i like that). Any suggestions for a dock-connector (or something like that (I am not really used to Apple products apart from IPhone/IPad).


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## clee01l (Jan 9, 2013)

wblink said:


> Thank you all for advise.
> I forgot that I can run W7 on a MAC, so it will be a MacBook Pro 13 with lots of storage (SSD, i like that). Any suggestions for a dock-connector (or something like that (I am not really used to Apple products apart from IPhone/IPad).


There is really nothing special in the way of a Doc/connector for the MBP. With the MBP, you'll get a HDMI for your large monitor, 2 - USB3 ports, an SDXC slot for your SD cards and 2- Thunderbolt ports for everything else.  If you have a DVI or VGA monitor, there is an HDMI or a Thunderbolt to DVI or VGA adapter. There are also "Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet" and "Thunderbolt to Firewire" adapters for those devices if you have any.  For my rMBP, I have a NAS setup to do the Time Machine backups.  An 802.11n WiFi connection is faster than 100mbit ethernet and more than adequate for home use.  So unless you have Gigabit Ethernet in the home, I would not bother with a wired internet. 
I have CF and SDXC cards in my camera, so I purchased a USB3 CF card reader.  If you use DVDs and don't already have a standalone DVD player this is something to consider. Apple makes a USB powered DVD for ~$80USD that only work with MBP and MBA (Not the pre2012 iMac)  But you can purchase  3rd party brands that will work in OSX and Windows for ~$30USD.

You might want to get an AppleTV or the AirTight app for Google TV if you want to stream video or photos directly to your TV.  If you have Keynote, Pages or Numbers on your iPad/iPhone, you might want the OSX equivalent.  There is not much point in getting the full or even the limited Microsoft Office for OSX when you can buy these three apps for $20 ea. Taking advantage of iCloud's integration means that Email, Calendar and Docs can always be in sync.


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