For those who have transitioned from PC to Mac, how did it go?

[Dean]

Hhmm interesting... 16GB RAM for the MacBook Pro when I order it....

I'm not quite sure where you could order that from... The most memory available on a MacBook Pro that I see on the Apple website is 8GB, and the manual states 2) 4GB sticks is the largest that can be put in.

?

 

[Anthony Parsons]

The current release have cut back options because they simply weren't popular, hence how Apple have cut their prices by limiting specific products to known majorities.

Basically, they ascertained if you need 16Gb in a notebook, your dreaming basically and are buying the wrong product.

 

[Floris]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM

16gb is tested, and purchasable

 

[Dean]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM

16gb is tested, and purchasable

Indeed that is listed. A bit spendy though ($$$). I am curious why the manual states 4GB per slot? My guess would be to cut down on the number of people asking for that much memory from Apple.. and to reduce the amount of chatter/talk on the internet e.g. "oh my goodness Apples products are so expensive"

I would really appreciate a Home and End key.. command Up arrow and command down arrow works most of the time, but not all. MBP, no mouse.

 

[Floris]

I said the same (about the home/end) and now many years later I don't remember the last time I thought I needed it. But then again, we all use computers differently.

 

[Dean]

Lion is a little more... pretty with some of its methods in opening, closing, etc... but you can turn those off, change them, but the one thing I do notice is that shutdown takes about an extra 5 - 10 seconds compared to leopard, which was near instant within 2 - 4 seconds.

I just tested. My computer with Lion shuts down in 1.5 seconds, and powers up and is fully functional in 25 seconds. A recurring theme I've noticed is that people that upgrade apple os software are not as happy as those with a fresh install. But I that is just my impression based on reading forums for a few days.

My PC took minutes to do either power down, or up... yes I am painfully aware that (yet another) reload of the operating system on my pc - *then* removing all of the stuff the oem windows comes with (trial versions of software, things that slow down a pc that are not needed) - would make the pc operate much faster..

 

[Shamil]

I've never been able to get 1.5 seconds for a shutdown

 

[Anthony Parsons]

My Leopard version did it in that time Shamil... basically clicked the button and the screen was black. Lion... maybe Dean is onto something with the upgrade vs. clean install option.

I might have to do a search and see if its possible to put the Lion app onto a dvd and load it fresh... considering its a full OS, not an upgrade as such.

 

[Floris]

Takes at least up to 3 seconds, Shamil is right.
But it has never in the last 6 years taken any longer.

 

[a legacy reborn]

Maybe he is just holding down the power button to force shutoff . I know when I am using Windows on my outdated Laptop that I have to and shutdown is instant lul...

 

[Dean]

Maybe he is just holding down the power button to force shutoff . I know when I am using Windows on my outdated Laptop that I have to and shutdown is instant lul...

ah nope... close all programs, click on the apple in the upper left, shut down, then in 1.5 seconds after confirming shut down is desired it is completely off. I just bought it a few days ago and don't have any other programs on it - because it seems to have all I need, with a couple of minor exceptions which I have not installed yet.

 

[Floris]

i nvr shut it off really, sleep at most

 

[rellek]

Inactive memory is free.

Swap happens. It is nothing to do with inactive memory. Get a SSD to speed up your swap.

You can disable swap if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it:

http://osxdaily.com/2010/10/08/mac-virtual-memory-swap/

Looks like my Mac works differently...
I was running (a bunch of) VMs in Parallels which has filled my memory... Although I have loads of blue memory, it starts swapping like crazy.
After I closed those VMs, there's still a lot in swap. However, what it swapped would have fit into the blue memory.

Well, now where the VMs are closed, I got some green memory back, but swap remains >500M.

Although I do have a SSD, I think this is kind of strange. Especially because the swap *is* on SSD and SSDs are getting old with many write-actions.

Anyway, I'm gonna reboot and problem is fixed. But it'd be unnecessary. Imho.
And thats my point

With VMs open:

After VMs closed:

 

[Awesome-o]

I find this thread interesting, as I also am a long time PC guy from the 8088 days.

One of my big concerns is gaming, I'm big, big, big into gaming, and it seems to me (and I could be wrong), that major developing houses to not port to Mac that often.

also an old PCer and gamer. I was so depressed by the 'hours played' stat on Battlefield that I'm switching to a Mac because I won't have the temptation any more.

 

[Floris]

If you load an app that uses 2 gb of inactive memory. (creating it i mean)
And you have closed the app, and it has say 2gb of inactive memory because of it..
And you have 4gb total . in the system.

If you load say photoshop and require 3gb, so more than available because inactive has 2gb .. then photoshop gets the inactive memory, as it's free.

 

[rellek]

The blue part has been blue even before starting the VMs. Only a little part of the inactive memory went to other programs, most of the stuff got swapped as VMs needed the memory.
In the first image, I have 2.54 GB "inactive" (i.e. free like Apple says) and 900 MB in swap. So the question is: Why not putting the 900 MB from swap into the 2.54 GB of "inactive" memory?

 

[Floris]

It's that time again; MacUpdate Fall Bundle: 10 Mac Apps for $49.99

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Nice.... purchased. My wife has been screaming for a decent calendar program, seems like Fantasical will do the job... how easy is that thing! She is an extremely busy person, lots of clients, etc... and her calendar functionality has been lacking since coming from Windows to mac, and this program, by the looks of it, will make it even easier than her Windows Outlook did.

Nice tip off Floris... thanks.

 

[Fred Sherman]

Yep, that's what we use, however; you cannot run vmware fusion with windows 7 on a standard mac, you WILL need additional RAM installed for it to run correctly, ie. standard is 4Gb, double up when using Unity... even mac techperts recommended this with Unity.

This is why Unity is your greatest friend when making the switch.

You get vmWare Fusion for $40, perform the PC migration (takes about 24 hours), then you can run your Mac/PC combo in Unity mode.

At the bottom the screen you have both your MacOS and Windows task bars. You run Windows and MacOS programs on your Mac desktop. You can cut and paste between them seamlessly.

I use it for programs that don't have a Mac version, like Visio or MS Project that I must have for work reasons.

Even better, is I have the Windows VM on a USB SSD, so when I have to travel, I export the VM from my iMac and pop that 2.5" drive in my laptop bag and I can carry two computers for the space and weight of an Macbook air and USB drive.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Yep, that is how we have done it via Fusion...

I must ask Fred... where is the option to put the Windows bar down the bottom? Our system places it in the top bar, having to dropdown the start menu... which is annoying. So obviously I have missed a simple checkbox somewhere?