Exploring my transition from Windows to Mac and back.
Exploring my transition from Windows to Mac and back.
Hello everyone. I wanted to recount my experience switching from Windows to Mac. It began in late 2013 when my dad and I went shopping for laptops. We found a decent machine for $700 AUD. I planned to save up and buy something similar. At school, we used 2010 MacBooks, which were nearing the end of their lease and available for sale. My parents bought one for me as a birthday gift because it was very affordable ($280 AUD). It performed well until about three months later, when I had accumulated roughly 150GB of Steam games. On a laptop with 250GB capacity and only 10GB free, it took around five minutes to boot up—enough to be frustrating. After finishing school in late 2014, I stopped using it right away. I switched to an older model running Vista/7, which I used for school this year since we’re still on holiday in Australia. I decided to try it out more after that point.
Last year, I bought a gaming PC and went back to Windows. I gradually started using the MacBook again mid-year, needing it for classes. I upgraded with a 120GB SSD to boost speed. I even took it apart to clean it up. Be careful—this kind of work isn’t for beginners unless you’re prepared to spend money on repairs.
I damaged two of the three AirPort antenna connectors and some pins on the display were beyond repair. My dad bought another 2010 MacBook A1342 for me, which came with only 4GB RAM (compared to the 2GB in my previous machine). I installed the SSD, and it ran smoothly.
Looking back at MacBooks and OS X: The MacBook remains impressive after six years. It’s portable, reliable, and fits perfectly in my bag. It does have older components—like a Core 2 Duo—but that’s okay for its age. The C2D meets all my needs quickly. I regret not having used Aluminum on the previous model; it would’ve been more durable.
As for OS X, I made a mistake upgrading from Mavericks to Yosemite. My machine struggled with 2GB RAM, while Yosemite handled it better. It’s still a demanding OS, but I’m lucky to have this one. There were two versions of the model—2009 at 2.26GHz and mine at 2.4GHz. The lower model supports only 8GB of DDR3L RAM, while the higher version can go up to 16GB. It’s impressive how much performance a machine from six years ago can deliver.
OS X feels streamlined now, with Finder offering all the features I need. El Capitan works well on older hardware, though Disk Utility is still a pain. I can’t stand it anymore. I’m glad I’m back on Windows. Gaming is much better there, and my PC is more expandable. I won’t go back to Mac.
I’ve been using an iPod touch 4th generation for years and will get a Samsung tablet soon. Let me know if you’re interested in an iOS to Android discussion—I know iOS inside and out, especially iOS 6. Thanks, Alpha.
Back then, my dad snagged an iMac at the school he teaches. They switched to expensive Windows machines and wanted to ditch those iMacs. My mom hated it, while my dad quickly mastered it—probably because he’s a true expert with Windows now. I used his old PC instead for a while. Eventually, I became interested in installing Windows myself. After a few months, the system started behaving oddly. It took a long time to boot up, then froze again, apps vanished, and eventually the USBs stopped working altogether. At first I thought it was a glitch, but then I decided to take it apart. Everything seemed fine until the power supply failed completely. The USBs gave power but no data. I finally dismantled it, though the rest of the process was frustrating. A few months later, my mom called saying the device exploded. She was browsing online when the screen went dark. After a hard reboot and waiting, she managed to restart it—magic happened, and the screen split in half. My reaction? I’m relieved it was free, but I still wish for my money back. It would have cost a decent amount for a mid-range upgrade back then, including storage and memory.
I recently moved from Windows to Linux for the fifth time in about fifteen years. This round I chose Arch Linux, even though it wasn’t a light decision. Building my system from scratch has been more rewarding than dealing with the stress of VM setups with Mavericks installed. It’s already up and running. My goal is to test any software I develop so I can create solutions for Mac users. Looking back over the past three decades, everything makes more sense now. Schools have long pushed Macs on students, and we always understood they were meant for kids who wouldn’t want Windows. One of my teachers in high school proudly demonstrated how cool it was to play games on a Mac, even though we’d spend hours marathoning Doom 2 at home until our parents finally let us stop. It’s clear that Mac gaming has always been a letdown. What finally clicked was realizing why Mac OS feels so outdated—it’s designed to keep newcomers away from Windows. Yes, some people enjoy hating on hipsters, but I’ve been disliking them since the 90s. Steve Jobs’ fate is now a lesson in karma. Apple has never spent a penny of my money, and they won’t.
That reminds me of my dad's old PC he used until recently. I think it performed worse than your mum's—though I believe Athlon models are tougher than Semprons, and he upgraded to an Athlon 3200+ long ago. He eventually had to stop using it because his antivirus didn’t work on Windows XP, even though it did on a slightly older Sempron with XP. Don’t worry, he now has a much better setup running Windows 10 with 4GB RAM and a Socket 775 Pentium.
I eventually purchased a NUC for Mom while my dad was using my old wall-mounted PC (FX6300 with 32GB RAM). It originally had a 770 2-way SLI setup, but the cards were mainly for Bitcoin mining and eventually failed. They were replaced with an R9 270.
I earned an MBA without any compensation from my employer (some tech team questioned the quality). It works great for everyday tasks, perfect for my presentations, and handles complex challenges like AoE 2 effortlessly. 10/10 for "Lightweight"!
Purchased an MBP for my mum (working together with family) for Christmas, improved the RAM (costs £65 less), installed MSX and now everything runs smoothly.