Escaping Apple's Clutches

[crispyboy]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

And way less frustrating!
Unless Tim Cook destroys Apple I'm a customer for life.
The freedom from viruses, trojans, worms and all the other crap than takes the fun out of a PC is wonderful.

I get much of my computer info from our main IT manager at work who runs our network and all the rest from his Mac. He converted me over to the Apple world. Macs are being targeted more and more all the time so you had better run a good antivirus and firewall no matter what computer you own. The public utility that I work for is always being probed by the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, etc... I use intego antivirus software.

[rodsterinfl]

You never know. I got a new MacBook Pro 15" top of the line model w/fastest CPU for $1000 off regular price at Best Buy a few years ago! It was a fluke open box. It was returned next day and never registered. They are having a sale right now. I just got the email on "apple sale".

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by cameront120

You can run Windows on your Mac with Parallels.

Not this one.

[djarrett]

I recently got a mini SD card that is 200GB for $79.00. I have backup my entire MBP on it. Just got an email where they now take terabyte SD cards for around $120 or so. It amazes me as a few years ago, I remember paying $300 for a 500GB rugged lacie external HD and now that much is available in a micro SD (the size of your small fingernail).
Almost all of my Macs have come from the refurbished section of the Apple Store.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by djarrett

I recently got a mini SD card that is 200GB for $79.00. I have backup my entire MBP on it. Just got an email where they now take terabyte SD cards for around $120 or so. It amazes me as a few years ago, I remember paying $300 for a 500GB rugged lacie external HD and now that much is available in a micro SD (the size of your small fingernail).
Almost all of my Macs have come from the refurbished section of the Apple Store.

I got a flush mount HDMI expansion port for mine. It was $60, and I found a 512GB micro SD card for that for $20. Now, any movies, music, or photos go on that. The downside is, it's kind of a pain to pull the adapter out, but since it doesn't protrude out of the computer, there is essentially zero chance it will get caught on something, and either damaged, or pulled out.

[Wayne&Sam]

Originally Posted by boondockdad

I'm told eight years is about all I can expect out of an Apple laptop.

An eight year old computer of any make is mostly useful as a door stop.

[KJRitchie]

My 2007 20" iMac is still chugging along (2.5ghz Dual Core Duo). A couple of years ago I replaced the 320g drive with a 2TB hybrid drive but last November I purchased a new 15" MBP in November from B&H with 512g SSD and 16g memory to replace it, free shipping and no sales tax. I looked at the new 2016 MBP and decided they were too expensive and didn't want to purchase a 1st gen product. I have a number of USB drives and I like the SSD card slot reader vs the USB-C solution of the new MBP. I'll probably remove the 2TB drive from it and buy an enclosure from OWC then recycle the iMac.

I gave my 2011 MacBook Air with 256g SSD to my daughter. No hardware issues with either the iMac or MBA.

I used to use iPhotos then moved to Aperture and when Apple ditched Aperture moved to Photos. Photos works OK for me right now but there is a lot of it I don't like. I'd like to switch to Adobe Lightroom but don't like the subscription model. Lightroom 6 is available on disc but it will probably be the last version plus I'd loose all my changes to my photos and frankly I don't need the capabilities. There are plug ins available for photos.

For storage I've moved all my iMovie, Photos and iTunes libraries off the iMac to a LaCie 2TB (4TB if you want to mirror)Raid 1 portable drive which has Thunderbolt interface. It loads the libraries pretty fast even though the drives are not SSD. I also have a 3TB Time Capsule that was backing up the iMac via Time Machine. I need to finish up transferring the remaining files from the iMac and use Time Machine from the MacBook Pro.

Kelvin

[otis88]

Since switching to digital in 2002 I have maintained two identical hard drives for the images taken. When they fill up I get a couple more. I used PC/windows equipment until 2007. I switched to a macbook pro in late 2007. That 2007 Macbook pro is still running strong, but no images reside on that machine except when I am editing. (I always use two stand alone hard drives for the images) A year ago I was worried about the old macbook failing at some point and I purchased a new macbook pro. My experience with windows equipment is that windows machines are "high maintenance".....always requiring much more time and frustrations than the mac equipment. For imaging and video, Mac is the way the pros handle their workflow. Yes the equipment is more expensive up front, but over the long haul the benefits justify the expense for me. I spent more on PC equipment and keeping it running from 2002-2007 than I have spent on Mac equipment from 2007-2017. Most of my photo friends run mac equipment too. I have many 1T hard drives all mirrored......

[andreasduess]

Many problems with slow running Macs happen simply because they're full of crud. After a couple of years of use, user and app caches will be overflowing, language settings that nobody need will be taking up space, etc, etc.

We have used the Clean my Mac app to successfully resurrect many a Mac that the user had given up on. A deep clean, a fixing of all permissions, a rebuild of a bunch of databases can work wonders.

A license is about $45 but it's very much worth it. We have he app installed on all of our Macs at work. The free version will give you a good idea of what work needs doing and allow you to make the decision of whether you want to pay for the license. Don't fall for any of the imitation apps out there, you're looking for Clean my Mac 3, made by macpaw.com

[rodsterinfl]

Lots of discussion points in this thread! I have a few "older computers" - a mac SE30 that served as my home server for years (in the closet), a 2005 Mac mini G4 which is still used- 12 years old! And a imacG4 that I could not part with. It still runs the older software I have circa 2004! Mac user since 1987.

Macs are excellent computers but I am finding that the more technology moves to the cloud the less I am liking it, even as a tech teacher. I still prefer in-house physical storage and loathe subscriptions and memberships. That is also why I am having trouble with streaming movies. I have over 1000 movies and have to use Movie Collector and Sony Video Juke boxes but I like it and there are all kinds of genres circa 1938- present-day of my choice.

This issue, even like the OP with formatting and access, is more a forced change. My suggestion would be to shop for another Mac and not worry about escaping; however, work on getting your photos and video on an external drive so it could easily be accessed by any computer in the future. Your investment is not just in the machine.

[djarrett]

Originally Posted by overlander63

I got a flush mount HDMI expansion port for mine. It was $60, and I found a 512GB micro SD card for that for $20. Now, any movies, music, or photos go on that. The downside is, it's kind of a pain to pull the adapter out, but since it doesn't protrude out of the computer, there is essentially zero chance it will get caught on something, and either damaged, or pulled out.

I have the same one - it's aluminum and looks like it's just a continuation of the body.

D

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by djarrett

I have the same one - it's aluminum and looks like it's just a continuation of the body.

D

For those people I managed to confuse, it's an SD expansion, not HDMI. I was thinking one thing, and typing another...