Thinking about a new Mac...

[George K]

@axtremus do you have yours hooked up in a fashion similar to what @jon-nyc did?

External monitor, stand, etc.

Or do you just use it as a notebook?

Looking at the prices of monitors, a 27" monitor with the same specifications as the iMac is quite pricey.

[Axtremus]

@George-K, my MacBook Air is for portability.
I have other Macs (mini and Pro) that are “hooked up”.

[Axtremus]

@george-k said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

Looking at the prices of monitors, a 27" monitor with the same specifications as the iMac is quite pricey.

Indeed. But their are no good alternatives. Once spoiled by the Retina display, it’s hard to use anything else. If I really have to have the Apple CPU and a large display, and I want to balance cost, quality, and time to gratification, then I’d most likely just wait another year for an M1 iMac. :man-shrugging:

Without having to read any rumor sites, I think it’s quite safe to count on Apple to release iMacs and 4-port MacBook Pros with its own silicon in 2021. (Less sure about the iMac Pro and the Mac Pro. Apple might wait for another generational jump with even better multi-core/multi-CPU support before putting its own silicon into the Pro desktops/workstations.)

[Klaus]

@george-k said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

Looking at the prices of monitors, a 27" monitor with the same specifications as the iMac is quite pricey.

Which specifications are you looking for, specifically?

Monitors with 4K resolution aren't expensive. 5K is a bit more unusual, but I don't think the difference between 4K and 5K is significant.

[George K]

@klaus not looking for so much as looking at.

The iMac display is

*27-inch (diagonal)
*5120‑by‑2880 resolution with support for one billion colors
*500 nits brightness
*Wide color (P3)
*True Tone technology
*Configurable with nano-texture glass

The cheapest comparable LG is $950.

[mark]

@klaus said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

@george-k said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

Looking at the prices of monitors, a 27" monitor with the same specifications as the iMac is quite pricey.

Which specifications are you looking for, specifically?

Monitors with 4K resolution aren't expensive. 5K is a bit more unusual, but I don't think the difference between 4K and 5K is significant.

5k has its place:

from: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-5k-and-8k-monitors

So, if you're a video editor working on a 4K project, having a 5K (or even 8K) monitor, means you can view the footage in full resolution, without having the entire screen taken up. You're able to have tools on screen as well, which can help you multitask and edit on the fly - and could prove to dramatically speed up your workflow.

That's particularly true when you have limited real estate or don't have the ability to connect multiple monitors to your workstation.

When looking for 5K monitors (that's 5120 × 2880 pixels), you'll be met with a choice of regular 16:9 aspect ratio, or ultrawide monitors with 21:9 (or above) aspect ratios. Ultrawide monitors are a great choice if you want a multi-monitor experience, but with just a single screen.

Meanwhile, monitors with a regular aspect ratio are generally better for design work as high-DPI modes in Windows and macOS allow for working in scaled resolutions, which lets users zoom in to manipulate images in incredible detail while rendering pin-sharp text and UI elements.

[mark]

I have never seen a 5k monitor.

If you are watching a movie in 4k, does it not fill the screen?

[George K]

@mark said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

I have never seen a 5k monitor.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=computer+monitor&i=computers&rh=n%3A1292115011%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A3547807011%2Cp_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin%3A17751802011&dc&qid=1609172204&rnid=17751799011&ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin_3

[mark]

@george-k Too expensive. Wait a year. lol

[Klaus]

I must say that I'm not a huge fan of my iMac's 5K display.

The difference to 2K resolution, for instance, is barely noticeable, and it makes everything slower.

[George K]

@klaus said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

The difference to 2K resolution, for instance, is barely noticeable, and it makes everything slower.

That's what I'm thinking. A 4K display would be more than adequate for my needs. I don't edit video, do intense photo editing. I'm not a gamer. How much of a difference, in everyday use, would I really notice?

[Aqua Letifer]

Add me to the list.

I have a Surface. Lots of great features, but the problem is how damn crapped up they get over time.

I've installed hardly anything on mine, and still, it gets laggy as hell in weird moments.

Also, I miss the shit out of AppleScript.

[George K]

Looking at the options...

Couple of thoughts: Looks like if I spend $400 on a monitor, I can get a Mac Mini for about $500 less than an iMac, similarly configured. Of course, I'm basing this comparison on an Intel-based iMac. Still an i5 processor, similar hard drive size, RAM, etc. If I choose to go the MacBook Air route, the difference between an iMac and the MacBook Air is only about $100.

Second thought: Currently, I'm booting from a 2TB external SSD. It has EVERYTHING on it - photos, media, etc, and is about 65% full.

Do I really need a 2TB drive? Would 1TB be enough?

[89th]

@aqua-letifer said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

Add me to the list.

I have a Surface. Lots of great features, but the problem is how damn crapped up they get over time.

I've installed hardly anything on mine, and still, it gets laggy as hell in weird moments.

Also, I miss the shit out of AppleScript.

Same here. I have a surface and overall I love it. But it does randomly lag lately...

[Klaus]

I've recently installed two Windows PCs for family members.

It made me kill all thoughts of moving back to Windows. Suddenly I remembered all the things that are so annoying about Windows. The endless stream of crap- and bloatware. The bizarre chaos of configuration options. The driver compatibility issues. The messy UI design with its remnants of at least three generations of user interfaces. The weak user isolation and security system. The complications of the "Microsoft Store" apps, which are completely separate from normal apps. The whole rotten system design.

I don't like the Apple hardware much, but having to use Windows is a too high price for switching.

Oh, one example of the oddities I'm talking about I discovered yesterday:

If you are on the Windows control panel and the configuration option you want isn't there, you have to click on "Large Icons".

What. The. Fuck. And I thought having to press the "Start" button to shut down Windows was already the low point of UI design.

Oh, and if your configuration option isn't there either, try the Management Console. Or the Group Policy Editor. Or the Registry Manager. Or...

[mark]

@klaus said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

I've recently installed two Windows PCs for family members.

It made me kill all thoughts of moving back to Windows. Suddenly I remembered all the things that are so annoying about Windows. The endless stream of crap- and bloatware. The bizarre chaos of configuration options. The driver compatibility issues. The messy UI design with its remnants of at least three generations of user interfaces. The weak user isolation and security system. The complications of the "Microsoft Store" apps, which are completely separate from normal apps. The whole rotten system design.

I don't like the Apple hardware much, but having to use Windows is a too high price for switching.

Oh, one example of the oddities I'm talking about I discovered yesterday:

If you are on the Windows control panel and the configuration option you want isn't there, you have to click on "Large Icons".

What. The. Fuck. And I thought having to press the "Start" button to shut down Windows was already the low point of UI design.

Oh, and if your configuration option isn't there either, try the Management Console. Or the Group Policy Editor. Or the Registry Manager. Or...

None of that bothers me, or is even part of the daily windows workflow.

I like the endless options one has in the windows os. More and better software, and overall, more efficient, faster and user upgradable, standards based, hardware, etc.

There is no Start button in Windows 10.

[Copper]

Bottom left, hover over the windows icon

I use Alt + F4

After a while Alt + F4 gets to be just like ⌘-Q, you do it as a conditioned reflex

If you are used to Mac you don't have windows conditioned reflexs and you think windows is stupid

If you are used to windows you don't have Mac conditioned reflexs and you think Mac is stupid

I have the Mac sitting right here next to my pc, so I think they are both stupid

[mark]

@copper said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

Bottom left, hover over the windows icon

I use Alt + F4

After a while Alt + F4 gets to be just like ⌘-Q, you do it as a conditioned reflex

If you are used to Mac you don't have windows conditioned reflexs and you think windows is stupid

If you are used to windows you don't have Mac conditioned reflexs and you think Mac is stupid

I have the Mac sitting right here next to my pc, so I think they are both stupid

I have mac here and I use my MacBook daily.

I vastly prefer Windows and I used to be a serious Apple Fanboi. Some might say, rabid.

[mark]

@jon-nyc said in Thinking about a new Mac...:

@mark

I've been in movie theaters with smaller screens. lol

I decided it wasn't big enough and just ordered a 49" for the big gaming rig.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L9HCJ2V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

5120 x 1440 at 120Hz

I also scored a top of the line AMD GPU last night. It has 16 Gigabytes of ram. The SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6900 XT. I was one of over 10,000 people doing the refresh battle to wait for the "Out Of Stock" indicator to change to an "Add to Cart" button. I was prepared as the previous attempt to get one, I was not successful due to delays for setting up the account, google-pay etc. You can add the item to your cart, but it is not reserved for you until you actually check out.

Last night I must have won the initial refresh battle because as soon as the page loaded, the "Add to Cart" button appeared! I was in shock. I clicked it, When the new page appeared I clicked three check boxes to agree to the terms, clicked G-Pay button, clicked Pay Now on Google Pay and what do you know? I GOT IT!

So now I am going to have two kick-ass gaming rigs. The other GPU I have on backorder is an Nvidia ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 OC. It is 2nd only to the RTX 3090 which costs anywhere from $1,500 to $2,400. The 3080 only has 10 Gigs of ram, but the Ray tracing and DLSS (Upscaling) is currently superior to the AMD RX 6900 XT.

The 49" monitor should be about the limit of what I would ever want in a gaming monitor.

On the business side of the equation I will be able to fit three or four, full page code windows on the screen at once.

[Axtremus]

Speaking of configuring a computer system, I have been configuring a new router recently. It has a very old school configuration system where:

• All configuration is stored in a plain text file
• There is a one-to-one correspondence between a configurable item, a configuration command, and a line item in the configuration text file.
• There is a command to “show” all the configuration as a series of commands that correspond to that configuration exactly. So if you save that series of commands, and later copy-and-paste that series of commands back into the system’s CLI interface, you can that configuration back exactly.

The system has a graphical UI, but that’s more like an after-thought. The GUI includes a few “wizards” that can help you generate coherent configurations for a few common use cases, but otherwise the GUI just gives you access to a subset of individually configuration items. Very little documentation/explanation for what each configurable item does from within the GUI.

It’s “logical” in its own way, the command line interface more so than the graphical interface, but I would not consider either “intuitive.”