Yeah, it's a pretty nice garden. And the ecosystem that most complain about lends to a ton of productivity if you use it. I was an all Windows guy for a long time. Working on a Mac is just easier, for me. Cost of ownership is also lower. Resale value is higher, so getting a new machine isn't a hard cost.
If a mac is crashing, something is causing it. My 2008 Mac Pro has been running since 2008, non-stop, never had a crash. The two minis in my house, running non-stop for 3+ years ( and they were used ). My Windows machines, 2 laptops and 2 desktops...also had no problem.
I'm not one to force one over the other. I've used and loved both. I just know my experience has been 10x better on a Mac.
This is so true from a hardware perspective. I'm typing this on my mid 2012 MBP, which I bought used on eBay in 2016. I've swapped out the dvd drive for a second SSD, and upped the RAM.
I am itching for a shiny new computer but this one just won't die! I'm afraid some "accidental" water damage may befall it if it doesn't started dying on its own soon. It's easily the best purchase I've ever made in terms of the productivity, enjoyment, and longevity it's provided.
The discussion is headed away from "alternative to discourse hub", but I'll do some topic surfing by saying the following:
It looks like a good number have a preference for MacOS (and the underlying hardware). Or at least Mac users are more vocal about it. If you have not voted to indicate YOUR preference, do so now.
As for myself, I've already made my preference clear: Why Mac?
Of course, we are simply talking about preferences. Everyone is entitled to have his own.
I’ve been working with Apple products as both user and provider of support services since 1985, remembering with horror trying to support clients and arrange hardware repairs in the days long before the days of AppleStores.
I’ll repeat one story, but have a list as long as your arm. We were managing a multiple Xserve rollout for a local school, wifi everywhere and every pupil using a Mac controlled using Open Directory (I think Xgrid was involved as well). This project needed phasing and part way through, Apple released a (as usual, unannounced) Mac OS X Server upgrade. This was incompatible with the Open Directory of the version it replaced and with immediate effect the older version was no longer available. This caused chaos for us and for the client.
Don’t get me wrong, mostly I love Apple products, I have 2 HomePods for goodness sake😉. However, I have no love for Apple the company. They introduced the annual upgrade cycle that has resulted in backward compatibility shrinking to supporting only 1 version back (and of course the current one) a maximum of 12 months of backwards compatibility.
Since the iPhone, Apple have dropped many of their business products and focussed on the consumer. I’m not sure I would want to support a very large Mac installation anymore, they are too blasé about breaking things with each annual update.
I have exactly the opposite feeling. We have a large Mac installation. IBM also agrees, from a business standpoint, their study is one of the largest scale analytics from a company converting. Our MDM handles most everything. Hardware issues are so few. We are a very long way from 1985. Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, they all are terrible with the right criteria.
I remember a similar nightmare about windows. I calculated the loss incurred by companies all over the world when the ribbon was introduced and 8.0 disrespect for the needs of companies who never asked for touch screen and media bling bling. Not without warning or options at least. I should check my old notes but it was in the order of 1.7 b a DAY in North America.
I also remember an MS Office update that emptied the user’s custom add-ins folder. A folder that should have never been touched by the software. I was awakened by my freaked out client who thought my code was bugged while everything was great before I went to bed. It occurred to me that the only change could have been a ms update. So I located where the file was missing. We had to make do with the last version of that building blocks add-in and grieve the loss of all the blocks that were added by users over the previous months.
The sad reality is that they will all f**** up at some point. Some are worse than others to deal with when it happens.
I got a FM4 Version under Windows 10 running - there are customers with FM3 or FM4 who want to migrate their solution...
There is also a FM6 on that VM besides of current versions - so we can do the migration on one machine up to FM18
Not that I would run solutions that old for my business - but it feels good to be able to run older versions on an os...
And often really helpful if a customer claims that something does no longer run after the upgrade (often, the old solution was the same...)
Most of specific-windows FileMaker Layout Mode UI behavior are horrible like that in drop down list when it is impossible to type more than one char to find a value, or determine if an element like a combo list is active or not, or to know if a value is selected or just hovered etc... etc...
For testing, Windows is like a crash test. If it works, it will “generally” works also on Mac, but of course there are exceptions.
I must add that i have enabled the “tabbing” for all controls like buttons and menus on macOS to have more chance to be able to do the most of the work without using the mouse, even if its not a default on a Mac and it sounds like the better of the two worlds
Mac for me. I’m comfortable with it visually, comfortable with the shortcuts (though there can be conflicts with the OS and other apps). I just find it a better, smoother experience. On Windows I inevitably come to an aaargh moment. I accept that others will be different. It’s just a matter of taste.
My personal workstation is a Mac and I love the environment. But my larger clients want to deploy on a blade server with a Windows IIS setup because that is their infrastructure.
If it weren't for constant updates from all services involved, most of my solution would be hands free for years.
I battle FM and OS updates at least as much as I battle real software requests.
After being a windows guy forever, I just switched to Mac this week. Certainly some frustrations as I learn and unlearn, and I miss my Alt-key shortcuts.
But FileMaker was meant for Mac, full stop. I truly feel as though I have gone from the unwanted duckling to the beloved swan!
What 'alt key' shortcuts are you missing on the Mac side?
BTW, even if you don't need to license the MBS plugin, you can still use it to give you syntax coloring in the script editor. It's a nice touch for Mac users.
@Julien You can keep you windows keyboard and switch the modifier keys around so in system preferences. That way you can keep hitting Ctrl-C and your keyboard maps it to Cmd-C.
