Move from Windows 10 to Apple Mac?

For decades I have been using Windows systems first with MSDOS then through to the current version of Windows 10. My opinion of Windows 10 is not fit for decent company so I will just say that it has so much wrong that I am seriously thinking of ditching it and making the move to Mac.

Here are some of the problems I am considering regarding such a move:

1. I have a flat bed scanner Perfection 4870 which I will not replace as I cannot afford that and a new PC and I like it! I can buy an upgrade for my existing licence for not too much money.

2. I have extra drives (3 internal plus 4 external backups) with mainly images as a backup

3. Software such as Photoshop PS5 might be a problem but I also have (but rarely use Lightroom 6)

Can any share their experiences of making the move from Windows to Apple?

CS3/PS3 will run fine on any version of OS X up to 10.13, although I'd have to check if it will continue working in 10.14(it will depend on whether it's 32 or 64 bit, and I honestly don't remember). So, in that sense, buy before Macs start shipping in 10.14.

As long as you still have your license code, you should be able to download the CS3 .dmg from Adobe's website and install it, and you will be good to go with it.

If your drives are formatted NTSF, you will need a utility to be able to read them(I like Paragon NTSF). It won't work out of the box, but it's not a huge deal to make it work. You can slap your current internals in external enclosures to be able to read them.

The current version of Epson Scan that runs on 10.13 still supports the 4870, so you are good to go in that department.

There are two utilities which help the transition from PC to Mac. "NTFS for Mac" is a program which allows OS X to read and write to an NTFS disc. This allows you to use existing data discs between both systems. There is a companion program, "HFS for Windows", but probably not needed considering the direction of your transition.

The other is "Parallels" which runs Windows in a virtual window in OS X. As such, you can switch between OS X and Windows in real time, and share data and hardware devices. It works well if you assign more RAM and disk space than the minimum amount suggested in the setup. Parallels also allows you to migrate Windows OS, programs and data from your PC to the virtual version in the Mac, much like Migration Assistant between Mac computers.

You can also assign a Windows with "Bootcamp," which is selected on boot up. That may be a technically better solution, but not nearly as convenient as Parallels,

The other is "Parallels" which runs Windows in a virtual window in OS X. As such, you can switch between OS X and Windows in real time, and share data and hardware devices. It works well if you assign more RAM and disk space than the minimum amount suggested in the setup. Parallels also allows you to migrate Windows OS, programs and data from your PC to the virtual version in the Mac, much like Migration Assistant between Mac computers.

I know this is a 6 of one, half a dozen of the other thing, but I consider VMWare a MUCH better program than Parallels. About the only advantage to Parallels I see is that it's SLIGHTLY more user friendly, while VMWare is significantly more capable. At the same time, though, if Windows is your only goal, Parallels is fine. I run VMs of Windows XP, older versions of OS X(Snow Leopard specifically) and use to run CentOS although the program I needed it for now will run natively in OS X/macOS.

(there's also virtual box, which is free but nowhere near as user friendly as VMWare).

To paraphrase Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit's man servant: "Even Mac OS ain't all built yet".

You should be aware that the current Mac OS High Sierra will be the last version to support older legacy (32 bit) software. Already, with installation of the latest updates, some of my old Adobe Software is becoming, well, "flaky", although it still works, mostly.

Thus, I think it is possible that, if you do decide to cross over the bar, it might be well to wait for the end of the year when the new OS and -presumably,- all 64-bit software- will be out.

As an aside, I think that the idea of using PC software on a Mac in emulation/whatever is more of a "kludge" than a solution.

"Do or do not"

This is probably a little off base and not at the level of what you are looking for but I recently bought an IPad Pro and used this little gem to migrate files from my Windows PC to the Pad.

I didn’t have a huge amount of digital files.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071FJ3HGC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thus, I think it is possible that, if you do decide to cross over the bar, it might be well to wait for the end of the year when the new OS and -presumably,- all 64-bit software- will be out.

Most major software is already 64 bit.

Mojave did kill office 2008 and 2011 for me, but they were on life support anyway. Still, I prefer '08 to '16 so will likely not be upgrading to Mojave any time soon. If Apple sticks to their current support cycle, High Sierra will get security updates through the fall of 2020.

Addendum:

I now see that the Mojave system may support some older software, but the general point I made about legacy software still stands. If you are buying new software this is not a concern, but it is for those of us running older software. At some point, the old stuff will break. I'm probably going to stick with High Sierra for the time being.

Addendum:

 

I now see that the Mojave system may support some older software, but the general point I made about legacy software still stands.

BOTH Mojave and High Sierra will run 32 bit applications! Now after Mojave, that's a different story. Apple has told software companies for a very, very long time in software years, that 32-bit is going to go away and when. So there's plenty of time to worry if you need to worry. And there's software some of us paid a lot of money for that will not run even in a number of Mac OS's previous to High Sierra. I suspect that's no different for Windows users. Which means having another, inexpensive machine around to run that software. I have software dating back to OS9 that occasionally I need to run. So for $150, it wasn't a stretch to buy an old MacBook to run that software which when it was released, cost many, many times more money than the cost of that old and used MacBook. Anyone who's been computing for more than a decade, this is all old news.

Most major software is already 64 bit.

 

Mojave did kill office 2008 and 2011 for me, but they were on life support anyway. Still, I prefer '08 to '16 so will likely not be upgrading to Mojave any time soon. If Apple sticks to their current support cycle, High Sierra will get security updates through the fall of 2020.

I use a 2010 Mac Pro running High Sierra. I read that my computer will be compatible with Mojave, provided that I upgrade my Radion 5770 GPU to a "Metal compatible GPU". I also use Microsoft Word 2011 and Photoshop CS5, which works OK with High Sierra, except that I can no longer print directly from Photoshop without Photoshop crashing (I now save tiff files and print from Affinity), and I don't know if Mojave will even run Photoshop CS5. So, upgrading to Mojave could get expensive.

I think that I will stick with High Sierra for as long as security updates are available.

I think that I will stick with High Sierra for as long as security updates are available.

My conclusion also, since my situation is very close to Glenn's in equipment and software.

First of all many thanks to everyone who took the time to give me such valuable input it is very much appreciated.

The move has been on and off in my mind for months especially since Windows 10 latest updates. I now spend at least one hour of ech session on my PC waiting for Windows 10 to 'Update' then find it cant complete the update and then uninstall the 'update' that it failed to install..........

On the positive side I have managed to resist the temptation to throw the PC out out of the window, knowing my luck with it the cat would be sleeping under the window and lose another of her lives!

Today I had a chat with the folks in my local apple store and that has made up my mind to bite the bullet in the very near future. Last think to do is a bit of research on OS systems which I do not have a clue about just out of curiosity. Correction, I will need to disable Windows update on a new Mac system as the update is the problem and something which I think will cost Microsoft in the long run.