How I migrated from Windows to Mac OSX
Just recently I decided to buy myself a new laptop and after a lot of consideration and discussions with my CFO (yes, that’s the misses) I let Barry Schiffer convince me I needed a MacBook, for a brief moment I looked at the MacBook Air but I went for the MacBook Pro because it has a Retina display which apparently is a useful feature when you have to stare at your screen the whole day long.
The reason that I decided to go for a MacBook was quite simple, I wanted something with a high resolution and I wanted a long lasting battery time, although I could have gone with any other modern laptop, tablet or phablet I felt like it was a logical step to make as I already owned an Ipad and an Iphone.
I went ahead and bought a 13″ rMBP with 256Gb SSD and 8Gb Mem, the VGA to thunderbolt adapter, the Ethernet to thunderbolt adapter and the Apple Magic Mouse.
With the following specs and almost 8 hours on a fully charged battery I fulfilled the wish-list I had
| Model | pixels per inch | pixels per cm | pixels per degree | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 13″ | 227 | 89 | 79 | 2560×1600 |
Before I finally migrated I made a list of functionality I was using and tried to fill it with apps for my Mac:After getting the MBP I quickly realised that this machine was so much better than the laptop I got from my employer I made a plan to migrate from my (Company owned) Windows 8.1 laptop to my (privately owned) MBP. My employer provides us with a decent laptop, it has great specs but the build/ material and the way I want to use a laptop aren’t the best combination. Luckily my employer doesn’t mind bringing in BYOD and supports it whenever it is possible.
Work related tooling:
| Functionality | Solution | Licensed |
| Remote Desktop Management | Royal TSX | vExpert |
| VPN | Integrated in Mac OSX | Integrated |
| Type 2 Hypervisor | VMware Fusion | vExpert |
| Office | Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac | Company owned |
| Follow me data | Synology CloudStation | Privately owned |
| Instant Messaging | Microsoft Skype | Freeware |
| Instant Messaging | Microsoft Lync | Company owned |
| Notes | Microsoft OneNote | Company owned |
| Text Editor | Sublime Text 2 | Freeware |
| Screen Recording | Reflector | Privately owned |
| Screen Dumps | TinyGrab | Freeware |
| Password Database | KyPass Companion | Privately owned |
Utilities:
| Functionality | Solution | Licensed |
| Application Removal | AppCleaner | Freeware |
| Memory Management | Memory Clean | Freeware |
| Display Management | Display Menu | Privately owned |
| Disk Management | OmniDiskSweeper | Freeware |
| Audio/Video | VLC | Freeware |
What stood out?
One of the apps that stood out to me was Royal TSX, the licenses I got via the vExpert program gave me access to the Windows version (Royal TS) and the Mac OSX version (Royal TSX), both versions use the same configuration file. With that configuration file stored in my CloudStation folder I can use the same file on all of my systems and if I make a change the file gets updated so all my settings are in sync.
The CloudStation application was really helpful too, as I had a 128Gb OneDrive subscription and more data than I could store on OneDrive I had to go for another solution so my Synology came to the rescue and offered follow me data via CloudStation.
And lost but not leasts I was really surprised by Microsoft OneNote, on my Windows laptops it was one of my most frequently started applications and the Mac version is so much like the native Microsoft OneNote.
What’s missing?
The only thing I’m really missing and why I’m still using a Windows 7 based VM is Microsoft Visio. From the tools I’ve tested there is nothing that can be compared to Visio (although I’m open for suggestions!).
What I would like to see is the new release of Office for Mac, there were some rumours about Office for Mac 2014 launching somewhere Q3/Q4 2014 but there’s no sign of any update and hopefully the native Lync client is upgraded too because I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the native Lync client (esp. in combination with Office 365).
Kees Baggerman
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