Hello everyone,
As we are all aware, the price of the 13-inch MacBook Air has been dropped, so I am planning to get it for myself. Since I am a Windows user, I am not sure how quickly I will be able to get used to using a Mac. Additionally, I see there is an option for "Protect+" - would it be worth adding?
If you go with a MacBook Air, I would recommend getting at least 16 GB of RAM. The RAM is soldered in, so there's no way to upgrade it after you buy the machine.
If you go with a MacBook Air, I would recommend getting at least 16 GB of RAM. The RAM is soldered in, so there's no way to upgrade it after you buy the machine.
Just to add to John Galt's thorough comments above:
All the above being said, you'll find these Discussion groups very helpful when you run into issues should you elect to make the switch.
Those are excellent comments from others.
If saving some money is important to you, by far the best way to do that is to shop Apple's Certified Refurbished Products page. Inventory changes constantly so if you don't find what you want right away, look again in a few hours. Personally I avoid Big Box stores because they attract absolute lowest possible price point customers, then attempt to pad their margin by "upselling" them on things they don't need. Apple doesn't play that game.
Beware of choosing the most limited RAM and storage. These pages are full of concerns from first time Mac users who jumped at a low cost model, perhaps thinking they'll give Macs a try. Then, they wind up doing things with them they may not have considered at the time. Couple that with the fact the hardware is built to last, then they can't upgrade to the latest macOS version or accommodate ever-expanding Microsoft bloatware. Since neither storage nor memory can be upgraded after a Mac is built, there is no alternative for them other than to live within those constraints or buy a new Mac.
It's impossible for me or anyone else to know how you intend to use your Mac, but I agree 16 GB / 1 TB should be the minimum anyone should consider. Certified Refurbished prices start at about $1200 for one of them. Amortized over a Mac's typically long lifespan the difference in price over a low end model is negligible. Maybe two cups of coffee a month.
First a couple helpful Apple Support documents:
Mac tips for Windows switchers - Apple Support
What’s it called on my Mac? - Apple Support
Next, my personal perspective from having used Macs since the beginning — 1984, and from having used the first "desktop" computers before then: CP/M machines from companies long forgotten, the TRS-80, Atari, Commodore, the original IBM PC, and even longer ago, DEC and IBM mainframes... ancient history. You can scroll down to my next reply if you want to omit the commentary.
For years, even decades, Windows users have become inured to doing things a certain way. I'll call it "the Microsoft way". If you're one of them, you will not be happy with a Mac. Not at first anyway, not until you un-learn most if not all of what you know. The original Macintosh design represented a radical departure from everything that came before it. My personal perspective at the time was that it was what a personal computer ought to be, and its future trajectory was obvious. Everything else would be left to the ash heap of computing history.
About ten years later Microsoft came up with an operating system for the IBM PC that superficially resembled the Mac's operating system. At the time my reaction was wow, this looks just like a Mac. It took about five minutes for me to conclude Windows was a visual facade built on the house of cards that was the original IBM PC-DOS which itself was inferior to even the CP/M operating system that came a decade before. The reasons for that are a subject all to itself which I won't get into here.
In any event Microsoft spent at least another decade to catch up to what the Macintosh already had been for a long time. Meanwhile, Apple realized the original Macintosh operating system was never going to evolve to future computing needs and requirements, and they took the bold step of abandoning it altogether in favor of OS X which later evolved to become macOS we have today. All the while, Mac hardware was changing on a fundamental level. Macs are now up to the fourth major clean-sheet hardware design in Apple's own proprietary chip hardware: first there was the Motorola 68000, then the PowerPC, then Intel, and now Apple M series chips. No one uses them but Apple. It's a completely closed system, as far as hardware is concerned. Due to their enormous installed base, and thereby lacking the same agility to innovate, Microsoft has remained locked into Intel (or Intel-like) hardware.
Yet Microsoft made great strides into improving their Windows operating system. It's much more secure than the practical joke that it had been, which at the time led to a cottage industry of "anti-virus" product peddlers. That cottage industry is now a multi-billion dollar behemoth, and it will not permit itself to be ignored. They have successfully convinced neophyte Mac users that macOS is just as vulnerable to "viruses" as PCs. This is a lie. It always has been, but if not for deception and half-truths we wouldn't have marketing majors at all. Lies make the world go 'round.
Next reply (the one that actually answers your questions) follows below.
Reply part two follows.
Finally back to your questions. If you want your Mac to work like a Windows PC, it won't. Don't even try. Buy a PC, and buy a new PC every other year or whatever Microsoft demands you do. People have been used to doing that, so everyone's happy.
Along a similar vein: if you use Google — if you must use Google — then don't buy a Mac. Buy a PC, or better yet a Chromebook. Google didn't start out this way, but it has evolved through the help of bureaucracies around the world to become a personal information-harvesting quasi-government entity. If you don't mind that, ok, but Macs are designed from the ground up to protect your personal information. Those protections are fundamental in Apple's hardware and software. Security is built into the whole product, all their products from Macs to iPhones and everything they use. It's in Apple's DNA. This makes it difficult for Google to support its voracious appetite, but it hasn't stopped them from trying. They are desperate to get you to install their products "by whatever means necessary" even if it means lying about what they do — which they do with reckless abandon. They don't care. They'll gladly pay millions of dollars in fines because financial penalties mean nothing to them.
In summary: if you need Google, don't buy a Mac, and if you need Microsoft, you'll probably be happier with a Windows PC. You can certainly use Microsoft Office products on a Mac, but they don't work "the Apple way." They never have. They work "the Microsoft way" which among other things means they will want you to pay for the privilege of using them when Apple decides to upgrade macOS and Microsoft decides your version is too old. If you're ok with that though, fine. Macs last a lot longer than PCs (easily about twice as long) so a 2014 year old Mac might be working perfectly well, yet you might not be able to use the latest Microsoft products with it. Again, if you're ok with that, if you don't mind having to replace a perfectly good Mac just so you can use the latest Microsoft bloatware, fine.
Additionally, I see there is an option for "Protect+" - would it be worth adding?
I think you're asking about AppleCare+ (Apple Care Plus). It's really up to you, and I think it's a great value for what you get, but it's easy for me to spend your money. I have never purchased AppleCare for any of my personal devices, and I never needed it because I tend to take care of things in general. However, I do purchase it for all the Macs I purchase it for my employees, and it's been worthwhile:
Buy an AppleCare plan - Apple Support
suneil82 wrote:
Hello everyone,
As we are all aware, the price of the 13-inch MacBook Air has been dropped, so I am planning to get it for myself. Since I am a Windows user, I am not sure how quickly I will be able to get used to using a Mac. Additionally, I see there is an option for "Protect+" - would it be worth adding?
You didn't say which 13" MacBook Air you were considering. There have been three generations of MacBook Airs since Apple switched to Apple Silicon chips: the M1 models, the M2 models, and the M3 models. Apple currently sells M2 and M3 models (the M2 models are basically "price point" machines).
All of these MacBook Airs are limited to a single external display when the lid is open. That display can be a very high-resolution one; but there can be only one. With the M1 and M2 machines, the limit of one remains when you close the lid. With the M3 machines, closing the lid allows you to use a second display.
Two advantages of the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs over the M1 models are
MacBook Air Price Drop! Switching from Windows - Help Needed
