Mac (potentially) for Engineers/Developers who use Windows.. Recommended or not? What issues did you encounter?

Hi James,

That's pretty rare I thought, hearing of someone who switched from Mac to Windows! Then I read the bit about cursing about Windows every day, that explained to me the world had not suddenly turned up-side down : )

A fairly tech-savvy friend mentioned he is doing all sorts of intensive work on a Mac Pro (the new silicon). so you might find that Apple now has the edge in performance again perhaps!

When I go to the Apple store (I've never been) I really hope they can find a way to demonstrate ARM64 Windows on it too, so I can see if it's usable on these new machines.

For backing up windows folders to an external drive (or several), I came across a utility called "Bvckup2" some years ago and been using it since then. Once you set it up, it's just a click every time you want to backup. It's a paid software but you can also still download the "last beta" version from 2014 which is free to use and which is good enough (that's what I have been using to this day!). Simple software, and works VERY well!

What does it backup and what can’t it backup?  Historically, I seem to remember that system files such as the registry was a pain because these files seemed to be locked.  During a restore it becomes problematic because applications would be out of sync with the system files.  Can you still only back up user files?  A full restore/switch to a new machine then being a wipe, install Windows, install applications, restore user files?

I find Windows backup/restore confusing to read about.  In this respect TM is fantastic: new machine? Just power it on, it asks if you want to restore from TM, all done.

I’m not clear yet on the requirements for virus scanning and other security software.  Some seems built into Windows these days and I’ve not had a problem with my VM so maybe there’s no specific requirement these days?

You should book an appointment so they can dedicate time to you (that’s the way they prefer to work) and address the questions you have.  You can just rock up but they always seem busy and you may just get to see a general assistant.

Parallels virtualisation software works well with Apple Silicon as I mentioned and it provides good integration between the virtual OS and MacOS.  From what I can tell though, it isn’t possible to take an old Intel based Windows VM to a Parallels install on Apple Silicon, you need to start from scratch.  I presume it is the same with trying to image an existing native Windows install to use as a VM.

What is the software availability in the Apple lineup?

I know you are an avid user of KiCAD. Any knowledge on the software from the fruit world?

Hi Sean,

I believe there are not many software choice benefits to be gained by engineers by switching to a Mac, but I'm only speculating.

From what I can tell, traditionally, there has been Apple-only software for art/movie/photography applications, whereas, for engineering users, there has been Windows-only software. 

But that was in the past, and a lot of new software is available for both platforms.

I can't think of any software that engineers would want that is only available on Mac. On the other hand, I have some old Windows applications for which I'm never going to be able to find a Mac version, so if I had a Mac laptop, I would either need to purchase a different app to meet my needs, or use the existing software in a virtual machine (if possible!) or would need to switch to a Windows machine each time I needed to use that software, which could be inconvenient if I had to do it regularly.

Since there is no engineering software that I'm interested in that is exclusively only available on Mac, really the main benefits would be especially more for future use cases because, from the hardware perspective, the new Mac laptops have features that should provide good service for many years, like the Thunderbolt 4 that Andrew mentioned, which allows for high-speed data transfer and attachment of peripherals, and things like "Unified CPU+GPU memory" which sounds highly attractive for the future, allowing the user to move the allocation around and allocate more for the GPU, depending on the workload type. Apparently, the new Mac machines are also significantly faster than the current Intel laptops so that would support running a lot more intensive software in the future.

The other thought I've just had is that it may be possible to run Windows software under Wine rather than lumping out for Parallels.  The only time I tried this, with Workshop4, it didn't work so I had to switch to virtualisation, but it's definitely worth trying before subscribing to Parallels and purchasing a Windows licence.  Actually, thinking about that, if you already have a Windows license you should just be able to move it to the new VM.

Aorus by Gigabyte also has capable machines.

Hello my job is repairing electronics But i do need to keep 2 old laptops running with XP.

i use them for programing Anilog mobile RT radios in trucks etc and also the security pedestal in shop door ways and mobility scooters

and industrial PLC VSD used in engineering workshops 

all using the DP9 serial port. yes you can get a USB Adaptor and i have tried several adaptor and W7 and W10 with out being reliable

and at one stage updating firmware on TV and stereo 

None of this software is on apple or lynx.

the Digital mobile radios can just connect to adaptor to ethernet port. with windows but they have other draw backs      

possibly off topic for you. but please think out side the box. 

You are right. Also most chip programmers only work reliably on Windows some can work in a VM but you're on your own. Look at Xeltek, GQ-4X, Dataman etc.