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

shabaz said:

I refused to upgrade my phone for years

I’m the same - if the new Macs weren’t so all-or-nothing I would likely have upgraded two or three Macs extra in the past few years, which is kind of counterintuitive I know  , but upgradability reduces the risk of buying the wrong thing. As it is, I now keep them until they get too painfully slow for the work I’m doing.

I’m intrigued about the framework laptops: https://frame.work/gb/en.  I don’t know much about them but upgradeability and extendability look good.

I love my new M3 Mac. It builds my project 5 times faster than the earlier 4 core i7 Intel Mac. I have Crossover for LTSpice and Parallels for other Windows only EE tools. I use docker for all the MCU builds now, so I do not rely on installed SDKs.

That's good to know! I need to get in the habit of using Docker more often, it will really help keep the machine clean. 

I'm pretty much sold on the Mac simply because of the processor performance and the huge GPU memory possible if/when needed, with the Unified mem. My current laptop still seems to be trundling along on its last legs so I didn't get around to seeing any at the Apple store, but looking forward to doing that soon within the next week or two. 

Though to get rid of the old gear. Should it be your laptop or car. Like boiling a frog - you are not noticing the slow decline. But what you put your hands on the new one, you’ll newer look back!

I checked out the Macs at a couple of stores briefly, here in the UK there's 3-years of extended warranty (called Applecare) for £399, which seems reasonable, for years 4-6 (first three years are apparently covered by the manufacturer without any extra payment). I think 6 years total is all I would want, technology will have moved on a lot by then.

I don't think it's worth buying online directly from Apple, because even John Lewis offer as standard a slight discount over the online list price. And Apple Premium Resellers offer 6% discount, which is slightly more of a discount than John Lewis. (There's more of a discount on previous year models apparently; but for the newer ones, I couldn't manage to get a discount greater than 6%). If it's a business purchase (VAT registered) then there's of course a further saving. Alternatively, apple employee friends&family discount is quite good, if people have that option.

I usually don't buy extended warrantee for things where replacement doesn't bankrupt me.

I take insurances on house fire, car, health, 3rd party liability. All the rest, you are usually cheaper off carrying the risk yourself.

I'm the same normally. In this case perhaps the chances are very high there will be at least one fault in six years, since it will be powered up and operational for perhaps 3+ years of aggregate run time, any repair could easily be a few hundred minimum.

My current laptop has a few annoyances (one USB port flaky, and the screen has a known problem of ghost images, both issues which I live with, but are not worthwhile paying for repairing, and it's only about three years old :( I've also gone through several mains adapters for it (another clearly inherent problem; legally (UK law anyway) Microsoft would still be liable for an inherent fault even after 3 years, but the effort I'd have to go through is not fun (I'd have to get the unit inspected by a third party and have a report prepared, I've done that in the past with an older laptop, and they might still drag their heels because the burdon of proof is on me). It was less effort to pay the £100 each time for a replacement adapter, rather than try to establish their liability : (

I’ve found AppleCare to be useful for iPhones, as they are always at risk in daily use. One thing to pay attention to is the deductibles though - at least for the iPhone there’s still quite a fee, for example, for a broken screen, even though it’s covered.

In over 20 years, I have never had a problem with any Mac that would have been covered by AppleCare.  I replaced a battery on a MacBook once and that cost under £200 and is classed as a user consumable (AppleCare only covers batteries that no longer retain 80%+ capacity).  If it doesn’t go wrong in the first two years I’d say it’s very unlikely to go wrong in the further 4 years (obviously, that’s a risk assessment!).  There’s also a heavy excess on accidental damage, probably better covered by your contents insurance.  I’m surprised that the warranty is an extra 3 years, who told you that?  I think you should be careful here because AppleCare is for 3 years and starts at the time of purchase so is really only an extra year on the 2 you get under consumer law alongside with (concurrently) 3 years accidental coverage (with hefty excess).  I personally wouldn’t pay £400 for AppleCare on a Mac: worth checking the price of 3+ year old MacBooks on eBay.  

There’s a benefit for buying from John Lewis in that they offer a no-quibble 2 year guarantee (as should all sellers actually but you occasionally find those who argue the toss.)  in the first year you can take it back to an Apple shop; year 2 it’s back to JL who will send it off to their 3rd party fixer.  Buying from Apple will ensure it is always fixed by Apple - worth considering.

I’m also amazed there’s any discount at all on a recently released Apple product.