The hardware you can get is quite amazing (this is what I built https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/b/6FXPxr). Everything works and it's rock solid, it's also very quiet (something a lot PC users aren't so concerned about).
Windows however I'm finding a lot harder to get on with. Windows 4K support is awful. So many broken and blurry dialogs and applications (including Microsoft ones). Retina, on the Mac, just works.
I missed the Windows 8 disaster, however it appears some of it has spilt over Windows 10.
Seems you can't have the hardware you want and the OS you want, you have to pick one or the other.
Edit: Also, that's a rad build!
Steam is totally broken, not to mention the games. I got QuakeLive (best bit about being back on Windows). Quake was all broken (rendered at twice the DPI), I had to find the shortcut and disable Application Scaling (wtf?).
I could go on.
Not doubting you, but I just opened it and it's not blurry on my 4k monitor. To be clear, I hit Start, typed Services and pressed ENTER when I saw the Services desktop app. (Another way to open it would be to hit Win+R and type: services.msc)
> I have an ongoing battle with IntelliJ and PyCharm, fonts are all broken.
Sounds like a JetBrains problem. What's broken with them anyway?
> I had to find the shortcut and disable Application Scaling (wtf?).
That's called learning how to use a new OS. Also, I can't imagine that you have more complaints about games on Windows than you would on a Mac where there hardly are any games to begin with, are only half-supported or in perma-beta.
As a Mac and Windows user of over 20 years, I feel that Windows is generally more flexible; you can make it do exactly what you want way more often than with the Macintosh OS. Things are simpler on the Mac, but that comes at the price of inflexibility.
I take your point about flexibility and you're 100% correct on the gaming aspect.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/06/transcript-phil-schiller-c...
I'm also using a PC as media center and gaming system and I envy what €3000 will buy me in PC world. More importantly, it'll be a machine I can selectively upgrade at any point, unlike the iMac. I'm just not sure if the price justifies using Windows, which I kind of tolerate, but really am not fond of.
Other friends in video / photo are still using mac laptops. I never saw any of them pull the trigger on the mac pros personally...
Look how far the other display manufactures have came, too. I don't know if we have Apple to thank but there are some _really_ nice monitors around now that aren't coming from Apple. Maybe it was just the bubble I was in but in ~2005~2007 I don't remember anyone having anything that could compete with Apple's displays for the price.
I think your brother is probably going to get a LOT more for his money going to PC...
I've got a beast of a rig that has been flawless. Easy upgrades (though you do have to wait a few days), handoff, continuity, thunderbolt all working 100%.
The only downtime I've had is restarts due to security updates.
Obviously not all hackintosh's are not as bad as that (AMD being a completely unsupported platform in Apple-land) but the /risk/ of it is a very large blocker for many people.
I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues.
The hardest obstacle for me was sourcing some parts because they weren't available here in Vietnam. I had to fly to Singapore for most of it. Ironically, it was cheaper to do that for the parts I could get here, so everything worked out in the end.
> I bought my first mac precisely to avoid these kinds of issues.
The lock-in to Apple products should also be considered as a large blocker.
Can you guarantee that ? Who is responsible if an upgrade doesn't work or bricks your machine ?
Information on changes for updates come quickly, and it's pretty standard practice to clone your boot drive before major updates.
In a worst-case scenario, you just stay on a version of macOS until it makes more sense to use that same hardware for a Windows/whatever OS change.
Also, at this point, the things that would brick you in the past are no longer applicable with a modern hackintosh.
That may be fine for a home user, but if my livelyhood was dependent on this machine I'd rather buy something less hacked together and with actual support options.
This is not about wether or not it will actually work, it's about liability.
If this machine bites the dust, I swap out the part or I restore from Time Machine. At least with this machine, I have the option of swapping out the part.
It's not some mystical black box. These are standard PC parts that are supported by macOS. I think I only use two kexts that aren't shipped with macOS to get to 100%.
My 10.13 computer is my main one and was on 10.11 before when I upgraded only because I did a clean install right before the newest release. Don't remember noticing any changes.
I'm a huge Apple user but don't keep up with OS changes since they are so minor. This really isn't an issue. And if it's for business then the apps that are trendy and only for newer versions won't matter either.
I'm in the same boat, as it turns out. I switched from macOS to Windows for post-processing this summer, but I still have my Macbook for image capture and driving a telescope in the field.
I keep hearing this story from every creative professional I know. (2 digital artists, 1 painter, 2 video editors)