Completed the Apple Conversion

michaelkahl

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
433
I've been using a Macbook Pro for a little over a year (my first ever) and tonight we purchased a brand new MBA 13" for my wife along with a 2TB Time Capsule. My desktop is pretty much collecting dust as a giant storage box (which is all migrating to a more power efficient solution) and occasional PC gaming rig.
My wife is using an iPhone 4 and will be getting an iPad from work. I have an iPad and just received an iPhone 4s from work. Throw in our Apple TV and I think we have a nice ecosystem going. Working in IT I enjoy coming home to something that works and requires very little intervention from me. I used to love building custom PC's, throwing custom firmware on my wireless router, and flashing ROM's to my Android phone. I'm so tired of working on crap at work that this has been a refreshing transition.
As for the Time Capsule, I was back and forth on whether I should get one. I setup a FreeNAS 8 box for a while but after the ZFS file system kicked me in the tender spot and laughed at me I decided to move on to a simpler solution.
I'll still have my PC's setup in a lab for home studies and experiments, but it will be interesting to see what a full blown Apple solution will offer or perhaps take from us. I really don't care as long as my wife is happy, because that means I can be happy :D The less time I spend fixing or modifying things the more time I have with my wife and kids.
I hope you guys don't mind the post, I'm just happy to finally be fully onboard the Apple bandwagon.
 
The Time Capsule is an interesting albeit tremendously expensive product. Similar to the Airport, really. I've kicked around the idea of getting either of them but could never deal with the idea of spending that much money on hardware of that nature. I'll be on board with the AppleTV as soon as it gets an app store of some sort; in its current form, its utility seems somewhat limited.

Keeping it all 'in the family' certainly has its perks, though, and I imagine I'll get around to it someday. Just not until the wallet's a little beefier.
 
We're not quite there yet. The wife has an 11" 2011 MBA and I use a 21.5" 2011 iMac. Soon as I got it, I maxed out the RAM. Our Time Machine setup is a little different. I have a D-Link ShareCenter DNS-325 NAS with two 1.5TB drives running in RAID 1. Limited my iMac backups to 512GB and the MBA to 256GB. The rest of the space is for media storage. I'll probably be getting an AppleTV soon as it's either jailbroken and gets XBMC or they put a decent App Store on it with access to Hulu Plus and a PLEX Client. Currently I'm running a Roku 2 XS with PlayOn and PLEX in addition to Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video to cover 98% of what we watch regularly. If I could get access to HBO Go somehow, I'd be completely set.

EDIT: I am also of the IT world, except I got let go about a month ago. Now I'm the full time network admin for the house. :-P
 
Why make a conversion? I use them all. The PCs seem to keep going and going, so I don't see a need to convert. In fact, a true conversion would simply be painful, as I'm not moving years and years of files over to a new platform.
 
Why make a conversion? I use them all. The PCs seem to keep going and going, so I don't see a need to convert. In fact, a true conversion would simply be painful, as I'm not moving years and years of files over to a new platform.

I moved 10 years worth of my data from PC over to OSX. It wasn't really painful at all. In fact it taught me how little of it I needed. And this is coming from an archivist by nature. Granted the amount of data I had was sub-1TB but FAT32 and NTFS are readable by OSX.
 
I moved 10 years worth of my data from PC over to OSX. It wasn't really painful at all. In fact it taught me how little of it I needed. And this is coming from an archivist by nature. Granted the amount of data I had was sub-1TB but FAT32 and NTFS are readable by OSX.

Not to mention that Migration Assistant makes it brain-dead easy.
 
The conversion refers to the entire family primarily using Mac products. My PC's will still have a use, my aging C2Q is still very capable. I've had my C2Q for three years and feel that it's plenty fast for me.

Ideally I want to keep the PC's setup for a lab environment. Some will be used for virtualization and others will test out different server/client setups I want to test. My MBP is used for my photography, video editing, school work, etc. It's nice to have something so portable yet so powerful. The more I use my wife's MBA (installing software for her), the more I'm falling in love with it. The weight and portability difference is huge. I knew this was a good pic for her (she considered the 13" Pro). She lovers her Air and was extremely excited to open it last night.

On a side note: My son got a Buzz Lightyear toy from the Disney Store last night as well :) He likes it more than momma likes her MBA. My boy wanted to sleep with Buzz last night, my wife just left her Air on the couch lol.
 
We're not quite there yet. The wife has an 11" 2011 MBA and I use a 21.5" 2011 iMac. Soon as I got it, I maxed out the RAM. Our Time Machine setup is a little different. I have a D-Link ShareCenter DNS-325 NAS with two 1.5TB drives running in RAID 1. Limited my iMac backups to 512GB and the MBA to 256GB. The rest of the space is for media storage. I'll probably be getting an AppleTV soon as it's either jailbroken and gets XBMC or they put a decent App Store on it with access to Hulu Plus and a PLEX Client. Currently I'm running a Roku 2 XS with PlayOn and PLEX in addition to Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video to cover 98% of what we watch regularly. If I could get access to HBO Go somehow, I'd be completely set.

EDIT: I am also of the IT world, except I got let go about a month ago. Now I'm the full time network admin for the house. :-P
Damn...sorry to hear that. Not sure how the job market is where you live, but it's a mixed bag here. There are a lot of openings, but employers are slow to hire and EXTREMELY particular about the skill set required.
The Apple TV works great for us (it's the 2nd generation). We ditched Dish TV back in January and have supplemented TV with Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes. It's worked out great so far and saved us around $400 after you subtract the cost of Netflix and iTunes purchases.
Good luck man, I hope you find something soon.
 
The Time Capsule is an interesting albeit tremendously expensive product. Similar to the Airport, really. I've kicked around the idea of getting either of them but could never deal with the idea of spending that much money on hardware of that nature. I'll be on board with the AppleTV as soon as it gets an app store of some sort; in its current form, its utility seems somewhat limited.

Keeping it all 'in the family' certainly has its perks, though, and I imagine I'll get around to it someday. Just not until the wallet's a little beefier.

I debated it for months, and finally decided that I loved the simplicity of it. However, I'm starting to have second thoughts. My E2000 was running DD-WRT with QoS managing traffic for our Verizon Network Extender. Now I've lost all QoS capabilities and my calls are suffering because of it.
I'll have to place the E2000 between the Time Capsule and DSL modem to let it manage QoS. So much for my idea of simplicity. :-(
As a network Admin you would think that I would have remembered that tidbit of information. Last night when we made the purchase I completely forgot about the need for QoS. It works so well and seamless that I hardly ever think about it. I'll probably just hide the E2000 in the basement with the DSL modem. Out of site, out of mind. The Time Capsule is mounted up on the first floor on top of our entertainment center.
 
I moved 10 years worth of my data from PC over to OSX. It wasn't really painful at all. In fact it taught me how little of it I needed. And this is coming from an archivist by nature. Granted the amount of data I had was sub-1TB but FAT32 and NTFS are readable by OSX.

I don't see it simply as moving files. I'd traded files with MAC users over the years and there can be some real compatibility issues. I never knew if it was the user's fault or just an Office issue between MAC and Windows versions. Anyone know?
 
I don't see it simply as moving files. I'd traded files with MAC users over the years and there can be some real compatibility issues. I never knew if it was the user's fault or just an Office issue between MAC and Windows versions. Anyone know?

I've opened numerous files (like I said from this 10 year backlog) without issue. Mostly from Office 2k7 and 2k4. However I personally have always saved my Office files in .doc as opposed to .docx as I've seen that there are incompatibilities with previous versions of Office with no perceptible advantages of the newer format.

I also exchanged .doc files often while at University with non-Mac users without issue. There was only one time in which there was a problem, but it was identified that the end user simply didn't have the same font. Changed the font to Times New Roman and that issue was resolved.

Since then I've exchanged documents between my home computer and work machines also without issue. And their systems are highly outdated (Windows 2k and Office 97.)
 
The Time Capsule is still in bridged mode, but it is connected to the DD-WRT router. QoS lives, so much for simplicity.
 
Damn...sorry to hear that. Not sure how the job market is where you live, but it's a mixed bag here. There are a lot of openings, but employers are slow to hire and EXTREMELY particular about the skill set required.
The Apple TV works great for us (it's the 2nd generation). We ditched Dish TV back in January and have supplemented TV with Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes. It's worked out great so far and saved us around $400 after you subtract the cost of Netflix and iTunes purchases.
Good luck man, I hope you find something soon.

Thanks. I'm in Boise, ID so while the IT market is growing here (depends on who you're talking to), it is still slow going. Considering this is the 2nd time I've been "burned" by IT, I'm probably going to change professions and find something else. I haven't had an opportunity to start fresh in a long time so I should probably jump on it. I sort of feel like getting let go was a good thing in the long run. I wasn't exactly happy with working there anymore.

We ditched cable a long time ago. Right now, we get by with the Roku and an antenna for local channels. And if I still can't buy an episode of something, I use other alternatives. This whole setup does come with an issue that I've noticed and that is that I've been soooooooo much more picky about the shows I watch and it tends to make starting a new show very hard.

On another note, DD-WRT is freakin awesome. I put it on my WNDR3700 awhile back and haven't needed to reboot the router in close to 4 months now. The QoS functions work so well too. We have an Ooma Telo VoIP box which had some problems with audio quality. Once I got the settings in, we haven't had a problem since. I also installed the Ooma Mobile App for my iPod touch and set it up similarly in the router. I highly recommend the Ooma if you need cheap VoIP. While the hardware has a high entry price ($200), over time it WILL pay for itself, whether using the $10 premier plan or the free plan (where you only pay state/fed fees and taxes).
 
The Time Capsule is an interesting albeit tremendously expensive product. Similar to the Airport, really. I've kicked around the idea of getting either of them but could never deal with the idea of spending that much money on hardware of that nature. I'll be on board with the AppleTV as soon as it gets an app store of some sort; in its current form, its utility seems somewhat limited.

Keeping it all 'in the family' certainly has its perks, though, and I imagine I'll get around to it someday. Just not until the wallet's a little beefier.

The 2TB timecapsule is hardly expensive at $299. How much does a comparable router cost, the E4200 retails for $199, you can find it for cheaper, but then you still have to add a 2TB usb drive to it and get it working with time machine. I use my TC with our MBP and MBA, no issues and it just works. It also has great coverage throughout the house with it in the basement, it's really a solid router, I dumped my WNDR3700 for it.
 
I've notice a huge increase in range. Loving the TC for tha alone. We actually got $70.00 as an educational discount.
Long story short, they told us that the MBA would get $100.00 off for the student discount and they were wrong. They decided to take an additional $50 + the original $20 discount. Either way I was happy.
 
Just be careful with the Time Capsule's heat. Apparently the issue has been "fixed" in Tue more recent generations of time capsule, but my barely six month old unit still get ridiculously hot. The lack of true ventilation for it is also kind of a bummer.

Otherwise I love my time capsule (2 tb). Just gotta keep it fairly open and near a bit of moving air.
 
I've noticed that it can get warm, not surprised given the 3.5" hard drive stuffed in there. I have the TC out in the open so air flow is good around it. It doesn't get too hot, but warm enough that I notice.
 
I had a time capsule and the heat killed it dead.

I guess it's a known issue with them, I went to a Airport Extreme dual band and it's great. No heat issues and can do all the same as the TC.
 
I've been using a Macbook Pro for a little over a year (my first ever) and tonight we purchased a brand new MBA 13" for my wife along with a 2TB Time Capsule. My desktop is pretty much collecting dust as a giant storage box (which is all migrating to a more power efficient solution) and occasional PC gaming rig.
My wife is using an iPhone 4 and will be getting an iPad from work. I have an iPad and just received an iPhone 4s from work. Throw in our Apple TV and I think we have a nice ecosystem going. Working in IT I enjoy coming home to something that works and requires very little intervention from me. I used to love building custom PC's, throwing custom firmware on my wireless router, and flashing ROM's to my Android phone. I'm so tired of working on crap at work that this has been a refreshing transition.
As for the Time Capsule, I was back and forth on whether I should get one. I setup a FreeNAS 8 box for a while but after the ZFS file system kicked me in the tender spot and laughed at me I decided to move on to a simpler solution.
I'll still have my PC's setup in a lab for home studies and experiments, but it will be interesting to see what a full blown Apple solution will offer or perhaps take from us. I really don't care as long as my wife is happy, because that means I can be happy :D The less time I spend fixing or modifying things the more time I have with my wife and kids.
I hope you guys don't mind the post, I'm just happy to finally be fully onboard the Apple bandwagon.

Congrats! I am also in the same wagon. Windows/Linux Network Administrator during the day, Apple simplicity at night. I always look forward to the end of the day, so I can go home play with the Macs a little (everything just works) and enjoy the rest of the day with the family.

Most of the time at work I just pick up my iPhone, then VNC into my Mac's at home during coffee breaks and queue the downloads of movies to watch when I get home. :D
 
It is nice to just have something that works, but there is a part of me that wants to tinker. I'm considering a second 240GB SSD to replace the 750GB in my optical disc spot. That would give me two 240GB drives.
 
Took my Intel 120GB SSD out of my desktop and put it in the second drive bay. Why spend another $200? My desktop is designated to storage and scanning these days.
 
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