Again within the day, I had one laptop. It was a laptop computer purchased for me by my employer, and at work, I’d connect it to an exterior show and use it at my desk. On the finish of the day, I’d shut it up, put it in my backpack, and take it residence.
For the final 10 years, I’ve labored at a desk at residence, with a desktop Mac as my main laptop. However during the last 12 months or so, I’ve been utilizing my MacBook Air much more, whether or not I’m touring or spending the winter in a heated room moderately than my unheated storage.
So what’s higher, the single-Mac life or being a Mac vagabond? As somebody who’s been there, and again, and there once more, I can let you know that it’s by no means been simpler to reside the two-Mac life-style–but it surely’s additionally by no means been a greater time to only give the desktop up and be taught to like a Mac laptop computer.
The dangerous outdated days
Within the days of PowerPC and Intel laptops, residing this life was tough. Simply operating a Mac laptop computer in lid-closed mode, connected to an exterior show, was fraught with bugs. In the present day, most Macs are laptops, however for a very good a few years, the laptop computer was an oddball and the desktop was the “actual” Mac. In consequence, laptop computer bugs abounded, particularly when you wished to do one thing as outlandish as plug your laptop computer into an exterior show and shut the lid.
All Macs now allow you to use an iPad as a second show. However there was a time when merely operating any exterior show on a MacBook was an journey in troubleshooting.
Willis Lai/IDG
What I’m saying is, there was a number of unplugging and replugging, opening the lid and shutting the lid, and the like, with the intention to cajole the pc into correctly displaying on that exterior display screen. Issues obtained higher over time, but it surely was by no means good.
Worse, although, have been the sleep points. When the Mac went to sleep whereas connected to an exterior show, generally it wouldn’t come again with out assist–or with a pressured reboot. On many, many days, I’d unplug my laptop computer, pop it into my backpack, take an hourlong journey on a bus again residence, and take away the laptop computer–solely to search out the within of my backpack blazing sizzling as a result of my MacBook hadn’t gone to sleep in any case.
Maintaining in sync
Nonetheless, the plan once I began working for myself, in my storage, was to make use of my beloved MacBook Air and plug it into a giant show. That plan didn’t survive the discharge of the 5K iMac, and so started my years-long sojourn as an individual who used a desktop at my desk, however a laptop computer all over the place else.
I hadn’t lived like this for years, and issues actually had gotten significantly better for a number of Mac customers at the moment. The existence of cloud providers akin to iCloud and Dropbox has actually made issues a lot simpler. Nowadays I preserve most of my working information in Dropbox, however I additionally sync my Desktop and Paperwork folders by way of iCloud. The iCloud half is typically a bit wonky, but it surely’s so good to have the ability to put a folder on my Desktop in my workplace after which open my laptop computer and see that the identical file is on the Desktop there, too. (And, in fact, all these information are additionally accessible on my iPhone and iPad. Good!)
Once I not too long ago needed to wipe my Mac Studio’s onerous drive, I did so with no worry of dropping knowledge. Not solely do I again up each day by way of Time Machine and make a clone utilizing Carbon Copy Cloner, however all my very important information are in Dropbox or iCloud. It simply wasn’t a fear.
Whereas the cloud makes life as a person of many Macs simpler, it sadly additionally highlights all of the methods wherein it’s nonetheless onerous. Whereas some Mac apps have embraced the cloud as a approach to sync settings–BBEdit has allow you to do it by way of Dropbox or iCloud for fairly some time now–others solely do it in a restricted style. For instance, I can sync my Keyboard Maestro macros and my Hazel automations by way of the cloud, however solely after delving into their settings and enabling some particular cloud-sync options.
And that’s the apps that acknowledge the existence of the cloud. Different apps… simply don’t. As soon as I set Keyboard Maestro to sync utilizing iCloud, I found that each one my podcast-related automations crashed onerous in opposition to Audio Hijack’s lack of ability to sync both its classes or its scripts throughout gadgets. (It’s even worse: whilst you can import and export Audio Hijack classes, I might solely transfer scripts by diving into my native Utility Assist folder and copying a property listing file to the opposite laptop.) My Stream Deck settings additionally don’t sync, although at the very least they are often imported and exported. At the very least Shortcuts sync by way of iCloud–kind of. (There are occasional reliability points, however I’ve discovered that it principally works.)
Loads of system-level stuff can be simply not constant. I exploit the app SwiftBar to place ambient knowledge in my menu bar, principally from a bunch of Python scripts. SwiftBar is pleased to make use of a bunch of plug-ins from Dropbox or iCloud, which is nice! However preserving the model of Python on each methods in sync, at appropriate paths, with appropriate modules put in, is an ongoing problem. I not too long ago obtained a Hazel sync working once more by way of its settings-sync options, solely to find that my scripts have been failing as a result of the linked Python script was in an unsynced listing, and due to this fact my fixes on one laptop by no means moved to the opposite one.
An M4 Max MacBook Professional presents workstation-like efficiency in a transportable and lightweight bundle.
Foundry
The large image is that my information are within the cloud, and that’s superior. The main points, although, are irritating. Each time I am going a number of days with out utilizing both laptop, I discover I’m spending time getting issues again as much as present whereas additionally ready for Apple’s push notification server to alert me about all the pieces that’s already been handled on different gadgets.
So I made a decision perhaps it was time to cease the insanity.
Issues obtained higher
The discharge of the M4 Macs this fall actually made me think about my choices. Whereas I made a decision that an M4 Professional Mac mini wouldn’t be sufficient of an improve over my M1 Max Mac studio, I began to marvel: What about an M4 Max MacBook Professional?
In spite of everything, Apple’s latest laptops can be a quantum leap in efficiency over my previously superb desktop Mac. (Gone are the times when utilizing a laptop computer requires a severe drop in efficiency.) And if I decide to the laptop computer life-style, I don’t want to fret about syncing all these miscellaneous directories and app settings as a result of all over the place I am going, I’ll be utilizing the identical Mac!
Nonetheless: The worry of the dangerous outdated days. However being a laptop computer person within the period of Apple silicon is so significantly better than it was within the Intel years. Desktop Macs are superior, however they’re additionally outliers. The overwhelming majority of Macs in use are laptops. And on this period, Mac {hardware} and macOS itself are virtually solely centered on the laptop computer expertise.
My private expertise backs this up. I’d guess that within the final 12 months, I’ve spent extra time utilizing my MacBook Air operating in lid-closed mode connected to a Studio Show than I’ve used it as an precise laptop computer. And the expertise has been nice. I’ve observed virtually not one of the weirdnesses that used to plague me. I’m nonetheless blown away by the truth that once you plug in an exterior show, it simply… activates. There’s no bizarre blinking and flashing as all the pieces resets and composes itself like there was once. It actually does simply work.
Peripherals have come a good distance, too. Thunderbolt and USB-C docks make it a lot simpler to create docking stations for laptops. Within the bed room I exploit as an workplace within the winter, I’ve obtained a Studio show with a USB-C dock connected to one in all its ports, permitting me to chain off a microphone, keyboard, trackpad, and Stream Deck. Connecting to this setup requires a single Thunderbolt cable, which offers energy and streams out knowledge. It’s unbelievable.
Off I am going
After a lot fretting, I made a decision that I wanted to confess to myself that the proper determination was for me to grow to be a one-Mac particular person once more. And that signifies that a laptop computer is the proper determination for me.
Later this month, my M4 Max MacBook Professional will arrive, and I’ll start the migration. Positive, I’ll in all probability have to spend money on some extra docks and cables with the intention to convert my Mac Studio desk right into a MacBook Professional-friendly mannequin. However I’ll even be all the way down to a single laptop that I can use wherever, together with once I journey. (I don’t love the additional weight the MacBook Professional has over the MacBook Air, however I’m keen to shoulder the burden–actually. And my daughter will lastly have the ability to substitute her Intel Air with one thing higher.)
Ten years as a desktop Mac person was a number of enjoyable. I had an iMac, iMac Professional, and Mac Studio, and I loved all of them. However like virtually everybody else, I’ve discovered the pull of the laptop computer too robust to keep away from. Even when sitting at a desk watching a giant monitor, the MacBook Professional looks like the proper alternative.
