YVR Cockroach

I am too cheap to buy a Mac. Started off with PCs that ran in the thousands in the '80s. Haven't bought one that has costed more than $1k since the mid-'90s, and most of them are much, much cheaper. Hottest stuff I have right now are Lenovo S30s (Xeon E5-1620 CPU) and even with an SSD and KB/M + power cord (came with none), I'm not even at $250-300. Recently acquired faster RAM to bring it up from 16GB to 128GB. If I sold my surplus sticks on fleaBay, I may even come out negative.

FLYMSY

david55,

The honest answer to your question is, yes, it’s possible. Short, and to the point.

1P

The very last option in the Windows 10 photo app, down the left-hand side, along with orientation, paper size, photo size (make sure you set it to Full page), etc, is Fit, where you select either Fill page or Shrink to fit. You must not have looked that far down.

david55

Finally.

Mac arrives today.

david55

The new Mac arrived yesterday. I spent the day trying to adapt to the workings of a MAC....and by evening the little beauty was packed up and ready for return. Gorgeous machine but just too much re-learning for me.

What sealed its fate was a lousy call to Apple support trying to " reset" the computer to factory settings for return. It was not intuitive for me to figure it out ( PCs have a setting you just click) and the Apple support person was hard to understand ( she mumbled and talked fast) and I ended up having to hold my iPhone in one hand while she looked at my laptop screen via the phone camera to tell me what to do.....just weird. I probably should have just hung up and called back to reach a different CSR.

Anyway....I'm now looking at the HP Spectre 360 16" OLED....everything I want but not available yet because of pandemic chip shortages. Patience is not my forte.

GadgetFreak

But why did you want to reset and return it? You said that sealed its fate but what got you to that point?

yosithezet

What was hard to adapt to?

StuckInYYZ

I'd be curious as to what you found difficult, (not saying it wasn't, just curious). To be fair to Apple (or any other OS you need to learn), I would have given it more than just a day. It can be frustrating, but it takes time to learn a new interface and how things work. At the very least, I would have given it the weekend for you to break it in (or it break you in).

That unfortunately is not something that can be learned or not. Depending on the company, customer service is often hit or miss. CSR is a position that requires patience as the range of callers is so varied.

cblaisd

But, but, I thought..... "It just works."

I'm with you, david55.

And, yes, I have spent enough time on Macs to feel confident in being annoyed when so many things are so un-intuitive

StuckInYYZ

Lol, I'm not the one who's saying it does. I've long argued with Apple fans about a range of topics from user interface to the myth that Apple doesn't have viruses to how it can be so dumbed down that you can't fix the issue and everything inbetween. But as a new user, I would have spent a weekend to see if I could adapt... but that's me, not david55.

Again, I also reference the LTT videos about using an unfamiliar OS as a daily driver challenge...

chrisrozon

I went from 30+ years on Windows anD 5 ish on Chromebooks to a MacBook 3 or so years ago.
it definitely took more than a day to learn, but I’ll never go back now. Once my brain properly adapted to the new conventions it quickly all made sense.

david55

After 5 hours of "playing".... I really asked myself why am I doing this? I am a real visual person and my computer desktop has always been simple, uncluttered, organized and visually pleasing. After fiddling around on the Mac...my desktop looked just the opposite....without real knowledge how to clean it up. When I tried to change the folder icon on the mac it took way more steps than I was use to. ( I'm not even sure you can do it) I didn't like the way my email program looked. My folders that had lots of links to various sites I go to, I brought over from the pc onto the mac ... the links couldn't be opened. ( it needed an app that according to the app store was not available " in my country".)

With more patience I could have figured it all out I'm sure......But to re-learn at this point, everything felt like it took a step or two more than I was use to....or willing to commit at this time in my life. This may be more a case of a neurotic personality and less about the Mac and its intuitiveness. The laptop is already safely back at Costco.

I ordered an 16" OLED HP Spectre this morning ....which despite not being as powerful as the Mac....fits the bill for my needs. ( I hope)

BTW...thank you all for hand holding and advising me during this experiment.

StuckInYYZ

Nothing wrong with that. It's one of the risks of changing operating systems. I was just curious because it was an incredibly short period of time. After a period of time, it's sense memory that drives how you do things. I have fingers in too many UIs as I have to support and test various things. But it's interesting to see how others adapt (or not).

BTW, I would not necessarily call the Spectre weaker. Sure the scores are lower than the Mac, but if you base it all on scores, you're going to be really annoyed. As long as it works for you, then have at it.

The only issue you might have at this point is learning Windows 11.

cblaisd

Not if you use something like Classic Shell or similar to revert to the Win7 interface

david55

You're right ...it was an incredibly short amount of time....but historically it doesn't take long for me to realize I made a mistake and the control issues in me have to make it good it immediately. Hence being at Costco first thing this morning to return the computer. ( Thank god for their old people hours)

BTW....I downloaded Windows 11 a month or so ago..... I liked it from day one although I miss a few of the 10's shortcuts and additional display options.