A New Computer Experience

Buying a new computer is equitable to buying a new car.   It is exhilarating and awful in the same breath. There are entirely too many options to filter the noise out effectively, as well as a lot of junk, too.  Sometimes, it is better stick with what you know.

I gave in to the world of Apple, recently while considering options to replace my 2014 i5 with something similar to the to the Mac Mini M1.  I wanted appropriate power in a small footprint.  That little piece of equipment fit the bill, while the variety of comparable options in the PC world boggles the mind, with mixed reviews. Conversely, Apple's reputation for both hardware and software stood for itself.

All seemed well, at first.  Learning the OS involved a lot of "how to" searches.  Each left me a little more disappointed, each time.  Functionality in that realm is somewhat limited or pushed to "the cloud" without any other option.  That may not be entirely true, but I did not wait around long with this platform.  

A lack of ability to write to NTFS drives felt crippling.  There is an option out there to enable it, but often the installation requires changes to the kernel, seeming to leave doors open.  Other options offer the chance to "brick" your new Mac Mini M1, attempting to open this forbidden gateway.  

That was really the last straw.  I packed it up and sent it back.  Suddenly, there seemed very little reason to abandon the old i5.  A facelift with Windows 10 made it feel new again, along with my old friend the alien head.  That upgrade had been put off for entirely too long.

It did not last long and was a poor choice, ultimately leading to a new i7 nVidia supported machine running Windows 11.  It is good and makes light work of photo processing and video editing.  

The video editor is a love / hate situation.  It lacks certain functionality, while churning out high quality product.  The recommended ClipChamp turned out to be a pile of garbage, leveraging so much compression that video looked awful, even at 1080p.  I hope DaVinci Resolve stands up to its name and resolves the necessity to lean on either of the aforementioned.

. . .

Further Reading

If you are a veteran Windows user, don't buy a Mac.  It is not worth the trouble.  

The entire thing is designed for beginners and too simplified, to the point of annoying.