I will all the time love my desktop Mac, however I’ve determined to modify–this is why

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 house.

For the final 10 years, I’ve labored at a desk at house, with a desktop Mac as my major 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 quite 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 inform you that it’s by no means been simpler to dwell the two-Mac way of life–nevertheless it’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 previous days

Within the days of PowerPC and Intel laptops, residing this life was tough. Simply working a Mac laptop computer in lid-closed mode, connected to an exterior show, was fraught with bugs. At the moment, most Macs are laptops, however for a few years, the laptop computer was an oddball and the desktop was the “actual” Mac. Because of this, laptop computer bugs abounded, particularly for those who needed to do one thing as outlandish as plug your laptop computer into an exterior show and shut the lid.

Willis Lai/IDG

What I’m saying is, there was numerous unplugging and replugging, opening the lid and shutting the lid, and the like, in an effort to cajole the pc into correctly displaying on that exterior display screen. Issues acquired higher over time, nevertheless it was by no means excellent.

Worse, although, had 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 compelled reboot. On many, many days, I’d unplug my laptop computer, pop it into my backpack, take an hourlong trip on a bus again house, and take away the laptop computer–solely to seek out the within of my backpack blazing scorching as a result of my MacBook hadn’t gone to sleep in any case.

Maintaining in sync

Nonetheless, the plan after 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 a lot better for a number of Mac customers in the mean time. The existence of cloud companies corresponding to iCloud and Dropbox has actually made issues a lot simpler. Lately I preserve most of my working recordsdata in Dropbox, however I additionally sync my Desktop and Paperwork folders through iCloud. The iCloud half is usually a bit wonky, nevertheless it’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 recordsdata are additionally accessible on my iPhone and iPad. Good!)

Once I not too long ago needed to wipe my Mac Studio’s laborious drive, I did so with no worry of shedding information. Not solely do I again up day by day through Time Machine and make a clone utilizing Carbon Copy Cloner, however all my very important recordsdata 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 laborious. Whereas some Mac apps have embraced the cloud as a approach to sync settings–BBEdit has allow you to do it through 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 through 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 laborious in opposition to Audio Hijack’s incapability to sync both its periods or its scripts throughout gadgets. (It’s even worse: whilst you can import and export Audio Hijack periods, I may solely transfer scripts by diving into my native Software Help folder and copying a property checklist file to the opposite laptop.) My Stream Deck settings additionally don’t sync, although no less than they are often imported and exported. At the very least Shortcuts sync through iCloud–kind of. (There are occasional reliability points, however I’ve discovered that it largely works.)

Loads of system-level stuff can be simply not constant. I take advantage of the app SwiftBar to place ambient information in my menu bar, largely from a bunch of Python scripts. SwiftBar is joyful to make use of a bunch of plug-ins from Dropbox or iCloud, which is nice! However maintaining 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 acquired a Hazel sync working once more through its settings-sync options, solely to find that my scripts had been failing as a result of the related Python script was in an unsynced listing, and subsequently my fixes on one laptop by no means moved to the opposite one.

Foundry

The large image is that my recordsdata are within the cloud, and that’s superior. The small print, 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 every thing that’s already been handled on different gadgets.

So I made a decision perhaps it was time to cease the insanity.

Issues acquired higher

The discharge of the M4 Macs this fall actually made me take into account 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 surprise: What about an M4 Max MacBook Professional?

In spite of everything, Apple’s latest laptops could 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 way of life, 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 previous days. However being a laptop computer person within the period of Apple silicon is so a lot 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 nearly fully targeted 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 working 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 seen nearly not one of the weirdnesses that used to plague me. I’m nonetheless blown away by the truth that if you plug in an exterior show, it simply… activates. There’s no bizarre blinking and flashing as every thing resets and composes itself like there was. It actually does simply work.

Peripherals have come a great distance, too. Thunderbolt and USB-C docks make it a lot simpler to create docking stations for laptops. Within the bed room I take advantage of as an workplace within the winter, I’ve acquired a Studio show with a USB-C dock connected to one in every of its ports, permitting me to chain off a microphone, keyboard, trackpad, and Stream Deck. Connecting to this setup requires a single Thunderbolt cable, which gives energy and streams out information. It’s implausible.

Off I am going

After a lot fretting, I made a decision that I wanted to confess to myself that the appropriate determination was for me to develop into a one-Mac individual once more. And that signifies that a laptop computer is the appropriate determination for me.

Later this month, my M4 Max MacBook Professional will arrive, and I’ll start the migration. Certain, I’ll in all probability must put money into some extra docks and cables in an effort 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 after I journey. (I don’t love the additional weight the MacBook Professional has over the MacBook Air, however I’m prepared to shoulder the burden–actually. And my daughter will lastly have the ability to change her Intel Air with one thing higher.)

Ten years as a desktop Mac person was numerous enjoyable. I had an iMac, iMac Professional, and Mac Studio, and I loved all of them. However like nearly everybody else, I’ve discovered the pull of the laptop computer too sturdy to keep away from. Even when sitting at a desk gazing a giant monitor, the MacBook Professional looks as if the appropriate selection.