Back in the day , I had one information processing system . It was a laptop computer buy for me by my employer , and at work , I ’d attach it to an outside display and use it at my desk . At the end of the twenty-four hour period , I ’d close it up , put it in my rucksack , and take it home .
For the last 10 class , I ’ve make at a desk at home , with a desktop Mac as my main electronic computer . But over the last year or so , I ’ve been using my MacBook Air a mint more , whether I ’m go or spending the wintertime in a heated room rather than my unheated service department .
So what ’s better , the single - Mac life or being a Mac vagabond ? As someone who ’s been there , and back , and there again , I can tell you that it ’s never been sluttish to live the two - Mac modus vivendi – but it ’s also never been a better time to just give the desktop up and hear to love a Mac laptop computer .
All Macs now let you use an iPad as a second display. But there was a time when simply running any external display on a MacBook was an adventure in troubleshooting.
The bad old days
In the days of PowerPC and Intel laptop computer , live this life was boisterous . Just running a Mac laptop in lid - closed mode , attached to an extraneous display , was pregnant with bug . Today , most Macs are laptops , but for a good many year , the laptop was an oddball and the desktop was the “ real ” Mac . As a result , laptop computer bugs abounded , peculiarly if you want to do something as outlandish as stop up your laptop computer into an external video display and end the chapeau .
All Macs now let you use an iPad as a second show . But there was a meter when plainly running any extraneous video display on a MacBook was an adventure in troubleshooting .
Willis Lai / IDG
All Macs now let you use an iPad as a second display. But there was a time when simply running any external display on a MacBook was an adventure in troubleshooting.
What I ’m say is , there was a circumstances of unplug and replugging , open up the lid and closing the lid , and the comparable , to cajole the computing gadget into the right way display on that international screen . Things got better over fourth dimension , but it was never utter .
forged , though , were the sleep issues . When the Mac go to rest while attach to an external display , sometimes it would n’t derive back without aid – or with a forced reboot . On many , manydays , I ’d unplug my laptop , pop it into my packsack , take an hourlong ride on a bus back abode , and murder the laptop computer – only to find the inside of my backpack blazing hot because my MacBook had n’t gone to sleep after all .
Keeping in sync
Still , the plan when I started working for myself , in my service department , was to use my darling MacBook Air and plug it into a big display . That plan did n’t go the release of the 5 K iMac , and so began my year - farsighted visit as a someone who used a desktop at my desk , but a laptop computer everywhere else .
I had n’t lived like this for years , and things really had get much better for multiple Mac users in the intervening time . The existence of swarm service such as iCloud and Dropbox has really made things so much easier . These days I keep most of my working files in Dropbox , but I also synchronise my Desktop and Documents folders via iCloud . The iCloud part is sometimes a bit wonky , but it ’s so squeamish to be capable to put a pamphlet on my Desktop in my office and then open up my laptop and see that the same file is on the screen background there , too . ( And , of course , all those file are also accessible on my iPhone and iPad . Nice ! )
When Irecently had to pass over my Mac Studio ’s concentrated drive , I did so with no fear of losing data . Not only do I back up daily via Time Machine and make a clone usingCarbon Copy Cloner , but all my life-sustaining file are in Dropbox or iCloud . It just was n’t a worry .
An M4 Max MacBook Pro offers workstation-like performance in a portable and light package.
While the cloud stimulate life as a user of many Macs easy , it unfortunately also highlights all the way in which it ’s still hard . While some Mac apps have cover the cloud as a way to sync setting – BBEdit has let you do it via Dropbox or iCloud for quite a while now – others only do it in a special way . For example , I can synchronize my Keyboard Maestro macros and my Hazel automations via the swarm , but only after turn over into their configurations and enabling some specific cloud - sync lineament .
And that ’s the apps thatacknowledgethe existence of the cloud . Other apps … just do n’t . Once I arrange Keyboard Maestro to synchronise using iCloud , I discovered that all my podcast - come to automation crash severely against Audio Hijack ’s inability to sync either its sessions or its script across gimmick . ( It ’s even tough : while you could import and export Audio Hijack Roger Huntington Sessions , I could only move scripts by diving into my local app Support folder and copying a property list file to the other computer . ) My Stream Deck mise en scene also do n’t sync , though at least they can be import and exported . At least Shortcuts sync via iCloud – more or less . ( There are occasional reliability issues , but I ’ve find that it mostly work . )
Plenty of system - spirit level stuff is also just not ordered . I use the appSwiftBarto put ambient data point in my fare bar , mostly from a bunch of Python scripts . SwiftBar is felicitous to expend a bunch of plug - Indiana from Dropbox or iCloud , which is great ! But keeping the version of Python on both systems in sync , at compatible track , with compatible modules install , is an ongoing challenge . I recently got a Hazel sync cultivate again via its mount - sync feature film , only to bring out that my scripts were failing because the touch base Python script was in an unsynced directory , and therefore my fix on one computer never moved to the other one .
An M4 Max MacBook Pro offer workstation - corresponding carrying out in a portable and light software package .
Foundry
The liberal scene is that my files are in the cloud , and that ’s awesome . The details , though , are frustrative . Every metre I go several days without using either reckoner , I find I ’m expend meter getting things back up to current while also waiting for Apple ’s push notification server to alarm me about everything that ’s already been dealt with on other devices .
So I make up one’s mind maybe it was prison term to check the madness .
Things got better
The release of the M4 Macs this crepuscle reallymade me consider my options . While I decided that an M4 Pro Mac miniskirt would n’t be enough of an upgrade over my M1 Max Mac studio , I started to wonder : What about an M4 Max MacBook Pro ?
After all , Apple ’s New laptops would be a quantum leap in operation over my formerly amazing desktop Mac . ( Gone are the day when using a laptop computer requires a serious drop in performance . ) And if I commit to the laptop computer modus vivendi , I do n’t ask to worry about syncing all those sundry directories and app background because everywhere I go , I ’ll be using the same Mac !
Still : The fear of the bad old days . But being a laptop exploiter in the era of Apple silicon isso much betterthan it was in the Intel year . Desktop Macsare awesome , but they ’re also outlier . The vast majority of Macs in use are laptops . And in this era , Mac hardware and macOS itself are almost entirely focused on the laptop experience .
My personal experience back this up . I ’d guess that in the last yr , I ’ve spent more time using my MacBook Air running in lid - closed mode bind to a Studio Display than I ’ve used it as an actual laptop . And the experience has been keen . I ’ve noticed almost none of the weirdnesses that used to plague me . I am still blown away by the fact that when you plug in an external display , it just … turns on . There ’s no weird blink and flashing as everything resets and composes itself like there used to be . It really does just work .
peripheral have come a long way , too . Thunderbolt and USB - C pier make it much wanton to make docking station for laptops . In the bedchamber I expend as an office in the wintertime , I ’ve get a Studio display with a USB - carbon dock attach to one of its ports , allow me to chain off a microphone , keyboard , trackpad , and Stream Deck . Connecting to this setup requires a unmarried Thunderbolt cable , which provides exponent and streams out datum . It ’s fantastic .
Off I go
After much fretting , I decided that I needed to admit to myself that the right decision was for me to become a one - Mac individual again . And that means that a laptop is the veracious decision for me .
afterwards this calendar month , my M4 Max MacBook Pro will get , and I ’ll begin the migration . Sure , I ’ll in all likelihood postulate to clothe in some more docks and line to convert my Mac Studio desk into a MacBook Pro - well-disposed model . But I ’ll also be down to a single computer that I can use anywhere , including when I travel . ( I do n’t sleep together the extra weight the MacBook Pro has over the MacBook Air , but I ’m uncoerced to shoulder the gist – literally . And my daughter will finally be able to replace her Intel Air with something better . )
Ten years as a desktop Mac drug user was a lot of play . I had an iMac , iMac Pro , and Mac Studio , and I enjoyed them all . But like almost everyone else , I ’ve found the pull of the laptop computer too strong to avoid . Even when sitting at a desk gaze at a full-grown proctor , the MacBook Pro seems like the good pick .
