Windows vs macOS. Compare and contrast, and AS license

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 11:56am

Congratulations. I hope you’ll enjoy it. We will be here to help you.
This is a much better solution than straggling with your daughter’s Mac.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 11:59am

If you refer to AS, you’ll be able to use it on your Mac with the Android remote, when it will be released.

sandsOfArrakis · July 2, 2021, 12:44pm

He also wishes to run Roon and my Android’s Roon remote works fine here on both Mac and Windows.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 1:07pm

Nice one, I didn’t realise that. Makes things so much easier.

lwojtulewicz · July 2, 2021, 1:33pm

So - therefore would you be so kind as to tell me how to convince Mac to not force “US - international” keyboard when connecting to remote Win via RDP, but use native for OSX input source?

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 1:42pm

One thing I will ask now in case I forget later. Is there anything I need to do to make sure security is tight on the macbook from the start, or is it all built in and set up without me having to configure. The reason I ask is because my windows laptop was hacked a year or so ago and so I’ve been ultra cautious ever since.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 2:49pm

I’m no expert, but if you follow the doc that was posted further up the thread I would think you can change without knowing password. Perhaps I’m reading it wrong.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 2:55pm

Yes I’m sure I’ll be pleased, but if only my daughters macbook had a 256gb drive (to allow enough space for install of Big Sur) I could have had my hands on a very capable machine for the limited amount of tasks that I require to carry out on it - eg it will solely be a media player. And I’d have saved myself £800, although it would always have been my intention to get my own macbook eventually.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 4:05pm

Jim you are taking things too much to heart. You missed out the “hey” before my bit about not falling out, which shows it is meant with good grace. It’s just a saying at the end of the day, again I am sorry if you take offence at it but it was not my intention.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 4:07pm

You should not worry about the security. The Mac is a very secured system. But, like with Windows, you should be careful not to download scam from the net. (There’s not much of it for macOS, but there’s still some, especially some supposed anti-virus and security diagnosis pieces of software that are offered to you. You should always ignore these offers.)

You’ll have to get your own Apple ID. It will allow you to access to the Apple services. But also, to locate your computer in case of loss or a theft, and even to block it from usage in such cases.
You’ll have to fix your user password for the computer.
It’s a good idea to encrypt the drive of a laptop. In case of loss or theft, nobody could access your data.
You’ll get a free antivirus from App Store.

We will guide you in all these steps.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 4:12pm

Thanks, I already have my own apple id. I also had to give a password when I created my own user account on my daughters macbook, so will know what to do there. I can have a look at anti virus from the app store, but from what you say I’m guessing it should be secure enough until I get it.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 4:17pm

There are very few viruses on macOS. Actually, in 30 years of usage, I never encountered any virus issue. And I run macOS without any anti-virus most of these years. And I’m not alone. All around me, in the industry in which I work, and people that I know, there are only Macs, and no one ever had any virus issue.

But since there are good free anti-virus apps on the App Store, I got one, and I use it.

bitracer · July 2, 2021, 4:50pm

You don’t need antivirus on the Mac. It would be to protect your Windows using friends. Mac is pretty safe out of the box. You don’t have to do anything special to secure it.

Mac already has anti-malware capabilities built in with signatures being automatically updated with software updates.

sandsOfArrakis · July 2, 2021, 4:53pm

I’ve never used antivirus on my Macs. Nor those “clean up software”. You don’t need them.

The only thing I’ve added is an adblocker in my webbrowser. Otherwise my trusty MacBook Air is running with default settings. For some reason the adblockers don’t seem to work that well with Youtube in Safari, but they work fine when using Chrome.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 4:55pm

There are very few, but there are some viruses on macOS. Last year, there was a ransomware that was spread by Russian download sites of a supposedly cracked version of Little Snitch.

Here’s a link to a recent article about the state of malware on macOS.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 4:58pm

I use two free ad blockers from the App Store : “Ad guard” and “Adblock Plus”. Combined, they are quite efficient.

gryffe · July 2, 2021, 9:30pm

Ok so the macbook arrived at exactly 8pm - just at the start of the Italy vs Belgium match. Set up at half time, watched the 2nd half and am just playing with it now. Set up Audirvana, I have two streamers, one which uses USB, the other coax - both working perfectly.
Next went to Apple Music - I presume this has taken over from Itunes and does the same thing? Anyway, Apple Music does not seem to be able to see my two streamers on the network, even though AS can. Went to the macbooks sound settings and it can see my TV and Sky box so I’m stuck as to why it cannot see the streamers on the network. On my daughters macbook I wasn’t using the streamers so not sure if I would have hit the same problem, I was just using USB cable from her macbook to my amp. However it is a USB A-B cable which will not work with this macbook. I did not check before buying, just assumed it would have the same usb as my daughters macbook, but this has two thunderbolt/usb 4 which I’ve never heard of lol. I guess there will probably be an adapter I can use to allow me to use my USB cable.
Meanwhile I’ll install Roon.
Anybody any ideas why macbook cannot see my streamers on the network?
Cheers

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 9:47pm

Music replaced iTunes on macOS. For music, it’s basically the same application, but it got rid of other functions that it had like: Podcasts (now there’s an app just for that), iPhone’s synchronization and backup (now it’s done by the Finder), etc…
It’s normal that Music does not see the streamers. It’s unable to play in a network. It can play with Airplay.
For the USB ports, I already told you in earlier posts, but you must have forgotten, that you’ll have to buy a hub in order to plug to your MBA’s Thunderbolt ports USB-3, HDMI, SD Cards. These hubs are not expensive. There are many models between €15-35.

Why the Mac does not see the streamers? I can’t help you with that, because I don’t use any. Others may do.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 9:52pm

If it works with Audirvana, it means that the Mac sees the streamers. Why do you say that it does not see them?

Music does not see them, but Music is able of Airplay, not of network playback.

Music can also play with a DAC that is attached to the Mac.

Doudou · July 2, 2021, 10:06pm

I never use Music, but I launched it to check things for you. And I discovered something that I didn’t know. When connected to my DAC, Music upsamples 16/44.1 to 32/384 KHz. I don’t see a way to prevent it from upsampling.

The sound is not bad.