What is your "post-PC" plan?

[bUU]

My laptop is dying. (The battery is completely dead - big red X through the tray icon. And the screen got all scratched up when the laptop slipped out of my hand as I was struggling to read the 3 point type of the service tag number, when I was trying to buy a replacement battery.) I do too much heavy lifting for church with my laptop to not have one - audio, photo and video editing; putting together sermons, orders of service, and worship discussion group handouts; administering the website; etc.

I'm also pretty demanding of, and pretty demanding on my laptop. I've sought out the laptop that will give me the best performance for the money, one that can take what I give it and still be robust. I've decided to buy a gaming laptop. They're not as rugged as those military laptops, but they're also not as expensive! I should have it in a week. It is a complete desktop replacement. It's heavy, but that'll be okay because it moves about 20 feet a day, from one part of the house to the other.

We have a desktop, but just to store files. It doesn't actually do much else. I tried booting up Quicken Lifetime Planner in it and it crashed. It sits in the corner of the room, on the network, without keyboard, mouse or monitor.

And then we each have a tablet. That's our portable media/news reader/email reader/forum reader solution. We mostly use them for taking notes at meetings. They're not good for much more than that. They cannot run Quicken, or edit video, etc.

 

[Midpack]

Did you consider an All-In-One Dell desktop? I'm using a 2004 Dell desktop running XP, so I will have to buy a replacement soon.

I may buy whatever looks good on QVC.

Yes, the iMac is an AIO and I did look at Dell, Lenovo, HP and Acer AIO's. But since I have a decent LCD and large, vertical touchscreen is just a novelty IMO, a tower was just more bang for the hardware buck. Maybe next time, though I expect convergence to change things considerably in 5-6 years. I expect Apple to have something radically different by then, even without Steve Jobs.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I have a 2009 Gateway FX gaming model running Win 7 64 bit OS.
DS10 has a 2012 $300 Win 7 laptop and iPad2
DS17 has a 2012 Mac Pro and iPad3
DW has 2013 iPad Mini.
I have an HP Touchpad running Android and a Samsung S4 smartphone.

I will replace the functionality of the Gateway when it dies, not sure what it will be but probably will be another desktop.

I dislike laptops.

 

[sailor]

We have a desktop, but just to store files. It doesn't actually do much else. I tried booting up Quicken Lifetime Planner in it and it crashed. It sits in the corner of the room, on the network, without keyboard, mouse or monitor.

In the spirit of LBYM I'd like to point out, that might cost you north of $100 a year for the electricity. My desktop runs @ 110W idle, with my electricity prices 10c/kWh that comes to about $100 a year.
Dedicated NAS devices tend to be much less thirsty.
Even lower power consumption are external usb hard drives (the USB powered are only 2.5W, but need to be attached to a pc [although some routers/access points can have attached storage nowadays] )
Lowest power consumption are solid state devices, but these are pricey per unit of storage.

 

[ERD50]

Yes, the iMac is an AIO and I did look at Dell, Lenovo, HP and Acer AIO's. But since I have a decent LCD and large, vertical touchscreen is just a novelty IMO, a tower was just more bang for the hardware buck. Maybe next time, though I expect convergence to change things considerably in 5-6 years. I expect Apple to have something radically different by then, even without Steve Jobs.

I think you are right about vertical touch screens. Back in the distant past, we set up vertical touchscreens for some data entry on our production lines (Mac SEs running Hyper-Card, IIRC with a 3rd party touch overlay). We were pretty proud of these things, really high tech at the time - just point to the problem component on the picture on the screen, up pops a list of defects to choose from. What could be easier?

The operators hated it. Lifting your arm up like that and doing precise selections is surprisingly fatiguing. In no time, they were back to using the mouse. I guess we just didn't have room to lay the screens down to orient it that way.

...
When we come home to stay, I am going to use Linux or BSD and open software exclusively and keep the laptop for emergencies. I feel no need to feed Microsoft. DW will probably keep using her Windows laptop and the family machine. We will continue to replace hard disks and printers when they die.

Maybe after the 14.04 Long Term Release is out for Ubuntu, I'll set up DWs MacBookPro to dual boot. It'd be interesting to see if she'd have any problems using Ubuntu, and maybe buy a generic laptop when she needs to replace hers (she's not a power user, so that will probably be a long time out, and she uses her iPad 80% of the time). OTOH, it's kinda nice to have an OSX machine around, just in case something isn't supported in Linux (but these are really far and few between for me). And the 'Apple premium' really isn't so bad for their entry level laptops.

Note if you use media player (at least on Windows 8) it will go out to the web and download the track labels and art. In most cases its correct, one may find the every so often the track titles in another language. Rarely the database will get 2 cds confused, since it uses track lengths to identify cds.

...

I also bought a USB turntable and digitized the 200 or so albums I had. There you do have to enter the info yourself, but often can get a copy of the cover art from folks who have the records for sale on Amazon. In this case I made the tracks side 1 and side 2, just they way you would have done with the old record changer.

Pretty sure all the modern CD rippers will get the track data and cover art from the internet (my Linux tools do that). But you don't easily find all the info, liner notes, booklets, label art, etc - it is just the cover.

I was disappointed in this when I first started ripping my CDs. I really thought those databases would have everything in them - composer, musicians and instruments on every track, producer, recording date, etc. I'd love to be able to search my music, and say "Make a playlist for all songs with David Holland on bass". When I listen to vinyl, I always find it interesting to see which musicians are backing up others. You see some pretty big names pop up on other artists music, or less-famous session artists on lots of different tunes.

I've also been tweaking the 'genre' metadata with my own codes, so I can easily make playlists of sub-genres.

-ERD50

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I like the Startech Dual Hot swappable USB 3 to save files on. All my media is on a Networked Dune 3D HD Media Player and backed up on the Startech via the laptops. I used to have a NAS but no real need for it anymore.

 

[Katsmeow]

I have no post PC plan because I expect to have a PC for a very long time unless and until something else replaces the functionality.

I love my iPad and use it a lot. It is very nice for reading books and some casual web surfing. I also have a number of apps that are useful.

But, it doesn't replace my PC.

I have dual 27" monitors and like being able to have things on 2 monitors. I like being able to have multiple programs open and able to see multiple things at once.

I like to game. I like having a dedicated video card. I would be extremely unhappy with a $500 desktop PC. We all have things that are valuable to us and a good computer is one that is valuable to me.

As much as I like my iPad many things I like to do can't be done on the iPad and many of the apps have reduced functionality compared to full programs. Not to even mention that some programs (some games for example) just aren't available for the iPad at all.

There are people who are fine without a dedicated video card and who don't care about large monitors and multi-tasking. That is fine. I just have a different set of wants.

 

[sengsational]

I've had a houseful of machines, with kids', dw, htpc, etc, and I really don't like the sysadmin duties! I'm down to two xp desktops, one xp htpc, one android tablet and two android phones. I don't know enough about android to do any sysadmin duties, hehe, but I'm going to have to do something with the dang XP boxes

I'll echo what others have said...not wanting to feed Microsoft...so I might go Linix, even though that spells more sysadmin duties. But unless I go to win7 on the htpc, I'll need to walk away from the DVR code I co-wrote, so I'll probably pad the wallet of MS on that one.

 

[easysurfer]

I just ordered a refurbished Win 7 Desktop from Tiger Direct for when I move from XP to Win 7.

Let the fun (well not really ) of upgrading begin.

 

[eytonxav]

I've been going back and forth on whether to replace my XP desktop with either another PC or an iMac. Well, Best Buy had a Presidents Day sale that was enough to push me to buy an iMac. I probably won't switch to the iMac until I get my taxes done, and that should hopefully give me some time to understand how to transfer PC files to the Mac. I'll be happy to get rid of the spider web of wires from my present system and just have a power cord.

 

[imoldernu]

Too many computers...
2 at camp, 2 in FL
3 here in IL all networked and sync'd... plus my Trio 10" $100 Tablet and 7" Nextbook $69.

Last computer was an off lease HP w/windows 7...$100 plus $25 to upgrade to 4 meg RAM.


Backed up all files, but not operating systems to a 3T drive. Son copied most of these to his 3T drive... so double backup.
................................................................
Also keep for fun:
old HP laptop with Windows 95
Emachine with windows 98,
Adam... Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
Sinclair...
.............................................................
Maybe, just maybe, will buy another refurb for my 80th.

 

[explanade]

I've been going back and forth on whether to replace my XP desktop with either another PC or an iMac. Well, Best Buy had a Presidents Day sale that was enough to push me to buy an iMac. I probably won't switch to the iMac until I get my taxes done, and that should hopefully give me some time to understand how to transfer PC files to the Mac. I'll be happy to get rid of the spider web of wires from my present system and just have a power cord.

I think there are some utilities for moving files from PC to Mac.

Apple Stores may also help.

 

[eytonxav]

I think there are some utilities for moving files from PC to Mac.

Apple Stores may also help.

It does come with a Migration Assistant app, but I begin to struggle when is mentions entering computer name and password, and things like that (eg domain, etc). While I know the admin name on my PC, it does not have a password. Also when they mention PW, I am not sure if they are referring to the Mac or PC. Further, I do not have file sharing enabled on my wireless network, so am not sure whether the PC needs to be reset to allow file sharing before proceeding or not. I probably need to visit the Apple store and ask some questions, although I am not sure how willing they will be to help me since I bought the Mac at Best Buy. As to BB, not sure I'd trust their geek squad for advice.

 

[Midpack]

It does come with a Migration Assistant app, but I begin to struggle when is mentions entering computer name and password, and things like that (eg domain, etc). While I know the admin name on my PC, it does not have a password. Also when they mention PW, I am not sure if they are referring to the Mac or PC. Further, I do not have file sharing enabled on my wireless network, so am not sure whether the PC needs to be reset to allow file sharing before proceeding or not. I probably need to visit the Apple store and ask some questions, although I am not sure how willing they will be to help me since I bought the Mac at Best Buy. As to BB, not sure I'd trust their geek squad for advice.

As I understand it, the Migration Assistant will work with an external HDD also. Several people, including an actual Apple employee at our local Best Buy, told me I could simply copy my Win folders/files and the iMac would read an external HDD formatted for Windows, just can't write to it. That's the route I was planning on before I scrapped the idea of buying an iMac. FWIW

 

[meierlde]

As I understand it, the Migration Assistant will work with an external HDD also. Several people, including an actual Apple employee at our local Best Buy, told me I could simply copy my Win folders/files and the iMac would read an external HDD formatted for Windows, just can't write to it. That's the route I was planning on before I scrapped the idea of buying an iMac. FWIW

I suspect if it would take an external HDD it would also take a usb flash drive. So it depends on the amount of data in question. flash drives come up to 128 gb in size now (at least). Note that in this fashion you also have a permanent (relatively) backup of your PC files. Actually you would not need the app just copy the files to the new places on the mac.

 

[explanade]

Yeah how much data do you have?

Office documents shouldn't take up too much storage. Nor things like Quicken files, though you probably don't want to use Quicken Essentials for Mac.

The big ones would be photos and videos.

There may be utilities which will transfer your email setting to the Mac. Ideally, you would only have IMAP email accounts and all you would do is enter the addresses and passwords and your emails would sync.

BTW, I got a Windows laptop and I don't like any of the email clients as much as the Mail.app for Mac. It has a unified inbox for multiple email accounts (though you can select on the email account you want on the left sidebar to only show emails from that account) plus it threads emails.

 

[eytonxav]

As I understand it, the Migration Assistant will work with an external HDD also. Several people, including an actual Apple employee at our local Best Buy, told me I could simply copy my Win folders/files and the iMac would read an external HDD formatted for Windows, just can't write to it. That's the route I was planning on before I scrapped the idea of buying an iMac. FWIW

That could be an option and I may have an external HDD stored some place, but finding where it is could be a bigger problem

I suspect if it would take an external HDD it would also take a usb flash drive. So it depends on the amount of data in question. flash drives come up to 128 gb in size now (at least). Note that in this fashion you also have a permanent (relatively) backup of your PC files. Actually you would not need the app just copy the files to the new places on the mac.

Could use a finger drive and do it manually, which would get around the PW and networking issues, although it might be more time consuming.

Yeah how much data do you have?

Office documents shouldn't take up too much storage. Nor things like Quicken files, though you probably don't want to use Quicken Essentials for Mac.

The big ones would be photos and videos.

There may be utilities which will transfer your email setting to the Mac. Ideally, you would only have IMAP email accounts and all you would do is enter the addresses and passwords and your emails would sync.

BTW, I got a Windows laptop and I don't like any of the email clients as much as the Mail.app for Mac. It has a unified inbox for multiple email accounts (though you can select on the email account you want on the left sidebar to only show emails from that account) plus it threads emails.

I am not sure how many gb of data I have: outlook emails back to 2003, lots of pics, pdfs, spreadsheets, music, word & excel files. Just like there are horders of physical things, I am coming to the conclusion that I suffer from that affliction on the data side too.

I thought the migration assistant would be the easiest path, provided I can get the networking handshakes input correctly, but until I can get some clarifications from the Apple store or thru phone support, I am going to hold up on using any of the above options.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

[explanade]

Hmm, I wonder if the Outlook emails can be opened by the standard Mail program.

There is no Outlook for the Mac. There used to be Outlook Express but that was a long time ago.

You may need to export those old emails in some kind of text form and import ...

 

[ERD50]

Hmm, I wonder if the Outlook emails can be opened by the standard Mail program.

There is no Outlook for the Mac. There used to be Outlook Express but that was a long time ago.

You may need to export those old emails in some kind of text form and import ...

You might want to try Thunderbird, cross-platform email for Win, Mac & Linux. They talk about importing from Outlook:

Mozilla Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox

Thunderbird

I've been using it for years on Linux.

-ERD50

 

[Midpack]

Hmm, I wonder if the Outlook emails can be opened by the standard Mail program.

There is no Outlook for the Mac. There used to be Outlook Express but that was a long time ago.

You may need to export those old emails in some kind of text form and import ...

You can get email accounts from your Internet service provider (ISP), your employer, or web services such as Windows Live Mail and Google Gmail. Outlook doesn’t create or issue email accounts. It only provides access to your email accounts.

The iOS mail app on my iPad provides full access (read, reply, etc.) to gmail and ISP email accounts (like Outlook reads) among others, I'd be willing to bet the iMac Mail app can read your "Outlook email." Your email domain @________ will allow you to see if iMac mail can provide access.

I'd rather have one mail app (Apple & Win both have them free) that can read multiple email address/types, instead of having to open them separately with different apps. YMMV

 

[eytonxav]

I believe that old Outlook email messages stored on my PC can be migrated to Apple mail, and that is what I want to do. Future new messages will not be a problem once I shut down my old PC.

 

[rbmrtn]

Outlook stores it's info in PST files, unique to outlook. You can use thunderbird as a tool to import to mac. Here's a writeup Import Email From Outlook to Apple Mail.app Using Thunderbird

Or you can just use thundebird. I've gotten away from using email clients and just use the web interface of my email service.

 

[eytonxav]

Well it looks like 2 votes for Thunderbird. Thanks guys!

 

[explanade]

Just use IMAP accounts.

POP is so 90s.

 

[donheff]

Just use IMAP accounts.

POP is so 90s.

I have set up email for a lot of people who still use thick clients like Outlook and Thunderbird and found that not all ISPs offer IMAP. Some only offer POP3. If you are stuck with POP3 make sure you specify that a copy of undeleted messages remain on the server. A lot of people don't do that and then lose their saved messages when their PC dies (also assuming they don't keep backups which is a good guess if they don't leave copies on the server).