Again within the day, I had one pc. 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 main pc. However over the past 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 stay the two-Mac life-style–but it surely’s additionally by no means been a greater time to simply give the desktop up and study to like a Mac laptop computer.

The dangerous previous days

Within the days of PowerPC and Intel laptops, residing this life was tough. Simply operating a Mac laptop computer in lid-closed mode, hooked up to an exterior show, was fraught with bugs. At this time, most Macs are laptops, however for an excellent a few years, the laptop computer was an oddball and the desktop was the “actual” Mac. In consequence, laptop computer bugs abounded, particularly in the event you wished 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 quite a lot of 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 received higher over time, but it surely was by no means excellent.

Worse, although, have been the sleep points. When the Mac went to sleep whereas hooked up to an exterior show, generally it wouldn’t come again with out assist–or with a pressured reboot. On many, many days, I’d unplug my laptop computer, pop it into my backpack, take an hourlong experience on a bus again house, and take away the laptop computer–solely to search out the within of my backpack blazing sizzling as a result of my MacBook hadn’t gone to sleep in spite of everything.

Protecting 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 significantly better for a number of Mac customers for the time being. The existence of cloud companies corresponding to iCloud and Dropbox has actually made issues a lot simpler. Nowadays I maintain most of my working recordsdata in Dropbox, however I additionally sync my Desktop and Paperwork folders by way of iCloud. The iCloud half is typically a bit wonky, but it surely’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, after all, all these recordsdata are additionally accessible on my iPhone and iPad. Good!)

After I lately needed to wipe my Mac Studio’s onerous drive, I did so with no worry of shedding information. Not solely do I again up each day by way of 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 consumer of many Macs simpler, it sadly additionally highlights all of the methods by which it’s nonetheless onerous. Whereas some Mac apps have embraced the cloud as a solution to sync settings–BBEdit has allow you to do it by way of Dropbox or iCloud for fairly some time now–others solely do it in a restricted trend. For instance, I can sync my Keyboard Maestro macros and my Hazel automations by way of 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 every one my podcast-related automations crashed onerous in opposition to Audio Hijack’s incapacity to sync both its periods or its scripts throughout gadgets. (It’s even worse: when you can import and export Audio Hijack periods, I might solely transfer scripts by diving into my native Utility Assist folder and copying a property record file to the opposite pc.) My Stream Deck settings additionally don’t sync, although at the very least they are often imported and exported. Not less than Shortcuts sync by way of iCloud–kind of. (There are occasional reliability points, however I’ve discovered that it principally works.)

Loads of system-level stuff can also be simply not constant. I take advantage of the app SwiftBar to place ambient information in my menu bar, principally from a bunch of Python scripts. SwiftBar is completely satisfied to make use of a bunch of plug-ins from Dropbox or iCloud, which is nice! However preserving the model of Python on each methods in sync, at suitable paths, with suitable modules put in, is an ongoing problem. I lately received a Hazel sync working once more by way of its settings-sync options, solely to find that my scripts have been failing as a result of the related Python script was in an unsynced listing, and due to this fact my fixes on one pc 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 main points, although, are irritating. Each time I’m going a number of days with out utilizing both pc, 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 little thing that’s already been handled on different gadgets.

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

Issues received 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 marvel: What about an M4 Max MacBook Professional?

In spite of everything, Apple’s latest laptops can be a quantum leap in efficiency over my previously wonderful 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 life-style, I don’t want to fret about syncing all these miscellaneous directories and app settings as a result of all over the place I’m going, I’ll be utilizing the identical Mac!

Nonetheless: The worry of the dangerous previous days. However being a laptop computer consumer within the period of Apple silicon is so significantly 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 solely centered 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 operating in lid-closed mode hooked up to a Studio Show than I’ve used it as an precise laptop computer. And the expertise has been nice. I’ve observed nearly not one of the weirdnesses that used to plague me. I’m nonetheless blown away by the truth that whenever you plug in an exterior show, it simply… activates. There’s no bizarre blinking and flashing as every little thing resets and composes itself like there was once. 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 received a Studio show with a USB-C dock hooked up to one in all its ports, permitting me to chain off a microphone, keyboard, trackpad, and Stream Deck. Connecting to this setup requires a single Thunderbolt cable, which supplies energy and streams out information. It’s improbable.

Off I’m going

After a lot fretting, I made a decision that I wanted to confess to myself that the fitting resolution was for me to turn into a one-Mac individual once more. And that implies that a laptop computer is the fitting resolution for me.

Later this month, my M4 Max MacBook Professional will arrive, and I’ll start the migration. Positive, I’ll in all probability must spend money on 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 right down to a single pc that I can use anyplace, together with after I journey. (I don’t love the additional weight the MacBook Professional has over the MacBook Air, however I’m keen to shoulder the burden–actually. And my daughter will lastly be capable to substitute her Intel Air with one thing higher.)

Ten years as a desktop Mac consumer was quite a lot of 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 robust to keep away from. Even when sitting at a desk watching a giant monitor, the MacBook Professional looks like the fitting selection.