A couple days ago I posted that I was contemplating allowing myself to get sucked into the Apple ecosystem. I still find it ironic that Apple at one time advertised themselves as the anti-establishment brand. Remember the 1984 super bowl ad by Ridley Scott? The PC back then was still associated with IBM and conformity. Now? Apple is the very picture of conformity. All the cool kids want to be in the massive Apple ecosystem. The edgy, rebellious, hackers are all using PC’s, Android devices, and gasp, Linux based machines. Kids of today have no idea.

Anyway, the rest of this post probably won’t be of interest to most folks, other than a few tech-curious people. I’m going to walk through my thought process on maybe, maybe not switching ecosystems.

First up, my current setup. I “work” in two locations, often for weeks at a time. My main location has my desktop PC. It’s about three years old, reasonably beefy (for its time) and capable of decent video and photo editing. My second location has a very old tablet PC (the very first gen Microsoft Surface. 2 cores and a massive 4 GB of RAM) that has never been capable of anything and finally bit the dust.

Option one, in a perfect world, I’d have a powerful video editing machine at each location so that I’m only carrying an external drive back and forth. That option is too expensive.

Option two is to have a powerful machine with a form factor that I can easily transport back and forth.

Option three is just replace the tablet with something inexpensive and continue to do my video/photo editing in just one location.

Here’s what Apples options look like:

1. The new Macbook Air 15″. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB memory, 512 GB storage, 2 ports. Would not need to buy a monitor. $1,700
2. Mac Mini. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16 GB memory, 256 GB storage, 4 ports + HDMI. Will need to purchase at least one monitor. $800
3. Mac Studio. 12 core CPU, 30 core GPU, 32 GB memory, 512 GB storage, 8 ports + HDMI and SDXC. No monitor needed. $2,000

So my thought process goes like this… Option 1 is clearly the most portable, but I’ve always worked at a “desk” environment. It gives the option to work at a coffee shop, in the backyard, on the couch, etc… but it’s unclear if I’d ever take advantage of that. It’s just not something I’ve ever done.

Option 2 is reasonably portable. Adding a second monitor and keyboard puts the price pretty close to option 1.

Option 3 is clearly the best choice for video editing. But it’s not really portable so I’d have to also buy an inexpensive iPad for location 2 and continue to just edit in one location.

All three options will require buying external drive(s). Apples SSD storage is ridiculously expensive and slow. Additionally, moving to the Apple ecosystem will require buying an iPhone eventually.

So what to do? I think option 3 is out. The Mac Studio is an amazing machine for the money. Maybe someday if I develop a YouTube empire, but probably not realistic for now.

Option 1 feels like it gives the most flexibility. But if I ever decide I want a regular monitor/keyboard experience in both locations, option 2 becomes the most cost-effective choice.

Or maybe… I just get an inexpensive iPad to see if I even like the Apple interface and readdress all this in 2-3 years when my desktop PC is too outdated and/or my existing phone dies?

Analysis paralysis is real my friends. And don’t even get me started on looking for a new office chair…