In the last episode, Augusto posed a question for the ProductivityCast team about how we chose the hardware we use today, to be most productive. Much of the discussion centers on operating systems, as you’ll see from this second part of that discussion, about our own choices in hardware, software ecosystems, and operating systems. They’re so intrinsically connected today. Though, as Ray will note, that’s all going to change eventually!

Do you have thoughts or questions after listening to today’s episode about choosing the best productivity hardware (or platform) for your situation? Let us know and we’ll try to answer your question on an upcoming episode!

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Show Notes

Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

Parallels Desktop Emulator

GNU with Linux

Test Drive PC Game

PageMaker (Mac)

Microsoft Publisher

Open Source Software

Scribus

Inkscape

PhotoShop

Google Drive

Mozy Backup

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, PhD

Open Document Format

How to Install ChromeOS on an Old Computer/Laptop

How to Install Chrome OS on Any PC and Turn It Into a Chromebook

NeverNote/NixNote (Evernote alternative for Linux)

Adult scoliosis

Scrivener

Things

OmniFocus

DayOne

1Password

Andromeda - Fuschia

Raw Text Transcript

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are you ready to manage your work and

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personal world better to live a more

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fulfilling productive life then you've

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come to the right place

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welcome to productivity cast the weekly

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show about all things productivity here

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are your hosts ray Sidney-Smith and

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Augusto Pinaud so last time we got

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together we were discussing about the

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different you know tools and hardware

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pieces of hardware we have the windows

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to max the iPad the tablets and

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everything else and but I wanted to

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continue the discussion into how to

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choose because Francis I know it's on a

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Windows machine I am mostly on an iPad

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and you know have access to to a Mac if

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I need to but but hasn't always been

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like that you know and it has changed

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over the years and have jumped from the

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Mac to the PC to the Mac and and

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different things so doesn't matter which

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operating system you are for the 90% of

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the things you know you can go

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Chromebooks and be ok

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iPad and be ok windows and be ok

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and then the Mac you keep on to those

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four and even Linux introduced those 5

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operating systems you can really do 90

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percent and now it's a matter of

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software specific that will limit a

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matter of capability it's less and less

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these days so I'm curious how we can how

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we choose which hardware to use and what

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are those criteria that we have for the

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hardware we use and and what we will

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recommend people you know when they need

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to choose a different kind of hardware

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and we have with us our regular

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contributor Frances Wade Frances how are

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you today I'm great pleasure to be here

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fantastic so as the lead in talked about

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we're going to be talking about hardware

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choices and it's as a continuation of

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our conversation last week before I was

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I my first computer you know if I go

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really really back was an Apple

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Macintosh

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Tandy II here I may need - I may need to

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research what kind of computer was that

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that was not available on my time that

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was not available on my time I really

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don't know what kind of machine is that

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but the first computer that made it home

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was an Apple Macintosh that's what I

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start my scene I went from there to a PC

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and went through the different pains of

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being a Windows user 2007 I decide it

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was time to go back to the Mac I was at

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that time pc user but i really did not

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enjoy my computer and experience so i

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wanted something better so I decided to

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test a MacBook and I really fell in love

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with the fact that it works you know

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when I did that change a good friend of

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mine came to have dinner with us at home

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and he asked so how is the Mac because

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he was really curious he wanted to do

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the same and before I could answer my

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wife said oh it's great everybody on

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this dinner table look at her like how

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do you know and she said it was great

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now he going to his home office and he

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don't shout before this is to hear all

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these awful words coming from the office

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I'm going to throw you to the window you

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beep okay that was a change that the Mac

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brought for me it was more a machine

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that works for what I needed to do not

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perfect by any means but it was a

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machine where I could be much more

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productive and much more relaxed and for

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that reason I really like the platform

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but at that time I was heavy road

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warrior I was traveling over 250,000

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miles a year on 2010 when the iPad was

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announced I look you know for what I did

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I look at the iPad I say

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with the current version as it was with

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all their limitations in 2010 I can

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probably get rid of half of the gear on

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my back and in fact I did pages at that

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time was not as powerful numbers at that

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time was not as powerful but I could get

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by for 90% of the stuff and instead of

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carry that much weight I turn myself

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into a superlight bag that even even

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with the standards of battery at that

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time you know I could last most of the

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day and if not it was a piece of cake to

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carry the charger with me and the more I

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work on the iPad with again their

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difficulties I fall in love with the

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difference on how much how they I was

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working on the iPad and at that

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evolution came I begin to see more and

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more power I'm a bit of history as I

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started off using a Texas Instruments 99

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for a back in 1980 one or two long time

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ago I I was fortunate enough to spend

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three two summers working at a company

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that had its first IBM pcs ones where

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the two floppy drives and so forth so I

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was using DOS Mac then when I went to

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university it was really mostly about

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apple Macintosh's which had just been

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purchased we use them heavily but they

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were also lots of Windows program not

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Windows at the time but there were PC

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programs that we had to use also this

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was engineering school so we had to use

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both and when I left sort of ended

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entered industry the Macintosh of stills

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or Apple machines were still sort of

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exotic so I grew up in the Windows or in

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the Microsoft ecosystem and never really

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left I've never owned have an owner of

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an Apple machine never not even not even

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a phone part of the justification for

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that is only because

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I use I like to test out new apps and

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they in the past they always tended to

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come out on the windows ecosystem first

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and I never wanted to give up the apps

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...