Questions for users of both windows and mac versions of Logos 4

Rick Smith
Rick Smith Member Posts: 91 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I use Logos 4 under Parallels on both my macbook pro and my imac quad core i7 at home.  I wanted to see if it is safe to delete the parallels version at this point. Are there any biggies that still aren't on the mac version? (i do a lot of Greek/ Hebrew work in grad school, so the functions involving those tools is important to me.)

 

Also for users of parallels do you find that logos 4 runs faster under parallels or the alpaha version on the mac?  I know the windows version is a full version. So just curious if the full version on windows running via parallels is faster or slower then the alpha version running on a mac.

 

Thanks for you help!

Comments

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,929

    I tried out Alpha 25 for the fun of it the other day... here's my personal opinion...

    1. It still crashes. I was working along and all of a suddenly bang it was gone with no warning.

    2. Speed is still an issue in some operations and believe it or not the Windows version is faster in some cases even running under a virtual machine.

    3. Not all features still work 100% of the time. For example I clicked on an infographic and it wouldn't display anything.

    4. There are still bugs. I encountered sync problems with my prayer list and notes which messed up some of my work.

    This is all to be expected because it is alpha release software. Particularly if you have time, you can help with the development of the product. However, if you are in a mode where you are pressed for time to get a paper done, you may decide not to go for it.  It is all down to your expectations and requirements. Part of the reason I moved to a Mac almost two years ago was I decided I
    only wanted software which is rock solid in performance, so for now its on my computer only for experimental purposes and no real work.

    It's not too hard to see however that the day is coming when I can power down my virtual machine for the last time. My guess is sometime this autumn or perhaps early winter I'll be able to switch over to the Mac version permanently.

     

  • Jack Caviness
    Jack Caviness MVP Posts: 13,636

     I wanted to see if it is safe to delete the parallels version at this point. Are there any biggies that still aren't on the mac version? (i do a lot of Greek/ Hebrew work in grad school, so the functions involving those tools is important to me.)

    Short answer: No. Donovan has given you a very good analysis of the situation. There are some who use the Alpha exclusively for sermon preparation and Bible Study, but I doubt that they are doing serious work in the original languages. I still use the Windows version under Parallels 5 for all my Bible Study. One show-stopper for me is the lack of notes in the Mac version. I know, you can read notes created in the Windows version, but you cannot edit or create new ones.

  • Cameron Watters (Faithlife)
    Cameron Watters (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 737

    4. There are still bugs. I encountered sync problems with my prayer list and notes which messed up some of my work.

    Can you provide some more detail here? Notes cannot currently be modified from the Mac, so I'm incredibly interested in what you mean when you say that problems with Notes "messed up some of [your] work".

    Director of Engineering for Enterprise and Operations

  • Robert Mullen
    Robert Mullen Member Posts: 301 ✭✭

    I have one working Mac install and one non-working. The working one is great and I do all of my devotional and daily work in it with no real problem. That does not involve notes, clippings, etc. though. I have another Mac install that just can't get on track. It freezes on shutdown and hitches during reading and study if connected to the Internet (syncing issues it sounds like) so I pretty much have to resort to Parallels on that machine. Parallels works swimmingly if you have it open all the time but if you have to  resume your Windows session and start Logos it adds a bit of overhead. If you need full reliability and functionality you should probably stick with Windows as L4 Mac is still Alpha and has Alpha like performance. It is getting much closer though so maybe delaying the decision a month would change the situation.

  • Pastor Allen
    Pastor Allen Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    There are some who use the Alpha exclusively for sermon preparation and Bible Study, but I doubt that they are doing serious work in the original languages.

    Speak for yourself.  I have no problems with "serious study" in the original languages on A25. 

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,929

    Can you provide some more detail here? Notes cannot currently be modified from the Mac, so I'm incredibly interested in what you mean when you say that problems with Notes "messed up some of [your] work".

    Already posted a message on this in a separate thread.  I decided to try using Logos Mac for my devotional time. As part of that I used my prayer list.  When I booted up Logos Windows a bit later, my prayer lists were duplicated with a (2) in the title. Sadly, I deleted the file with the (2) and then went to the regular file and found that it was completely blank.  After a bit of work, I was able to recover my prayer list from Logos 3. One of my note files was as well, but don't remember the specifics on this one.  I know you can't edit note files in Logos 4 Mac, but the same sync error that I had with the prayer list had also occurred with it.  So to deal with this problem, I'm not using Logos 4 Mac for anything involving these files and since have had no further trouble. HTH.