Oh no, I bought another MacBook...
Aargh!
Let the week-long install begin..

-=-=-

I've upgraded many many Windows systems over the years.
Your options for upgrade are A) Start from scratch or B) Clone the drive.

If you start from scratch, your week-long process of trying to remember all the things you had installed begins.
If you chose option B and clone the drive, you've still got drivers to fix and more.

Either way, it's a frickin' hassle.

-=-=-

My MacBook M1 8Gb/256Gb is a decent laptop.
The speaker's a bit wonky, and gets incredibly wibbly wobbly and distorted all the time.
I managed to put up with it for a while, but since I switched to using Ableton full time, it's getting a little more irritating every day.

On top of that is the small 256Gb drive. The day that I had to remove Xcode to get a bit more space, I realised it probably wasn't working for me.
I mean, I know I'm not really USING Xcode, since everything I do is Javascript now, but even still.. I'm a developer. I should really have Xcode on here, right!?!

So, the decision was made. Upgrade to an M2 8Gb/512Gb model.
And a lovely shade of black/blue it is, too.
Mmmm!



-=-=-

And, so, the week long struggle begins.
With all manner of chaotic things installed, I'm expecting a rough ride.
Apps from the App Store, fine. But I've installed all manner of downloaded extra tools and VST instruments and even PHP installed using Brew.
Barely anything is "normal" that I've got installed.
Even Ableton's not installed from the AppStore.

uhoh!

I opened up Migration Assistant, something Apple has created to make things a little easier.
Didn't work.
The two different MacBooks had two different OS's on them. So I had to update the new MacOS to the latest beta, which included having to fart about getting my iCloud set up to allow dev-tools, and then get the update updating.
Took about an hour.

Then I ran Migration Assistant again, and it let me do the transfer, where it plodded along for about another hour or so, frequently plummeting to a whopping 3kb/s..

*ugh*

Once it was done, the new MacBook rebooted and..
It was MINE!!
The wallpapers, the PHP installation, Ableton, Plugins, Trackpad settings, everything.
I was gobsmacked!!

What it Didn't Do

1. The Launchpad (Think Start Menu, but with an iPad looking menu of icons) was completely fudged, and I had to reorganise all my icons.

2. The Spitfire Audio plugin (which has a lovely free BBC Symphony Orchestra library) didn't install properly, and I had to reinstall it. (Have you SEEN the prices of the Pro versions of that?! Jinkies!!!)

... And.. I think that's it!

Everything else is just here, on the laptop, running, working. It was all done in just a few hours, and although I've had that experience when upgrading phones, this is the very first time that an almost effortless amount of work has had to be put into upgrading a computer.
Astounding.. And I guess it's very "It just works".

Bravo, Apple!

...
And then I finished off writing Bubble Munky and carried on with my day.