My new laptop
August 19th, 2007 - Posted by Alan Howard
I bought myself a new laptop yesterday, a 17″ MacBook Pro. I was sick to death of Windows Vista. Yes, that’s right, it’s a dog, and everything good I’ve said about it in the past was simply due to an initial state of ignorance. After using it for the past 6 months, I couldn’t handle it any more.
What made it worse was that the HP laptop that I had purchased just a few days before I moved to Australia has been broken for the past 6 months, no fault of the laptop or the person I bought it from, but instead it was the fault of the tech in New Zealand that fixed another problem. He fixed that, but by the time I found out he’d stuffed up the keyboard, I was in Australia. And I’ve been living with it ever since.
And then a couple weeks ago I found out that the BIOS was stuffed, when nothing I could do would enable it to boot from CD, so I wasn’t able to reinstall Windows XP. After a great deal of frustration, I made a few decisions.
The position I’m in these days allows me to salary package, effectively making whatever I buy in this way 40% cheaper. I’ve done this with the car, and I decided to do it with a laptop. After thinking about for a while, I came to the conclusion that after 12 years of Windows computers, I’m over them (for home use, at least).
So I researched and thought and researched some more, and decided that I would definitely go for an Apple MacBook Pro. I wasn’t ready to do it yet, and was going to wait for another month or so, but then something happened on Friday that forced me to make a decision.
Apple haven’t been selling their supply of 15″ MacBook Pros. No one knows why, and Apple aren’t saying. So people who have bought a 15″ have been waiting for weeks, with no delivery in sight. This influenced me to go for a 17″ instead, which aren’t having the same supply problems. And then on Friday I discovered that the local store here were doing a special deal - buy a 15″ MacBook Pro and get a free upgrade to a 17″….
This was an offer too good to pass by, so after discussing it with Deidre I moved forward on obtaining it. I picked it up yesterday, and have pretty much been playing with it ever since.
It’s pretty cool, I have to say. Much smoother and faster than Windows, more user-friendly, and the best part - it doesn’t frackin’ crash on me!
The interface is taking a little getting used to, along with the different way of doing things, but it’s all good. Learning new things is fun, and this is certainly fun.
Interestingly, some of the best ways of doing things on a Mac are exactly the same as the best ways I was doing things on Windows. Same programs, same functionality, but different OS. The only thing I really don’t like is that there’s no Google Picasa support for the Mac, so I’m having to find another method of hosting photo albums and sharing them out.
Facebook seems to be working really well for that. You can have an unlimited number of albums, with up to 60 photos per album. No limits on the amount of storage space. I like that. A lot. Because working with photos is probably one of the most important things I do on the web.
Some questions for you…. Do you own a Mac of some kind? What are your favourite tools or software packages? Have you always been a Mac user, or are you a Windows convert? How long ago did you convert?
Entry Filed under: Web Tech
8 Responses to “My new laptop”
Posted: Aug 19th, 2007 at
I had a Mac laptop 10 years ago provided by company. Back then it was top quality and almost never gave me trouble. But I did not have a personal email account nor did I have a digital camera to edit pictures so I cannot really compare with today’s laptops.
When I had to purchase a new laptop recently my husband told me Mac might be better for me for picture sorting which, like you, is one of the most important aspects for me. I went ahead with a Dell instead for its familiarity but it crashed twice already this weekend. I’ve only had it since last Friday! So if you can tell me all the wonderful things about your Mac in the next week or so Alan I might change my mind to replace my Dell with a Mac!
Posted: Aug 20th, 2007 at
Well, you know that I have a Macbook and love it.
Yes, it did take some getting used to, but now that I know how everything works, I would never purchase a PC again.
It’s the simplicity of it all. It doesn’t try to be all things to all people, with the result that everything works at warp speed. It takes my Macbook 20 seconds to boot up and be ready to go, versus my husband’s PC which takes up to a minute.
Posted: Aug 20th, 2007 at
I just got my Macbook a month ago and am I loving it
Its so much faster and fun to work on when compared to the Windows OS…although I do have both Windows and Mac on my core duo processor…
The Macbook takes only seconds to boot compared to the Windows Alt+Ctrl+Delete relief
Ever since Ive got my Macbook I cant help feeling ive become a part of a new cult which appreciates speed and performace with style and fun
Posted: Aug 21st, 2007 at
passion:
First off, if you can afford to buy a Mac then you should do so. The less you know about computers, the more you’ll appreciate the Mac, because its simplicity is much better than Windows. It’s certainly a completely different way of doing things, but you’ll enjoy it more. I think that’s probably the part that matters - you’ll enjoy it. Where Windows is a chore, using a Mac is a pleasure.
mrsj:
What are your favourite applications? What do you recommend?
ajanta:
I hope that I don’t end up sounding like a cult member in the near future, but one of my closest friends (hi Nick!) has been very cult-like for many years now, which used to annoy me a great deal. But he ‘won’, and here I am, using a Mac.
Posted: Aug 22nd, 2007 at
I like the iLIFE software (iPhotos, iDVD, iTunes etc).
I’ve also got MS Office for Mac which is just beautiful to use.
The only thing I haven’t liked is Safari. I’m using Firefox which tends to be more compatible with websites.
Posted: Aug 22nd, 2007 at
I’ve told you already, but QuickSilver learn it, love it
Posted: Aug 22nd, 2007 at
iPhoto was the first thing I tried playing with, because of my photos interest. I quickly discovered that it was incompatible with Google Picasa, which is where I stored all my photos this year. But then I found a Facebook plugin which allows me to use iPhoto to upload to Facebook and store them that way. Nice.
For browsing I use Flock, which is still superior to Firefox (in my opinion) because of its built in functionality. For instant messaging I’ve found a program called Fire IM, which I like a lot more than Adium, which is what Fire became…
For searching I use Spotlight, which is an excellent little tool for finding applications and folders. Ken, I know you like QuickSilver, and maybe I’ll one day turn to it, but for now Spotlight does it for me.
Posted: Aug 29th, 2007 at
I’m in the group that are generally most anti ‘consumer’ IT products like the mac (Software developer), but with OS X, I think its a great system, for home use at least. It won’t win me over for now (Doesn’t run my games, and, more importantly for a MS based developer, doesn’t run Visual Studio .NET or VB6, I’m not sure about syncing with windows mobile devices either). If i was recommending a computer to someone less technical, I’d recommend a mac.
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