Stop me buying a Macbook Pro
Discussion
Have wanted an Apple / OS X for a while, almost certainly as a result of their marketing and friends evangelising about them.
I currently use Ubuntu at home which has been my effort to use something different to the XP that I use each day. It's ok but sometimes it's frustrating not being able to use some applications without frigging about.
Should I
A. Stick to what I know - Ubuntu / Windows
B. Scratch the Apple itch with a 2nd Hand Mac from eBay (Probably not an Intel one)
c. Continue with my (what to me seems expensive as have only ever built my own desktops / bought refurbed laptops) purchase of the below.
15-inch: 2.53GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory
250GB hard drive1
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour battery2
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
£1,299.00
I have a 1hr 45 commute each way so the battery appeals to me although I could get that from a Samsung N110.
I know this is essentially another Mac Vs Windows thread but I am confused. Is the grass greener over there.. in Mac Land (and is it worth the additional expense over a Windows machine?)
I currently use Ubuntu at home which has been my effort to use something different to the XP that I use each day. It's ok but sometimes it's frustrating not being able to use some applications without frigging about.
Should I
A. Stick to what I know - Ubuntu / Windows
B. Scratch the Apple itch with a 2nd Hand Mac from eBay (Probably not an Intel one)
c. Continue with my (what to me seems expensive as have only ever built my own desktops / bought refurbed laptops) purchase of the below.
15-inch: 2.53GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory
250GB hard drive1
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour battery2
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
£1,299.00
I have a 1hr 45 commute each way so the battery appeals to me although I could get that from a Samsung N110.
I know this is essentially another Mac Vs Windows thread but I am confused. Is the grass greener over there.. in Mac Land (and is it worth the additional expense over a Windows machine?)
How about the new 13" MacBook Pro starting at £899. Chearper and smaller so better for the train?
13-inch: 2.26GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB Memory
160GB hard
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
£899.00
13-inch: 2.26GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB Memory
160GB hard
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
£899.00
Edited by Mosman on Thursday 6th August 09:02
Edited by Mosman on Thursday 6th August 09:03
Go for a Lenovo W500, fantastic machine. With Windows 7 getting excellent reviews and due out in October it makes for a much more integrated package. A number of my colleagues have bought Macs but apart from a glossy visula design, even they can't point to any real advantages. It also depends on the environment you work in. 99% of my clients (i.e large companies) are windows based so I have to be compoatible with that.
Edited by Silver993tt on Thursday 6th August 09:06
My GF loves them, but whenever I use her Macbook I end up hiding windows or performing some other shortcut accidently. I also find there's not enough control over moving files etc, everything is oversimplified - that might be just because I'm used to Windows.
I'd say try one out first if you can, if you're familiar with Windows, OSX may just frustrate you, like it does me. The actual hardware is nice, but built to look good rather than to last.
I'd say try one out first if you can, if you're familiar with Windows, OSX may just frustrate you, like it does me. The actual hardware is nice, but built to look good rather than to last.
Neil_H said:
I also find there's not enough control over moving files etc, everything is oversimplified
In what way is there not enough control? There are lots of things that are, shall we say, less than well documented but I don't know of anything that you can't do. What's the problem, maybe we can help?To the OP, yes, get one. I am biased of course but you really won't know unless you try. Maybe one of your friends would be prepared to lend you their machine for a weekend?
I bought a MacBook Pro about 2 and a half years ago.
I don't hate it, but it has some fairly basic design faults which google tells me are pretty common complaints.
It's more or less fine, it's just that based on comments on a lot of forums like these, and a couple of Mac enthusiast friends, I expected more than just 'fine'. Ultimately it's just a laptop, little better or worse than any other.
I don't hate it, but it has some fairly basic design faults which google tells me are pretty common complaints.
It's more or less fine, it's just that based on comments on a lot of forums like these, and a couple of Mac enthusiast friends, I expected more than just 'fine'. Ultimately it's just a laptop, little better or worse than any other.
Strangely Brown said:
Neil_H said:
I also find there's not enough control over moving files etc, everything is oversimplified
In what way is there not enough control? There are lots of things that are, shall we say, less than well documented but I don't know of anything that you can't do. What's the problem, maybe we can help?To the OP, yes, get one. I am biased of course but you really won't know unless you try. Maybe one of your friends would be prepared to lend you their machine for a weekend?
I liked the way it looked but I'd say the fact that I would be buying MS Office for the Mac possibly says that I wouldn't be doing anything that I couldn't do on a machine for a 1/3rd of the price.
I know the Macs cost more in the first place but they hold their value well when it comes time to sell on and they "seem" to not need upgrading as often as their Windows variants. The latest OS will still run on very old machines (try running Vista on anything much older than 3 years).
I was in the same boat a while ago when I wanted a new laptop.
I'd been hearing great things about Macs from friends but still wasn't really tempted. The day I set out to buy a laptop also happened to be the day that a Vista update broke the video drivers on the girlfriend's laptop, so that was the straw that broke the camels back and I went out and bought a Macbook.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but being quite highly experience with Windows has caused some frustrations. Things like finding the ipaddress of the machine would have taken me 5 seconds in windows but took a few minutes in the Macbook (just the first time, while I googled it!), also the keyboard layout is a bit annoying. I'm very into keyboard shortcuts and the lack of home, end and delete keys is annoying but I've almost got used to using the Mac equivalent which involves using 2 keys for each of those operations. And just this morning I couldn't find the hash key, I ended up copying and pasting one from the window I was in.
I was also under the impression that there were less updates on OSX than on Vista but whilst that might be true there are still plenty of updates that need doing.
On the plus side, it is incredibly stable. I only ever reboot when there's been a update or on the very (very!) occasion that something goes wrong, otherwise I just close the lid and forget about it. Performance is very good, battery life is excellent and the hardware is very pretty!
Knowing what I know now, would I do still buy a Macbook? Yeah, I would.
I'd been hearing great things about Macs from friends but still wasn't really tempted. The day I set out to buy a laptop also happened to be the day that a Vista update broke the video drivers on the girlfriend's laptop, so that was the straw that broke the camels back and I went out and bought a Macbook.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but being quite highly experience with Windows has caused some frustrations. Things like finding the ipaddress of the machine would have taken me 5 seconds in windows but took a few minutes in the Macbook (just the first time, while I googled it!), also the keyboard layout is a bit annoying. I'm very into keyboard shortcuts and the lack of home, end and delete keys is annoying but I've almost got used to using the Mac equivalent which involves using 2 keys for each of those operations. And just this morning I couldn't find the hash key, I ended up copying and pasting one from the window I was in.
I was also under the impression that there were less updates on OSX than on Vista but whilst that might be true there are still plenty of updates that need doing.
On the plus side, it is incredibly stable. I only ever reboot when there's been a update or on the very (very!) occasion that something goes wrong, otherwise I just close the lid and forget about it. Performance is very good, battery life is excellent and the hardware is very pretty!
Knowing what I know now, would I do still buy a Macbook? Yeah, I would.
Mousey
Are you saying you don't shut the laptop down? Just close the lid (I guess it goes into standby mode) and then open the lid again and it's all fired up and ready for action ?
Is it still best practice to allow a battery to fully discharge before fully recharging it? Do these Lithium batteries have memories like some used to years ago ?
Are you saying you don't shut the laptop down? Just close the lid (I guess it goes into standby mode) and then open the lid again and it's all fired up and ready for action ?
Is it still best practice to allow a battery to fully discharge before fully recharging it? Do these Lithium batteries have memories like some used to years ago ?
sebo said:
Mousey
Are you saying you don't shut the laptop down? Just close the lid (I guess it goes into standby mode) and then open the lid again and it's all fired up and ready for action ?
Is it still best practice to allow a battery to fully discharge before fully recharging it? Do these Lithium batteries have memories like some used to years ago ?
That's right, I just shut the lid and it suspends. Then springs to life in about 3 seconds when I open the lid again, as opposed to about a minute with my work Vista laptop.Are you saying you don't shut the laptop down? Just close the lid (I guess it goes into standby mode) and then open the lid again and it's all fired up and ready for action ?
Is it still best practice to allow a battery to fully discharge before fully recharging it? Do these Lithium batteries have memories like some used to years ago ?
As far as I'm aware modern batteries do not suffer from the memory effect of old and therefore do not need to be fully discharged.
I wouldn't stop you. I moved to a Macbook three years ago and wouldn't buy a Windows laptop again unless Microsoft do something amazing with Windows somewhere down the line.
The best thing about it is it just works. I used to work in IT support and was sick of fixing computers at work, then coming home to a slow computer that needed fixing every so often, and every six months would benefit from a complete reinstall of Windows.
With my Mac I just forget about this sort of thing - it really does "just work".
One of the most appealing things to me (being very impatient) is, as was said above, you can just close the lid and know the computer will go to sleep and then wake up instantly when you need it, rather than never quite being sure whether it would work when it resumed like you got with Windows.
The best thing about it is it just works. I used to work in IT support and was sick of fixing computers at work, then coming home to a slow computer that needed fixing every so often, and every six months would benefit from a complete reinstall of Windows.
With my Mac I just forget about this sort of thing - it really does "just work".
One of the most appealing things to me (being very impatient) is, as was said above, you can just close the lid and know the computer will go to sleep and then wake up instantly when you need it, rather than never quite being sure whether it would work when it resumed like you got with Windows.
Man-At-Arms said:
Mr. Potato Head said:
sebo said:
Built-in 7-hour battery2
Is the battery in a Macbook replaceable?Aluminium MacBook - no
It should last between 3 and 5 years before needing a replacement
sebo said:
Is it still best practice to allow a battery to fully discharge before fully recharging it? Do these Lithium batteries have memories like some used to years ago ?
No, with Lithium Ion type batteries, it's better NOT to let them discharge fully, apparently doing this can ruin them completely. Having said that, they probably have protection built in that just shuts everything down before the danger point anyway.I love my Mac Mini now, mainly used as a media centre plugged into the telly, but if I'd just jumped straight from Windows to OSX it would have been awkward. Getting used to OSX gradually, I'm now going to replace my Vaio laptop with a 13" Macbook Pro in the next few months.
Previously my reason for sticking with Windows is that there's always an application to do what you want, for free. However, I don't know the last time I used one!
Anyway, might be worth trying a cheap Apple computer and getting used to the OS before spending thousands.
Previously my reason for sticking with Windows is that there's always an application to do what you want, for free. However, I don't know the last time I used one!
Anyway, might be worth trying a cheap Apple computer and getting used to the OS before spending thousands.
sebo said:
I liked the way it looked but I'd say the fact that I would be buying MS Office for the Mac possibly says that I wouldn't be doing anything that I couldn't do on a machine for a 1/3rd of the price.
Seriously, as much as I think that you would get so much more from a Mac, if all you are going to do is run Office applications then I wouldn't bother. I wouldn't say that it's worth the switch just for that.sebo said:
I know the Macs cost more in the first place but they hold their value well when it comes time to sell on and they "seem" to not need upgrading as often as their Windows variants. The latest OS will still run on very old machines (try running Vista on anything much older than 3 years).
All true, but be aware that the next release of the OS (Snow Leopard) will not run on older (PPC) machines. Just in case you were thinking of going down the second hand route, make sure you buy intel.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff