Tim Bray: Unprofessional in Black
by Volker Weber
I'm talking about my computer, which is a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro, and a lovely flat black colour. It's by a long shot the best Mac I've ever had. I gather the Pro line is due for a refresh soon; it better be good, because at this point anyone who buys a silver Mac is making a big mistake.
Seconded.
Comments
Thirded :)
fourht'd (if that is a word)
Mac Book Pro is more powerful, but IMO
Doesnt look as nice
Keyboard is nowhere near as nice
the distance between keys and the front of the laptop is too long (or are my arms too short)
Its too big... Macbook has really really changed the way I work with my laptop.. its just so easy to open it anywhere!
Macbook is powerful enough (with 2GB RAM) to run VMWare easily.. so I have XP etc in unity mode
So I may be one of those guys who makes mistakes, but I just got my MBP on Monday. Been fighting a bit with both parallels and vmware fusion release candidate (actually the converter on the Sony, so I have yet to use fusion). I should be a convert by Monday if all goes well. I agree with Paul about all its drawbacks but damn it's fast. My Sony - still a nice machine once it's going - takes 9 minutes to become productive. I can boot and reboot the MBP 6 times. I love that, I get about a half hour back out of my day.
Wireless networking has glitches but overall I'm pleased with the machine, once I get vmware fusion working it will be quite cool.
BTW Monday is the release date for vmware fusion so pre-order if you haven't and save 40 bucks. The pre-order deal expires Sunday noon.
I have switched from Windows machines to a MacBook Pro a few weeks ago. And I am very happy. The MacBook for me was not an option for two reasons, both having to do with the screen. One: I can't stand glossy screens. Two: I am used to high resolutions. At home I have a 22" screen - but then I'd have to sit at the desk all the time. If I do that, why buy a laptop? And I am not at home all the time either.
So if the MacBook had a option for a non-glossy screen wih 1440*900 I may have bought one. Other than the screen there is little reason to go for a MBP, I agree to that. The MacBook is powerful enough and has a nicer size.
I second Rob’s comments re Fusion, just picked up my copy before it goes full price (which is still a very reasonable eighty bucks). RC1 was released at the start of July, and it works very well on my Macbook. I run WinXP (with stacks of apps open including Notes & Domino Designer) plus all my OS X stuff quite happily in 2GB RAM.
Oh, and BTW, the glossy screen isn’t an issue at all: the MB looks lovely in all lights for me, no bother.
I have to respectfully disagree :-)
The MacBook Pro has the best keyboard of any laptop I have ever used. To me, the keyboard on the plain MacBook feels cheap and it's just hard for me to get used to. Maybe if I used it for awhile my tune would change, but the MBPro keyboard is far better for me.
I also like not having the glossy screen.
I also like having better resolution
I also like having a larger screen
I also like having an actual video card with 256 MB of memory
I also like the ability to go to 4GB of RAM
I also like the faster processor
So yeah, the MacBook is a very capable machine, but I prefer my Pro for a variety of reasons :-)
The main thing is, we are all on Macs, and that's really what counts...
-Grey
What John said. The MacBook is a great laptop. But I chose the MacBook Pro deliberately, knowing exactly what the differences are, and I don't regret that choice at all.
The MacBook is more computer for the money but (in my not particularly humble opinion) the MacBook Pro is more computer if you disregard the cost.
I don't want a smaller screen, I need all the pixels I can get. I love the MBP keyboard - it makes all other laptop keyboards feel cheap. I have no issue with WiFi (maybe because I don't take my laptop outside of the house), no trouble with the battery power, and I'm a performance nut so the extra processor, video, and RAM available in the MBP were critical.
Damn developers ;-)
Disagreement here, too -- my wife has got a MacBook, I'm using a MacBook Pro and there's no question the latter is the "better" computer (speed, screen size & resolution, graphics, memory, ...). Whether it's worth the difference in price is another question.
I just knew I was going to get some comments on this topic. :-)
And: The best notebook keyboard I ever had was my trusty old T21 Stinkpad which sits in Stefan's Office waiting for a miracle repair. Marco gave me an old T23, which isn't even nearly as good.
Re T21 keyboad: Full agreement here -- much better than any Mac keyboard (my favorite, actually, is the old 770). The same is true for the trackpoint ...
Damn developers ;-)
Steady Mooney!
