Apparently, my Toshiba A200 is suffering from water damage, causing the keyboard to glitch. Replacing the keyboard hasn’t helped, so it looks like I’ll be investing in a new laptop at some point.
Certain people are urging me to jump ship to the MacSide. Anyone else changed operating systems and lived to tell the tale?
02/07/2009 at 12:16 am Permalink
So, yeah, Macbooks are good hardware. They cost some money and they do a pretty good job. I have issues with some of the things OSX does, I have issues with the fact that you have to hack the keyboard layout to stop it being US etc. However they are good boxes, unquestionably. If you have the budget, then yeah, sure, why not? But really, it’s a laptop, OS aside, there are only so many things it’ll do and it won’t change your life. It may break, it may not break, all depends on luck and how you treat it. Remember, *every* OS sucks, no exceptions.
02/07/2009 at 5:14 am Permalink
I switched to Mac back in 2003 and haven’t looked back since. Sure you’ll still have issues with the hardware (though generally they are more reliable when they do break they break expensively) but the OS is a dream. Some things it won’t do which are really annoying (replacing rather than merging files is my current bugbear) but overall it’s a no brainer. Of course these days it’s not so hard to make a Hackintosh, sticking OS X on your cheap notebook.
02/07/2009 at 6:49 am Permalink
I’m going to recommend PC because you work with people who use PC-based DTP programs and I’m extremely wary of cross-platform problems. (Possibly too wary, but once burned, forever hanging around the fire extinguisher, sort of thing.)
02/07/2009 at 7:09 am Permalink
I often suffer fits of MacBook envy but two things cure me – the price tag, and the much wider range of games and FOSS software that run on Windows.
I tend to leave my Dell Latitude at home most of the time, and just carry my work on a USB drive. For going places, I carry a netbook which fits in my jacket pocket. In these days of tight limits on carry-on baggage, a decent netbook is a good idea, even if you keep a proper laptop for your ‘real’ PC.
My Dell is showing its age, and I’m looking at a nice HP 12.1″ Tablet, actually. I’ve always had a hankering for a tablet for taking notes in meetings and sketching stuff. I’m also thinking I might get a decently big monitor to plug it into at home.
That old Tosh of yours might live on a while more if you plug in a USB keyboard and just use it at home; and get a netbook for mobile work. I think the keyboard is always the weak point on laptops, probably because many people use the front end of the laptop as a wrist rest, and it warps the machine after a few years, which messes up the keyboard, touchpad and whatever electronics are towards that end of the board.
02/07/2009 at 8:37 am Permalink
If you can afford to the Macbook Pro is the way to go. My 12″ Powerbook is still running strong after 5 years and we still use it every day. Its battered and the battery is held in with tape, but it still works. That aluminium shell does make a big difference to the beating it can take.
The only real tip I have for you is find someone with a student card and buy the laptop and Apple Care in their name. The apple student discounts are well worth the effort.
If you need any Mac advice you know how to get hold of me.
02/07/2009 at 8:46 am Permalink
If she has a Mac, and you have a PC, why not stick with one of each to get optimum options with programs? Personal feeling is Macs are better for graphic designers etc, but I find using them slower for general day to day, and what with your job being writin’ and all – do you really want to buy a more expensive machine that runs less stuff because it’s prettier?
I had to use Macs in a few jobs and can’t stand them. PCs are better workhorses for me, and I can’t be arsed relearning when I’m good at using what I have.
02/07/2009 at 6:12 pm Permalink
We had a real world discussion about this, the gist of it being that I’m not going to strenuously opt for one or the other. I can only discuss my personal experience, and those of others.
The first bit of advise I’d give is to not take advise from anyone who says they *hate* one platform or the other. They are necessarily biased and can’t be relied upon to give completely balanced advise.
My own experience: Up until recently, we were a Mac only household – my Mini, L’s iMac, her Macbook, and an old G4 I haven’t yet pressed into service. The only reason we’re exclusively Mac any more is that I got that netbook, which is running linux.
I use a Mac because I find my productivity goes up when I use one. Granted, this has mostly been for Design work, but I do also do *a lot* of browsing and writing. Not a lot of gaming, it has to be conceded, but that’s why I have a Playstation.
For writing, Office 2007 is pretty much the same as it is on Windows. Final Draft, and latterly CeltX work just the same. Looking after my photos – I used to use iPhoto and now I use Lightroom, which is the same as on Windows too.
For everything else, I’m sure you know someone who runs lots of stuff on her MacBook.
The other thing I can say is that back when Vista first came out, the fastest PC to run it on was a MacBook Pro.
So you could have the hardware and never run Mac OS X. Your choice.
The price has never been favourable. Most Mac advocates say that it’s worth it, but if there hadn’t been a cheap Mini, I’d probably still be using a PC, and turning in work after deadline.
The education discount works for students or staff of any educational establishment, so that opens up options, I would say.
But, as I said earlier, your mileage may vary. You need to try it out as much as possible. You’re welcome to work on our Macs any time you want to come up to Galway. We have English keyboards.
04/07/2009 at 5:36 am Permalink
What do you want to do with a laptop?
Web, music/vids and a bit a of word processing/CV editing, if that is all you want it for you could get a bog standard rig and dump Ubuntu on it. They all do the basic stuff pretty well. Is there anything else you would want a laptop for? If yes, then that should be one of the main factors in you decision. Another being spec and budget. Or rather spec versus budget. The other factor is of course support. Given that you seem to have little luck with these contraptions you should be covered up the wazoo.
I am not a huge Mac fan but I am not a winpc loyalist either. Whatever does the job gets the vote. If the Mac gives you something that you won’t get from a winpc then go for it. But if you want something sparkly and gimmicky (be honest) then I would recommend saving money by buying a winpc and take up the juggling of disco balls.
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06/07/2009 at 11:09 pm Permalink
“But if you want something sparkly and gimmicky (be honest) ”
Tut! That’s like saying an iPod is just “gimmicky” next to a Zune.
26/07/2009 at 2:45 pm Permalink
I recently purchased a mid-June 2009 17″ Macbook Pro. 500 GB 7200 RPM HD. 8 GB of RAM. The computer runs like a dream. I used Boot Camp to divide my partition up and installed Windows XP on it. Yes, you can do that with a Mac. Ever since Apple switched from their Power PC chips to Intel chips the same machines that run OS X can run XP or VISTA better than most out of the box PCs. I’ve been playing Age of Conan on the XP in full resolution with no performance issues. If that’s not enough to tell you you can play any PC game on a Windows partition on a Mac, nothing will. Go Mac, don’t look back.