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Old 04-14-2007, 06:42 PM  
mrthumbs
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: mrthumbs*gmail.com
Posts: 11,702
Ok.. got a macbook myself a few days ago.. no previous experience whatsoever.. played with it for about 12-15 hours now.. quick summary:

- pro's:
Its a great simple system.. things work like you expect them to work.
took me about 1-2 hours to get used to the 'differences' (things
you take for granted like keyboard positions and close/maximize buttons).
I was affraid that after 10 years 10hours+ per day windows this would be a bitch.
Make sure you get a bluetooth mouse with 2 buttons, without it would
indeed have been one.

- its a flexible machine: its small, fast and batteries seem to last.

With a Windows based laptop things take so long its not very encouraging
to take it on the road with you during short trips let alone use it in the house: the pc (which is always switched on) works faster usually.

But with the macbook.. one button and its switched on and ready from sleepmode.. a complete reboot takes 5-10 seconds max. A bit like
the speed and flexibility of a PDA.
Windows, even on a heavy laptop, takes ages to startup: sleepmode drains
batteries and picking up Wifi and starting applications after returning
from sleepmode is just tiresome..

- With the unix Terminal you basicly 'switch' between an environment my grandmother can use to the integrated unix environment (on which OS X is based) with all the advantages for which i previously had to login to a seperate bsd machine.

Cons:
Little applications , the applications you are used to probably are not available for the mac and if they are (or something similar) youll have pay for it.

Ive found decent replacement for all the apps i use on my main machine
(cuteftp, camino as a firefox replacement, opera for the email, textmate as
a replacement for notepad++ office and photoshop , msn etc) but id have to go without the collection of useful apps that have become part of my basic setup over the years.
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