Decisions decisions

I'm a college student majoring in computer science. I also work at a small local company that produces software. At work I exclusively use SQL and Visual Studio (specifically VB 2005). For school I write in java, c++, c#, php, html and a lot more. In august I turn 21 and am buying myself a laptop as a present. It will be replacing my 4 year old dell desktop.

I'm really leaning toward a macbook, but I'm debating a few options.

#1) 1.83 or 2.0 model? How much of a performace increase will I see in DVD playback, software development, web browsing and very light gaming? I have never burned a DVD on my dell. It there another option for backing up? What uses have you all found for a dvd burner?

#2) Black or white? I am pretty nuts about keeping my electronics clean. I would imagine the white's keyboard and mouse will get really dirty and also be hard to clean. What have you guys found?

#3) Parallel or boot camp? Will parallel beable to handle software development?

#4) I've heard a lot about heat and other defects. Will Apple have most of these problems ironed out by late August, or should I just wait for the next "generation" of intel macs?

Lastly, does anyone have any experience with software development on a mac? Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Yes, I personally have 2.0Ghz because I wanted the DVD burner as well as the fastest processor I can get for the Macbook line. Webbrowsing speed is excellent, DVD playback is excellent, not sure about software development. Very light gaming it should be fine for. Yes OS X gives you a number of ways to backup such as to another Harddrive, DVD/CD blanks (dvd blanks if you get the SuperDrive) and Apples very own iDisk service.

Hmm, this is your own personal preference. I have White, but I also have InvisibleShield on my laptop to protect it from dirt and whatnot, so the day I peel it off to sell it (like 3-4 years?) it'll still have that nice purdy white, however can't say anything sure for the keyboard part. They are many products such as iKlean that can clean up the white ones if they get dirty.

The black ones are being reported as pretty easy to wear down the matte and end up having that smooth feeling and hand grease showing up.

You mightv't heard about the white macbook discoloration well Apple just started using a new Plastic to counter that issue and anyone who has the problem can send it in to have it replaced, any new ones being made should be fine from now on.

Boot camp is where whatever OS you run will run at native system speed, Parallel will not, because it uses Intels new Virtualization feature on their processors to run at full speed, they are pretty much the same with the exception that parallels can run more than one OS at a time, but so far it still has bad video support so it kinda lags. Its rumored that Apple will be releasing a product like Parallel with the new Leopard OS X thats coming out.

My macbook is always on a stationary object, never on my lap so heat doesn't bother me there. My macbook usually runs anywhere from 50-62 C depending on what I'm doing, but remember the macbook has TWO processing cores running so that heat is actually a pretty decent level for a dual core. Apple states the processors will be fine up to temperatures of 100C, but thats bad anyways. I have never seen anyone yet say they got that high or even pass 65 C.

Apple has ALWAYS followed the passive form of heat release on their products, they highly value the quietness of their products. I know Apple did a silent revision on Macbook Pro, maybe the macbook will get one as well by then.

I took a computer math course in high school, we used Mac G4s for C++ programming, we only learned the simple beginning aspect of the language, but it worked fine. I believe we used Code Warrior as the programming program.

Since your waiting for August before you get one, you might as well also wait for the brand new Leopard OS X to come out as well before you purchase it.