How satisfied are you with your MacBook pro?

I am kind of in the same boat as the OP. I have been contemplating switching for some time (and didn't when I bought a lenovo in the fall). But, now thinking again.

My wife and I were in a local MicroCenter and we went to the Apple section. She says, "oh, you want to look at crapples, eh?". She, like me, is sick of the marketing crap. I have been trying to find out why OS X is supposed to be so much better and telling me "if you use it, you would know" or "it just works" is crap.

So, we sat down with a couple of iMacs. She was working with garage band (she played trumpet and coronet in HS, also plays keyboard and guitar) I asked a sales guy a bunch of questions, tried things out. THen, I hear the song playing.. my wife had used the loops available to make a piece of music.

We walked out and she said.. I want one. I love it. Now, 1200 for an iMac is a little easier than 2000+ for a MacBook Pro. Then, one of my professors offered a 17" macbook pro for me to use for awhile. OS X 10.5.3, 2GB mem, Core Duo. I get to tryout a Mac on the work we do in our PhD program!

I have a feeling we will be 2 more switchers by the end of summer.

 

I mainly switched because they build nice laptops, versus buying because of OSX.

With the updates of the new laptops and lower prices, I thought it was the right time to buy.

Things do "just work" but the reasoning behind that is because Windows handles way way more applications and they have to cater to all those programs. Whereas apple has a closed system where they can control it.

iMacs are nice, but I'm always hesitant in investing in something like that because a monitor will outlast the computer hardware almost 3 fold.

Thats sweet that you get to use a 17" macbookpro though.

 

One thing you might want to keep in mind is not to go overboard with your expectations. Like you, I had been wanting one for over a year. When I got it, it obviously disappointed. Remember - it's a computer. It's not some miraculous life changing machine that prints money (on the contrary, it actually eats it) or poops rainbows and unicorns.

I'm going to give it another shot though, tomorrow - with decidedly lower expectations.

 

that is totally untrue.... Windows isn't designed to run specific applications, the applications are made for Windows.

now if you talk about hardware and hardware support on the Win PC side vs the Mac side, the more closed system Apple has does help... but its really nothing to do with supporting many applications.

 

I've been using the Macbook refurb 15" 2.53 for about 11 hours since it arrived this morning, I'm in the process of calibrating the battery and so far the laptop has been running on its battery for about 4:45mins and status show 5 mins left which is not bad as I was surfing the web and also installing apps, listening to music. oh I forgot had also installed an SSD after it arrived so that may explain the longer battery life?

anyway as a Windows user for all my life (since Windows 3.11) I have found the following dislikes/not gotten use too when using the Mac.

1: not being able to shutdown apps by clicking on the red button
2. text seems a bit blurry/bold
3. trying to find mac app alternatives which I would normally use in windows.
4. not being able to hide the Top menu bar thing.
5. airport only allows me to connect at 130 Mbit/s on Draft N
6. the feet on the laptop feet is too short so when placing it on a table you always hit the bottom of the case before the feet.
7. Maximising the window
8. no 3 finger back or foward when using firefox?
9. spent 2 mins looking for the # key (finally had to google the answer)
10. .... will add some more when I think of something

Likes so far...

1. Extremely quiet thanks to the SSD
2. runs cool smc shows cpu at 36C
3. battery life (lasted almost 5 hrs)
4. mac software easy install to and manage
5. screen looks great and speakers are very good.
6. .... will add more later.

overall I'm satisfied with the Macbook, although I had to do a lot of searching to learn how to do certain things (such as how to install a software , how to connect to a NAS etc) the OS was easy to navigate and I soon got the hang of things.

 

You can go into system preferences>appearance and near the bottom select different types of font rendering. It'll never be as sharp (jagged in my mind) as in windows, but another setting may be more pleasing to you. Note you'll have to restart the application you're viewing text in to see the changes take effect.

What are you looking for? They're out there.

There used to be an app for 10.4 that allowed you to do it called Menufela, but it doesn't work with 10.5 as of yet. There is this linky but its a bit more gnarly. (haven't tried it) *EDIT* These won't remove the menu bar but will allow you to modify it....Figured I'd post em as well as I've been looking at using one or the other. here and here *EDITING the EDIT* This might be an option as well (again haven't tried it myself) MagicMenu

I don't really use it much when I am in Windows, but here is a freeware app that should do the trick. Linky

Get MultiClutch

 

thanks for the links NgCir you solved a few of my problems I'll try the font method tomorrow as the macbook is in deep sleep mode after the battery was drained.

as for the applications its not where to find but rather which one is best such as burning software, word, spreadsheet, Rar, zip, IRC and FTP software.

 

Maybe check out some of these.

Burning software - (i just use os x) but otherwise Toast
Word - OpenOffice
Spreadsheet - Don't really use this except at work (on a pc)
Rar - UnRarX, MacPAR, 7zX
Zip - Built in OS X
IRC - Colloquy
FTP - Transmit (last one I used, but its been a while), FileZilla, and I think Cyberduck is popular.

Enjoy the mac. And if you need any more info just ask.

 

thank you very much for the post, that's the kind of answers i was looking for, honesty. Anyways I am just wondering, your macbook pro is the 2008 model right? not the new once with the supposedly 7 hour battery? and also what SSD did you buy?

thanks again

 

I like my 15 inch Apple MacBook Pro MA896LL/A. I'm not expert on laptop, but I definitely treat it tried and true machine which seldom brought me troubles.

 

Err.. I was explaining why majority of windows apps cannot be simply dragged and droped to the trash bin to uninstall. I did not blame on the programmers who can design a program which is more modular. Programming a program in modules saves time. Modular program also works better and have higher reliability in windows.

Just because programmers doesn't want to program like they do in OSX doesn't mean they can't. Most of the apps can be made into a single excutable and thus can be drag and dropped to uninstall.

Anyways.. all I'm saying is that the way you uninstall programs in OSX is nothing special. You can also uninstall programs the same way in Windows if the program is self-contained in an excutable.

 

@applebook: I'm sorry, but you clearly have little experience with other operating systems, or perhaps OS X itself. Have you ever used portable apps before? The Apple environment is a pleasure to use, but try not to discount others through ad-hominem attacks on Jack. You're not impressing anybody and only doing Apple's products a disservice.

@OP: My brother was a switcher, he currently owns a Apple Macbook Pro 15" 2006 (X1600 ATI Radeon, first intel gen.) and loves the build quality and lush screen. A serious problem though is Apple's idea of temperature management, where they underthrottle the fan to sacrifice operating temps for quietness. The aluminum base gets too hot to handle, and typing quickly becomes a sweaty affair. Once the fan is forced to turn on, it's VERY loud, and I can easily hear it through his mic while skyping him. Also, boot camp is an imperfect solution for those who need Windows. All things considered, he's rather happy with his MBP, especially since he bought it for $600.

 

Wow... MBP for $600? That's some crazy deal your bro took advantage of.

BTW...portable apps are awesome. I just compiled a portable version of Microsoft Office 2007 for my school's tech department. So far, they're very impressed as they can put office 2007 on a flashdrive and use it everywhere. My school's currently using office 2003 which has compatibility issues with office 2007 files (what most students use) even with Microsoft's "compatibility" pack.

 

will check them out later cheers, btw I'm using a app called PresentYourApps which hides the dock and menu back on any apps so i can get full screen but the search thing on the top right doesn't work anymore.

Also after doing my first battery calibration the capacity has gone from 4500 to 4666 mAh really enjoy using my MBP.

 

Also, you might want to look into NTFS 3g for NTFS support. That way, you can use storage medium file system commonly found on windows machines.

 

Depending on how that software works, you may be able to bring up spotlight window with a shortcut which you can set in preferences.

 

This is my biggest concern about a potential switch. Text on Windows (with ClearType tuned on) is nice and sharp -- crystal clear, to my eyes. But text on a MBP (with any font smoothing setting) is fuzzy and blurry in comparison.