any reasons not to switch to MacBook?

I've wanted for a while to switch to mac. Mostly would be used for general use and will run xp in the back. Just wondering if I'll find it hard to switch?
any one has done it and wasn't too happy?

 

i just switched and had no problems getting used to the new OS. one thing to keep in mind tho- whenever you talk about switching there are gona be alotta ppl tellin you that macs are overpriced. but if they do, think about this- when you buy a new windows computer, itll be loaded with demoware and bloatware and all that crap that slows down ur system and you have to delete. now think about all the software that comes pre-loaded with macs. its all great and its a pretty good amount of moneys worth of software. also, macs are said to last ALOT longer than windows computers. so in the time you have a mac, you could have been through 2 maybe 3 windows computers. hope this helps :}

 

Switch asap cause I did and you will not regret any of it! Do it

 

Switching isn't too hard. An OS is an OS - they're all designed to make life easier for the user, so none of them go out of their way to make it hard to switch or too complicated. When you get down to it, the GUI interface isn't that different from Windows - you have icons, and double-clicking and all that.

It probably takes a grand total of 2 minutes (and I'm being conservative here) to acquaint yourself well enough with OSX to navigate around in it. Of course, it'll take significantly longer to fully master all its particular idiosyncrasies and features, but it's not like you won't be able to do your basic necessities during the transition or anything.

The basic software stuff OSX can take care of as well. If there are any Windows-only software that you need for your work and that you're not allowed to use an OSX equivalent software for, you can use boot camp to load xp, so software compatibility isn't a huge issue unless the majority of the software you use *needs* to be in Windows, in which case you might want to reevaluate whether or not you actually want a Mac.

Although, I'm not quite sure why you'd want a Macbook when you already have a M1330. Having two 13" is a bit redundant no?

Since you were only referring to the OS side of things, I'm not going to talk about pros or cons of hardware. I tend to disagree about a Mac lasting 2-3 times the lifespan of a PC though. The MBP uses Intel processors and NVIDIA GPUs and..well..basically the same hardware any PC today would use. On the contrary, I'd say that the slightly higher average temperature (it idles around 50ish for me, a thicker laptop without passive cooling idles on average around 45ish), would tend to shorten lifespan - but really those temps probably don't make much difference anyway.

Battery lifetime *may* be longer than a PC's, simply because you need fewer recharge cycles in OSX though.

 

I don't have Dell 1330 yet, I've waiting for month or so, but always wanted/ been thinking about macbook.
As 1st time buyer should I get the apple care?
with school discount its not so bad and prices are somewhat close.

 

I'd love to know this as well.

Quickly, since I'm about to buy a MBP!

 

i would make the switch. i just did as a long time windows user and i dont regret it... its almost a drag now when i have to use my vista desktop! applecare is a good investment, i got it and im glad i did. i know that i am protected for the next 3 years. osx is a pleasure to work in as well! let us know what you end up doing!

 

If you're really used to windows you'll find a few annoyances in the user interface. For instance the finder is really bad compared to windows explorer, it's hard to find ways to customize the way things work and so on.
Something similar probably happens to soembody who has to switch from mac to pc.
But honestly if I could switch (I use all windows programs) I'd go for ubuntu over os x any day

 

I must admit, this one concerns me. A lot.

 

then again its user preference. try it out for yourself and see if it truly bugs you. i will agree that it was annoying at first but now i am used to the way mac does things compared to windows

 

Do you now prefer it? or are you just used to it?

 

Make the switch, you'll never look back. There are OSX equivalents for every Windows program you use. You'll never worry about spyware or viruses. You'll never worry about the OS acting flaky or slow or crashing. You won't have to re-install every 3 months to maintain a clean pristine machine.

Make the switch, enjoy the superior GUI and the rock-solid UNIX foundation.

 

You know, I think Sam does this even on OSX

 

Price is the biggest reason. Do you want to pay a premium for Mac software? If you think it is worth it, I recommend one. If you plan to use Windows, it is just overpriced.

 

In terms of hardware, MacBooks are definitely over priced. As for bloatware, not really that big of a deal, just reinstall. Thats not to say MacBooks are bad, but when you end up spending over 2,000 for a laptop that could have cost you 1200, I hope you feel the difference was worth it.


Example:

Dell Inspiron 1520

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
Midnight Blue
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT *
160G 7200RPM SATA HDD
CD writer / DVD player (Combo Drive)
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam

$1,493.00 Sub Total
-$300 (coupon on $1299+ laptops)
$1,193 without a warranty



MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT *
Built in Webcam

$2,224.00 Sub Total
- %10 discount (student discount?)
$2001.6 without a warranty

* 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT was not available for the MBP I was looking at.


These builds were taken straight off both Dell.com and Apple.com. As you can see in this case the MBP is much more expensive ($800 more) for hardware thats not as good as the dell (video card). But as always its up to you. If you think you will like the MBP more and its worth the extra cost, then go for it. But don't expect to pay less then 2,000 for something you can get in the low 1,000s.

If you know that something I've posted here is incorrect please let me know.

 

Only the 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro has a 256 MB video card.

I think the two hard drives are the same.

 

Yea I saw the 2.4 GHz with the 256 MB video card, but decided to stick with the 2.2 Ghz model, only because the price jump between the two seemed silly for the rather small upgrades.


Update: Hard drives are the same apple.com just doesn't abbreviate the way you would expect them to.

 

Well, in my case I have to use macs at work so I get to notice de differences every day.
What particularly bugs me about the finder is not being able to drag and drop with right button and not having the explorer layout of file tree on the left and files on the right.
Mac OS is absolutely rock solid, but in the end it all goes down to the programs you use. Programs crash all the same.
Being able to find the same programs you use in pc for mac os is an absolute myth. It might work for the normal user that does word processing and internet, but it's not true for niche markets or tech savvy users (I dare anybody to find a music player as good as foobar2000 for a mac!!! LOL)

 

Also the MBP uses gddr3 ram for the video card as opposed to lower clocked ddr2 in the dell. And the configured dell system has a lower resolution screen.
Nevertheless I think the comparison is pretty close and it goes to the point.

 

Its true that if you configure the Dell 1520 to get close to the MBP's specs it will be a lot cheaper. However, the MBP is thinner and lighter than the 1520 is. You pay the premium to get the weight down and the slimmer body of the MBP. Also, the quality of the build plays a factor between the two.

 

Yes, I do . Mac OS X already manages defragmenting and stuff but I like to re-install OS X every few months so I get rid of some of the applications that I install, use twice and forget about.

And to the original poster, I think its safe to switch over to Mac OS X. OS X may seem unfamiliar at first but after a short time (a few days, usually) you'll find you're much more productive on the Mac.

In my usual fashion I recommend two articles that you should read so you get familiar with the way Mac OS X works.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101

And ninjafish, let me say there's no way you can compare a MacBook Pro to a Dell Inspiron. The build quality and design of the MacBook Pro far exceeds the Inspirons. Dell's customer service cannot match Apple's (although the XPS service is much better). Its like saying a pair of Gucci glasses isn't worth it when you can pick up a $10 pair from the local drugstore. Yes obviously the Gucci glasses are expensive compared to the $10 pairs, but they're a different class. I'd compared the XPS lineup with a MacBook Pro, not the Inspirons.

 

LOL, it only takes one negative comment to scare someone. Like an earlier poster mentioned OS X is just an OS. What's there to be scared of? It's the same as buying a new cell phone and you just have to get used to using it. Don't build up a complicated mess of wires for yourself before even trying it out.
Simple tasks:

The Dock. It sits at the bottom of the screen holding your most used applications. Simple one-click action and the program launches.

The Finder. It's a GUI window with a sidebar that has instant access to your Applications, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures and your Home folder with all your personal preferences.

The Menu Bar. Think of your Windows PC turned upside down. The Windows Taskbar is at the bottom of the screen, the OS X Menu Bar is at the top. For each application you run the commands for those apps reside on the OS X Menu Bar depending on the active window.

System Preferences. (Previously the Control Panel) Think of the control panel in Windows. All your personal settings, desktop picture, screensaver, printing, keyboard/mouse functions, networking, power settings and file sharing reside here.

There ya go, Mac 101. There's not much more to it.

Here's some things to know.

It's not "Windows". To close any program just hit the close button. For some programs this doesn't quit the app. You have to go to the Menu Bar hit the name of the program and quit.

It's not "Windows". To maximize the browser window OS X expands it just enough to cover the contents of the website you are visiting. It does not fully expand to full screen. It's really logical, there's no need to maximize to full screen if the web contents don't fill the whole window and this is most obvious on wide screens.

Most used programs made for both platforms:
MS Office
Adobe everything (almost everything)
Most popular web browsers (except I.E 7)
AOL and AOL I.M. (also supported through Apple's iChat)

Any other software will most likely be made for both platforms, i.e Finance software, torrents, DVD/CD/Movie burning, DVD copying, paint programs, IRC chat software, TV turners, etc. Some programs will be made by different developers. Of course Apple's popular iTunes, Quicktime and Safari. Other great Apple stuff is Mac only.

Myths:
Macs don't right click. (Yes they do) Connect any 2 button mouse.
Mac notebooks don't right click. (Yes they do) 2 fingers on trackpad and click.
Macs don't read PDF's. (Yes they do) It's part of the OS X system by design.
Macs don't connect to wireless networks. (Yes they do). The Apple iBook G3 since inception has done wireless and it was the first.
Macs don't crash. (Yes they do). Don't buy the Mac thinking nothing will go wrong because, IT'S A COMPUTER.

I posted this to help some of the "switchers" (the ones that are really going to use OS X) understand that life is not difficult changing to a Mac. Stop listening to the nay sayers and it will be easier than expected.

 

i now actually prefer it. mac makes it much easier to do things. when i first got my mac and started to install programs, for example, i didnt understand the concept of just dragging the icon to the application folder... i was thinking it would be more involved but things are much easier/better for me now. in my opinion, i like finder better than windows explorer

 

Yes, I got a little confused at that at first .

That's just one example of Mac OS X making things easier. Other than the larger applications like Microsoft Office or Photoshop, many applications are installed simply by opening the install file, and icon pops up, drag the icon into the Applications folder and its installed. Its hard to believe but just by dropping an icon into a folder you installed it. No need to go through InstallShield in Windows.

 

How are these larger programs installed?

 

They are installed like InstallShield; a window pops up, you select Agree to Terms of Conditions, select Hard Drive to install on, and wait for it to install, when its done clicked Finish. Similar to InstallShield. But even the installer looks prettier than InstallShield though .

 

Gotcha... thanks.

But does that mean an uninstall will leave traces of the software, just like Windows does?

 

Yes, sometimes some Preferences will be left behind after an uninstall. For the smaller programs, there is a free application called AppDelete that allows you to completely uninstall the application and its extras like Preferences and stuff. For the larger programs, uninstall it and what you can do is search the application name in Spotlight and delete any PDFs or documents that show up on the search.

 

The following statements are my opinion and not fact. I do not want to hear how I am stupid or ignorant. I really hate these two features of Mac OSX.

and

Both irritate me so much. I want my windows to open full screen every time unless I tell it specifically not to. I only want my menu bars to open when I open a program. For example, the Fire Fox menu bar is only open when Fire Fox is open. If I minimize every program, no menu bar is displayed. I do not want a generalized menu bar.

 

The close/hide feature does seem a little redundant to me - but we'll see what happens with stacks in leopard.

I love the zoom/maximize feature of OSX. It makes much more sense especially on a widescreen.

Even in Vista, I really wish they had such a feature. Aero Glass will not work when a window is maximized (it takes focus away from the window or something - so someone claimed). In any event, what you're left with is a rather ugly black border that looks windows95ish . I end up having to resize all my windows manually to just take up enough space without wasting real estate, and to preserve aero glass. It's a huge pain.

 

To be fair, if you want all the little cute "features" from osx, you can get them all for vista. Dock, Expose, Spaces, Widgets... all possible in vista as well.

You are paying a premium, I'll leave it at that. But you are getting a pretty thin laptop in a MBP...

unfortunately the original poster is looking at a MacBook... not the thinnest, or the lightest laptop made in that price range. Lacks a videocard, and a few other things. But hey... its smooth sleek and very very plastic.

 

True. The Macbook is pretty heavy for a laptop of it's size. Regardless of what anyone says.

 

Wow, ton of info. and all good talk. Just to clear this up, I'm looking at the MacBook and not the pro'
xps 1330 $1794.36 (2year warranty)
MacBook $1663. (3year warranty) + ipod that will be sold = 1500. total or so...

 

Yea, if I were going to base my buying choice off hardware alone, for a 13.3" I would unquestionably choose the Asus U3, and then the M1330.

Well, anyway, if you want to use OSX on a 13", there's not much of a choice involved here.

 

From a hardware perspective, I'd say that the macbook is solid because it is heavy for a 13" notebook. I do wish it was lighter though.

However, you should be aware that Apple's biggest weakness lies in their quality control.

 

I hate to sound stupid, but what does this mean?

 

Quality control is how good the product is once its made. Its the process of verifying whether the product passes inspection, and how defect free it is.

I always thought that the hardware was more reliable than that of PC makers such as Dell and Gateway. But some people think otherwise.

 

You should also note that in OS X, your workspace tends to be a bit more cluttered and unorganized because of the fact that you can't fully maximize windows like xp/vista can. What does this mean? If you multi-task alot, be prepared to clean your desktop by closing down windows you don't need. It's also annoying to switch between browser windows especially when there's another one behind it (I don't like hitting F9 all the time to show all the windows opened, I want my hands where they belong: the mouse).

 

It is reliable in terms of software, but out-of-the-box cosmetic/hardware functionality-wise, it's a hit or a miss. In my case, it's a miss. I had a single dead pixel and a squishy unresponsive trackpad button on my month-old macbook... it is a widespread problem that can be surprisingly resolved by a piece of paper sandwiched in the battery bay.

 

Did this issue just suddenly appear? Or was it there from the very beginning? My MBP is just fine right now, but I don't want random issues to pop up a month or two from now.

 

I hear that Dell 1330 is starting to ship out and it's getting harder to make up my mind..., but I did order bestskinsever for MacBook :>

 

Gee, I can't count on enough fingers how many Windows desktops are cluttered full of alias icons. You can barely figure what is what? Maximizing windows to full screen doesn't prevent a cluttered desktop, in fact it covers up any access to your desktop and it's just plain stupid to maximize to full screen if the website your viewing doesn't fill it. Wide screens end up showing the website in the left side with a blank field over to the right.

Now, don't give out wrong information, you can maximize to full screen on Mac OSX. Only iTunes and Safari don't do it by the maximize button, you simply resize it from the corner, how hard is that? If you can put up with everything else irritating about Windows (namely the registry and no drag and drop installation) you can put up with resizing windows.

 

It always annoyed me that Mac OS Windows do not start full size.

 

Well, nothing is ever going to be perfect. Mac OS X has its flaws and yes I wish maximizing a window really did maximize a window.

But in the end I find for every annoying issue in OS X I find three other annoying issues in Windows.

 

Vice versa for me .

Windows is so much more intuitive.

 

Agreed, it's a learned behavior. If during all of your computing life you used Windows you will have a learned behavior that the Windows way is the right way.

It's the same if a lifetime Mac user decides Windows can only fulfill their computing needs and upon switching that old Mac user realizes that he has to manually install and un-install every application when he was used to drag and drop installs on Macs and tossing the unwanted file to the trash. That would be annoying that Windows doesn't do that but he would have to learn the Windows way to use Windows and it's not that big of a deal.

 

eek. I'm a life-long PC user (Windows and DOS) that's about to buy a Mac. Am I walking into trouble here?

 

Hrm, i actually like Windows and find it pretty intuitive as it is. It has a bunch of annoying peculiarities though...

such as NTFS not automatically remapping a directory structure for nested levels when moving files...(this is the dumbest thing ever....it actually *moves* the entire file on the HDD instead of simply remapping the file table....so if you're moving 10GB, it really makes you wait 10 minutes to *move* it...and you wonder why NTFS gets so fragmented).

...and having a registry - so you can't even move your programs after installation...

...and maximizing to the entire screen when you hit the middle button instead of maximizing to the necessary and proportionate largest window size (had to put this one in again just for you Homer )

As for the OP's question...on the OSX side, there are a bunch too...

1. Not having to uninstall is great but...if there are preference files stored elsewhere...it's a pain to find them and remove them - software like AppDelete isn't that great a solution Granted, those files that do store preferences outside the App package tend to have uninstall packages too, so it's not a huuuge problem.

No...it's really not hard to learn, and learning your way around unix is always a good idea.

 

No no no, I mentioned that so it will be easier to switch OS's. If you buy the same pair of shoes year after year and get used to how they feel then "switch" to a different pair the new ones will feel a bit weird but only because you were used to the others.
Macs and Windows PC's do relatively the same thing. Browse the web, manage photos, music etc. It's very easy to use a Mac, you'd be surprised you just have to stop listening to all the negatives. Most of the negatives come from Windows users that have never used one.
I switched years ago when it was Mac OS 8 and at that time MS Office and Adobe were really anything anyone used. They both developed for the Mac and that was back in the late 90's.

All my Windows friends told me don't buy a Mac if you need to actually "use" your computer because there's no software. Guess what, all my friends now have a newer Mac than I do.

 

1. I do not like that Mac OS does not maximize Windows automatically.
2. Mac OS does not have a start menu. Trying to find files is a pain in the butt in Mac OS.
3. In Windows Menu Bars are program specific and not one generalized menu bars.
4. Windows uses an easy file system that takes less than a second go figure out. I used Mac OS for a week and I am still confused about how it organizes programs.
5. Apple has a monopoly on Mac OS hardware.

EDIT:
I will add some things that annoy me about Windows.
1. Trying to delete some files results in an "Windows is Currently using this file".
2. I need an anti-virus, several spyware scanners and a firewall. MacOS just needs a firewall.