looking for a windows MBP expert

You can get 5 hours battery life from Vista if you want. If OSX can make it - then Vista will be able to make it too. Just disable Aero, disable some unneeded services and act on Vista as you know what you are doing. Anyway - I do not use battery that much - and I do not care even if it would last for 1 hour.
I agree that for average Joe that does not know what to do with computers and look at screensaver all the time - OSX might be a better choice And battery might last pretty long time in that mode too
EFI has nothing to do with OSX - it is just a new version of "BIOS". Windows XP x64 has already support for EFI. So if any other manufacturer will release EFI based boot system instead of BIOS - Microsoft will add that support to Vista at once. I will check if Vista Ultimate x64 has EFI support...
About blue screens. Do you know how many times processor fails in 1 day? Do you know how many times memory fails in 1 day? If you would know these facts - you would not blame Windows or any other OS. You would blame hardware. MHZ are so high these days that error rate per 1 second could be scarrey...
I have iPhone. Also have Windows Mobile 6 device. Would not say that iPhone is better than WM6. It is different for sure, but saying that every device that has OSX is so great - it is just lame. They could have put some linux on iPhone and call it OSX (as they did with freebsd on desktop).

 

LMAO, based on your reply it's understandable why you of course didn't understand what I wrote. I never said because the iPhone has OS X it makes it better. I said that since Apple has become the multimedia king and many of their products are either designed with OS X or will be OS X centric they connect and run better on the Mac OS X system. Don't kid yourself into thinking that Windows will ever run Apple's products better than OS X will. Eventually OS X will used by many more that never considered it before.

Funny that you said that your iPhone isn't really any better than your Windows mobile device. Hmm, why did you spend $600 on something that's not much better than you currently have?

 

P.S.
I am not trying to insult MacFanatics. Just it is fun seeing how quickly they get desperate and start looking for reasons to justify for themselves how great and important OSX is.
Just open your eyes and you will see. There are more things to computers than just OSX
Look - i used most of operating systems in my life - Solaris, WM, MSX2, Unix, Linux, Mac OS 8 & 9 and OSX, all version of Windows. So you do not need to tell me what software is there on OSX - i can tell you what software there is on any of those platforms and what software those platfroms lack.

 

To hldan - cause I can spend $600 and then throw away into rubish bin if I do not like it.

 

Saw article which said that Vista SP1 will add EFI support for Ultimate x64...Good news - will not need OSX at all :O

 

You'd still need drivers and updates for Mac-specific hardware, unless Apple decides to release them to the public as a stand-alone or you manage to get them via some other means.

Aero should disable automatically from the default "on battery" profile on Vista's battery management setting anyway (I think - it's been a while since i bothered to use Vista for anything except gaming).
I can see XP managing some decent battery times - but Vista? eh. If you turn off *everything* just to get an extra hour of battery life, well i guess it's up to the user to determine what he's willing to sacrifice.

 

If you have to gut Vista's processes to achieve a decent battery life, what's the point of using Vista on a laptop to begin with?

 

Why not just use windows while plugged in, OSX when you are on the road. That's what I am planning.

 

Well, it's a hassle to switch back and forth, but this is essentially what I do. I use Windows for games (which I'd only be doing while plugged in of course), and OSX for everything else.

Most of these responses and battery life threads are based towards people who want to use Windows all the time - on or off the road.

...Actually I wouldn't use the MBP unplugged period unless I could do it without putting it on my lap. I would prefer my legs to not look like roast chicken drumsticks.

 

Then why not throw away your copy of Windows along with it since that's where it belongs?

Don't misunderstand yourself if you think you are irritating people it's just that your comments are senseless. You obviously came here to start fights and if you truly have nothing to offer to this forum but to try and annoy Mac users you have greatly wasted your time. Don't worry, since you can't offer intelligent conversation without constantly bashing with intent to to piss people off I will no longer respond so don't waste your time posting back with something you think I might respond upon.

What makes this forum so great is that Mac users are truly interested in helping people rather they are using Windows or the Mac OS.

 

Ha ha. I did not start this bashing. Just read this thread from begining and you will see that MacFanatics are alway the first to complain about windows or try to push OSX for people that chose Windows. It would be nice that MacObsessions would be left in their pants and people would get answers that they asked and not suggestions how they should switch to OSX (just because some people are jealous for majority of happy Vista users)

 

to hldan - I like Vista - thats why it is there to stick on MBP and OSX is going to the dump. If you want you can come and rescue it from its miserable ending

 

alright seems like theres a bit of a fight going on here anyway.
i sympathises with the attitude of thetruthkc, im not going to completely shun OS X from its existence on the MBP, but its just easier for me to use Vista. Also being an architecture student it wouldnt be so bad to have some experience in OS X because macs are in this field of work quite often. as pinwanger said the plugged in vs unplugged i have thought about as well and that would be nice.
my reasons for wanting to make the vista partition quite a bit larger than the OS X is because i will be keeping all my music, movies, and stuff that i wont be editing on my vista partition, i want to do this because OS X can natively read the vista partition, whilst the vista partition cant read the OS X partition, natively.
also how do programs like macdrive and such run?

 

that logic is flawed. osx has variable A. i like vista more than osx. therefore, vista has variable A ALSO!

if you are plugged into a wall most of the time, then you are going to avoid one of the major downfalls of running windows on a mac. i hope i made that clear before. i highly recommend getting an external mouse also.

that doesn't even merit a response. i feel like i have tried to be very helpful in cautioning you as to some of the pitfalls of running windows on a mac. where does your response fit into that equation? when i said 5 hours of battery life, i meant dimming the screen and remaining productive. in windows you will top out at three, aero or not. end of story.

thank you for informing us of this. of course, i did already mention that exact tidbit of info a few posts ago. i swear you haven't read a word i said, and that is related to your osx-user distaste. you came here only to say "im using windows on my mac!" and then run away, thinking that people would care. good job pretending to be genuinely interested in the pro/con report. EFI is related to osx in the fact that osx has efi booting support.

 

I told you that MacFanatics are very obsessed. check out hldan's PM to me:

Originally Posted by hldan
I just got 5 PM's about you from other posters. Everyone is talking $hit about how stupid you are and of course I agree. I jumped over to the Windows forum and I saw 3 posters that use Macs and had crap to say about you too. I just laugh at you now. Can't wait until you take your MBP to the Apple genius after that fake Vista shuts your Mac down. Then you tell the genius my poor Mac doesn't work. Then the genius just laughs and tell you, "sorry we don't do Windows"

 

wow u guys sure get rough.

 

This is going way off topic. Alenas, just want to note, this is the Apple and Mac OS X forum, so Apple hardware as well as Apple software is discussed here. I'm happy that you're enjoying your Vista, we're happy to enjoy Mac OS X.

This thread has information that's good for everyone. Please don't make the mods close this thread.

 

i asked this question just before but with all the anger i guess it was missed, just wondering how programs such as macdrive and macfuse run? is the speed reliability comparable to normal just a normal file transfer?

 

MacDrive:
This is a Windows program and lets Windows read and write to HFS+ partitions and drives. I found sustained write and read speed just a tad slower than Windows reading and writing to NTFS. Of course, I didn't benchmark this or plot this - it was just by observation over the course of copying 100GB from one place to another (around 10Mb/s difference? I don't remember). Wasn't a huge deal though. I ended up not buying it after the 5-day trial.

MacFUSE:
Installed on OSX. Basically you install MacFUSE, and then ntfs-3g, and you can mount your NTFS drives and read and write to them from OSX. I haven't tried to move large files with this, but I hear write speed is much slower than native. Helpful if you can at least navigate your way around a unix environment.

In any case, this is the route I went because it's free and once I had everything organized and set up, it'll be rare to have to move data back and forth anyway (and I have a FAT32 ssd card in the expresscard slot just in case for shared data), so it wasn't worth paying for MacDrive.

Also, who knows what surprises Leopard may spring...so I'd at least look into the MacFUSE route instead of paying for MacDrive until at least that's settled.

 

just a side note- if you wanted the full ability to read / write to anything from either OS, you would need to use a combination of macfuse AND macdrive.

its not necessarily about picking one or the other.

to alenas: fanatics tend to be obsessive. its part of the job. hdlan really doesn't like windows i guess. i hope you get your laptop situation settled and you pick something that works well for you.

 

sorry about bringing up such an old post but you mentioned that macfuse is slower than native, and whilst i know OS X can read NTFS does this way result in comparable/the same speed as normal file transfer. i know im probably just being over the top about this because the only thing i'll keep that is used by both os's is my music/movies so that only needs to be read.

 

I am crazy about laptops so I have been itching to buy another one for the last few weeks. On Wednesday night I just decided that I would go out an buy a MBP. I called my accountant yesterday morning and he told me to lease it if anything so I did. Yesterday at 4pm I was a proud owner of a non-Santa Rosa 2.33 17" MBP. The first thing I did was update the software, firmware, etc. However, it seemed nothing was needed. I then installed bootcamp and did a fresh install of Vista Home Prem. Everything went smoothly. The reason why I was eager to instal windows is, I do alot of my work in the windows environment at work and at home. For work especially, we use an online based CRM program that will not work in OS X no matter what browser I use. 100% of my income is based on being able to access a special secured site. However, I did not buy the MBP just to use windows. I do a use Aperature and garagesale on a regular basis too. I hope I don't regret not getting the new MBP. I thought I would save a little money and the Rep. told me for what I do I wouldn't need the extra power anyways. It's ok, the lease is set up so in 1.5years I have the option of upgrading and end up paying the same payment anyways.

 

What??? How can there be no Home and End keys? I use those keys all the time.

 

This was new to me too when I joined a Mac shop (web design/marketing agency). I got used to ALT + right arrow for end, and ALT + left for home. I never got Pg Up and Pg Dn working. This was using an iMac.

It's taken me a while to lose my mac-infected ways on the keyboard. I got to spend 6 months in OSX and I'd still take Windows. If OSX dropped Finder and replaced it with something similar or better than Explorer that would be a good start; allowing you the maximise windows, quickly flick windows between dual monitors (like UltraMon on Windows). I digress... don't want this turning into another Windows vs OSX contest.

Each have their own strengths, installing apps is really easy on OSX. As a developer having a proper shell instead of a DOS command prompt was great (I'm a LAMP developer), however certain programs like Regex Coach I just couldn't find an equivalent for...

That being said, having read this thread I've found plugging an external keyboard into a Macbook with Windows installed will enable me to use Home and End which was my major issue with Macs. I'm always cabled up when using my current notebook so battery power and track pad issues aren't a problem for me, I just need the extra horses the MBP offers and portability so I can sling it in my backpack and bike to work when the weather is good.

 

Well each to his own. I do find some quirks bout OSX and Mac keyboards hard to get used to, but as one person so aptly put it in a thread here...there are always surprises in OSX that make you go "ooooh...so that's how you do it! hey that's neat! why doesn't windows do that..."

For example, everyone's been complaining about the keyboard shortcuts and how they're not intuitive - and they're not....but they also offer a ton more than Windows could because of that complexity!

For example...this was something I ran into today:
how do you create a screenshot in Windows? PrintScreen.
Screenshot of current window? Alt + PrintScreen.
Anything else?...doesn't exist natively.

OSX?
Command + Shift + 3 ... My first thought was..wtf?! how unintuitive is that!?
But then you realize...
Command + Shift + 4 = screenshot by selection
Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar = wacky expose-type window screenshotter...
Command + Shift + 3 + Ctrl = screenshot to clipboard
Command + Shift + 4 + Ctrl = draggable selection screenshot to clipboard
Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar + Ctrl = selectable window screenshot to clipboard

etc. etc. etc....and...they work even with dashboard.

Complicated? Sure, but oh so many possibilities! If you take the time to master the keyboard, more options than you ever thought existed open up.

Just a little patience

 

Hmmm.... I think I'd rather just click on PrintScreen.

 

Doesn't the thought of a FIVE-key shortcut just make you feel all good inside though!? I wonder if Windows even supports more than 3 keys being pressed on the keyboard at the same time....

Okay seriously, so would I. There's no way I'd remember all those combos and where the screenshot ends up ...but to someone who needs to use those features often, I'm sure it's a lifesaver!

 

Well I never remember all of the screenshot buttons but I mostly use the Command + Shift + 3 for a screenshot of the entire desktop. Although it is hard to remember the rest of the keyboard shortcuts (are they really shortcuts anymore? ) at least OS X has more options if you do need those options .

 

The quality of Print Screen isn't very good in Windows. While the command/shift 3,4 and so require more for the fingers the quality is top notch. However since I discovered "Grab" I don't use the command/shift feature anymore. Grab is in the utilities folder and it offers even more screen shot features and the quality is also top notch. Print Screen is limited. OS X screen shot commands offer so much more.

 

how many options do you want for a printscreen? although its good that apple gives you the option.

 

As many options as possible so people don't say, "It does it on Windows but not on OS X". It's okay to capture the whole screen but sometimes I just need a portion of the screen or capture one open window or just an icon on the screen.
Who would complain having several options?

 

Nobody. But you've gotta admit that it's easier to have a PrintScreen button on the keyboard (that you can see) rather than having a keystroke short-cut (that you have to remember).

I don't need to use PrintScreen very often, so I doubt I'd remember the keystroke short-cut. But on the Windows keyboard I always know I can find it.