johndiii's Journal: MacJournal

First JE from my brand new MacBook Pro. This is a beautiful machine. I've had very limited Mac experience, but things are quite intuitive. Love the trackpad (though I will have to get used to keeping my hands off it when I type). It works much better than any that I have used previously (mostly Dells).

Zero pain in setting up wireless at home and Wifi at Starbucks (where I am now). It's all well thought out. There were software updates waiting when I got connected, of course. :-) The process is a bit more informative than Windows Update, though not a lot.

I am quickly becoming accustomed to the keyboard, having used ergonomic keyboards for the last twelve years or so (except for limited laptop use).

Hmmm. The update icon is bouncing for attention. Looks like a little kid down there. Ah, needs a restart. Later, I think.

Anyway, I like it a lot. Thin and light, and nice touches like the MagSafe power plug. Thanks, Microsoft, for Vista - I might not have considered this if there had been a reasonable Windows. :-) And I've already downloaded the latest Xcode development tools.

But does it blend?

[tomhudson]

Congrats. Your point about Vista is very appropriate. I suspect that, as the economy tanks, people will be looking for more long-term value for their money, and will conclude that anything beats Microsoft.

I considered getting a Mac

[GeckoFood]

When I was looking for a new laptop I considered getting a MacBook and I looked for good deals. That said, I use my system mostly for games anymore, and there is so much more variety for Windows than the Mac. I concur regarding Vista - it's a stinking hog on hardware. It's troubling that Vista has required hardware upgrades for some people to even think about running it.

All that said, I set this thing up to dual-boot Vista and RHEL 5. Unsurprisingly, Linux runs absurdly well on this machine...

Re:

[winkydink]

To be fair, people at the bottom end of the Mac food chain had to upgrade hw to get the the latest versions of OS X as well.

For me it's a choice between Linux and Mac

[WillAffleckUW]

And I've been very interested in a Mac laptop for either myself or my son, so it's good to hear how well it works.

Mac Notes

[Oculus Habent]

Hey, cool about the new MBP. Some quick notes that may make your life easier: There's a "ignore accidental trackpad input" option in Trackpad under System Preferences, which should cut down on finding your cursor wandering around your textarea or word processing document. The second, which I love, is under the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane. The setting is "All Controls" under Full Keyboard Access. This lets you tab through buttons on dialog boxes or links in web pages,