Why am I buying a new notebook in the first place?
After much contemplation whether to replace my notebook, fate stepped in and decided for me as my Compaq Presario V4000 took its final breath March 15 2008. As the grief of losing such an intricate tool faded, it was time to decide which notebook replacement to purchase. For quite a while I’d been contemplating switching to Mac to bypass the inconvenience of Windows Vista. I gave Windows Vista a chance when I purchased my HP desktop and my opinion of the operating system is indecisive. It had its problems even after service pack 1. My primary issue with Windows Vista at the time was that it was an extreme resource hog. I saw this as reason enough to move on to a different OS whether it was Mac OS X or Unix distribution.
The final deciding points to purchase a MacBook
After much consideration I decided that it would be in my best interest to give the Apple MacBook whirl.
Deciding points include:
· High quality laptop construction and engineering implemented into the MacBook design
· Not having to deal with Windows Vista
· A new intuitive Unix based OS to explore and hack
· The possibility of an “it just works” mentality
· It fulfilled all of my needs while not being priced outside of my budget
The Mac Experience
To my surprise purchasing a MacBook in the Mac store took all of about thirty minutes. I purchased the white MacBook that contained the new Intel Duo Core 2 2.4ghz with 45nm architecture. The 13” inch notebook from a hardware point of view was superior and up to date with the newest technology standards. It included wireless-N draft support and 2 gigs of 800mhz ram; the MacBook was ready for anything that I was going to put it up against.
Mac OS X Critique
Considering this was the first time I really took the time to explore the Mac OS, getting adjusted to its unique construction was extremely simple. As I booted my Mac for the first time it asked me a few simple questions and it was ready to go. As for my overall view of stability after having the MacBook for about a month now and overall the MacBook has been relatively stable. I will say though that I have crashed my MacBook a few times already and have run into a few flaws every so often. However, compared to Windows Vista, Mac OS X seems to be much more sturdy. I guess something to consider are the graphic possibilities of Windows vs. Mac OS. Sometimes you have to lose a little to win. And the same is true when it comes to the Mac OS. Once again it’s that imperfect world where a lot of my windows software simply just does not have an alternative. With the switch comes change. My editor, Notepad++, was replaced with an editor called Smultron, which seems to function effectively as an editor. Being a programmer not having a good alternative to Beyond Compare has left me without a corner to turn when it comes to such an intricate part of my workday. I guess the final indecisive ideas I have of the Mac OS is that it is a big UI change between the Window and Mac world. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are good things about both the Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista.
Final Conclusions
I have yet to come to a final conclusion of whether I really like the Mac OS X. As for the MacBook hardware, I would give it a nine out of 10. It is extremely streamline and easy to use which makes it great. I will be going to go further into the pros and cons of OSX in a later post.
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