Should I Buy A MacBook?

I've been a Bill Gates faithful for as long as I've been using computers but am in the market for buying a new laptop and am considering getting a MacBook.

Are they any good, what are the main pros and cons in comparison to Windows?

My main concern is running windows programs I know I can run Boot Camp in OSX Leopard and can run Windows on the Mac anyway but is it any good and is it easy to switch between the two? Also is it easy to get hold of Mac software (the dodgy cheap kind)

I have used a Mac maybe two or three times and really like the layout but is it really worth the extra 4 or 5 hundred quid?

My main uses for the laptop would be music which I use iTunes for anyway so that's no problem, the internet currently use Firefox can you get it for Mac or will I have to use Safari? and photoshopping and designing.

Personally, I like OSX because of the Unix backbone, and that it's a much lighter OS then Windows - meaning, it can run more efficiently on lesser hardware. Just Google for OSX vs Windows.

What programs are you worried about? You mentioned you will be using this for music and Internet. iTunes is a given, and yes you can use Firefox. Hell, you can even use IE if you want. I have a friend that all she uses are MACs for design, video editing, and listening to music. She swears by them.

Yes, IMO it is worth it. But, that's just because my next laptop will probably be a MacBook Pro.

Yeah the only thing that I wish Leopard had support for is utorrent, but that's about it; generally all the programs I used in XP (iTunes, Frostwire, VLC, Firefox, MS Office, PS, Skype; and I picked up Transmission, Colloquy and Apple's Mail client) I now use in OS X. I just got one for college and I have absolutely fallen in love with it, it is different but you'll pick up on those differences within 15 minutes of just playing around with it.

why spend more money for no reason? Stick with windows

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eric_6996

why spend more money for no reason? Stick with windows

---

oh yeah sure great plan *bsods out of this thread*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eric_6996

why spend more money for no reason? Stick with windows

---

EDIT: Get Windows, its amazing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Absolution

Yeah the only thing that I wish Leopard had support for is utorrent, but that's about it.

---

Check out Tomato Torrent, it's almost as light as Utorrent ;)
I find it very useful for running in the background, as it uses virtually no resources.

I was strictly windows until this year. I'm going into sound engineering, and I had a ton of money available from graduation for a laptop. So I went out on a limb and got a refurbished macbook pro.

At first I was extremely annoyed at how much I fuckin' wasted on that damn computer.
Then slowly but surely I'm really realizing how EASY this computer is. I'd consider myself "computer literate" when it comes to windows. I'm not an idiot by any means. And the fact that you can have windows on the mac, just makes it all the more better.

One thing that I love is the fan control program I have to my macbook pro, prevents it from burning my legs. And also little things that you'd expect to built into the operating system aren't there on mac. Which pissed me off at first, then you just get the program that does it. (because there IS a program that does it) and it works fantastic. My example there is making it so it doesn't hibernate when I close the lid. On windows you can change that nice and quick, so I assumed it was the same with osx. Wasn't. I got pissed. Someone put me in my place and showed me to the free program that did it. And now it works great.


Just thinking about it now, my mac is fantastic.

ONLY issue I've had.

Bootcamp issues. I use XP to game with my buddies. And the only thing that has happened is when I'm trying to get into XP it freezes like 7 times. But eventually works. When I have the time I'll reformat the windows side. But otherwise it works great. When XP loads up I can game flawlessly with my buddies.
Does take a while to get used to OSX. But once you're used to it, you'll never want to deal with windows again.
So there are my thoughts. I have been converted from pc to mac. And Truthfully, it's fantastic.
I used to HATE macs. Would have never guessed that I'd like them so much. :rolleyes:

Ok so the only real argument that Windows has is their price, but I am quite willing to spend the extra money for something better.

It seems that I won't have a problem with the applications that I want to use as they all seem compatible and the bootcamp sounds pretty easy to use, bar elenore's problem but I am guessing that is due to it being refurbished or an XP error and isn't a common problem with Mac's right?

Is it just XP that works on Boot Camp or can you run Vista on it as well? I don't think it really matters but Vista is just a personal preference of mine.

Also as I am probably going to commit to Apple I might as well consider the Macbook Pro. Are there many major differences between the Macbook and Macbook Pro, appart from obviouslty size, capacity, memory etc.

You can run Vista on Boot Camp yes, why I don't know :P But yes.

Elenore I know what you mean about there not being some things you'd like, but nearly always, you can find something that allows you to do it, if not surpass what you initially wanted.

It just sounds like you have an iffy install of XP, mine always works flawlessly. It used to run a little slowly, but after deleting it, after deciding I just had no use for it any more, I installed it about 6 months later to play FEAR and HL2, and it's been tip top.

You won't find any huge differences between the two, just that the Macbook Pro can run a lot more, a lot faster.
Before you ask, I suggest avoiding the glossy screen, although it's beautiful in the shop or at first glance, you'll soon realize how much nicer anti glare would be :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lewis

You can run Vista on Boot Camp yes, why I don't know :P But yes.

Elenore I know what you mean about there not being some things you'd like, but nearly always, you can find something that allows you to do it, if not surpass what you initially wanted.

It just sounds like you have an iffy install of XP, mine always works flawlessly. It used to run a little slowly, but after deleting it, after deciding I just had no use for it any more, I installed it about 6 months later to play FEAR and HL2, and it's been tip top.

You won't find any huge differences between the two, just that the Macbook Pro can run a lot more, a lot faster.
Before you ask, I suggest avoiding the glossy screen, although it's beautiful in the shop or at first glance, you'll soon realize how much nicer anti glare would be :P

---

Yeah, I figured it's just an install issue. I haven't gamed for a long time, but when the time comes I'll just reformat. No big deal really.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lewis

Check out Tomato Torrent, it's almost as light as Utorrent ;)
I find it very useful for running in the background, as it uses virtually no resources.

---

Transmission is great, I was surprised to see an alpha version of utorrent was leaked.

I think I'll stick with Transmission even when utorrent is stable.

I've had a Macbook since April and I've loved every minute of using it. Like most switchers, I was concerned about not being able to run my Windows programs. I can't say I've missed any of them. The only gripe I have is how blemished white Macbooks get. I've been very careful with mine and it still has small scratches on the outside.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elenore19

...Which pissed me off at first, then you just get the program that does it. (because there IS a program that does it) and it works fantastic. My example there is making it so it doesn't hibernate when I close the lid. On windows you can change that nice and quick, so I assumed it was the same with osx. Wasn't. I got pissed. Someone put me in my place and showed me to the free program that did it. And now it works great....

---

Please share this program. I like to seed torrents while I sleep and I could close the lid with my old laptop.

Here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lewis

There are many reasons they cost more, such as the fact they don't require tweaking and fiddling with just to get them to keep running reliably.

---

Any OS you use is going to take some tweaking to setup how you like, so this is moot imo. I haven't had to do any tweaking to keep my PCs running reliably either, but then I don't get viruses either.

Quote:

---

Of course for this I'll probably just get called a "Mac Fanboy" because the majority of people seem to be too immature to suggest reasons for Windows (which I can't really think of any) without insulting Apple.

---

My personal reasons: games, Foobar (yes I know you think iTunes is super awesome, but I don't and Cog isn't quite up to par), Dreamweaver (the Mac versions are horrible ports), BluRay player, GNS3, Packet Tracer, ActiveSync and a bunch of other apps that I don't want to stop using.

Quote:

---

The overall build quality is far superior to that of any Windows laptop I've seen - and please, we don't need links to £10,000 titanium super laptops!

---

MacBook build quality is grossly exaggerated (I own one, I know). It's not terrible by any means, but IBM build quality far outshines anything Apple has done laptop wise. As a previous PowerBook owner, the MBs are definitely a step backwards. Additionally, if you Google for "Macbook poor build quality" you'll find a tons of posts complaining about cracked hinges, overheating, poor speakers, impotent video on the non-Pros et al.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ephekt

Any OS you use is going to take some tweaking to setup how you like, so this is moot imo. I haven't had to do any tweaking to keep my PCs running reliably either, but then I don't get viruses either.

My personal reasons: games, Foobar (yes I know you think iTunes is super awesome, but I don't and Cog isn't quite up to par), Dreamweaver (the Mac versions are horrible ports), BluRay player, GNS3, Packet Tracer, ActiveSync and a bunch of other apps that I don't want to stop using.


MacBook build quality is grossly exaggerated (I own one, I know). It's not terrible by any means, but IBM build quality far outshines anything Apple has done laptop wise. As a previous PowerBook owner, the MBs are definitely a step backwards. Additionally, if you Google for "Macbook poor build quality" you'll find a tons of posts complaining about cracked hinges, overheating, poor speakers, impotent video on the non-Pros et al.

---

Windows FTW.

Mac books are for trendy gay nerds. If you are trendy, and gay, and a nerd; get one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lewis

I'm interested as to where you got the idea i thought iTunes was "super awesome" I said it runs a hell of a lot better - by this I mean that when using iTunes on my PC, it ran like crap, and hogged a whooole lot of resources.

---

I was being facetious. iTunes is the ubiquitous Mac audio player, and most users tend to be quite gay for it. Relax, I wasn't calling you a fanboy; I was joking about the lack of players on Mac, and the perplexed looks I get when someone find out that I don't use it.

Quote:

---

As for build quality I compare only to what I've used in the laptop world. My Gf's Acer is falling to pieces, keys are coming off and the screen surround is separating. Our school Dells were just flimsy as fuck and the buttons were all very fragile looking.

---

Acer is a budget OEM, and Dell has historically had poor build quality. If you want a valid comparison you can't just pick two of the worst PC laptop OEMs and compare them against a relatively well built MacBook. You're comparing a Lexus to a Hyundai.

Quote:

---

As far as searching for things like that it seems a pretty stupid idea, you can search poor build quality about any laptop and find enough results, that's what search engines are for.

---

I only mentioned it because it highlights the real issues the various iterations of the MacBook have had. I completely disagree with these types of searches being 'stupid' for someone currently in the market for one; it's called being an intelligent, informed consumer.

Well not to chime in and be Captain Obvious but you can load Windows native on a Macbook.

The first (and LAST) 2 Macs I've had have been garbage. Maybe they've improved since then, but after that I've had a cheaper-than-cheap Dell run problem free for 5 years, and my brother has had the older of his HP Laptops without problems for almost 5. Anecdotal evidence, sample of 3 and all that, but yeah. If it were me I'd stick with Windows.

Sorry but the only BSODs I get are from hardware failures which is not windows related.

Tweaking to keep in running reliably? Yea sure only if go installing every little crap junk program you can find on the internet. I install only the programs i need and i never have problems.

I can get a good windows desktop for what maybe 800(600 on slickdeals) then a macbook pro that has the graphics capability so it doesnt suck is what 1800?

Sorry but thats bigtime fail to me. Sorry but if reliability is an issue then just install a free linux distro

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eric_6996

I can get a good windows desktop for what maybe 800(600 on slickdeals) then a macbook pro that has the graphics capability so it doesnt suck is what 1800?

Sorry but thats bigtime fail to me. Sorry but if reliability is an issue then just install a free linux distro

---

This is exactly why I wouldn't even consider buying a mac. I built a decent PC - 4gb ram, intel e7200 proc, 8600gt etc etc for £400, but for twice as much I could buy an inferior Mac http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...c?mco=MjI4NDk4

Hmm decisions decisions...

(Note I'm talking about hardware and not the OS)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lewis

The software element is far better, 99% of things you plug in will just connect and work, no messing around with drivers which need installing ans arsing around with - *plugs in usb drive" "found new hardware - please remove device and insert disc" *remove device* DEVICE REMOVED IMPROPERLY, YOUR DEVICE MAY NOT WORK CORRECTLY" - ugh.

---

Ironically, the only computer that gave me problems for not 'ejecting properly' and resulted in corrupt data was a mac...


Anyways, I would say for a desktop, I would (personally) rather build a PC system. For laptops, I bought a over-priced, trendy Sony Vaio a year ago. Main reasons was because I wanted a 13" screen with decent dedicated graphics, and wanted to buy it in-store. Couldn't do that with a mac (MBP were 15" and 17"). I have not had any problems with it falling apart, hardware or software, and I am not regretting my purchase at all. However, I would have considered a MBP if I wanted a had wanted larger screen (but probably would have run XP on it all the time.

In short: Don't discriminate. :pphug: