Hi everyone. I just switched to a Macbook Pro and I wanted to tell you guys my little story:
My Compaq V3000T notebook has been in the shop for a couple of weeks now, waiting for just the touchpad assembly to be replaced. I have no "backup" notebook, so I have been PC-less all this time. Right after I sent my Compaq in for service, my wife asked me to update her Macbook Pro to Leopard from Tiger. She's had her MBP for over a year. In that time, I messed with it once in a while but ultimately I had no clue how to use OS X, so I never really cared about it. But when a dude is without his PC, dude gets bored and desperate!
Anyways, I threw Leopard on it (clean install) and started to really figure out how to use OS X. At the very least it looked impressive. And performing basic tasks was ridiculously easy, so I was slowly getting comfortable. Then my wife asks me to set up Vista via Bootcamp. Setup and installation was easy...way too easy! Even the Bootcamp installer for Windows on the Leopard disc installed flawlessly! Do you know how long I had unstable audio and wireless drivers on my Compaq V3000T? 2 1/2 months! And Vista was working FLAWLESSLY as a Bootcamp partition on a MAC? What is this world coming to!?!?!
So I used Vista for a while, then I rebooted and used Leopard some more. And vice-versa. Both worked perfectly. This was freaking me out. Surely there had to be something that wouldn't work, but I couldn't find it. So then I started thinking about the feasibility of using a Mac full time as my combination work/home notebook instead of a PC notebook. I kept using my wife's MBP for another few days and everything was still working perfectly.
So then I did a lot of research on PC notebooks that stacked up well against the MBP. For what I wanted, I couldn't find a suitable contender. The form factor of the 15.4" MBP whooped all the other PCs to shame. I was also going to be very picky about the display's configuration. In my opinion, 1280x800 for a 15.4" screen is just too big a resolution. I need some desktop real estate for all the stuff I want to do. Then again, the 1680x1050 resolution on a 15.4" screen is a bit too difficult to read without squinting. So again, the MBP seemed to fit the bill. One last rant about displays on notebooks; the fact that most PC notebooks STILL have VGA out really bugs me. Are we still in the year 2000 here??? OK, rant over.![]()
There were some other logistical and software issues I needed to work out before making my decision as well. Considering that I'm an IT consultant, I had to make sure it suited all my personal and business needs. I just wanted to say Thank You to all the users on this forum section for all the valuable posts that answered most of my questions.
In the end, I couldn't find a reason not to get an MBP as a full-time work/home notebook PC, so I took the plunge. I ended up with the 15.4" MBP with the following specs: 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, glossy screen, 160GB 5400RPM SATA, 2GB RAM. My wife placed the order for me late last week, and Apple listed that I would receive it by the 30th of November. Imagine my surprise when I got the MBP 4 days before the estimated receive date! And my Compaq is STILL being serviced!!!
Sorry for the long post, but I'm pretty excited about this switch. I know I'll run into some bumps along the way, but I'm sure I'll be able to work around or fix any issues that come along (with your help, of course).
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Thanks for the story. If more people actually tried using OS X to the same extent you did, maybe we would have more switchers!
Having both Windows & OS X on the same computer was an attractive selling point for me, but now I find myself using Windows much less frequently. -
Congratulations on your new notebook. Sounds like you're quite happy about it!
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Congrats, track2, and thanks for your thoughts on it!
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I remember how i was nervous before the switch, and now i've become a mac pusher on everone i know lol. i've had my mbp for alittle over 2 months now. I have vista installed and i havent been in it for over a month. im considering wiping that partition.
the switch went easier then i expected, google and this forum became my best friends. -
Congratulations are your switch! I'm sure you'll enjoy Mac OS X as much as everyone here does.
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trueintentions Notebook Evangelist
Congrats!
Only reason I got a mac? A mac fanboy talked me into it.
I had never used a mac platform, never even tried one. Seen them, thought they were pretty.
Best choice I've ever made. =) -
Same here OSX is awesome and MBP is just sweet
enjoy the experience -
A long time ago I was actually an Apple certified technician, back in the Quadra days. I thought Macs were great back then, but even over 10 years ago I was already knee-deep in Windows dependency.
It is funny to hear the "sosumi" audio clip after so long. -
I sold computers, was interested in selling macs, talked the shop owner into it and got a distribution contract with Apple (we were located in too smal a town for them to want their own store, big enough that they wanted to sell) and got to use the first demonstration machine. One month later I bought my MBP and vastly prefer it to Win machines. Heck, one of the reasons I wanted to try the Mac was Vista (we'd been mucking around with the betas), there just HAD to be a better alternative
I still have a WinXP desktop due to some programs and plugins I have there, but if it crashes and needs a reformatting it will be receiving Ubuntu. -
Well, I just placed my order for a base model MacBook, so in a few days I'll be a switcher too, I guess, though it'll be running alongside Arch Linux.
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Congrats on the purchase, Lysander. The MacBook is a good machine!
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trueintentions Notebook Evangelist
Congrats lysander!
Black? White? high end white? =) -
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Congrats from me too, Lysander!
In my quest to get "settled in" to my new MBP I keep finding more reasons to stay on the OS X side. I was successful in not only pairing my cell phone in OS X via bluetooth, but I was also able to use it for a dial-up connection like I do in Vista. I was also surprised to see the Logitech has a Mac OS X version of their Harmony Remote software. Two more reasons to hang out in Leopard! -
I just realized I didn't give you the links, track2!
These two links are very helpful to switchers, I recommend them all the time:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101 -
I am interested to hear how the transition works out for you. -
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Doe you game with you're Mac book or know any one who does?
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I play CSS and Homeworld 2.
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I understand that Wow is one of the most demanding games out there.
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Yeah, don't expect the MacBook to play demanding games. The X3100 is better than the GMA 950, but still isn't a dedicated graphics card. -
CitizenPanda Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer
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You can read other threads around here for gamer's experiences. On my MPB I've played Bioshock on the Boot Camp partition running Vista. Using Nvidia drivers (not Apple's), I've been able to play the game at 1280x800 in full screen with all graphics options enabled, and gameplay has been excellent. Graphically, I've very impressed with performance on the MBP.
I still keep finding more ways to stay running fully within OS X and not switch back to my Boot Camp partition. I'm finding Spaces to be an indispensable tool for daily usage. I just recently decided to give VMware Fusion a try (as yet another reason to not have to reboot to Boot Camp). Imagine my surprise when Fusion let me use my Boot Camp partition with OS X running! Now if I need to use some Windows software like Office 2007 I can just fire up Fusion. Nice -
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justanormalguy Notebook Consultant
Personally I love the multi bar ad by mac
"Don't Give up on Vista" -
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What prevents Apple for releasing Mac OS for us who don't want to get an Apple branded PC?...
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Windows licensed to anyone who could pay for it. That's why Windows has so many driver issues, because it needs to be able to support basically every computer out there. This is also why it deserves some kudos, as its not easy to support just every computer out there.
Personally, I feel OS X's closed market actually is a reason why its so good. Apple can just keep it simple by writing drivers and such for the hardware that it makes, and it also knows what hardware they plan to use next and prepare for that. With Microsoft, they spend so much time just coordinating with its manufacturers, instead of actually working on some new, cool stuff. -
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Congrates track2 enjoy
Lynn -
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Dear friends:
I'm new to Mac.
I just bought an MacBook that will arive soon.
My two points I would like to have your help:
- what can I read in order to improve my learning curve ("first steps")?
- how does Mac compare to a similar powered Windows machine? Specially in terms of performance (I'm interested in photo software).
Thank you for your help.
Best regards,
Frank -
thnksfrthmmrs Notebook Evangelist
Let me recommend to you Sam's Mac Switcher's Guide and Sam's trademark links.
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101
They really do help a lot. -
As thnksfrthmmrs said, those links really do help a lot! I learned a lot from Apple's guides myself.
As for performance, since the Intel change, Macs run basically as well as any PC with the same hardware.
I have switched!
Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by track2, Nov 27, 2007.