Mac laptops, are they that great for techies?

[Cowboy Bob]

Just reading my old post up there - I'm officially a Mac convert. After being reassured that they will take the use/abuse I went for it, and I am definitely not disappointed.

[expat]

Just reading my old post up there - I'm officially a Mac convert. After being reassured that they will take the use/abuse I went for it, and I am definitely not disappointed.

Use a Mac, never go back?

Or did that come out of Apple's marketing dept?

[interested]

A couple of programmer chums of mine have recently bought mac laptops and rave about them when the subject of buying a new laptop comes up.

Are they really that good?

The short answer to that is yes, they are.

Currently using my Mac Book Pro - running XP via Parallels for some firm applications.

But the hardware is outstanding, it's the little things that make the difference like the keyboard that lights up, the magnetic power adapter etc. That said some of the software is pretty good as well - iChat does full screen video conferencing better than anything else I've seen.

I've had this thing about 3 weeks now and I can see why Mac users rave on about how good their machines are. I'm turning into a proper fanboy

[OrangeHopper]

I know that when I buy my next Mac I will have: the ease of the Mac and its programs; Unix under the hood for standard C, C++ and Java development; Windows Vista if I'm that desperate.

My powerbook was very robust. It went on the train with me every day.

Every Mac I have owned has had a life of at least 5 years. Only had the one hard disk fail.

One thing that is a slight annoyance is operating system upgrades. Apple deliberately stop the latest OS version working on older machines. This means that perfectly adequate machines can't necessarily run the latest OS out of the box. Third party software may be required and may not be perfect. However, if you replace your machines every 3 to 5 years this shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, you can just stick with the OS version that is compatible.

[Buffoon]

My powerbook was very robust. It went on the train with me every day.

Well, my Compaq Armada was fine when it was flying with me back and forth to the US over twenty or so trips. Only when I settled down back in the UK for a bit did it start playing up then died.

[Joe Black]

My powerbook was very robust. It went on the train with me every day.

Every Mac I have owned has had a life of at least 5 years. Only had the one hard disk fail.

My Samsung notebook is now nearly 5 years old and has not had a single problem (except for a spilling the glass of wine over the keyboard incident). Likewise a VAIO before that, 3 years no prob's, sold it to someone else who is apparently stilll using it, so that one has managed nearly 8 years. Both of course had their fair share of travel, back and forth to Brussels each week for months. Admittedly the Eurostar is a somewhat smoother ride than most trains in the UK.

Unless you're buying an 'al cheapo' notebook PC, I would expect much the same as a Mac. Certainly since half the components come from the same people.

[Buffoon]

Unless you're buying an 'al cheapo' notebook PC, I would expect much the same as a Mac. Certainly since half the components come from the same people.

Exactly. I note that they use IBM thinkpads on the space shuttle. The lauch is described as a 20min train crash. They seem to do OK.

[Stan]

I ended up buying a macbook pro last month - its great

[cojak]

Which one (and how much RAM)?

I want the 13" 'cos I'm worried the 15" will be too big to hoik around. CB says you'd only miss the better graphics if you're a gamer and I'm not...

[Cowboy Bob]

Which one (and how much RAM)?

Whatever you buy you will do well to buy the maximum amount of RAM that you can, regardless of platform.

I've got the 13" myself, but bear in mind that MacBooks are widescreen and with the dimensions being measured along the diagonal my machine is just about as wide as a 15" regular aspect laptop.