Okay! That’s it! I switched!
3 days ago, Wednesday, 31 October 2007, I finally bought the MacBook Pro I’ve been looking out for. After toying around a bit on my brand new Mac I thought I’d tell you about it: What I liked and what I didn’t like.
I went straight for the 2,4 GHz 15,4” MacBook Pro, and I was surprised by the bill. All Mac prices may be uniform, but student discounts aren’t. Because I had to pay everything above €2000, I lost about 150 501 more than I thought I would. I definitely think Apple should do the discounts themselves, because otherwise, students will always buy Macs at the online store.
1 I sent an e-mail and they changed the 2% into a 6% discount, so it was like a mail-in rebate.
I’ve been waiting for a long time, but I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer… Leopard wasn’t installed on the only 2,4 GHz MacBook Pro in that retail store, so I had to order it online, for about €10 extra. The link had a typo in it, so it took me a while to get there. Finally I got on the right page, but for some reason I was told that the Leopard Up-To-Date action wasn’t applicable to my serial number. I sent the store an e-mail. I hope this’ll get fixed soon2.
2 I finally got it on 6 December.
It’s time to talk about the fun aspects of my experience. There’s of course the usual arguments for getting a Mac, but I’ll just skip that. You probably heard them thousands of times before. What I really like about the Mac, is the software. It’s a common thing with Linux and Mac OS X: There’s lots of kick-ass freeware and open source software available. It’s probably because XCode and the Core stuff bring programming to a bigger audience. It’s just so easy. Microsoft’s got its own great alternative: Visual Studio, but it costs money. Seriously, Microsoft, watch and learn. We need free IDEs.
I’ve been using AbiWord and OpenOffice in the past, but iWork brings me much closer to not needing MS Office anymore. OpenOffice just was far too bleeding edge. I think iWork is worth paying for. If you’re not too demanding, it’s got pretty much everything you need. It’s compatible with the old MS Office format and with a little detour through the text editor even with Office Open XML, but who needs that? iWork can export to PDF, so I’m settled. Numbers works great for me, Pages has got the layouting features I need and Keynote is simply the best presentation program. Yeah, I’m pretty satisfied about iWork.
Before buying my Mac, I used Ubuntu for a few months, so virus free and stability3 doesn’t amaze me. In some cases, Mac OS X even underperforms Ubuntu. One of those cases is software management. I really do miss Synaptic. It was an excellent way of installing software, and especially uninstall it. On a Mac, you can install the .pkg file or drag the icon to your applications folder, but when you throw it away, you might get some artefacts4. It’s a little bit annoying.
What I’m really missing about Ubuntu and am really looking forward to in Leopard, are multiple desktops, or Spaces. My screen is clogged up with windows in no time. Exposé is handy, but it isn’t really a solution. Coming from a 1680×1050 resolution, 1440×900 is too small for me. I’m using the 1680×1050 Samsung screen as a secondary in my dorm room. At home, I’ve only got the laptop. I hope Leopard’ll make things handier5.
GNOME’s iTunes clone Banshee is much nicer than iTunes, in my opinion6. It’s got a limited file format support, no OGG, WMA, or FLAC. I had to convert my entire ripped music collection from FLAC to Apple Lossless. Luckily, I found out about a program called Max. That was a great help. I heard Amarok is going to be available for Windows and Macs in the future. That may be worth a try.
Of course there are pros about having a Mac, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought one. Macs have got better peripheral support, iLife, iWork and a better overall range of software. Maybe I’ll switch back to Linux one day, but there are still too much caveats right now.
3 Feisty was stable, not Gutsy.
4 AppDelete or AppCleaner are a handy workaround.
5 I ended up not using Spaces at all, it doesn’t work as well as Beryl’s desktop cube.
6 That was before I found out about GimmeSomeTune & DesktopLyrics, and the fact that Apple Lossless is smaller than FLAC.
Things are different on a Mac, including the keyboard layout. There’s no numeric keypad7 and I couldn’t find certain characters anymore. I made a document with all characters in Numbers. An ‘accent aigu’ isn’t that easy to find, you know. This is probably only a minor problem and I’ll get over it in time.
7 I got an external Targus keypad for Christmas :-)
Many young people consider switching but never do, because of the lack of good games. I’m a casual gamer, so I’m easily satisfied. Civilization IV and The Movies are nice, and Starcraft 2 is coming… Nope, I don’t feel like I’m missing out8. If you really want to game, buy a console.
8 Okay, I am dual booting Windows now I’ve got Boot Camp. Crysis runs sort of OK at medium settings and fine at low settings. Unreal Tournament III is awesome (and coming to the Mac later on).
I’m very satisfied about my MacBook Pro. I’ll keep you posted about my crazy adventures in Mac-land…