Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
at 12:48pm
After working relatively hard this summer, I finally have enough savings for an Apple MacBook. It’s one speedy and terrifically designed computer, with its Core 2 Duo powering Mac OS X. There are really two reasons why I am planning on buying it: to replace for my aging Dell Inspiron 8000 (despite the fact it runs Windows XP, it’s rather slow and heavy), and to get me to the wonderland of Mac OS.
Just for starters, the base MacBook model comes with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB of RAM, and an 80 GB SATA hard drive, which is pretty good for a laptop. Then add add the “etcetera” features, like Front Row (and the Apple Remote), and Photo Booth and iChat AV (powered by the built-in iSight camera), all of which aren’t my favorite features, and you’ve got a full-featured machine on the outside.
The real deal for me is Mac OS X. The entire philosophy that Apple applies to computing is reflected in OS X. To make a real-world comparison (and not to boil up another Windows vs. Mac argument), Finder is somewhat more productive than Windows Explorer, especially with its multi-pane view. Also, the Dock seems like a more efficient navigation device the the Taskbar / Start Menu combo (not counting the new Stacks feature in OS X Leopard). I’m not so sure about the single and universal menu bar, but Apple must have some reason for it.
My preferred purchase path is to buy a refurbished base model MacBook, which runs for $949 USD at Apple’s Web store. However, if anyone knows if you can purchase refurbished models at the retail stores , please let me know in the comments. (You can’t, as I found out on my last Apple Store visit.)
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
at 9:20pm
This summer, a good portion of the work I was involved with took place on a Windows Vista system, so it’s only proper for me to have found out a few things about it. As I stated in my initial review, Microsoft’s latest and greatest left me somewhat impressed, but otherwise XP still rocks the house.
The first thing that many fear about Vista is the performance. We were running Vista on an HP laptop with a 1.8 GHz AMD Turion (whatever the mobile line is called) and 1.25 GB of RAM, and the machine almost never was significantly slow. Aero Glass performed nicely – the effects were never dropped, and Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus ran well most of the time. However, toward the end of the summer, Windows would frequently pop up dialogs alerting us that the computer was low on memory, although the system never crashed or hung.
The eye candy that Aero brings is certainly a welcome addition, but it doesn’t revolutionize the way you use the computer. Of all things, the transparent window frames are the least exciting part. I personally enjoyed the minimize and restore effects the most.
Vista actually does bring something in the way of productivity enhancements. The search box integrated into the Start menu makes it a breeze to find programs that could otherwise be buried folders-deep in the menu. Another useful addition is scrolling in the All Programs list, which lets you use the scroll wheel on the mouse to navigate through the list.
I’m still more convinced that even Mac OS X Tiger (but even more so Leopard) beats Windows Vista in terms of productiveness and design. Spotlight was around before Windows’ desktop search, Dashboard before Widgets, Exposé before Flip 3D, etc. I don’t want to go into Mac vs. Windows arguments, but I’m more than willing to give OS X a try.
