lukeowen said:
Thanks guys, thats what i was thinking too cause Mac Minis are around AUD$1,200 here and I would probably want to buy a MacBook Pro cause I would prefer a laptop. Do you think i would use 2GBs of Ram and should i upgrade to the 2.16 proccesser. Are MacBook Pros as good as the sound cause the sound absolutly amazing. Is it hard to go from being a windows user to a Mac user.
I'd go for the 2.0GHz and get more RAM from Streetwise or someone like that who do Mac RAM, Streetwise have pretty good prices and ship all over the country (yes, they're Aussie).
I don't know if they're as good as they sound but you have to remember we've been stuck at a point for ages with the G4 processor so the Core Duo is a massive relief to us all.
It's not hard to switch, it just takes a bit of re-learning to do so. A few of the biggest things you will have to get used to are:
- Windows do not take up the full screen, well, most of them don't. It feels really weird until one day when you drag a picture from the web into a word document and don't have to minimise anything. Exposé is awesome for switching between other open windows.
- Clicking on the red x in the top left corner will not close the app, just the window. I go into the Mac labs every now and then and find the Macs running a million programmes cause the kids have just closed the window. You need to type apple-q to quit the app or do it from the menu bar.
- networking with other windows machines is a mess, no matter what Apple says, browsing networked computers is way easier on Windows, it's the only thing I miss.
- you don't have to shut down much. I have left my iBook on for over a month and there was no slowdown or anything. I sleep my iBook when I'm travelling and when I go visit my folks all I do is open it and the wireless network is automatically detected and set up. It takes a split second and I'm surfing the net. Zero config is the greatest. Also, most installs do not require a restart of the computer.
So to summarise, ask as many questions as you want, be specific so we can help you quickly and remember, this is like learning another language (albeit much easier) so it takes a little bit of time to get used to it. I just decided to forget all I'd learned from Windows and try the Mac way:
- "how do I get that picture from the web to the dasktop? right-click, copy, paste? NO, just drag it there."
- "How do I email this document? Open a new message, go to attachments, select the file, click add? NO, just drag the file onto the mail icon in the dock."
- "How do I uninstall this app? Find the uninstaller, run it, do a registry clean up? NO, just drag it to the trash."
And so on. We're always willing to help switchers, they keep our favourite tech company in the $$$ so ask and ask and ask but before you ask, search.
