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Hi to you all from a recent switcher on his new MBP

A

Animalk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 27, 2007
471
19
Montreal Canada
Hi everyone!
I am glad to finally be posting in here with you all! I have been reading these forums for more then a year now without ever posting :eek: i know i know i'm sorry :(

My story:

Since the Intel switch and the Macbook/MacBook Pro launch with the core duo processors I had been dreaming of switching. So much so that it rubbed off on my cousin and he bought a MacBook the day after listening to me talk about them :D

I had been using a Dell Inspiron 5160 which is a complete failure in engineering in almost every conceivable way. That thing was huge, heavy, hot and loud. The fan ran full speed just by surfing the web and the battery lasts about 25minutes out of the box. I had to reapply heatsink paste on the cpu and gpu every couple months just to keep her quiet enough to bring to class. I am a Computer Science student here in Montreal Canada and i work with and have worked with Windows and Linux machines all my life. I got so bored with those two operating systems that i decided to save my money for an Apple laptop in fall of 2006. In mid march '07 i walked into the only apple store in Montreal which is actually outside the city (go figure:rolleyes:) and dropped my savings on a MacBook Pro (2.16Ghz - 1GB ram - glossy).

I have been so incredibly happy with my MBP and this awesome operating system called OS X. I am finally enjoying computing again. I enjoy spending extra time and putting extra work into my assignments and projects to get them to run on a mac though it can get quite frustrating sometimes.

It took me about 15 minutes to understand the GUI (graphical user interface for the non-geeks) and a couple of days to get most of the differences between Linux/Unix terminal and OS X terminal. I suppose I adapted so quickly because of my previous computing knowledge and my area of study.

I don't have any serious issues with my MBP though when I pulled it out of the box I immediately noticed that the screen was significantly curved. Both sides of the screen were curving upwards when the laptop is closed. Given all the problems I had seen that others have experienced I decided to live with it because everything else was absolutely perfect. After several weeks of use I can attest that the curvature of the screen has reduced to a point where it doesn't bother me at all. I am very happy about that. :)

My guess is that during manufacturing the metal was exposed to significant temperature changes and as a result the aluminum has expended or shrunk. I left Mechanical Engineering for Computer Science so don't take my word for it :p .

I don't know nothing about picture editing or video editing but I do DJ and produce Electronic music so I am planning on putting the MBP through its paces in that respect (Logic Pro or Ableton Live are in my sights).

I use to always be dissapointed that switchers didn't include pics of their new babies in their introduction threads so here she is (I apologize for the horrible quality but i don't own a digital camera, I only have my cell phone):

Image001-1.jpg


I am glad to be finally participating in this forum since you all played a major roll in my switching and I still have lots of questions and projects in mind which I am guaranteed to come here for help.
 
Congratulations mate, enjoy your new Mac and i hope everything goes well with your music and studies:D
 
Glad you're enjoying it, and welcome! :)

My mom's old PowerBook suffered from the warping issue; over time the button of the case started to bulge. It was under warranty, Apple did a full case replacement free of charge; so if you want a repair or replacement done to your machine, give Apple a call!
 
Hope you enjoy!

I saw that your safari Window has the dark-gray (graphite) theme, and I must recommend you to try UNO.:)
 
You can always tell the n00b switchers because they always have windows that take up the whole screen. trust me, it's a whole lot easier to multi-task when your IM windows, web browser, and starcraft aren't all full screen ;)
 
Thx for the warm welcome everyone!

I have been suggested UNO many times but I really love the brushed metal look in safari and msn messenger to be honnest. More so then the look of the latest itunes version. If I were Steve Jobs I would have everything in brushed metal look.

Yes I am not ashamed of my MacNoob-ness and some of you are quick to spot that :p

I had my web browser only take up half the screen for several days until this morning when i realised that I can't live with waisted screen space. Any notifications I need to give attention to will bounce on the hidden dock. I just :apple:-tab my way around which is very quick. I am a software developper and I am quite accustomed to working with several windows/programs at once.

I work with the following ideology: whatever I am currently focused on requires my full attention and nothing else should get in my way. 99% of the time that only requires one window but for that other 1% of the times I will reduce my window sizes for convenience like when i use Xcode. I always want wtv I am working on to take all the room it can get in my screen.

I don't know why I do this. I just always feel like it makes my work easier. I don't like clutter on my screen i suppose.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
You can always tell the n00b switchers because they always have windows that take up the whole screen. trust me, it's a whole lot easier to multi-task when your IM windows, web browser, and starcraft aren't all full screen ;)
Click to expand...

Very true, and there isn't really an excuse for filling an entire 1440x900 MPB screen with a Safari window, but some of us are still on 1024x768 screens. Many modern sites require me to use my entire screen on my iBook. I also prefer my Starcraft free of useless distractions; watching Zerglings stream into a breached enemy base is more fun to watch than any IM windows I'd have open anyway.
 
Congrats on your new MBP, I just upgraded to one the other week (2.33Ghz 3GB ram) and I love it as well.

I've owned Macs since the early 90's and like you have my windows in full screen mode, so it's not a noob thing at all.

I also love Montreal especially at Christmas :D
 
thejadedmonkey said:
You can always tell the n00b switchers because they always have windows that take up the whole screen. trust me, it's a whole lot easier to multi-task when your IM windows, web browser, and starcraft aren't all full screen ;)
Click to expand...

It may be easier to multi-task, but it bugs the living heck out of me when My safari, firefox, or shiira isn't full screen *twitches* and I have had my iMac since November, I guess it just a windows habit that has gotten carried over...
 
I am pretty convinced its just whether or not you mind clutter around the windows you are using. My brain doesn't like that apparently so i make everything as big as possible.
 
Responding to the full screen comments. I must say that when I work with CS3 apps (ussually 3 o4 4 at the time, I always hide the applications that I am not using. If I dont do this, I keep selecting tools from app behind the one that I am working on and is frustrating.

I have been windows free for the past 5 months so I am still getting use to mac. I must add that even thou I have windows installed on a smaller partition on my MBP, I never use it.

Congrats on your new MBP. I wish I could go back and experience switching and unpacking my first mac all over again. ....just like sex.
 
the noob comment is ridiculous

I run most of my apps full screen, except for IM or if I need to compare 2 articles side by side, or am using more than one picture in photoshop. Though I do leave space for the menu bars.

As for multitasking I use workspaces, and thats what cmd-tab and cmd-` are there for.
 
Thanks for posting about your switching experience! I always love it when people include pictures with their posts too. :)

Animalk said:
I am glad to be finally participating in this forum since you all played a major roll in my switching and I still have lots of questions and projects in mind which I am guaranteed to come here for help.
Click to expand...

I loved this statement you made because I can definitely relate!

Daveway said:
So, were you always set on getting the MBP or did you also consider the MB?
Click to expand...

Good question... I'm wondering the same.
 
When you have a 15 inch screen at 1024X768 you definitely want safari at near full screen. I can see the bottom of my ichat window and click to it whenever I want.
 
COngratulations!!!! MacOSX is just simply awesome. Really, its just so intuitive and things just work so nicely with everything else, the level of integration is amazing!

And go get Logic Pro! That is a software that I simply love, the plugins included are one of the best set compared to others in my opinion. Heck Space Designer itself used to cost over 400$...

But I think if youre purely into Electronic music, you might want to check out LIVE as well.

Anyhow, welcome to the mac world, u wont regret it. :apple:
 
Daveway said:
Some say the new mac smell makes it even better:D

So, were you always set on getting the MBP or did you also consider the MB?
Click to expand...

Oh i thought long and hard over that one. I spent many sleepless nights reading this forum looking for arguments for and against for my particular needs.

I am a Computer Science student and i specialize in Software Systems. In other words, I am a software developper (or very close to being one :p ). I have many windows open at once and I need something that can handle that. I look at very large software and the more lines of code I can see at once the easier it is for me to follow.

I used my cousin's MB for several months before purchasing mine and I came to the conclusion that 13inches is livable but definitly not ideal. I want 15" and up. Even now, I still think the resolution of the 15" MBP is on the low side. MBP wins here.

I need something more very portable because I walk to school and back everyday (20min walk) and my books are quite big and heavy so the smaller the better. So I went to my Apple store and compared the MB and MBP on size, weight, sturdiness, screen size, keyboard, etc.

I am not a fan of the MB "chiclet" type buttons. A keyboard with buttons I life is very important to me because i write thousands of lines of code per week. So the MBP won here. Oh yeah the backlit keyboard is a bonus here.

The MB is smaller in size the MBP naturally. I disqualified the 17" MBP because of its size. It's simply too large for my needs. The ideal would be to have 1680x1050 resolution in my 15" screen but saddly it is not offered. 1440x900 is still quite spacious for a laptop.

The processor speed between the black MB and the low end MBP is negligible. The real meat is in the graphics gpu capabilities of the MBP. Just by doing the two-finger scroll on a webpage you can tell that the MBP is several times smoother then the MB. The MB has this stutter that only dissapears on the lightest of amateur websites. The MBP had a smooth two finger scroll on some of the heaviest sites out there. I also play World of Warcraft :rolleyes: so being able to play it on my laptop would be nice but not necessary because my Windows XP desktop is quite the beast.
Recapp: Overall GUI smoothness and responsiveness of the MBP trumped the MB and this was a huge plus for the MBP.

It was down to the black MB or the low end MBP. I clearly would rather have the low end MBP for my needs but there was a 700$ difference in price to justify.

So i told myself, I will save best I can and if i have enough for the low end MBP without killing my financial health, then I'll go for it. Otherwise, the black MB would get the job done anyways. Deadline was my birthday in March.

March came and ,low and behold, I had enough to get the low end MBP! Not enough for AppleCare though. I am still saving for that one :(

Kaiser Phoenix said:
COngratulations!!!! MacOSX is just simply awesome. Really, its just so intuitive and things just work so nicely with everything else, the level of integration is amazing!

And go get Logic Pro! That is a software that I simply love, the plugins included are one of the best set compared to others in my opinion. Heck Space Designer itself used to cost over 400$...

But I think if youre purely into Electronic music, you might want to check out LIVE as well.

Anyhow, welcome to the mac world, u wont regret it.
Click to expand...

Yes I have experience with Ableton Live on my Windows XP machine. I have been reading up on Logic Pro for the past 2 weeks and comparing the differences. I really liked Ableton Live. Logic Pro seems like quite the power house. I am trying to decide which one is more efficient and uses less resources to acheive similar effects and sounds.

Thank you all again for the warm welcome! :)
 
Applecare

Congrats and welcome! I just got my MB C2D2.0/2G in February, and couldn't be happier. I just couldn't justify the extra cost of the blackbook or MBP for what I use a computer for.

Also, check out eBay for Applecare. I ended up getting mine for about $150CDN, registered it just fine and all is good.
 
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