Hi,
I've been a Mac user for six months now - it's about to change though.
I'm not starting this thread to fire up a war between Mac's and PC's, OS X and windows. Only writing this to share my experience/opinion on the Macbook Pro and OS X in general, and hear others people's experiences.
I bought my Macbook Pro (2GHz CD, 1GB RM, 80GB 5400rpm, 4x SD, 15,4") some six months ago. The nice finish and first-hand rugged feeling persuaded me - along with OS X, the promise of a more comfortable "ride" without malware and other gibberish.
I was thrilled. Networking was pretty easy, although the same settings applied - they were just more logically placed. OS X has a very nice way of dealing with floating windows. Exposé is a great tool and a the dock seems like a good solution - at first..
Over time my fascination with OS X went away, and I started looking more at the Macbook Pro itself. The very build of the Pro was one of the things that really amazed me in the beginning. The MBP is gorgeous. It's properly engineered to look good - but the fun ends there. I understand why they push and push on to make it thinner. But maybe there's a reason the competition hasn't gone and made the cases so compact as is the case with the MBP. Remember, they all basically use the same components. These are standard. Apart from the logic board, made by ASUS I hear?
First, I've taken really good care of my MBP. I have really babied it. IT doesn't have -one- single scratch or dent, apart from one (very small one) on the bottom.
The laptop itself has some really bad inconsistencies. Stuff that really just
should work, but seems a little strange and half-finished.
- My logic board needs replacing. After six months. If it was DOA, I could understand. But six months of use and then dead?
- The keyboard is rubbish when compared to the IBM I had. The keys look like they've been thrown on, some skewing and others just not lining up properly. The 'O' key has from day one been harder to activate than the others.
- The screen is grainy. This is a chipset issue (I've read), hopefully the new logic board will fix this.
- The trackpad button is inconsistent - the button is loose and makes a double clicking sound when pressed. Pretty bad for a very expensive laptop.
- It scratches waay to easily. Of course, I knew this when I bought it. Anodized aluminium isn't exactly robust.
- The battery time is awful. 3,5 hours MAX. Really sub-par.
- General stuff. Sometimes you have to hold the power-on button for three seconds to turn it on, other times it just goes on as soon as you touch it. It's worrying that your machine doesn't behave the same way every time you turn it on. The LEDs for the CAPS-LOCK and NUM-LOCK buttons build up charge, lighting when the buttons aren't on. This goes away when you press them, then builds up again. Rubbish.
The exoskeleton of the MBP works great for a really stiff build. But I'm afraid the way the exoskeleton work combined with the solid mounting and very compact fit inside, will lead to the components directly taking punishment for everything you subject the case to.
But the things that got to me is that in general, in ALL these things, it's just not a proper quality product. It's certainly not worth the extra cash. In my opinion, at least. It feels like a product in it's beta stage.
Software-wise I still like OS X. Not for being OS X, but for being a UNIX based platform with cute skin that (in most cases) keeps the user out of terminals.
To be honest, I would be just as happy with an Ubuntu install. As I see it, you have the same malware free environment, lots of great freeware, eyecandy (at your wish) and stability.
So, in the future it'll be an IBM T60 with Vista and Ubuntu.
It's been great being here, browsing this forum has helped me out a few times
EDIT: And by the way, pardon the bad grammar. Hope you made it through safely