Technology Shocker

[ReverendSlappy]

So here's something a little unexpected: I bought a MacBook. The new aluminum 2.0Ghz, 13" one. It is without a doubt one of the most finely engineered pieces of hardware I've ever had the pleasure of laying my hands on. The solid-aluminum case, the trackpad/button... everything, beautiful. I had been thinking about replacing my desktop with a laptop for a while, and I was intrigued by it, so I thought I'd give it a look in the Apple store. I was really, really impressed.

Of course, it isn't perfect. But my beefs are relatively minor: The clickable trackpad is a little tough to "click", which means that turning on tap-clicking makes sense. But then with the trackpad being so oversized means you wind up accidentally "clicking" while typing. Also, it gets hot... Like, disturbingly hot. And it's slightly heavier than it looks, but by no means "too" heavy.

And the best part? Vista screams on it. You didn't think I'd run OS X, did you? But seriously, it may be about the best $1300 Vista laptop you can buy: My overall Experience Index is 5.0 with subscores hitting the upper 5's... Good stuff. Compatability is pretty good too, outside of some minor driver issues; the display, (seriously, what does nVidia have against 19" widescreen LCDs? This is the third machine I've had with an nVidia display adapter that won't properly do 1440x900) sound, and wireless adapters are in need of an update, but there are no major issues that I can see. Minor annoyances, perhaps, but nothing huge.

So, if you're in the market for a new laptop, I highly recommend it!

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Did it come with OS X? What'd you do, wipe the drive and install Vista?

I hate hot laptops... mine (IBM T42) gets hot, too. It's the only thing I don't like about it. I'd love to see reviews have a "heat index" in addition to the things like battery life.

 

[SkyHog]

I'd consider buying a Mac, provided I installed Windows on it immediately.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Did it come with OS X? What'd you do, wipe the drive and install Vista?

OS X ships with an application called Boot Camp which is basically a combination of a boot loader, drive partitioner, and set of drivers that facilitates running Windows. It's relatively well done.

I hate hot laptops... mine (IBM T42) gets hot, too. It's the only thing I don't like about it. I'd love to see reviews have a "heat index" in addition to the things like battery life.

Yeah, it's annoying. It's strange though: The temp seems to rise and fall rather dramatically. In the time that I've been sitting on my couch here it has gotten hot, cooled off, and gotten hot again. Maybe it's just my perception... I dunno.

Battery life is decent. Seems to be about 3-3.5 hours or so of rigorous use (with wifi). Not great, but not terrible.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

I'd consider buying a Mac, provided I installed Windows on it immediately.

I used Boot Camp and have left the OS X partition on there temporarily to make sure all the hardware works. For example, that's how I'm sure my issue with an external display is an nVidia driver issue; I can get 1440x900 on my LCD in OS X. And stuff like that. But once I'm comfy, bye-bye OS X. I have precisely zero use for it.

 

[mikea]

I used Boot Camp and have left the OS X partition on there temporarily to make sure all the hardware works. For example, that's how I'm sure my issue with an external display is an nVidia driver issue; I can get 1440x900 on my LCD in OS X. And stuff like that. But once I'm comfy, bye-bye OS X. I have precisely zero use for it.

Steve Gibson said and did the same until he kept making the Windows partition smaller and smaller until he removed it entirely.

Your only hope is to never boot into OS X.

I didn't know Boot Camp was still available.

 

[SkyHog]

Steve Gibson said and did the same until he kept making the Windows partition smaller and smaller until he removed it entirely.

Your only hope is to never boot into OS X.

I didn't know Boot Camp was still available.

The ISO I downloaded of OSX Leopard has Bootcamp on it.

 

[gibbons]

I'd consider buying a Mac, provided I installed Windows on it immediately.

I'd consider buying a Mac too, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to. Oh, I'm kidding!!! I wouldn't even buy one then.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Steve Gibson said and did the same until he kept making the Windows partition smaller and smaller until he removed it entirely.

Your only hope is to never boot into OS X.

I didn't know Boot Camp was still available.

That's extraordinarily unlikely for me. Leopard might do, ehh, maybe 75% of what I need it to do natively. Windows? 100%. So it just doesn't make sense for me to run anything other than Windows... It'd be more of a novelty choice, and I just can't afford to do that.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

I'd consider buying a Mac too, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to. Oh, I'm kidding!!! I wouldn't even buy one then.

I feel the exact same way about Mac desktops, for sure. Buying one of them is an incredibly silly waste of money, period, IMHO. But I'm telling ya: This MacBook is really a fine piece of hardware.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

You wanna try Windows 7 Beta on that thing?

 

[ReverendSlappy]

You wanna try Windows 7 Beta on that thing?

Sure! I think I'm probably just a few days away from blowing away the OS X partition, so...

Actually, I'm planning on using my old desktop to do as much virtualization as I can (gonna see if I can work my connections and get a cheap/free license for ESXi!), so maybe I'll run it there.

 

[Ghery]

Did it come with OS X? What'd you do, wipe the drive and install Vista?

I hate hot laptops... mine (IBM T42) gets hot, too. It's the only thing I don't like about it. I'd love to see reviews have a "heat index" in addition to the things like battery life.

Does your T42 still perform at a reasonable level? Mine (work computer provided by employer) is due for replacement. Our IT folks have loaded it up with so much bloatware that it's turning into a pig. Doesn't help that I had to compress the files on the HD as it was nearly full, either.

But, hardware wise it has been bulletproof and I've lugged it all over the world.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

That's extraordinarily unlikely for me. Leopard might do, ehh, maybe 75% of what I need it to do natively. Windows? 100%. So it just doesn't make sense for me to run anything other than Windows... It'd be more of a novelty choice, and I just can't afford to do that.

I feel the exact same way about Mac desktops, for sure. Buying one of them is an incredibly silly waste of money, period, IMHO. But I'm telling ya: This MacBook is really a fine piece of hardware.

Hmmm. You oughtta give Mac OS a chance, it's a really fine piece of software too.

Just curious, what won't the MacBook do natively that you need to do?

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Hmmm. You oughtta give Mac OS a chance, it's a really fine piece of software too.

Like I've said before, I used it for about 10 months a few years ago. Sure, that wasn't Leopard, but... ehh. I haven't been any more impressed with anything I've seen of Leopard than I am with Gnome or KDE.

Just curious, what won't the MacBook do natively that you need to do?

Visual Studio is the biggest thing... That's, probably, 80% of my day. And I may have to run VMWare Workstation for work in the near future. And I'm a Rhapsody subscriber. And MS Flight Simulator-er. None of the above run on OS X.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Does your T42 still perform at a reasonable level? Mine (work computer provided by employer) is due for replacement. Our IT folks have loaded it up with so much bloatware that it's turning into a pig. Doesn't help that I had to compress the files on the HD as it was nearly full, either.

But, hardware wise it has been bulletproof and I've lugged it all over the world.

Can't really go wrong with a ThinkPad. I had one for two years at a job a while ago and beat the heck out of it, but never had any real problems. Tad on the pricey side, though...

 

[rpadula]

Thanks for paying the Apple tax Matt!

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Thanks for paying the Apple tax Matt!

Heh, yeah, I just wish I knew what the OS X tax is. I'm happy to pay for it because the hardware is so sweet... I'd just like to know how much it was.

 

[rpadula]

Glad you're enjoying it.

Were there even many 1440 x 900 LCD panels made? What DisplayPort -> ___ adapter did you go for?

I wonder why Vista screams on it. Perhaps maybe the bump in the FSB speed and/or integration of the North bridge and Graphics chip all in one device? To what previous system are you comparing that screaming?

 

[steingar]

Macs really aren't for you techno-dudes. You guys can take whatever the box is and make it work the way you want. Macs are for us idguts who don't know that much about the technology. They work out of the box and can easily have stuff plugged into them.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Glad you're enjoying it.

Were there even many 1440 x 900 LCD panels made? What DisplayPort -> ___ adapter did you go for?

I think there were quite a few... 1440x900 is the native resolution for all 19" widescreen LCDs. It's definitely an nVidia problem: I can get 1440x900 in OS X, so it's nVidia's Vista driver that's bunk. And it's the DisplayPort (shmancy name for MiniDVI) --> VGA. The LCD is, admittedly, a super-cheapo special... I think I paid $110 for it like a year ago.

I wonder why Vista screams on it. Perhaps maybe the bump in the FSB speed and/or integration of the North bridge and Graphics chip all in one device?

FSB prolly helps, but I'm thinking it's the 9400M that's the big difference-maker. I get a 5.6 and a 5.3 for the two graphics Experience Index scores... The best is a 5.9 for memory OPS.

To what previous system are you comparing that screaming?

My desktop that I built... It was an AMD Athlon 3200+ 2.0GHz, 2GB of DDR400 RAM, and a GeForce 7600GS. I never ran Vista on that box, though... Only various loaner laptops I've gotten for work here and there.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Oh, and I just noticed that Apple says the battery lasts 5 hours. Mmmyeah, no. Just over half that, more accurately. 'Course they're not the only laptop mfr that makes ridiculous battery life claims, so...

 

[mikea]

Macs really aren't for you techno-dudes. You guys can take whatever the box is and make it work the way you want. Macs are for us idguts who don't know that much about the technology. They work out of the box and can easily have stuff plugged into them.

Wrongo, wrongie, rrong, wrong!!!!!

Jesse and I got Macs at first because there is a choice of Unix shells just a click away, where we can make it do whatever needs doin.'

!#/bin/sh FTW!

 

[steingar]

Wrongo, wrongie, rrong, wrong!!!!!

Jesse and I got Macs at first because there is a choice of Unix shells just a click away, where we can make it do whatever needs doin.'

!#/bin/sh FTW!

Ur, uh, yeah. Whatever that guy said.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Oh, and I just noticed that Apple says the battery lasts 5 hours. Mmmyeah, no. Just over half that, more accurately. 'Course they're not the only laptop mfr that makes ridiculous battery life claims, so...

That might be another thing that requires Mac OS X to be true.

FWIW, when I bought my MacBook Pro I got 5 hours plus a little. Even now, with it being 2.5 years old, I still get about 3:20. (Li-Ion batteries are reduced to 80% after about 400 charge-discharge cycles, and I've done a lot more than that.)

 

[jesse]

I can do a solid 4 hours without plugging my MacBook Pro in. This is fairly intensive usage with a virtual machine running, screen brightness cranked, lots of programs running, and sometimes music playing.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

That might be another thing that requires Mac OS X to be true.

Could very well be... If the chipset and graphics drivers aren't optimal -- not to mention the wireless drivers which I know to be suspect -- that could help drain the battery pretty fast.

And I just thought of something: I always leave the Bluetooth radio on... Not sure if that's a big draw on the MacBook, but I know if I leave it on on my BB it drains a lot faster. Maybe that'd help.

FWIW, when I bought my MacBook Pro I got 5 hours plus a little. Even now, with it being 2.5 years old, I still get about 3:20. (Li-Ion batteries are reduced to 80% after about 400 charge-discharge cycles, and I've done a lot more than that.)

Yeah, I'm not terribly disappointed -- nor surprised. But I bet it'll get better as the drivers are updated.

 

[mikea]

Could very well be... If the chipset and graphics drivers aren't optimal -- not to mention the wireless drivers which I know to be suspect -- that could help drain the battery pretty fast.

And I just thought of something: I always leave the Bluetooth radio on... Not sure if that's a big draw on the MacBook, but I know if I leave it on on my BB it drains a lot faster. Maybe that'd help.


Yeah, I'm not terribly disappointed -- nor surprised. But I bet it'll get better as the drivers are updated.

Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if your not using them. Better, dim the screen to save power.

My second battery barely lasts an hour. I guess I abuse it by mostly staying plugged in.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if your not using them. Better, dim the screen to save power.

I turn wifi off when I'm not using it, but I've forgotten about Bluetooth. That'll probably help. And I always run at the lowest brightness setting but even that seems really, really bright.

MY second battery barely lasts an hour. I guess I abuse it by mostly staying plugged in.

Yeah, I'm making a conscious effort to try to run the battery down as much as is feasible. That's tough sometimes though, since I'm basically using it as a desktop prolly 70% of the time.

 

[ReverendSlappy]

Sure! I think I'm probably just a few days away from blowing away the OS X partition, so...

Actually, I'm planning on using my old desktop to do as much virtualization as I can (gonna see if I can work my connections and get a cheap/free license for ESXi!), so maybe I'll run it there.

So yeah, I asked one of the guys most familiar with VMWare here about getting my hands on ESXi and if our VMWare reps could hook me up with a deal. He looked at my like I'm an idiot: It's free.

Anyway, it's pretty slick. I highly recommend downloading it!