First Apple computer... EVER (MacBook Pro 15 Core i7)

[sfwdiy]

Remember that you can use Boot Camp and install a Windows partition on the computer. You would be able to boot it as a fully functional Windows machine for those times when you are feeling nostalgic.

And if you ever have any issues, let me know. I've done tech gigs for Apple for the past 12 years.

Ehh, balls to bootcamp. It's vastly more advantageous to use VMWare or Parallels and run a virtual machine than to partition your drive and native boot. The only time I'd recommend Bootcamp at this point would be for hardcore Windoze gaming.

Specs for those who care:

MBP 15" hi-res w/ antiglare
Intel Core i7 2.66
4GB RAM
500GB HD (probably swap to SSD soon)
OS X 10.6.3

SSD FTW! As soon as the next generation of SSDs from Intel drop there's gonna be plenty of drive space to go around. Article here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed

An SSD is the single best upgrade you can make to your computer. I have a Core i5 2.53 ghz Macbook Pro at home, and my 13" Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo at work feels faster. The work machine has an SSD. HUGE difference.

--B

[2Bear]

Remember that you can use Boot Camp and install a Windows partition on the computer.

Yes, Boot Camp or Parallels. I prefer Parallels. It works seamlessly now on the Intel chips, as it should. It used to be an amazing kludge running Windoze through the interpreter on the Moto G4 RISC chips. Talk about clunky.

The readily found "PD" rewrites of OS X to run on AMD and such are fun. It's cool to boot Snow Leopard on a cheap laptop.

Here's OS X booting on a cheap Eee PC subnotebook:

[hcbr]

welcome, just to make you feel better, I am a windows admin, and I purely use mac at home with obviously vmware fusion to still access my windows side of things, but if you come to my house, i'll have nothing but a mac pro tower as my desktop, my macbook pro 17 unibody, my ipad, my mac mini for my HTPC and soon my iphone for testing and exchange integration. Yeah, i can't deny it, they make the best hardware windows can install on Then again... i'm used to OS X now hehe

[Librarian]

And you know I'm just up the street - with my 5 mac wireless network, ranging from this macbook pro to a slowly dieing iMac 'blueberry'.

(My PowerMac 7100 has been dead for years - no, I don't miss OS 9 at all!)

[wildhawker]

Playing around with it tonight, lots of new commands to learn but overall pretty intuitive.

[not4un]

ONCE YOU GOT MAC YOU NEVER GO BACK

[sniper5]

Currently own an IMac. One of the newer large models. Use a host of PC systems at work and bought my son a PC at his request. Not impressed. I'll stick with Mac.

[axel4488]

they may be nice and all but
1. that company is evol
2. I dont feel like spending more money on something just because of its logo.

My little ol PC here was 700 dollars. switch the OS to MAC and put a flashy logo and hipster image for another 1000 bucks? no thanks lol.

[Flyliner]

Not sure if your MacBook supports 64 bit mode, but if so: hold down the "6" and the "4" key while starting up you will boot into 64 bit mode. I believe it defaults to 32 bit mode. You can check what mode it is in by:

1. apple menu
2. about this mac
3. more info
4. select "Software" from the list on the left.
You will see: 64-bit Kernel and Extensions : Yes or No

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/checking_32_or_64-bit_kernel_boot_mode_in_snow_leopard/

http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/08/snow-leopard-106-and-64-bit-what-you-need-to-know/

[pullnshoot25]

As a longtime Windoez user (and a fan of Winslows 7), I just committed some act of sacrilege. I bought a MacBook Pro.

I'm equally excited and apprehensive. The touch trackpad is a real selling point, and I hope it lives up to expectations. The new operating system may take some time to figure out, and I am eager to see if this can replace my dying Lenovo T60P 15.4" 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo rig on Win7 (that runs too hot and views too dark). I don't do any serious gaming or photo/video, although I'd like to do more basic video editing now that I have this.

So, I figured I would post this relatively trivial occurrence and bump the CGN threadcount up a bit.

Specs for those who care:

MBP 15" hi-res w/ antiglare
Intel Core i7 2.66
4GB RAM
500GB HD (probably swap to SSD soon)
OS X 10.6.3

[trashman]

There are a lot of things that bug me about the UI of OS X, but Apple's current lineup of hardware is just pure ****ing industrial-chic awesome. FWIW I use pretty much everything...(mac, win, couple of different linux distros)...at home.

The previous (original) macbook air was about as perfect a travel laptop as could ever exist. The newer gen (which I am typing on now) doesn't have the backlit keyboard, which is a shame because it was one of the features that set it apart from the pack.

When it came out, I more actively avoided OS X because the UI was sluggish compared to Windows, however that's just not true any more. Win7 and Vista have all kinds of sluggish built-in to the UI these days.

--Neill

[straykiller]

i made the switch awhile ago and will never go back its funny the track pd was the selling point for me to

[Reductio]

If you want to customize that multi-touch, look up better touch tool.

[Nessal]

A LONG time Windows user here as well. I used to build "PC" back in the late 90's and was always a Windows guy. Two years ago, I decided to get a mac. Some insistent bugging from my GF didn't help either. I just have to say that I will probably never go back to Windows after getting my macbook. It's not so much about system specs, but rather the interface. It just feels so.....streamlined.....smooth.....logical....

[Ed_in_Sac]

It's not the hardware though Apple's is very nice, it is their UNIX/BSD based OS that makes their computers desirable.

Bought a 27" iMAC to replace my aging G5 last year and just love the heck out of it. Do a lot of photo editing and the screen is right up there in quality with Apple's Cinema displays.

Best of luck on your purchase. OSX is mostly figuring out what you don't have to do anymore...a bit of a change from Windows (all flavors).