Last week I made the switch and bought a 15" Macbook Pro. It's been a little over a week since my purchase and I must say, I'm extremely happy with my decision. We didn't make a full switch, as our desktop is still a Windows machine (Vista), but I find myself rarely turning it on anymore. The majority of what I do I've either found a Mac version that does the same thing, or figured out another way to do it. There are still a few things I need to work out, but I must say I'm very impressed with my Mac.
My original intent was to buy the mini-display to dvi adapter to hook up one of our pre-existing monitors that I believed was of better quality then the smaller Mac screen. The Apple Store was out of them and after I got it home I was rather shocked at how good the screen was on my MBP. I'd much rather watch shows from hulu.com on my 15" MBP then my 20" monitor.
I haven't downloaded very many, but I have been checking out some of the free, or trial-version, applications. One that I've come to really like is 1Password. Once my trial period runs out, I'm definitely buying it.
Though I haven't really used it, I also like the Stickies app. I like how you can alter each separate stickie, even making them translucent or have them float above everything. I haven't really used this yet, but I can see the benefits of it.
I've also installed App Cleaner due to my testing of apps. It's another good one.
I've also noticed that our iPhones gain more features when syncing it to iTunes on the Mac. For instance, we have our contacts set up in groups now. In fact, several things seem to work better with each other on the Mac.
I still have some trouble with minor things, such as wanting to hit F5 to reload the page. When I sit on the couch with my MBP I don't have the room for the mighty mouse (my daughter likes to sit with me or pile stuff on/around me) and the trackpad isn't always convenient, so I'm finding the key commands are the easiest.
I've also found myself switching away from Firefox. There's a significant difference in speed between FF and Safari, so much so that I've been using Safari as my default and dropped FF from the dock. I've also grown really fond of the Top Sites display.
I have a copy of Vista that I will eventually install on a partition, but I haven't done so yet. I really don't want to buy new versions of Civ4, though I may have to if my BTS disk really doesn't work. It doesn't work on the desktop, but several disks don't, so I believe its a computer specific problem, rather then the disks (read: I'm hoping it is). I'm also curious how Fallout 3 and Oblivion do on this computer. I didn't buy this computer as a gaming computer, but I am curious how it handles them. Granted, first I need to find out exactly how big of a partition I need before I do so. I'm thinking 20 GB.
Overall, I really like my Mac. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm very impressed with what I've learned so far. The nice thing is both Apple and a couple other individuals post podcasts that explain both tricks and how-to's regarding certain items on the Mac, so locating info is very easy when I'm stumped on how to do something. I even joked with my wife that when the desktop finally does die, I'm tempted to replace it with either an iMac or a Mini.
Just curious, but what all apps have the rest of you Mac users found as must have?
My original intent was to buy the mini-display to dvi adapter to hook up one of our pre-existing monitors that I believed was of better quality then the smaller Mac screen. The Apple Store was out of them and after I got it home I was rather shocked at how good the screen was on my MBP. I'd much rather watch shows from hulu.com on my 15" MBP then my 20" monitor.
I haven't downloaded very many, but I have been checking out some of the free, or trial-version, applications. One that I've come to really like is 1Password. Once my trial period runs out, I'm definitely buying it.
Though I haven't really used it, I also like the Stickies app. I like how you can alter each separate stickie, even making them translucent or have them float above everything. I haven't really used this yet, but I can see the benefits of it.
I've also installed App Cleaner due to my testing of apps. It's another good one.
I've also noticed that our iPhones gain more features when syncing it to iTunes on the Mac. For instance, we have our contacts set up in groups now. In fact, several things seem to work better with each other on the Mac.
I still have some trouble with minor things, such as wanting to hit F5 to reload the page. When I sit on the couch with my MBP I don't have the room for the mighty mouse (my daughter likes to sit with me or pile stuff on/around me) and the trackpad isn't always convenient, so I'm finding the key commands are the easiest.
I've also found myself switching away from Firefox. There's a significant difference in speed between FF and Safari, so much so that I've been using Safari as my default and dropped FF from the dock. I've also grown really fond of the Top Sites display.
I have a copy of Vista that I will eventually install on a partition, but I haven't done so yet. I really don't want to buy new versions of Civ4, though I may have to if my BTS disk really doesn't work. It doesn't work on the desktop, but several disks don't, so I believe its a computer specific problem, rather then the disks (read: I'm hoping it is). I'm also curious how Fallout 3 and Oblivion do on this computer. I didn't buy this computer as a gaming computer, but I am curious how it handles them. Granted, first I need to find out exactly how big of a partition I need before I do so. I'm thinking 20 GB.
Overall, I really like my Mac. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm very impressed with what I've learned so far. The nice thing is both Apple and a couple other individuals post podcasts that explain both tricks and how-to's regarding certain items on the Mac, so locating info is very easy when I'm stumped on how to do something. I even joked with my wife that when the desktop finally does die, I'm tempted to replace it with either an iMac or a Mini.
Just curious, but what all apps have the rest of you Mac users found as must have?
) is Crossover. Its nice that it integrates fully with OS X and can access all of your available memory, but it has some difficulty running a lot of unsupported programs. The only people I've seen get Civ IV going are those with a Bootcamp partition or Civ Complete. (I've only been able to run Colonization 
) The only reason that I have it is because it was part of a free giveaway, Tiger no longer has Bootcamp available, and I only have 512 Mb of Ram (we'll see how long it takes for me to get fed up with speed issues, I'm trying to hold off on more RAM until X-Mas, but Civ+Safari+2-3 modding apps really drags on my machine.)
