A tale of two computers (or, I’m getting a MacBook Pro)

March 13, 2008 · 9 comments

Well folks, the time has finally come. In a few short weeks, I'll be the owner of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Long story short: The aging, hand-me-down laptop my church had supplied me died, and they won't pony up the dough for a new one. At home, my 6-year-old desktop is on life support. The solution? A new laptop.

I built my desktop from individual parts in 2002 with money I had received after graduating high school. It's been through quite a lot since then, and I'm actually amazed that it's still running. I've had to reformat and reinstall Windows XP multiple times -- one of those times I had to borrow an external HDD from a resident (I was an RA in college). I had to manually remove the fan from my graphics card because it was making a horrible grinding noise. For a while last year it would just randomly turn off and refuse to turn back on. Now it's simply too old and slow to be useful; it takes 15 minutes for Adobe® Photoshop® to open (no kidding).

The following table shows (to the extent that a table can) the stark contrast between the two computers. There is more reading following the table.

A comparison of my old and new computer
Picture not available
MacBook Pro
Orientation
Desktop
Laptop
Operating System
Windows XP SP2
OS X Leopard 10.5.2
Display
19-inch LCD widescreen monitor (originally 15-inch CRT monitor)
15.4-inch TFT widescreen
Processor
1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory
256MB
2GB
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce MX 440 w/64MB memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT w/256MB memory
Hard drive
80GB Maxtor
200GB Serial ATA
Optical drive
10X CD±RW
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Floppy drive
Yes
No
Video
VGA
Built-in iSight camera, DVI, VGA
Audio
Sound Blaster Audigy
Combined optical digital input/audio line in, combined optical digital output/audio line out, stereo speakers, microphone
Expansion
Two USB 2.0 ports
One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Wireless
None
Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Input
Standard keyboard and mouse
Full-size, illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor; Multi-Touch trackpad

Anyway, I've been acclimating myself to OS X by using my mom's MacBook, so making the leap from Windows to OS X won't be quite so jarring. However, I still need your help. What software, hardware, accessories, tips and tricks do you suggest? Leave a comment and let me know. Anything that will enhance my overall experience will be greatly appreciated!

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Tagged as: apple, laptop, leopard, mac, macbook pro, os x

  • Mike

    If you use instant messaging at all, you need to check out Adium. Best IM client on any platform.I also find that I prefer Firefox over Safari. If you do any plain text editing, check out Text Wrangler.

    Other than that, just play around with all of the apps and features that Apple ships with OS X. You’re bound to find things that you’ll really like.

  • http://www.theriddlegroup.com/blog riddle

    a few things I use.
    omnipro – for organization
    skype for video chat
    adium – for combining all my im (except skype)
    firefox – browser
    delicious library for keeping track of who has my books

  • http://ramblingtoma.blogspot.com Thomas

    After using a PC all of my life, I made the switch over to Mac five years ago. It was one of the best tech-related decisions I’d ever made.

    Apologies in advance for not having links – I’m at school and have to log off. They all shouldn’t be too hard to find.

    As for suggested tips, software, etc:

    -Delicious Library is a really neat app for organizing your books, music, movies, and games, especially if you’ve got a lot of them. Adding stuff to your library is incredibly easy – all you’ve got to do is hold up the barcode to the iSight camera.
    -This isn’t Mac exclusive, but the Blue Snowball is a reasonably cheap USB microphone that sounds surprisingly good. It works great with GarageBand.
    -Handbrake is one of my all-time favorite programs – it rips DVDs and converts them to a format playable on your computer or iPod. It’s easy to use and free.
    -A lot of people use Parallels Desktop to run Windows on their Mac, but I had an awful experience with it. I found it to be slow and clunky to configure. Boot Camp, included with the Mac, works much better, although you’ll still have to buy a copy of Windows XP or Vista.

    Let me know if you’ve got any questions. Oh! And be sure to come to Spring Nite o’ Mime 2008. Thursday the 27th at 7:30 PM. We’d love to see you there.

  • http://www.swingingfromthevine.com Mak

    yay for new macs!!!

    cyberduck for ftp uploads
    adium for IM
    flock for browser, feed reader, flickr uploader, blog editor
    neooffice for spreadsheets, wordprocessing, etc.

  • http://www.jakebouma.com Jake

    riddle: I haven’t heard of omnipro… I’ll look into it. Thanks, man.

    Thomas: I’ve been playing with Delicious Library and it looks sweet.

    Mak: Yay is right! I’ve been using a customized Adium and I love it, and Transmit instead of Cyberduck for FTP. I’ll check out Neooffice. Thank you!

  • http://www.calacirian.org sonja

    I’ve been using Macs for about 5 years now too. Love. Them. Will not go back.

    Hmmm what do I use?

    Love iCal, but that comes with. iPhoto (of course)

    I use fugu for ftping … but that’s because it’s what my husband uses and I don’t know any better. Plus the icon is a really cute killer whale.

    Congrats and I’m only the tiniest bit jealous of your larger size laptop. I love my little 12″ MacBook. It goes everywhere with me!

  • http://www.swingingfromthevine.com Mak

    ok, now delicious library sounds like the coolest thing ever!

  • http://jensenrf.wordpress.com Rob Jensen

    I plan to blog about this soon as last night I just finished installing apps to my second mac and myself moving over to a new mpb just this week. Some high level apps:

    Adium – chat
    Caffeine – keeps your computer from going to sleep
    VLC – for video
    Camino and webkit – internet browsing
    Handbrake – video ripping
    MarsEdit – blogging (looking for a better app, suggestions?)
    NetNewsWire or Newsfire – rss
    Quicksilver – does a little bit of everything + app launcher
    Skitch – screen grabs
    Things – gtd
    Transmission – torrents
    Twitterrific – twitter app
    Neooffice or iWork – office apps

  • http://polyspline.com/blog Ryan Tow

    I’m in a meeting today – but want to respond do you on this . . . so bug me if I don’t get back to you.