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Apple MacBook
There is a crazy deal at my local future shop. For C$1,000 I can get a white MacBook with dual 1.83, 512 ram, and 120 gig drive. I think it is worth it, and I am seriously considering the deal. Unfortunately, this would be my first apple based computer, and I want to know if the switch is worth it. I currently use XP. Also, I have only fiddled with OSX, never done any real work on it... Is it hard to learn? And would it be stupid of me to buy it and learn as I go..?
Comments
Ask yourself what you're going to use the machine for, because you won't be able to play any games on it. Even WoW runs sluggishly on a MacBook.
Also, I will give the floor to Kenjura, who seems to be around today, who I know has a decent amount to say on this subject.
But it just a fantasy, like the one where once I have written my award winning honours thesis I get a scholarship to do a PhD at UC Berkley. I like my fantasy life.
By the way, my macmini with the G4 1.4 procesor plays WoW fine or it used to when I played WoW
The only specification you listed that differs from the standard MacBook is the 120GB hard drive. Apple usually offers a 60GB drive in their lowest-priced model. While their price for your specifications is C$1489, they are overcharging for the hard drive. They list C$240 for a 120GB 5400 rpm drive, when you can purchase one from newegg.com for C$112. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136072)
Thus, you could duplicate this deal for C$1361, getting the computer from Apple directly.
That being said, it isn't a bad deal by any stretch, assuming the computer is new and the support and extras (bundled software, etc) are the same or better.
As for the MacBook itself; the lack of support for 3d gaming (for all intents and purposes) will prevent you, more or less, from running any applications that might overwhelm the hardware. That is, the performance should be adequate for most uses. You will want to upgrade to 1 GB of RAM if you plan to run more than a few applications at once. Firefox and iTunes, alongside the required system services, can quickly challenge 512 MB of RAM. Yes, I do recommend Firefox for the Mac (as a professional web developer), as well as on all operating systems. If you do upgrade your RAM, start with the Crucial memory advisor tool (crucial.com), which will tell you exactly what kind of RAM to purchase. Do not pay Apple's premium. It is very easy to install, and will not void your warranty.
Since this is your first Mac, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, determine what your needs are as a PC user. If you're like me, you want to run, or at least be able to potentially run a wide range of applications, both closed and open source. If you're like the "typical" PC user, you only want web browsing, e-mail, and light office use. I doubt you are strictly the latter; I doubt anyone is. Even if you were, any computer and OS, including Knoppix running on a toaster, should be sufficient. Since Firefox is, in my opinion, better than Safari anyway, and MacBooks do not come with an office suite, I do wonder how Apple could provide a "better" experience for such users.
My advice: consider every application you will want to use, and how you will accomplish this in Mac OSX. Here are some examples:
* Web browsing: Firefox should suffice
* E-mail: Everyone should be using gmail IMHO, but if you have some sort of antiquated ISP-based e-mail, myriad options abound in Mac OSX.
* Word processing: Microsoft Office is a commercial product, and runs poorly on Mac OSX. (Office 2008 will change this, potentially). While it does allow interoperability with Windows-based machines, the suite's applications are not well-written for the OSX platform. They will seem clunkier than all OSX applications, as well as their Windows-based cousins. Your alternatives include OpenOffice, which is even clunkier, but at least it is free, and iWork, I believe, but I have no experience with the latter product. You can also investigate the various online word processing offerings from Google and Microsoft.
* Music: iTunes should suffice for most users familiar with a media-library-based player. If you're like me, you're hopelessly devoted to Winamp, eschew media libraries, meticiluously organize your (strictly mp3 encoded) files, and can't stand iTunes. If so, you're SOL, because there are very few alternatives to iTunes. If you find anything that can even hold a candle to WinAmp, I'm all ears.
* Video: Mac OSX supports, by default, only ONE format of video: Quicktime. To make matters worse, the Quicktime player does not support fullscreen viewing. You must hack it with scripts or shell out money to Apple. Embedded videos on the web will not work, unless they are Quicktime or Flash (such as Youtube). Microsoft offers Windows Media Player for Mac OSX, as a separate application. Apple offers, via third-party support, a plug-in for Quicktime that enables WMV playback in Quicktime (including the embedded player for the web, if you hack it right). However, it will take some research and elbow grease before you can get most videos to play correctly. The many other video formats out there (DivX, XviD, ffdshow, etc) are supported to varying degrees, per the whim of the creator, and must be researched independently. It is likely to be much more of a hassle than you are used to.
* Gaming: Forget it. Save for 2d or very simple 3d games (written specifically for the Mac), the MacBook can't handle it. You may be able to run World of Warcraft and a smattering of other cross-platform games, but the framerate will be very low. Installing Windows on a Boot Camp partition won't help performance, though it will expand your horizons. Just keep in mind there's room for only one hard drive, and you'd have to divide the space between the two OSes.
* Development: I would never recommend the Mac as a development platform of any kind. Though there are a few decent niche products out there, the vast majority of OSX apps for development are commercial. In contrast, there is almost no kind of development on Windows that you'd have to shell out a dime for in order to develop in a fully-functional way.
* Media and Graphic Design: The various Adobe design products work fine on a Mac, but don't be fooled--the power of these applications is in the app itself, not the OS. In my opinion, Photoshop's OSX interface is inferior to the one for Windows, to name one example. However, interface woes aside, these apps have the same capabilities on both operating systems.
You should definitely look into this specific model being sold at your local shop. How modern is it? MacBooks (or at least MBP's) are updated somewhat frequently with new firmware, drivers, software, and even hardware. This is not readily obvious. Nor is it easy to update your computer if it is out of date. For example, my MacBook Pro has a fault AirPort driver that can cause kernel panic (hard CPU crash) during certain wireless ethernet tasks. Software Update does not correct this. Were I to purchase a MacBook Pro today from the Apple Store, it would not have this problem.
If you have any other questions, or would just like to hear more ranting, I have plenty more to say on the subject.
[Edit: didn't notice the C$ at first, updated to use correct currency]
Mouse driver (the standard OSX one is nearly un-useable): MouseZoom
Edit: because USB Overdrive can suck a dick.