Business laptop: To Mac or not to Mac?

My main business laptop is a Macbook with Snow Leopard, Windows XP, and
Ubuntu Linux as a triple-boot. I also have a T60 Think Pad and an Acer
Netbook with Win7.

I will say the Mac is stable. But so is the Win7 machine. XP is XP - it is what it is.

I just view computers as tools - some things about Windows are good, some things
about Linux are good, some things about Mac are good. And likewise, there's stuff
about each of them (Including Mac) that suck.

But I cannot argue against the stability of the Mac. It's the most stable computer
I've ever used as my road "work horse".

Jedi

 

The mac is a well built machine with good specs. I would go Mac as, like it was said earlier, you can boot xp if you need to.

 

Just little niggling things - you just have to learn the "Mac Way". It's funny
how tiny things can be annoying - like for instance, on Mac you can only resize
a window from the lower right corner. The other thing that annoys me is
that on the standard Macbook, there is no SD card slot and only 2 USB ports,
which are too close together for some devices. Macbook Pro has more USB
ports and does have the SD reader. I also get annoyed at the "single tool bar"
at the top, no matter where the program is on the screen. Fine on the Macbook,
but when I'm connected to my 24" monitor, I have a lot of mouse movement
at times going up to the tools. Also, you can't truly maximize a window. The
maximize button just makes a window "as big as it needs to be to show what's
in the window". If you want it bigger, you have to resize it manually. And of
course, the resizing can only be done from the lower right corner, so you have
to drag the window to the upper left, and THEN resize it.

Just niggling differences - Mac just does things differently. I'm used to it though.

Jedi

 

Yeah - it's a lot like that. I hate iTunes and how it works, but it's the way Mac
thinks it should work and that won't change. We just learn to deal with it.

I might add - iTunes on my Mac runs 100% better than it does on Windows. It's
still a bloated crappy program but it seems to work vastly better on the Mac.

Jedi

 

One other important niggling detail - if you use external storage (I have a 1TB drive
velcro'd to the laptop lid), you MUST dismount the drive before unplugging it! I can't
over stress this - you run a very good risk of corrupting the drive if you don't do it cleanly.
On Windows Vista/Win7 it's really no longer a concern. I unplug drives and sticks
all the time and never give it a thought on Windows. It just handles it - I believe because
the newer versions of windows don't really "keep the drive open" - in effect, it's always
"eject ready" when you're not accessing files. NOT SO ON MAC! Once in a while I
forget - and sometimes the Mac won't see that drive anymore when I reconnect. The
only fix is to plug it into a Windows box first, then back to the Mac. That always works.

But bottom line - don't just unplug storage devices on a Mac!!

Jedi

 

I have a Thinkpad now for three years and I'd buy one again in a heartbeat. The build quality is exceptional, no signs of wear after 3 years.
When I bought the Thinkpad, a lot of my friends (especially female!) were laughing about its design or rather the lack thereof, but now they have thrown away their blingbling notebooks, and my Thinkpad still looks like new.

If you need a tool and not a toy - which you do if you use it for business I suppose - go for the Thinkpad.

 

I have been a PC guy for 30 years but just bought the top of the line MacBook Air i7 13" 256 gig model.

I partitioned the hard drive for half Mac OS Lion and the other half Windows 7, I'm a really mobile guy that travels a lot and for me this is THE best computer I have ever owned!

I also bought a 27" cinema display that I plug into at home, it's a fantastic setup!

It has a SD card slot, 2 USB inputs and the thunderbolt port for many more I/O options.

Its really nice to be able to run either the Mac OS or Windows, actually you can run both at the same time if you buy parallels for $79.

I have been editing 1080HD video footage on it with no problems, it turbo boosts to 2.9 ghz and it's a dual core processor.

I'm really glad I bought this computer, I can't say enough good things about it!

 

Full disclosure; I've been called a black turtleneck wearing Apple fanboi on here more than once.... I don't work for Apple (unfortunately!) or have any axe to grind beyond >30 years around computers.

My 02c; For your stated needs, the Mac will provide a much "better" experience, you'll be happy rather than frustrated and hence more productive.

Local backups; Simply plugin an external drive and "Timemachine" (included) will take of it.

iPhoto & iMovie (included) do take a little learning, just like everything else. Follow a tutorial or two and you'll be home free in no time - As noted, "they just work".

Contrary to some tales, you don't have any security/virus/bloatware/etc nonsense with a Mac. FWIW, I forget to unmount drives all the time - It B&M's and warns me to stop doing it, but I've never had one fail to reconnect.

Yes, they're more expensive, but IME last a lot longer resulting in about equal TCO.

Finally, why a laptop? [Much more bang for your buck with an iMac if you don't *need* to drag it around with you.]

IMOSHO, your quality of life will improve and you'll get to enjoy rather than fear stitching videos etc together.

As always, my 02c,
Cheers,
Ian

 

Learn a few darn keyboard shortcuts then!

Seriously, I sort of agree (!) and it's even worse with two monitors until you install the "duplicate the tool bar" utility whose name I've forgotten!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I ~should~ be getting my new laptop very soon. It's a beast of a laptop for performance numbers. Any nagging thought about doing photoshop, or video editing slower than a mac wont even matter

I'll post a review after I get it, and run it for a little while.

At a glance
2gb video card
8gb ram
2.3 ghz quad core with 'boost' up to 3.4 ghz
160 gb solid state drive with 500 gb 7200 rpm drive

I had thought about going with 16gb of ram, but for now, that $300 pill was tougher to justify.