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Another MBP waiter that pulled the trigger

C

cmm26red

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 29, 2008
132
0
My fellow board members,

I caved yesterday and did the unthinkable; purchased a current gen MBP. I ended up getting a 2.4 15" through my school. For under 2K (not including tax), I got the MBP (matte display), Applecare, and a Canon MP printer (MP470). I also purchased Vista Business and Office 2007 Enterprise (170 for both). I installed Vista, Office, and CS3 on a 60 GB partition last night and everything went as smooth as butter. This is my first mac and OSX is going to take some getting used to for me, however, I am on the mac side typing this and exploring this great OS. I would have done away with Vista completely, but I need Office for school, my CS3 Design Premium package is for Windows, and I have some other programs for school that are Windows based. I installed istat and everything is running cool under a light-moderate load. If the new books come out next week then I may or may not pay the 10% restocking fee and trade this one in. But as of right now, I think we have a winner.

cmm26red
 
Congrats!

Switching between Windows and and OSX is always difficult in the beginning, but after a year or a few you'll never want to go back. Welcome aboard!
 
I don't think it will take a year or more to learn and get used to OS X, that's extreme. The Mac OS X system is a very easy to learn OS, it's when you are switching from Windows to OS X it's the mentality that everything must work like Windows and it doesn't.
At any rate to the OP you may have set yourself to a long journey before you end up using OS X as your primary OS because you didn't give OS X a try at all. You could've gotten Office 2008 for Mac, you could have also had Adobe transfer your CS3 license to the Mac version for a small price. So the money you spent towards Vista could have been used to buy Mac software that was readily available for your needs, you didn't have to by the Windows versions.
You can't consider yourself a "switcher" if you keep feeding into the Windows world.
 
I am about to jump the gun too and get the MBP...selling my MB is more difficult than i thought though :(
 
wtf. how did you get a 2.4 for under 2g's
i used student discount and after applecare it was 2250 or something.

and where did you get vista and office for 170 together. from my last windows computer i remember each being around 100 (that was like 4 years ago)
 
HLdan said:
I don't think it will take a year or more to learn and get used to OS X, that's extreme. The Mac OS X system is a very easy to learn OS, it's when you are switching from Windows to OS X it's the mentality that everything must work like Windows and it doesn't.
At any rate to the OP you may have set yourself to a long journey before you end up using OS X as your primary OS because you didn't give OS X a try at all. You could've gotten Office 2008 for Mac, you could have also had Adobe transfer your CS3 license to the Mac version for a small price. So the money you spent towards Vista could have been used to buy Mac software that was readily available for your needs, you didn't have to by the Windows versions.
You can't consider yourself a "switcher" if you keep feeding into the Windows world.
Click to expand...

office 2008 for mac is awful. lets not kid ourselves here. Microsoft office 2007 for windows is much much more refined and intuitive.

I think it is completely necessary to have windows on your mac, especially if you are a switcher. There may be some great software for OS X, but the target audience is so little, that microsoft developers don't spend nearly as much time on it. It is what it is.
 
It's a great computer very powerful Penryn won't even make too much of a difference anyways unless it gets redesigned it won't be a big update. Even if it did get redesigned I wouldn't buy it there would be too many issues Enjoy your new mac. You made the right choice.
 
gothamm said:
office 2008 for mac is awful. lets not kid ourselves here. Microsoft office 2007 for windows is much much more refined and intuitive.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with this. The only reason I "upgraded" to '08 was to take advantage of the floating editor (if you've used '07, you know what I mean) and the zoom function (ditto). Neither of these are in Mac '08, which makes '08 little more than a fatter version of '04.

I think it is completely necessary to have windows on your mac, especially if you are a switcher. There may be some great software for OS X, but the target audience is so little, that microsoft developers don't spend nearly as much time on it. It is what it is.
Click to expand...

Disagree with this, however. It really depends on your software needs. Yes, a lot of things on Windows just don't exist in comparable fashion on OS X (µTorrent and MPC, just to name a few), but on the other hand, you can get by without them if you're willing to settle.
 
benlangdon said:
wtf. how did you get a 2.4 for under 2g's
i used student discount and after applecare it was 2250 or something.

and where did you get vista and office for 170 together. from my last windows computer i remember each being around 100 (that was like 4 years ago)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I also wonder! I posted a thread just 5 min ago, and I hope for some real replies based on this!!!
 
gothamm said:
office 2008 for mac is awful. lets not kid ourselves here. Microsoft office 2007 for windows is much much more refined and intuitive.

I think it is completely necessary to have windows on your mac, especially if you are a switcher. There may be some great software for OS X, but the target audience is so little, that microsoft developers don't spend nearly as much time on it. It is what it is.
Click to expand...

Office for Windows is more intuitive?? How so??
I do agree that the Windows version is faster and does support VB Macros but a student can do just fine with any version of Office. Even businesses can use Office 2008, it's fully compatible with any version of Office.

Having Windows on your Mac is fine for occasional use but your saying the target audience is very little that uses Mac only software and switchers should install Windows on their Mac so according to you what's the point of buying a Mac at all????

Your attitude is what keeps Windows fully supported and keeps the Mac OS less supported.
Don't give me that switcher B.S. I was a switcher years ago and I am power user so I had a plethora of Windows software. I was ready to move on an leave Windows for good and I found plenty of Mac software.

It's just a copout that you "need" Windows installed to switch to a Mac. As I mentioned earlier it's fine have Windows for occasional use but to buy all new software for it and use it on Mac that has the same software? Ridiculous.
 
benlangdon said:
wtf. how did you get a 2.4 for under 2g's
i used student discount and after applecare it was 2250 or something.

and where did you get vista and office for 170 together. from my last windows computer i remember each being around 100 (that was like 4 years ago)
Click to expand...

Through my schools Apple store (i.e. on Campus). I attend a major 25K + university (in the States) and they were having a clearance on MBPs. The MBP and Applecare came as a bundle and they were also giving away a free printer to anyone who purchased an Apple computer. The sale had been going on for a few weeks and I periodically checked to see their shelf of over a dozen MBPs dwindle to just a few this past week. I called Friday afternoon to see what stock they had left, and confirm they still were on sale. Turns out, they had 1 MBP left (the one I purchased) and the sale was good until it sold. My notebook came with Tiger, however, they included a copy of Leopard as part of the bundle. That may be why it was discounted. Furthermore, I asked them if they had anymore on order and was told that they would not be ordering anymore MBPs till mid-march and that this past sale was just a way of clearing out there inventory for the 3rd quarter. I found this odd, as they had several Macbooks on the back shelf as well as Imacs and all other things Apple, but who cares, I could wait no longer.

My school sells the student license version of Vista Business for 75.95 and Office 2007 Enterprise for 92.95. Check with your school, if you are a student, because I think this is the standard price for the student license version of these programs. The Office 2007 Enterprise package is a great deal considering that it would retail for over 500 if they released it through those means, but since it is only available in volume licensing, academic or corporate is the only way to get it.
 
HLdan said:
Office for Windows is more intuitive?? How so??
I do agree that the Windows version is faster and does support VB Macros but a student can do just fine with any version of Office. Even businesses can use Office 2008, it's fully compatible with any version of Office.

Having Windows on your Mac is fine for occasional use but your saying the target audience is very little that uses Mac only software and switchers should install Windows on their Mac so according to you what's the point of buying a Mac at all????

Your attitude is what keeps Windows fully supported and keeps the Mac OS less supported.
Don't give me that switcher B.S. I was a switcher years ago and I am power user so I had a plethora of Windows software. I was ready to move on an leave Windows for good and I found plenty of Mac software.

It's just a copout that you "need" Windows installed to switch to a Mac. As I mentioned earlier it's fine have Windows for occasional use but to buy all new software for it and use it on Mac that has the same software? Ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Its more intuitive for the sole reason that I am much more productive on it. That is all.

then whats the point of buying a mac? I don't know if you've noticed, but people don't buy macs for microsoft office or pages. When was the last time office for mac was updated? 2004 :rolleyes:

Microsoft is not going to make an optimized version for a mac which beats its own version. i don't know if you have seen the those mac vs. pc adds, but apple and microsoft are kinda competitors.

If your reasoning for using office 2008 is that it is compatible, and that "even businesses can use it" then i don't know what to tell you.


Your argument was why have windows installed at all. I say why not?

Office is much better on windows. You can also game via bootcamp. utorrent is another must, at least for me.

To be frank, i think both are great OS'es. But taking sides and claiming "why have windows at all?" is complete macfanboyism. Me personally, I like having the best of both worlds...maybe i am just crazy like that..
 
heatmiser said:
Completely agree with this. The only reason I "upgraded" to '08 was to take advantage of the floating editor (if you've used '07, you know what I mean) and the zoom function (ditto). Neither of these are in Mac '08, which makes '08 little more than a fatter version of '04.



Disagree with this, however. It really depends on your software needs. Yes, a lot of things on Windows just don't exist in comparable fashion on OS X (µTorrent and MPC, just to name a few), but on the other hand, you can get by without them if you're willing to settle.
Click to expand...

why settle when you can have both ;)
 
gothamm said:
why settle when you can have both ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, good point. I haven't had the motivation to bootcamp yet, though. Last summer, I spent a week double-booting between XP and Vista, and it was kind of tiring going back and forth between OSes...sort of like managing two computers. Since then, complacency with Tiger has won.
 
heatmiser said:
Yeah, good point. I haven't had the motivation to bootcamp yet, though. Last summer, I spent a week double-booting between XP and Vista, and it was kind of tiring going back and forth between OSes...sort of like managing two computers. Since then, complacency with Tiger has won.
Click to expand...

i have a macbook so i don't have the luxury of gaming. So I use vmware fusion instead of bootcamp. Using expose to switch between both OS'es is a beauty.
 
gothamm said:
Its more intuitive for the sole reason that I am much more productive on it. That is all.

then whats the point of buying a mac? I don't know if you've noticed, but people don't buy macs for microsoft office or pages. When was the last time office for mac was updated? 2004 :rolleyes:

Microsoft is not going to make an optimized version for a mac which beats its own version. i don't know if you have seen the those mac vs. pc adds, but apple and microsoft are kinda competitors.

If your reasoning for using office 2008 is that it is compatible, and that "even businesses can use it" then i don't know what to tell you.


Your argument was why have windows installed at all. I say why not?

Office is much better on windows. You can also game via bootcamp. utorrent is another must, at least for me.

To be frank, i think both are great OS'es. But taking sides and claiming "why have windows at all?" is complete macfanboyism. Me personally, I like having the best of both worlds...maybe i am just crazy like that..
Click to expand...

What?? Do you actually read what you write??

So Office 07 for Windows is more intuitive because you have been more productive on it? Hmm yeah that really explains why it's more intuitive.:rolleyes:

Microsoft is not going to make the Mac version of Office beat it's own version? Last time I checked both versions are MS's. Also at the end of the day MS is a business and it would be foolish for them to make Mac Office a poor application. The Mac using audience creates a lot of business for MS so it wouldn't make sense for them to trash it just because of the Mac vs. PC ads. Other than slow launch times there is nothing wrong with Mac Office 08. It's your Windows fanboyism that says otherwise. You have not once made a compelling argument why Mac Office 08 is not as intuitive as the Windows version and you haven't made an argument as to what's poor about it.

You are the one that's stating that switchers SHOULD have Windows installed and they should install all the needed applications. You don't seem to understand the word "switcher", you should look it up. You're not switching if you install Windows and buy all Windows software, you have to use both sides of the fence.

Again, you are the exact reason why the Mac OS is sometimes not supported by certain developers because you will only use the Mac OS for Windows and never buy Mac software. Poor attitude.

I never said people shouldn't install Windows on their Macs I said you should be using Windows on the Mac for just a few necessary apps but in the end you should be using it as what it is "A MAC".

If you can't handle the Mac OS you shouldn't be wasting money on the Mac hardware, you should just buy a Windows machine. It's stupid to just waste money on a Macintosh just for it's prettiness and use it as a Windows only machine.

I have to really question how old you are? Your answers seem very adolescent. :rolleyes:
 
HLdan said:
What?? Do you actually read what you write??

So Office 07 for Windows is more intuitive because you have been more productive on it? Hmm yeah that really explains why it's more intuitive.:rolleyes:

Microsoft is not going to make the Mac version of Office beat it's own version? Last time I checked both versions are MS's. Also at the end of the day MS is a business and it would be foolish for them to make Mac Office a poor application. The Mac using audience creates a lot of business for MS so it wouldn't make sense for them to trash it just because of the Mac vs. PC ads. Other than slow launch times there is nothing wrong with Mac Office 08. It's your Windows fanboyism that says otherwise. You have not once made a compelling argument why Mac Office 08 is not as intuitive as the Windows version and you haven't made an argument as to what's poor about it.

I have to really question how old you are? Your answers seem very adolescent. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Give it a rest, you lost the argument and sound far more adolescent than gothamm.

I agree with gothamm 100%. Office 2007 for Windows > Office 2008 for Mac. I have both (Office 2008 was inexpensive and the screenshots looked compelling :rolleyes:). I rarely use Office 2008 already. For one thing, Excel 2008 doesn't support macros. You obviously don't work with Excel much and know little about what corporate America does on the computer, but macros are pretty damn important, otherwise Excel is just a glorified calculator and chart-maker for a college kid's lab report (which seems to be the targeted demographic for Excel 2008). A real business with real data can't use Office 2008. Secondly, Office 2008 was painfully slow on my MBP with 2gb of RAM. That's kind of unacceptable for software running on a less than one year old machine. Thirdly, Office 2008 was buggy as hell (expose didn't even work properly when Office 2008 was running), I must've crashed Office 2008 as many times as I opened it in the past week. And the format panel was often redundant with the ribbon bar on Word 2008 (read: retarded). Plus the incredibly annoying default floating Excel 2008 formula bar (though you can move it into the toolbar, but again: non-intuitive).

So yes, Office 2007 was far more productive, efficient and intuitive (the full ribbon functions) than Office 2008 was for me. Just telling it like it is. :cool:
 
congratulations on the new machine. i am sure you'll be happy with it.
 
HLdan said:
What?? Do you actually read what you write??

So Office 07 for Windows is more intuitive because you have been more productive on it? Hmm yeah that really explains why it's more intuitive.:rolleyes:

Microsoft is not going to make the Mac version of Office beat it's own version? Last time I checked both versions are MS's. Also at the end of the day MS is a business and it would be foolish for them to make Mac Office a poor application. The Mac using audience creates a lot of business for MS so it wouldn't make sense for them to trash it just because of the Mac vs. PC ads. Other than slow launch times there is nothing wrong with Mac Office 08. It's your Windows fanboyism that says otherwise. You have not once made a compelling argument why Mac Office 08 is not as intuitive as the Windows version and you haven't made an argument as to what's poor about it.

You are the one that's stating that switchers SHOULD have Windows installed and they should install all the needed applications. You don't seem to understand the word "switcher", you should look it up. You're not switching if you install Windows and buy all Windows software, you have to use both sides of the fence.

Again, you are the exact reason why the Mac OS is sometimes not supported by certain developers because you will only use the Mac OS for Windows and never buy Mac software. Poor attitude.

I never said people shouldn't install Windows on their Macs I said you should be using Windows on the Mac for just a few necessary apps but in the end you should be using it as what it is "A MAC".

If you can't handle the Mac OS you shouldn't be wasting money on the Mac hardware, you should just buy a Windows machine. It's stupid to just waste money on a Macintosh just for it's prettiness and use it as a Windows only machine.

I have to really question how old you are? Your answers seem very adolescent. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

2007 Is way better it has the Full Ribbon Wheres mac is just partial ribbon it doesn't have any little windows everywhere. The thing is microsoft tried to make it a layout designer too and with 2007 They only tried to make a new more effiencent Interface as well as more features they didn't go all multimedia crazy as they did with the mac version.

It's better to use it on windows if you are a business person it has all the features not some missing here and there, It's more complete. They also designed it to act like the Mac but mac isn't a business system Microsoft arranges things different on their system mac is designed for ease of use where's Microsoft is designed to get the Job done and that's is no fancy little dock or transparent menus just simple, boring. But it works and businesses like that no distracting little elements to get their employees distracted.

Further more it's very customizable the interface can be changed to you very liking more so than the mac version. It's better it was originally designed for windows and it's perfect for they just tried to bring it to mac and it didn't work because the Mac way is different. Interface changes and more multimedia. 2008 is 2007 but worse.
 
Even with the new update today, I have no regrets wrt my purchase on Friday.
 
you need not to regret at all, and instead, be happy with it

firstly, it's only a 0.1 Ghz Bump ( 2.5Ghz ), i was expecting a 2.8 at least, with the rumored smaller and faster chip, but only to go up by 0.1Ghz? wtf?

we all could have still bought the 2.6 Ghz SR model way back then, and seriously, 2.4 and 2.5, really no Difference at all!!

secondly, yes, they do have the MT Trackpad, that is awesome, but im pretty sure it's gonna be on Software update sooner or later

thirdly , we're on the last gen of the SR ( 4th rev ), they're still the 1st rev for Penryn, always a problem with 1st rev

last but not least, they're still using Nvidia 8600 GT 512, wtf? we own 8600 Gt 256 ddr3 which would be read as 768, where everyone is expecting a overloacked 8600 to 8700, but no, still 8600

maybe a 8700 on second rev, im not sure, but, hey, 8700 is no a big deal

the only thing that they have an BIG advantage over us is the HD which can go up to 250 gb, that's pretty much awesome, big space

but again, an external disk can cover that up, only to make your mobility less compact

oh, and plus, they need to buy the apple remote separately ( lol ) though i dont even use mine until now

but to sum up everything

the Update is really a disappointment :D

maybe the 3rd rev or 4th will be a monster though
 
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