First timer - be gentle

buy the rest of the ram from a third party. depending on your locale, Crucial, OWC, and the suchlike.

I have the Master Collection running fine on a 2.16Ghz C2D MBP 15", with 3Gb RAM. It runs fine with DW, FL, PS, FW, Coda, Textmate, iTunes, Safari, and a few more running simultaneously...

Final Cut Studio 2. Spiffing. I use this almost daily, and it's fine. I know a good few pros who use MBPs for this stuff too. Check if you can get an education discount, and FCS2 could be $800/£400 or so.

No Mac Visual Studio.

Try Xcode ftw!

 

I must concur. FCS2 is one hell of a deal, if you've got the spare cash. Spiffing's the word.

 

well xcode is a thousand times greater. i would know because i used both. trust me when i say you will forget all about microsoft visual studio and xcode is free, with tons of other developer tools like dashcode

 

As others have already mentioned there is no such thing as Visual Studio for OSX. Besides Microsoft would not create a development suite for OSX (or Linux for that matter), just as Apple is not going to release XCode for Windows. XCode is given to you on the OSX install DVD, so install it and play around with it. Be aware that the inner workings of Mac OS X differ from Windows, so you'll be starting from scratch (remember Hello World).

If you, like me, still develop for the Windows platform get Fusion or Parallells and install VS on it. I did not go through the BootCamp thing because I don't want to be constantly rebooting between development and different work.

Hope this helps.

 

I have that exact MBP, so I can tell from experience that you can run CS3 smoothly and edit video just fine. I don't know about Visual Studio though.

Also, don't be ashamed to use PC. We've all been there.

 

Hi and welcome mmaubergeek

As others have said, you'll have no problem running CS3 in its entirety on a MBP. I run Dreamweaver and Photoshop simultaneously, whilst listening to iTunes on my ageing PowerBook! I never quit Mail or Safari.

 

+1 for CS3 running Great

+1 for XCode, although I have never used Visual Studio, and just started the whole programming thing when I got my Mac, I have to say XCode made things pretty easy on me.

 

Apple Care comes only in one flavor: 3 years (including the 1 year you get for free).

I take it you're not a student. Suggest you check with your employer if they have an EPP (Employee Purchase Program) deal with Apple. It will save you 8% on the MBP. Also, if you can, I suggest you wait -- Apple should be updating the MBPs with Penryn processors any Tuesday now

 

A good way to try Visual Studio is to use XCode while resting your toes in a highly corrosive liquid, and hitting your head with a sharpened axe. And don't forget to bring a beehive full of angry bees in to the room before beginning, covered in 'i hate bees' signs.

applecare can be purchased anytime within the first year. if you're buying it EDU, get the applecare at the same time as the purchase, as it's far cheaper. it'll still last a total of 3 years from the purchase date.

...although it does give 3 full years telephone and hardware support, whereas the standard one year is 90 days telephone support and a year hardware support...

 

Are you suggesting that the educational discount does not apply if Apple Care is purchased at a later time? This is not how it works under the EPP rules. You can purchase Apple Care at a later date and still get the EPP discount.