I am oh so close to making the switch.

[JStell]

I've been interested in Macs in passing for a while now but have been seriously considering a purchase for the past couple of months. I've got the cash to purchase a 15" MBP 2.16Ghz and then bump it to 2 GB of RAM. But I just haven't pulled the trigger on the purchase. The savings of buying a regular MB tempts me too.

I'm a PC user almost by neccessity since I do .NET programming for a living making Windows and Web apps. I already I have a somewhat powerful desktop PC, AMD Athlon64 3000+, 1GB RAM, GeForce 6600. So I am not hurting for computer power plus I can upgrade the PC for fairly cheap if I need a faster CPU or more memory. Now my laptop is a dog, Pentium 3 700mhz, 384MB RAM and a 20GB HDD. It's an old Compaq made in 2000 and has seen better days. There is a stick on it saying "Designed for Windows 98"

I love having a powerful computer but at the same time I also like getting a good deal and don't part with money easily. I am torn, can someone here beat some sense into this PC user and convince me to pull the trigger on the purchase?

 

[TheManOfSilver]

The new MB and MBP have plenty of power for portable computing. They're also compatible out of the box with your Wintel box for networking purposes. Add in Boot Camp (or even better, Parallels) and you could be doing all of your .NET programming on the fly as well. You get the best industrial design in the industry, modern Intel processors and awesome support.

What more convincing do you need?

 

[JStell]

No doubt the intoduction of the Intel chips plus being able to boot Windows has increased the appeal of Apple's to me. Previously my exposure to Apple computers was working in a lab while in college that had a bunch of G4 towers with the hockey puck mouse and a bunch of G4 cubes. Nothing but bad expieriences with those back then, of course that was almost 6 or 7 years ago. I know a lot of changes have been made that allow for an even easier transition over from a Windows PC.

From what I have read Parallels is a lot like VMWare? I use WMWare at work to run virtual machines of Vista and Ubuntu Linux.

I've never done much programming from a laptop in past mainly due to the limited power for my laptop, I'd hate to see it try to run Visual Studio 2005.

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

At first I was going to tell you to hold because you already have
enough power to do your job. Only then I realized that you want
to move from your working horse to a more mobile one.

There is no doubt MBP is the right choice (MB will not suffice) and
will make your life/job easier.

Regarding the investment, Intel just announced another breakthrough
which will result in speed bumps for the next 2 years.
No matter what you buy today, we will see something around the corner
soon. The trick is to jump in the right wagon and enjoy the ride the
most you can.

I've been interested in Macs in passing for a while now but have been seriously considering a purchase for the past couple of months. I've got the cash to purchase a 15" MBP 2.16Ghz and then bump it to 2 GB of RAM. But I just haven't pulled the trigger on the purchase. The savings of buying a regular MB tempts me too.

I'm a PC user almost by neccessity since I do .NET programming for a living making Windows and Web apps. I already I have a somewhat powerful desktop PC, AMD Athlon64 3000+, 1GB RAM, GeForce 6600. So I am not hurting for computer power plus I can upgrade the PC for fairly cheap if I need a faster CPU or more memory. Now my laptop is a dog, Pentium 3 700mhz, 384MB RAM and a 20GB HDD. It's an old Compaq made in 2000 and has seen better days. There is a stick on it saying "Designed for Windows 98"

I love having a powerful computer but at the same time I also like getting a good deal and don't part with money easily. I am torn, can someone here beat some sense into this PC user and convince me to pull the trigger on the purchase?

 

[JStell]

At first I was going to tell you to hold because you already have
enough power to do your job. Only then I realized that you want
to move from your working horse to a more mobile one.

There is no doubt MBP is the right choice (MB will not suffice) and
will make your life/job easier.

Regarding the investment, Intel just announced another breakthrough
which will result in speed bumps for the next 2 years.
No matter what you buy today, we will see something around the corner
soon. The trick is to jump in the right wagon and enjoy the ride the
most you can.

I gave up on waiting for the "next best thing" years ago, you'll never be able to keep up and as soon as you get your system built it's "out of date." If I go MBP I will just hold off on upgrading the PC. The socket used has been phased out (939) so maybe I can get an X2 if someone is clearing it out.

Performancewise what's a better way to run Windows apps on the Mac like Visual Studio? Parralells or Bootcamp?

 

[Axegrinder]

I'm a C# .Net programmer.
I also do it for a living.
I also do it on a Mac.
In Parallels too.

Visual Studio 2005, Sql Server 2005, iMac CD with 2GB. Works great. Nuff said.

 

[freeny]

The new MBP's scream with performance. My 2.0GHz MBP out performs my wifes G5 tower with the same 2.0GHz processor speed.

What are you waiting for?

 

[dernhelm]

I've been interested in Macs in passing for a while now but have been seriously considering a purchase for the past couple of months. I am torn, can someone here beat some sense into this PC user and convince me to pull the trigger on the purchase?

I'm develop in .NET for a living, but my home computer is a iMac (I have a G4 PB as well). I've long since stopped taking my work home with me on a regular basis, but for the times that I've needed to, I've installed Parallels, Windows XP, VS 2005, and Sql Server 2003.

Definitely jump to 2GB RAM (I would've got 3GB if I could afford it). And don't bother with Vista right now. It isn't worth it. Ironically parallels on my mac is faster than virtual PC on my work pc (2 core Pentium-D). Other than that, for casual work-from-home stuff, this is absolutely fine.

You can even install Vista as a dual-boot (you can install it in Parallels also, but I wouldn't recommend it). It's fun to play around with, but booting back and forth all the time is a PITA and so I don't generally bother with it.

The iLife apps are simply unbeatable - that's the reason to do this. If the machine is mostly home-fun, but you need to do some C# development on it once in a while, a Mac is the way to go. If the machine is mostly work, you may not be as happy.

 

[JStell]

I'm a C# .Net programmer.
I also do it for a living.
I also do it on a Mac.
In Parallels too.

Visual Studio 2005, Sql Server 2005, iMac CD with 2GB. Works great. Nuff said.

I like to hear that.

Is the MBP Pro going to have any problem with my LCD monitor which is actually analog. I have a VGA to DVI adaptor already and was hoping to go dual monitors. I have been spoiled at work by having dual monitors.

 

[jeremy.king]

I like to hear that.

Is the MBP Pro going to have any problem with my LCD monitor which is actually analog. I have a VGA to DVI adaptor already and was hoping to go dual monitors. I have been spoiled at work by having dual monitors.

You won't have any issues with dual displays on your new MBP and it also comes with its own DVI to VGA adapter. In fact, if some day you want to get a 30" display, you would be happy to know that the MBP has supports dual-link DVI allowing you to drive a 30" beast!

 

[JStell]

I'm develop in .NET for a living, but my home computer is a iMac (I have a G4 PB as well). I've long since stopped taking my work home with me on a regular basis, but for the times that I've needed to, I've installed Parallels, Windows XP, VS 2005, and Sql Server 2003.

Definitely jump to 2GB RAM (I would've got 3GB if I could afford it). And don't bother with Vista right now. It isn't worth it. Ironically parallels on my mac is faster than virtual PC on my work pc (2 core Pentium-D). Other than that, for casual work-from-home stuff, this is absolutely fine.

You can even install Vista as a dual-boot (you can install it in Parallels also, but I wouldn't recommend it). It's fun to play around with, but booting back and forth all the time is a PITA and so I don't generally bother with it.

The iLife apps are simply unbeatable - that's the reason to do this. If the machine is mostly home-fun, but you need to do some C# development on it once in a while, a Mac is the way to go. If the machine is mostly work, you may not be as happy.

I don't take work home with me much so the machine would be mostly for fun. When I do work from home I just log into our VPN and remote to my work PC and do a little work from there.

Also is Garage Band a suitable app for transferring vinyl to a digital format? I have several records that are not available on CD or some digital format, plus paying a second time for music really irks me.

 

[TheBrazilianGuy]

I gave up on waiting for the "next best thing" years ago, you'll never be able to keep up and as soon as you get your system built it's "out of date." If I go MBP I will just hold off on upgrading the PC. The socket used has been phased out (939) so maybe I can get an X2 if someone is clearing it out.

Performancewise what's a better way to run Windows apps on the Mac like Visual Studio? Parralells or Bootcamp?

Others have answered your question.

Anyway, I have one Mac pro at work with all three solutions (Boot camp, VMWare and Parallels). It's my opinion that while Boot Camp works,
it is pain when you need to switch from Windows/Linux to OSX.
Also, transferring files as "drag-and-drop" are more intuitive
using virtualization schemes.