A MacBook Pro Review From A Windows Perspective

The Ordering Experience

Simple. Standard. The ordering process was very familiar if you've ever been to and/or ordered from Dell's web site. Choose your desired model, click a few radio buttons to configure your personal specs for the machine, and off you go.

I will say that if Apple really wants to gain market share, they have to provide better financing options than they currently do. Essentially, you either pay by credit card or a P.O. if it's for work. That's lame. Where I believe Dell really has a leg up is that they provide a leasing option whereby you pay off the balance of a secured loan over a multi-year period at a fixed percentage rate. When I was paying off my old Dell, it was great to know that $78.56 was being deducted from my account every month and that, over the agreed-upon time period, the balance of the loan was paid off. Now I have yet another credit card to juggle. Oh yeah, and if you choose to finance through Apple rather than using an existing personal credit card, you literally have to open a new credit card account. The worst part about it is that you don't know what the interest rate is until after you've opened the account! So even if you decide that you don't want to use the account because the interest rate is too high, the account is already opened and reflected in your credit report.

The above being said, I was still elated with my purchase (made on a Tuesday), and received an early birthday gift when it arrived that same week on Friday.

The Machine

Gorgeous. Sleek. Thin. Screaming Fast. Hot. Yeah, the common gripe is indeed true....these things get hot. Although I guess that's what happens when you take a high-powered processor and stuff it in a metal case that's only 1 inch thick. So I was definitely prepared for it. As the guys at the Apple Store told me when I was looking at the machines and comparing the 15 inch with the 17 inch model (I got the 15 inch), they're intentionally not calling them "laptops." Rather, the Apple company line has been to call them "portables" so that people don't put them on their lap and burn themselves.

The Software

This is probably my favorite part about the machine. A lot is made of the high cost of purchasing a Mac versus a PC. However, what I think gets lost in the debate is that Apple provides a ton of useful software out of the box. If you were to add up the cost of the individual software components, it's likely around $1,000 USD. Seriously. I'm not talking about the common PC trial-ware for AOL or EarthLink or any of the hundreds of other titles that most people uninstall as soon as they power up their new PC. I'm talking about a music recording application called GarageBand (which I now use to record my guitar songs....I'm not very good by the way), iTunes, iPhoto (a powerful photo editing and organization application), HD video editing software, multiple chat applications, iWeb (for creating web sites), and, of course, a solid web browser.

Mac Eye For The Windows Guy

OK, a cheesy section title, but that's the best I could do this late at night while trying to convey the fact that using a Mac is a different mindset as compared to using a PC. On a PC, you're likely have multiple partitions on your drive to separate your data from your applications in the event of a system crash (corrupt registry, etc.). Well, with a Mac, you don't have to worry about that. There's no such thing as a registry, and everything is treated as a file, so if you want to delete a program, just drag the program to the Trash and it's gone. No Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Do a Dance To Make Sure All Registry Keys Are Deleted, Which Likely Won't Happen. But I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that closing a window does not close the application itself. You still have to separately quit out of the application itself (in most cases). I'm not sure how I feel about that. For the most part, if I'm shutting the application window, then I'm likely done with it. So close altogether please.

Installing software is still tripping me up from time to time as well. Most Mac applications come as a DMG file, which is roughly equivalent to a ZIP file. When you double-click the DMG file, it doesn't actually install the application in most cases, as you would expect from double-clicking an EXE file in Windows. All it does it mount the file archive so that you can then run the installer application. This took me a few attempts to figure out. I would "install" Firefox and then re-boot my machine only to see that it disappeared! The other problem I have is that sometimes applications don't tell me where they're being installed and I can't choose the location. I installed the TiVo Desktop Software about 8 times (seriously) before I realized it was in my System Preferences folder. I was clueless.

Lastly, I went ahead and plunked down the amazingly cheap $39.99 for Parallels Software's Desktop For Mac application and installed Windows into it. Even in a virtual OS, Windows now runs about twice as fast as my old Dell ever did. Not that it's the Dell machine's fault, mind you, but it's still incredibe to see the speed difference. I'm going to be using this machine to do some Flex 2 development, and it's nice to see I won't be hindered by performance.

The "Intel" Problem

The big thing that I'm finding out about this machine is that most people still haven't updated their applications to support the Intel-based Mac yet (Adobe, I'm looking in your direction). So a lot of programs need to run in an emulation mode using something called "Rosetta" to translate the PowerPC-based instruction set to the Intel platform. It's supposed to slow down the application, and I suppose it does, but, honestly, these machines are so fast as it is that it's barely noticeable. I will say that running ColdFusion is a royal pain in the behind. See, Macs come with the Java 5 SDK as its default Java Virtual Machine. Unfortunately, ColdFusion doesn't run on this JVM yet. So, thanks to Google and Simeon Bateman's blog, I was able to track down a shell script that allows me to set the JDK to Java 1.4.2 so that ColdFusion is happy and will start. So I have ColdFusion out of the way. Now I have to track down an Oracle installation for this machine, as this is what my company uses and it'd be good to have it set up locally.

The Negative

So with all the gushing and positive comments, you'd think everything is great. Well, it is and it isn't. You see, my computer technically works, but it's also what Apple considers to be DOA (Dead On Arrival). The second memory bank (where I was trying to install some more RAM because it was cheaper than getting it from Apple) is dead. So I call up the AppleCare number because that's what I just paid good money for. Within 10 seconds, the tech support guy tells me he's a "software guy" and that hardware's out of his realm. His suggestion....bring it to a Mac Genius at one of their retail stores. I was a bit annoyed, but I was willing to give it a shot. I made an appointment with a "Genius," and, sure enough, he confirmed what I already knew. So you'd think that they would replace the laptop there on the spot because it's a retail store and they carry those kinds of things. Well, not so much. It turns out that because I upgraded a couple items at the time of my purchase (from 512 MB to 1 GB RAM and frm the 5400 RPM to the 7200 RPM hard drive), that's technically considered a "custom built machine" and they'll have to have it specially built for me in China. Oh yeah, and that'll take two weeks. I mean, what the heck's the point of the retail stores if they can't replace my machine right there? So, needless to say, I'm blogging this entry right now on a soon-to-be-returned machine. However, since it does function without issue with the 1 GB RAM module that came with the machine, they're letting me keep this through the CFUNITED conference next week, which is the main reason why I bought it when I did. I do have to say that their support staff was very accomodating to my situation, and they're allowing a "grace period" for me to return the machine for a new one rather than repairing this machine. As they put it, who wants a new computer that immediately has to be repaired?

A Couple Pointers

In closing, since this is the longest post in my short blogging history, I wanted to pass along two great little tips I've learned in my short experience with the computer.

1. Empty Trash vs. Secure Empty Trash: I saw this one whie waiting on line in the Apple Store. When you empty your Trash Bin, you're not really deleting the files from your system. Sure, they don't appear in your folders, but all you've done is tell the OS that the space the deleted file once occupied is eligible to be overwritten when space is needed. If you want to erase all remnants of a file from your system and immediately free up the space, choose the Finder->Secure Empty Trash menu option. This is particularly important for personal data files.
2. Get the iStat Pro Dashboard Widget: The Mac Genius I spoke to pointed out the iStat Pro dashboard widget, which gives you a high-level overview of all the major system components, such as battery life, temperature, memory usage, broadband speed, and more. The temperature and fan feature isn't working on the Intel-based Macs yet, but support for it is imminent, and this free widget is certainly a useful utility.

Overall

Yeah, I have to send the computer back, but overall I'm ecstatic with the purchase. I really am. There are some things I need to learn to better use the machine (shortcuts, etc.), but I hope to pick the brains of some Mac users at CFUNITED next week to get a better grasp of the OS. I'm already more productive with this machine than I have been in a long time for my personal work. If you're on the fence, do it. You still have Windows via Parallels as a safety net, and it's such a complete system that has everything I need to be productive. The product reviews I read before buying the MacBook Pro were all from previous Mac users, so I was a bit skeptical. Well, I see why Mac users are loyal. Apple's on to something with this line, and if they can sort out the aforementioned financing problems (and ship fully functioning hardware), they have a great shot at converting large numbers of Windows users.