Help with Windows Vista!

[Matthew Schenker]

Dave,
Sorry to hear about your Vista experiences!  Sounds like we have similar frustrations, although you seemed luckier to get some things working.  All my peripherals and important software failed with Vista.

I was in my local Mac store yesterday looking at the Apple laptops.  Getting closer each day to making a switch.

For those of you who do venture out to buy a Vista computer, make sure everything you rely on works with Vista.  You might think it's silly to check if your printer will work, but believe me it's worth checking.

I'm arguing with CompUSA to get them to take this Vista laptop back without charging me a "restocking" fee.

Matthew

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Matthew,

If I had experienced the problems you described, I would take at least some of my most important peripherals [main printer] to the Apple store and make them hook up the MAC you are contemplating to purchase and prove that the MAC will work as represented, or at least insist they plainly and explicitly state that the final sale and acceptance of the Apple PC you plan to buy is contingent on proof in your home/office of compatibility functioning with your listed peripheral machines.  Then, if the Apple PC doesn't work with the peripherals that you have, you can insist on cancellation of the transaction and full return of your money.  I would also set forth a time period in which you determine the acceptable functioning of the Apple with your peripherals.

Best wishes in your being successful in this.

Dave R.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dave,
My recent experiences have led me to quickly and thoroughly check out Macs.  So far, it seems that the OS X operating system can be a real solution.

Even though I'm now rid of the laptop that caused all these issues, I dread knowing that at some point in the not-so-distant future I'll have to encounter Windows Vista again.  Now's the time, I believe, to make the big switch.

I have a theory.  Bill Gates has secretly withdrawn his shares from Microsoft and has invested billions of dollars in Apple.  Now that he has banked his money on that company, he needs a way for it to gain a bigger share of the computer market.  Mr. Gates personally saw to it, with Windows Vista, that Windows-based PCs suffer and Macs have a sudden rise in value and sales.  He'll then withdraw his sudden earnings from that venture and either (a) invest it in his foundation or (b) start another company that competes with Windows and Apple.

Now, if only I had a couple million to gamble with on this theory!

Matthew

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Sounds like a good plan, Matthew.  Vista appears to need at least as many and at least as frequent updates from MS to address security issues as does XP.  In the past week, MS's auto update service has added over 30 new files to my new [in April 2007] PC.  My son's iMAc does not seem to have to go through anything similar.

Dave R.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dave,
Sounds like you have some good (bad?) experiences with this!

While we're discussing it, I'd be very interested in hearing from members out there who have a MacBook Pro.

Matthew

 

[tenbears]

If you are really tight with "Open Office", OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 Mac OS X (X11) runs on the intel Mac lineup. As for the MacBook Pro, it is a professional laptop capable of doing some pretty heavy lifting. Video editing is about as processor intensive as you can get and it is very capable of that and more. Not the best choice if all you are going to do is high end mulilayered composites & motion graphics, you'll want the horsepower of a desktop but for office apps, well, entry level Mac Books do those apps and even a very good job at medium duty video work. Basic graphics work, desktop publishing, number crunching, web page design, etc, absolutely

Think of it this way, can pull a 40' container van with a F150 but it is way easier with a Kenworth tractor. Tool your computer to your basic needs. If you are running office applications focus there, if you are compressing video for DVD then tool around that and all the simple stuff barely gets the processors warm.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

tenbears,
I've been testing the MacBook and MacBook Pro.  I like most of what I see on these machines, but I don't like the keyboards on the MacBook.  I'm used to a Sony Vaio, which I chose because of it's very clean design and excellent keyboard (I write for a living).
So, even if the Macook Pro is more computing power than I need, I'd still go with it based on the better form.
Matthew

 

[Dave Rudy]

I don't like the keyboards on the MacBook. 

Are you saying you like the keyboard on the Pro -- I sure get along well with mine.  Interestingly, whenever I use my wife's 12" G4 (older model) I always seem to be one key off, but when I rough out the dimensions it looks almost the same as the keyboard on my 15" Pro.  It's amazing how much of a difference keyboards make -- after all it is the main input device you use constantly. 

Sounds like the research is over; when are you going to take the plunge?

BTW, have you had a chance to check out Parallels and play with it yet?  My only observation is that to avoid some hang time when using both OS's simultaneously, go for a full 4gig of ram. 

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dave,
Yes, I like the keyboard on the MacBook Pro much better.

Here's a shot of the MacBook Pro keyboard (I borrowed it photo from the Notebook Review Web site):
[attachimg=2]

By contrast, here's the keyboard on the MacBook (also borrowed from the Notebook Review Web site).  It has that odd arrangement where there are spaces between each key:
[attachimg=1]

Another thing I noticed during my testing is that the MacBook is generally less comfortable to type on.  The edges of the laptop body dig into my wrists as I'm typing, and that's just after a five-minute test.  I sometimes work for hours on my laptop.  As you said, "after all it is the main input device you use constantly."  So the MacBook Pro has another edge here.

I like a few other things about the MacBook Pro, so I'm going to go with that one.

As a college professor, I get a $200 educational discount, and a $200 rebate towards an iPod.  Actually, I already own an 80-GB iPod, so the rebate is moot for me.  Anybody interested in a brand-new iPod?

Matthew

 

[Dan Lyke]

I have a MacBook Pro, and I just got an  HP dv645se to run Linux on (With a Windows partition because work sometimes demands Windows as well). The MacBook Pro has been my core machine for a year and a half now, and I am so glad to be on the Linux machine for my personal stuff. So many more things "just work". For instance, I just tried mounting a DVD ISO image on both machines, Linux took it just fine, the Mac wouldn't.

I too am not terribly fond of the MacBook Pro keyboard. Normally I've got no problem with odd key spacings, but for some reason I'm constantly hitting the function keys by accident, and the throw of the keys seems a little weird. I sometimes find myself bottoming out too hard on the keys. Not an all the time thing, but strange that my fingers haven't really adapted to it after two years of using Mac's (the MacBook Pro obviously isn't that old).

The thing I really loathe, though, is the track pad button. Not only is it single button (and, let's face it, control-click doesn't really work as a substitute for the right click), it has almost no throw and feels like it sticks and the action is strange on it. I use an external mouse on this machine because I have to, not because I like to.

I have grown to like the magnetic release on the power cord, hated it at first because it was constantly getting kicked out, but now that I've gotten over that...

I don't like that it's easy to jostle the lid open just enough to kick the laptop out of sleep mode, even when it's in my laptop bag, so that I go somewhere and find my battery charge gone.

Tenbears, I'm running OpenOffice.org 2.1 on the Mac here, and love it. Except for the fact that it's an X app running on a Mac, so it's yet another mix in the Ctrl-X/C/V rather than Cmd-X/C/V mishmash that happens when you try to run Un*x apps on the Mac.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

I too am not terribly fond of the MacBook Pro keyboard. Normally I've got no problem with odd key spacings, but for some reason I'm constantly hitting the function keys by accident, and the throw of the keys seems a little weird. I sometimes find myself bottoming out too hard on the keys. Not an all the time thing, but strange that my fingers haven't really adapted to it after two years of using Mac's (the MacBook Pro obviously isn't that old).

I was referring to the MacBook keyboard.  But you're saying you don't like the MacBook Pro keyboard?  That's interesting.
Matthew

 

[Dan Lyke]

Yeah, I'm not terribly fond of the MacBook Pro keyboard, but keyboards are such a personal taste thing that, aside from the "always hitting the F-keys when I go for a number" problem I wouldn't use that as too much of a benchmark.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Tool your computer to your basic needs. If you are running office applications focus there, if you are compressing video for DVD then tool around that and all the simple stuff barely gets the processors warm.

That's very interesting - the processor of my new Dell Inspiron 1505 with 2 GB RAM gets noticeably hot when I am surfing the internet, primarily at this site.  My daughter and her husband both have basic Mac books and they are quite satisfied with them.  Both switched from MS OS PCs in the past 18 months.  Her unit required some warranty service - DVD drive - and she experienced some difficulty setting up MS Word that she needed for her collegiate work.  I bought my son a desktop iMAC for use in graphic design with Adobe's CS3; no problems whatsoever in the first 14 months of ownership, and setting it up was much easier and took much less time than my Dell PC. [As you can tell I am already a Mac convert in spirit, it's just that my employer standardized on Dell and MS so for compatibility I chose Dell for my home PC.]

Dave R.
Dave R.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

thanks Matthew.  Only question is are documents created in Openoffice 100% readable by and compatible with Microsoft docs?  (incl formatting, etc?) i frequently have to pass docs ( esp Word) back and forth with others, making edits as we go.

Dave

I can't resist jumping into this one.  I make my living composing and editing legal documents and associated correspondence. My employer requires me to use PCs equipped only with MS applications [currently XP Professional].  Personnel of my company are spread around the world, and despite a full-time professional IT staff [many of whom hold high level certifications by MS], I commonly find that I have to spend more time dealing with MS Word formattng issues than with the drafting!  Customers of my employer are also spread around the world, and they are likely running a variety of different versions of MS and other word processing software, which makes for more formatting headaches, since I often have to trade drafts of lengthy legal documents several times with multiple people in different organizations.  MS Word does not even consistently translate documents created on its own versions of MS Word, for example, changing things like (c) into copyright symbol and many other unwanted and unexpected changes.  [I know a user can change these default settings in MS Word, but having to deal with all of these whenever you want to copy and paste from multiple source documents is a big time sink, as is entirely stripping all the codes and reformatting as you draft a new document.  Word Perfect 5.0 for DOS - 15 years ago? - was a much better product!]  At times I have been criticized for misspelling or improperly punctuating text when in fact, the changes were due to differences in MS Word versions on different platforms.  The bottom line with MS Word is that someone has to actually proofread the final printed hard copy of any important legal document, such as a new patent application, to ensure the text is as intended.  I'd be happier if they just standardized on ASCII.

Dave R.

 

[Eric]

I use a MacBook Pro for work and don't have any problem with the keyboard.  Don't have enough experience with the MacBook keyboard to make a good judgement.

Dan, you can turn on 2 finger right clicking on the trackpad which is alot nicer than control-click.  The problem with the MacBook Pro waking from sleep can be fixed.  My MacBook Pro had the same problem and it can be fixed.  Can't remember if it was a top case or logic to fix it.

I work for an Apple Reseller as a technician so if you have any specific questions, I'll try to help.

Just wish my woodworking skills matched my computer skills.

Eric

 

[Matthew Schenker]

I work for an Apple Reseller as a technician so if you have any specific questions, I'll try to help.

It's nice to have an Apple technician around!

My current laptop is a one-year-old Sony Vaio.  I love the design of that machine -- terrific screen, excellent keyboard, thin and light frame.  The laptop I bought and returned last week was also a Vaio.  In researching various laptops, I was surprised to learn that the MacBook Pro receives more service calls than the Sony Vaio.

My perfect world would be a Sony Vaio design with OS X!

Matthew

 

[daveg]

I recently installed Ubuntu on a 5 yr old Gateway machine with an AMD Athlon processor. I previously was running OpenSUSE on the machine. IMO, Ubuntu is much more user friendly, much easier to get running/configure, and more stable than OpenSUSE. It comes with OpenOffice 2, Firefox, etc ready to run. The only problem I had was that it didn't detect my all of the nVidia video card / Sony monitor screen resolutions. So, I had to research that on the Ubuntu forums, but it is a common problem with the 7.04 release and there is a fairly easy fix. I would trade my Win XP OS for this Ubuntu Linux distribution if it weren't for a few apps that I have purchased that only run on Win XP or are licensed for Win XP (eg, SketchUp). However, even Ubuntu is not quite user friendly enough for the PC novice, but it's getting close.

 

[Dan Lyke]

My perfect world would be a Sony Vaio design with OS X!

At least try Ubuntu. The Gnome equivalent to "Finder" was designed by the same guys who did the Mac Finder, only later in their careers, and the overall performance difference on roughly equivalent hardware between Ubuntu 7.04 and OS/X is amazing. Ubuntu snaps where the Mac crawls.

 

[brandon.nickel]

Matt,

Did I hear you offer a more-or-less free iPod for the asking?  I don't see any responses, so if such is the case, sign me up!  Is it good on the $200/250 Nano, or do have to buy the $350+ dollar versions?

-Brandon

 

[Dave Rudy]

At least try Ubuntu.

Dan,

Can I dual boot Ubuntu using Parallels?  Can you direct me to a web site or 2 where its installation and use would be explained to a non-techie like me?

Thanks

Dave