Mac Users

My job kind of forces me into using PCs due to software availability; however, my wife has expressed some interest in the Macbook Pro (13"). I am thinking about getting this for her for our wedding anniversary. I was curious if anybody here used the Macbook Pro or Macs in general and what the general impression of them was. She will mostly be using it for: photos, cake design, and some other artsy stuff.

This is what you need right here:

I like them.

I have a 15" Macbook Pro (which replaced an older one, which replaced a G4 Powerbook, etc, etc). My wife adopted them very easily, for almost exactly the same sorts of things. The built in stuff like iPhoto and iMovie work very well for amateur software, but if you outgrow them the pro software is pretty pricy. We've never outgrown iPhoto, though.

The software situation for Macs may be a bit weird coming from the PC side, there are less freeware apps and more cheap small things that you'd expect a free version of. However, the quality of the Mac hobbyist stuff is generally much higher. Things like Office or Adobe CS are basically the same on each platform (I think the Mac ones are less cluttered).

I find Macs to be easier to keep clean and safe, partially because the applications are usually better-behaved.

I gave up running anything but Macs at home about ten years ago, after living in the Unix ghettoes for many years before that. Now I demand pay to do that. Windows and I just don't get along very well, so I try to stay away unless I'm being paid.

(your wife does cakes? mine too... does she have a gallery somewhere?)

I'm your huckleberry. What do you want to know?

I grew up using Macs and then it was painful to make the transition to PCs back in college. Windows XP was actually pretty bearable though. I also work with Macs so that's been a bonus for me.

When our PC was on its last legs we splurged and got an iMac 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. I don't think it's crashed on us once. That's part of what I like Macs so much. They've very stable (comparatively, they can still crash and die) and simple. Also there are a lot fewer viruses/malware geared toward Macs than there are PCs.

The downside is software for Macs are usually afterthoughts, especially if its games.

My wife has had one of the old white MacBooks for about 4 years now--it's her school computer that she can have at home (all summer too). This fall she's getting a MacBook Pro. She loves the things, and with her educator discount, we got a 24" iMac last summer (came with a printer and a free iPod Touch after rebate, too).

I've used Macs off and on since OS 6.x back in college, but this is the first one I've owned....and it's sensational. My gaming rig is still a Windows 7 PC upstairs, but it gets really hot up there in the summer (inadequate ducting so the A/C is overmatched up there), so I spend a lot of time using the iMac. Brilliant machine, and I love OS X.

My job is to support both macs and windows machines for a university. We have about 70 percent windows machines and 30 percent macs. I spend far more than 70 percent of my time working on windows issues.

Unless your wife is going to be playing lots of games I would definitely recommend a mac, they are simply lower maintenance. If you can afford it get the macbook pro over the macbook, I'm writing from one right now and it is a real workhorse.

The comment about not having as much freeware for macos is not terribly accurate. Tons of open source software is available for macos.

Let me sum up.

Unless she is an avid PC gamer, get the Mac. By avid, I mean she wants FarCry in full glory. The Mac is good for indie gaming, by and large. I own and play AND YET IT MOVES, GISH, WORLD OF GOO, whatever PopCap is making, and so forth. But first party titles are either late or absent. I can finally play HALF-LIFE just a short 12 years after it was released. ...And I can't, because Steam doesn't support the onboard graphics of my Mac Mini.

That's the downside.

The rest is upside.

My Mac Mini is used every day, for at least an hour, and more likely three or more in total between the kids streaming PBSKids, my wife doing the bills in iBank, and me posting on this site and getting my iPad updated. I have rebooted it seven times this year. My most recent one was because I updated to Safari 5. My uptime at that point was 42 days. Try that with a Windows machine on a DSL that's on the web all day. The only virus/trojan cleanup I have done is following up in GMail on someone spoofing my reply-to address. Maintenance is essentially zero. I recommend you set up the machine with an admin account and then create everyone as regular users. Users can auth to admin as needed when updating the /Applications or whatever.

The whole "it just works" thing is not a joke. You want to set up a blog, edit some movies and post them? You can do that in 45 minutes.

Here are some recommendations:
Skip MS Office. You don't need it. OpenOffice is fine and free. If you want to make some newsletters and cards and stuff, get iWork.
Skip Adobe Acrobat Reader. Preview works fine for PDFs. Everything drawn on the screen is a PDF (Quartz engine), the OS supports it natively. Acrobat Reader is just a vector.
Get a mouse with two buttons. Any USB around the house will be fine.
Avoid installing drivers. Just plug shit in, it will probably work. (ZeroConf is a thoroughly adopted standard in OS X.)
I do not recommend MobileMe. It's too expensive. Use Google for all that kind of shit.
I do recommend the extra year of AppleCare, especially if new to Apple. It gets you closer to the front of the Apple Genius line and so forth.
If you need to run Windows programs, like Wedding Cake Design Pro or whatever, get Parallels 5 and a Windows OS.

Space Ghost wrote:

She will mostly be using it for: photos, cake design, and some other artsy stuff.

The Pro might even be a bit more power than you need. You might want to look at the MacBook and keep the extra $$ in your pocketses. Or buy more games.

I own two MacBooks and love them. What others have already said covers many of the high points, so I won't repeat it all.

+++++

However, the gaming thing is being overstated. All Macs made since 2006 can run Windows. The real Windows; not an emulator.

So I can't help but think that "Macs don't play games" is yesterday's argument. I'm at 200-plus hours on Dragon Age and its expansions, for example, and I'm running at 100-percent speed on an iMac. I'm also playing Torchlight and Gyromancer on the same machine. Way back when, I did the Windows version of Neverwinter Nights II on the iMac.

It seems to me that the difference, gaming-wise, has been reduced to just one extra step (launching Boot Camp).

TheDukester wrote:

Space Ghost wrote:

She will mostly be using it for: photos, cake design, and some other artsy stuff.

The Pro might even be a bit more power than you need. You might want to look at the MacBook and keep the extra $$ in your pocketses. Or buy more games.

I own two MacBooks and love them. What others have already said covers many of the high points, so I won't repeat it all.

I was going to make the same point, but the entry level MacBook Pro has the same specs, the better body, and 4GB RAM compared to 2GB on the MacBook. The MacBook ships with 2 1GB DDR, and you'd need to go to 2 2GB DDR which would run you $200 anyway. I'd go MacBook Pro at this point. MacBook needs a rev. If he wants to save $$, I would look at refurbs before looking at MacBook.

Ah, fair points. I haven't priced everything in quite a while, so I'm probably out of the loop.

The only problem I'm seeing with a Mac is that for internet communication it uses iPee.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I went and picked up a Mackbook Pro 13" 2.6 GHz 4GB RAM a few minutes ago. Went ahead and got the Apple Care as Jeb suggested. I suppose the special lady friend will probably be pretty pleased getting this as an anniversary gift.