So it’s been 2 months.
I’ve ranted.
It broke. I got it fixed.
I ranted some more.
I ranted some more, but only to Josh, who was always ready with a link to fix whatever I was ranting about.
So, it’s been 2 months.
I’m not going to lie and tell you that I have completely fallen in love with this machine and have signed up to be a card-carrying member in the Apple Fan Boy Society (AFBS), because I haven’t. I will tell you what I think so far.
I use the MacBook 2 ways equally. The first is as a laptop during the day. The second as a workstation on my desk with external keyboard, monitor and mouse, plus a host of other things connected via a USB hub. And, I know I said I wasn’t going to split the posts any more, but this one is going pretty long. Don’t worry, I still won’t use it unless I really have to.
In laptop mode…
The lack of a forward delete key still really bothers me. I’m making due with fn-del for now, but I don’t like it. Also, as I have mentioned in the past, I hate the track pad. While it is configurable to be more useful than any other track pad I have used in the past, I still hate it. It’s not a fault of the Mac, just track pads in general. And I still have to work on making things easier to see on the screen at a comfortable distance. At least there is crtl+ in FireFox to make those impossible-to-read-8px-font-size websites readable.
In workstation mode…
I have an external Kensington keyboard that works pretty fine. Even has a forward delete key! The lack of USB ports is a bit of a pain, as is the amount of juice coming out of the two that I have. I have fried 1 hub and 2 mice until I realized what was going on. Staples has a pretty decent 7 port hub with voltage correction that seems to be working great so far. Oh yea, this thing runs wicked hot when doing anything with video, but it doesn’t seem to be causing any problems so far.
About OSX…
First, is it X or ten?
I’m noticing that I really miss my alt key. In windows, I’m a fan of the alt-f-s to save or alt-f-p to print. or alt-o for ok and so on. I’m finding the work arounds, but they are slow in coming.
Expose is cool, as soon as I learn to remember what the difference between f9, f10, f11 and f12 are.
Only being able to resize windows in the lower right corner is a major pain and puts some serious harshing on my mellow. And it still bugs me that when I close a program, it stays running until I ‘Quit’ it.
Making shortcuts to put on the desktop is a chore, and I still haven’t been able to figure out how to put a shortcut to my documents folder there.
When saving docs or whatever, I’m seriously missing the ability to drill down to whatever folder I want to put that doc in. The recent folder list isn’t good enough. So, you can imagine what an unorganized nightmare my desktop and documents folder is. Oh yea, not being able to always have the windows sorted by type (folders on the top, files on the bottom) is also really bothering me.
The focus thing still bothers me too. it wouldn’t be so bad if it were at least consistent. With most programs it is, but not all. I just hate to have to double click to make a window active again. I’m told this is better, but not for me.
Just little things. But I’m working through them.
Stuff I like and miss when I’m using Windows…
Quicksilver. I’ve been using this as my replacement for the Windows Run box and for that it kicks serious ass. I just recently started exploring the more advanced features and imagine I’ll have it wired pretty soon. The same company also makes an app called Nocturne that changes the display to black and white (reversed, high constrast mode) with a double click. I’ve found that to be very helpful when my eyes are tired during the day or at night.
iPhoto. In conjunction with the Flickr uploadr is just slick. Windows XP did a great job with pictures, but getting them off the camera or memory stick is just a pain most of the time. iPhoto cures that, and does a great job.
iTunes. Why can’t they make it work this good on Windows. It runs sooo much better in OSX, not surprising really. But man, on Windows it’s a pig.
The keyboard is awesome. In fact, hardware-wise, this is a very tight machine. Even though I have hard time reading the screen, the fact that it’s bright and clear is a huge plus in my book. Also, going into workstation mode is super easy. It was never this easy on a windows machine.
Battery life. I’m able to work at the office for 6 hours before having to plug it in. Of course, it’s not running the entire time, but most of it the lid is up. I close it for lunch or if I’m doing something else that is going to take more than 10 minutes. I’d say I’m getting over 3 hours of use, maybe a little more.
So, in general, I’d say I’m doing ok with the Mac. I don’t mind the stupid things it doesn’t do that windows does so much any more.
Still, I can’t wait to see how XP runs on this. I hope to find out shortly after my trip.
One Response to “Mac Notes – 2 months in…”
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May 30th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
i can’t remember the setting, which will suck when I have to re-install, but there is a tweak to make save dialogs always expanded to pick a folder. It’s probably on 43 folders somewhere.