Sun 14 Oct 2007
Well it’s finally happened. I’ve decided that if the meek will inherit the earth, I won’t be joining them. And I certainly wont be running Vista. It’s not that I don’t like Windows XP Mr Gates, i’m just awful tired of using it for the last four years.
If you’re going put money into anything right now lap top wise, there’s no easy decision. You’d have to wait 4-8 weeks for an Apple MacBook Pro. That’s unless you want the rather pricey 17 inch model which will damn near cost you 5 grand with a 3 year Apple Care Protection Plan. If you do find a 15″, or wait, it will come out a lot closer to four large.
The issue really is that the 17″ model is just too plain large for portability and too expensive. So Apple can’t meet demand for the fully spec’d 15″ model. And in reality, the 15″ has a longer battery life (from a better screen) and maybe ONE USB port difference for the moula. Not great value really.
However if you do opt for another Windows laptop, don’t get yourself too comfortable. Premium manufacturers like ASUS have some arrangement to still ship Windows XP (not Vista). Their motivation is Vista doesn’t support enough hardware OR software at the moment.
Mainstreamers like Toshiba still ship with Vista. A mate of mine has had one for 3 months. He’s saying that salient burning software NERO doesn’t work on it. And other random spooky things started occurring like windows closing while his typing. So all you can really do is keep accepting those random software updates, until hopefully, one breaks the Gremlin’s back and magnanimously fixes everything. Not likely.
One thing’s for certain. Try and avoid buying a laptop at this very present moment!
So to cut a long story short i’ve had to make a very emotional decision for what should be a very rational purchase. I went the Mac because I have a PC for nerdy, servery stuff. I can afford to take a punt on a laptop. Oh and the Mac will run Windows XP. But it’s not about taking the punt. This works! More news later space cadets.