So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

Destry · 2006-11-19 20:45:13

What I know for sure is it’s a MacBook Pro 15” (the perfect size, I think). Also, I expect to be using Boot Camp for installing my current WinXP setup (which has my only—and last—copy of aging Macromedia Studio, among other things I need right now) and Parallels for Linux.

Outside of that, a few questions:

What specs should I be sure to have to accommodate the the 3-way split? (I know more is better, but still, I have to strike a balance between resources, realistic need, and cost.)
If it were you, how would you allocate space to the 3-way split? More importantly, can the partitions be changed at a later date?
What other goodies are a necessity and why? (Your subjective opinions.)
Should I pay for the extra three years of service/warranty? (I’d rather not if Mac is really all the hype people claim, but…)
Should I go ahead and get Tiger (I fear time is of the essence, my current machine is fading fast), or wait until “Spring 2007” and get Leopard? (Will Leopard be worth the weight? Do you expect it to be much more expensive than a loaded Tiger now?)

Thanks for any feedback.

Last edited by Destry (2006-11-19 20:56:48)

masa · 2006-11-19 21:29:25

I agree, the 15” is a great allround size.
While I can’t comment on running Win or Linux on a Mac here are my thoughts.

Since installing multiple systems will require a lot of disk space, get the biggest hard disk (160 GB?) you can afford. Also consider upping the RAM to 2 GB or more – OSX loves plenty of memory.

As to waiting for 10.5 or going with 10.4 I’d say, it depends. Some people love always having the latest version of everything, but personally my system software upgrades are entirely driven by the other software I need to run: I usually don’t upgrade unless absolutely necessary. At the moment I have 10.4 installed, but still use 10.3 for most things.

I never bothered to get extended warranty and never ran into problems. However I would never buy the first generation of any given hardware design, but rather wait for rev 1 or 2 – the 15” should be a mature design by now.

Cheers Martin

Destry · 2006-11-19 23:01:10

Good feedback, masa, thanks.

I just stumbled upon this insightful article about Parallels. Aside from that guys raves for Parallels, here’s what I picked up:

Seems having Boot Camp and Parallels together is somewhat redundant as Parallels provides the same thing for both WinXP and Linux, and without having to reboot each time to get from one to the other.
Using Parallels really hits Mac hard and slows things down, so yeah, more resource would be critical if I wanted to run even two OS at the same time.
2 GB of RAM is a max for MacBook Pro right now; in other words, you can’t get more even if you wanted to.

Adding to that, I notice that Boot Camp comes natively installed in the new Leopards.

All together this makes me think:

I don’t really need to run two or three OS at the same time (which is where the resource hit really comes in); hence for my needs maybe just Boot Camp is enough and I can reboot back and forth between WinXP and OS X as needed. As for Linux, that’s just a curiosity for me at the moment, so maybe the way to go about things there is to refurbish my old Toshiba and turn it into a Linux sandbox (if Satellite A70 is even suitable for that… egads what a fan).

Hmmm, wish I knew more about what specs Leopard is going to have, cost too.

hakjoon · 2006-11-19 23:16:37

I have to say I think you will be much more use out of Parallels then you will out of Boot Camp unless you need to run apps that need direct hardware access. Just for testing in IE being able to run Windows inside OSX just makes it so much more productive. Wish I could do it (I’m still on a Powerbook), but I ran it on my cousin’s bare bones 13” macbook and really did not notice any significant hit. And if you are just playing with linux you don’t need to run the Linux VM and the Windows VM at the same time, sparring your resources.

Everyone I know who have been long term Apple people swear by applecare. I was hesitant but ended up biting teh bullet. Remember you cna purchase any time before your 1 year warranty runs out.

About Leopard, I think you will be ok because you have to remember that they will still need to make it at least run on a G5 which is way slower then the current Core Duo 2’s I’m hoping they don’t leave my G4 behind. I feel my G4 laptop is much snappier then my 2 Ghz p4 ever was. Also OSX upagrades tend to be what $150?

If you are gonna max out anything max out the ram. You can always get more hard drive space latter with a firewire drive or something.

I’m a recent switcher though so I might not be the best authority. I love it though.

Last edited by hakjoon (2006-11-19 23:17:09)

phiw13 · 2006-11-19 23:41:59

Like always, in such decicions: need now? get it now. Tiger is a perfectly good OS, 10.4.8 is very stable here (15” PowerBook, 1.5Gb memory) and runs smoothly. When 10.5 comes out, you can always upgrade (125 USD, 15.000,-¥ here).

Memory: max it out, you won’t regret it, especially if you want to run Virtual Machines. All modern OS like memory (and memory is much faster than hard disk access, swapping files, etc.). The price upfront is not so significant over the life time of the machine (4years, more ?).

BootCamp: for me, it would be a nuisance. The only time I need that ‘thing known as XP’ is to run a couple of browsers – an outdated broken dinosaur first. A Virtual Machine is enough for that. And all people I’ve talked to concur that Parallels does a very good job at running XP. For heavy duty work a ‘real’ machine is probably better. I’ve no idea how Macromedia’s software performs on XP. One correspondent runs MS Office on Parallels with no problems. Big Excell files tend to be sluggish, but they are sluggish on native XP as well.

Warranty. Do you travel lots/carry your laptop with you? Think about it, but you don’t need to get it when you buy the Mac. As long as you sign up for it before your 1 year warranty ends, you’re covered. I’ve done it for my PowerBook, and don’t regret it, as I had to replace the backlight system. As always, hardware can break, more so if you put it under intensive use.

Have fun with it.

Neko · 2006-11-20 00:29:46

Destry wrote:

Seems having Boot Camp and Parallels together is somewhat redundant as Parallels provides the same thing for both WinXP and Linux, and without having to reboot each time to get from one to the other.

Well, P. offers poor video card support, that means that you can run your Win XP virtual machines but can’t make them work with apps that needs serious 3D support. If you’re into games or 3D software that isn’t available on Macs you need to stick with Bootcamp. On the other hand, being a virtual machine, even if your Parallels Windows gets some crap like a virus you just terminate your session and you’re safe. For me it’s good to have both. I use P. for checking out stuff in Internet Explorer and use Bootcamp to run PC games on my iMac Core 2 Duo.

hakjoon · 2006-11-20 06:15:48

Neko wrote:
Well, P. offers poor video card support, that means that you can run your Win XP virtual machines but can’t make them work with apps that needs serious 3D support.

Yeah that’s kind of what I meant by direct hardware access, I think I edited out 3D at some point. If you are going into Windows for playing games rebooting is not really a problem, but if you want to test a page in IE or throw an image together in fireworks rebooting to do that and then rebooting back is a huge hassle.

Parallels is talking about full OpenGL support in the VM but who knows if that will ever truly be the case. Also it’s like you have to forego Boot Camp if you go with parallels.

Last edited by hakjoon (2006-11-20 06:16:40)

Destry · 2006-11-20 11:21:25

Excellent feedback, everyone. Good tip about being able to buy extended service before the one year is up. And good point about OS upgrades being cheap (I do need something sooner than later).

To clarify one thing, WinXP will be needed for a while anyway. The Macromedia suite I have is for Windows, works great, and I rely heavily on Fireworks. However it’s getting old and I don’t plan on buying any more licenses for overpriced graphics app anymore. (Adobe wants over $1100 for the suite now, rediculous, and buying them individual, namely Flash and Firworks, isn’t any better). I’m going to start using Inkscape and GIMP for all my graphic needs, but I need my old apps while I get over the learning curves. Plus I have a bunch of local projects on XAMPP installed in the winXP environment and expect a gradual migration of those.

Anyway, it’s looking like it will be Tiger with 2GB of RAM (the max), both Boot Camp and Parallels (can’t hurt to have BC sitting there for when it’s needed) and the extra service coverage (eventually).

One last stickler, perhaps, is finding an English OS version. I’m in France, but I don’t want a French OS, and the idea of shipping a nice machine overseas is a little discomforting. I’ll have to see what I can do there.

phiw13 · 2006-11-20 11:34:06

Destry wrote:

One last stickler, perhaps, is finding an English OS version. I’m in France, but I don’t want a French OS, and the idea of shipping a nice machine overseas is a little discomforting. I’ll have to see what I can do there.

Don’t worry, OS X is multilingual out of the box. You can always choose which language you run it in. No need to purchase/install anything, all resources are pre-installed.
On my PowerBook, I have 3 ‘users’: the admin one (me) runs in English, my day-to-day account, English, and a test user/account, runs in Japanese. Idem dito on the 4 other Macs here. I used to have a French ‘user’ as well.

Hmm, the keyboard layout might be a problem, I’m not sure how’s that for Macs sold in France, or what you are used to…

masa · 2006-11-20 11:54:45

Destry wrote:

Plus I have a bunch of local projects on XAMPP installed in the winXP environment and expect a gradual migration of those.

You might be interested in the Mac equivalent MAMP then.

Anyway, it’s looking like it will be Tiger with 2GB of RAM (the max),…

Apparently the current models can take up to 3GB.

As mentioned by Philippe OSX is multilingual. I run it in English with an Icelandic keyboard layout.

Cheers Martin

Last edited by masa (2006-11-20 11:55:19)

colak · 2006-11-20 18:31:46

Hi Destry.. forget parallels and bootcamp unless u need to use ie7. My suggestion is to use darwine which allows you to use exe programs without any windows…

squaredeye · 2006-11-20 23:51:38

Destry,
I can’t really top the advice here, just wanted to say congrats :)

I think that there will be some parrallel alternatives (no pun intended) in the near future, or even now. I’m not a huge fan of parallels, I find that ie 6 runs strange and buggy. That’s all I use it for.

Hope its a good investment for you.

I’d go for the apple-care. I’ve never done it before, but I’ve heard of more and more hard drive failures, perhaps as apple tries to spit out more and more machines? Its not something I want to mess with, although if you are savvy with a tiny screwdriver, they aren’t hard machines to repair (generally).

:)
Have fun.

Matthew

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2006-11-19 20:45:13

So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#2 2006-11-19 21:29:25

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#3 2006-11-19 23:01:10

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#4 2006-11-19 23:16:37

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#5 2006-11-19 23:41:59

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#6 2006-11-20 00:29:46

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#7 2006-11-20 06:15:48

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#8 2006-11-20 11:21:25

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#9 2006-11-20 11:34:06

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#10 2006-11-20 11:54:45

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#11 2006-11-20 18:31:46

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

#12 2006-11-20 23:51:38

Re: So I'm about to buy my first Mac and need Mac user advice....

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