Positive MacBook Pro comments?

Hi!
Please forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong location--I am new to this site.
I am a Windows user, although I began my computer experiences with Apple. IIe, IIGS, MacSi, Mac Quadra 650. In '95, I switched to Windows, and have been there ever since (Win 3.1--HATED it, Win '95--usable, Win '98--better yet, Win XP--quite doable, and, briefly, Win Vista (which brings me here to this board). Currently, I have a Sony Vaio laptop with XP (which runs generally quite well), and a dead HP desktop (also running XP, though it was previously running Vista).
Windows (with it's ".dll", "winini", msconfig, etc) and especially Vista have shown me that MS is on the wrong path. I feel that it's time to "return to the fold", to go back to Mac. The problem is that I will also be "dragging" my partner with me--he is THE former DOS lover, who loves the ability to "dig beneath the surface" of the OS. He has never touched an Apple (computer) in his life.
We both agree that, for us, a laptop is the way to go, and I feel with Leopard the time is now. The problem is all the horrible problems I've been hearing about the Macbook Pro: malfunctioning LED's, the keyboard dropping typed characters, and the ability to bring water to a boil with the temperatures put off by the laptop.
This would be his first exposure to the non-MS world, and I want it to be a positive experience.
Are there people out there who have not had all the above-listed problems with their Macbook Pros?
Any comments are welcome!
Thanks in advance.

Yep, my macbook pro sucks. Well, it's lack of problems sucks


The truth is that in reality you'll only ever hear about negative items. Think about it, you'll find that you don't relay your experiences when they're not negative, unless they're completely unexpected. Things performing as expected simply do not get comments. This effect is magnified exponentially on Internet forums, especially since there are a number of issues that people then start to actively look for, and as is true of most things we're amazingly good at finding what we want to... or expect to.

edit: no issues and cpu currently running @ 48 c

I love my macbook pro. It does get hot though. I bought a quiet cooling pad for it. It helps it quite a bit even though it still gets warm. I've not had any lcd, key issues or any other issues though. I love it.

Exactly. Message boards are places where people to come to seek help with problems, so you shouldn't be surprised when people start reporting problems. You can't gauge reliability based on comments on forums, because they only represent the vocal minority - those people that are having issues.

I have been a long time windoze user, until my friend told me about a mac since that is what they use at work, and I have never looked back. bought a 15" macbook pro and going to change the dektop out to a imac. Macs just work !

I have a MacBook Pro and I love it. I might also add that mine does not get overly warm. I do quite literally use it as a laptop computer. As I type this, it is sitting on my lap. I do not notice any unusual heat at all. My work PC laptop gets hotter than this. I keep wondering if the heat issue was resolved in one of the later iterations of the MacBook Pro (this one is only about two months old).

Ye ai have had a bad run with my MBPs. I bought on last August, and now i am on my 3rd one, all of the previous ones had hardware replacements. It sucked beyond belief.

You know, I can't tell you how many times I have NOT lost my temper while using my Mac computers.

My MBP has just been flawless! I bought it last July and I have not had one problem. The thing just plain works. I have to say that it has been my best laptop so far especially since I have only owned my BlackBook for just three weeks. I got a feeling my BlackBook will be just as perfect.

I agree, my MBP has just worked flawlessly from the day I unboxed it. In fact it was so good, we went out and bought 2 more for my wife and her sister who had both been suffering with Windows based laptops that just kept falling over!

They are the dogs cojones.

SC954RR said:

I have been a long time windoze user, until my friend told me about a mac since that is what they use at work, and I have never looked back. bought a 15" macbook pro and going to change the dektop out to a imac. Macs just work !

Click to expand...

Let's not use that tired and old expression that's been beaten to death and proven wrong by god knows how many millions of users. I don't feel like yelling that in the Apple technical support forums, either.

Anyway, if you're going to get a Macbook Pro, go for it. Each laptop, no matter what platform you go to, will have its own share of problems. Bang for buck, Windows. But that's hardware-wise. OS-wise, I'd say the MBP family is best suited for me, personally. Laptops like Alienware are best suited for other people.

I've been exposed to those who's had great experiences with what you're looking at, those who had bad experiences somewhere in the middle, and those who just couldn't stand it and returned it (this one really being more of an OS choice rather than the MBP being a lemon). It's a risk you get with any electronic equipment you buy, but chances are you'll be perfectly fine.

Your partner will certainly love the terminal....

Tell your partner there is this thing called the terminal, that can do things like this.

mark-halls-macbook:~ markhall$ cal
April 2008
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30

mark-halls-macbook:~ markhall$

or this

mark-halls-macbook:~ markhall$ ls
2008 Finances.qdfm
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Library
Money_Plus_Premium_Win32_English_Online_US_Only_DwnLd.exe
Movies
Music
Old PC
Pictures
Public
Quick Back.qdfm
Sites
Xtorrent.rtf
copy
mark.ibank
mark-halls-macbook:~ markhall$

etc...

Anyone who says you cannot 'dig under the OS' in OS X, doesn't know what they're talking about. As OS X is largely Unix, most unix or bash commands work very well indeed... sometimes too well, so make sure he gets a good grip of the command before letting him loose on your new purchase.

SC954RR said:

Macs just work !

Click to expand...

EGGO said:

Let's not use that tired and old expression that's been beaten to death and proven wrong by god knows how many millions of users.

Click to expand...

So very true. Any computer "just works"... until the day comes that it doesn't.
Macs are no exception.

yeah but they do tend to work more of the time than any pc running vista
vista is really losing microsft money
its one of the main reasons why i may be switching

Just a statement of the obvious:

Any computer can break - it's only as good as the weakest part.

Macintosh charge a lot of money for their machines - I could have bought 2 PCs for this amount of money.

Apple have their 'name' because generally they are of high quality and reliability.

Fact is I am overjoyed with mine, being a 'switcher' of a whole month's duration. I run XP Pro as a virtual machine using Parallels - I also run Linux in a VM (just because I can). It's a joy to see the three operating systems running side by side. Can't imagine my PC (Travelmate 8210) doing that.

Listen to the horror stories if you wish BUT then look again through these forum pages and note how many people are blissfully happy and enthusiastic enough to share their GOOD experiences with you!

Judge for yourself . . . the chances are, you (like us) won't regret the decision.

Elephant Inc said:

yeah but they do tend to work more of the time than any pc running vista
vista is really losing microsft money
its one of the main reasons why i may be switching

Click to expand...

Well as long as we're doing anecdotes, I'll be very honest here. My Vista machine has crashed less than this Mac machine, and so far I've used the Vista machine longer. I just don't like Vista because I think it's a lot of extra nothing and would've been best kept at XP.

The reason? It's because I'm doing a ton more with this machine like my advertising, design, and art and with Vista I was, at most, just using Photoshop. Those who complain that Windows crashes a lot are either the people that really shouldn't be touching technology or are doing just the same amount, if not more, of work I'm doing. Add to that I actually KNEW what I was doing with Windows. To be quite honest, Windows is even FAR more customizable on a personal level. Don't argue with this, trust me, I've seen all of your desktop screenshots and read up on the capabilities of customizing your mac (we're not even going to touch what you can do with hardware).

The biggest problem I have are those who repeat and swear by the newest mac commercials which are a bit unwarranted (if not already untrue with some things). They prey on the computer illiterate, the ones who probably shouldn't be touching a computer at all. I can live with it saying OSX is easier for the normal person to use, but that's it. Enough of that tangent.

OP, it's always just a matter of preference. I've seen more users (outside of this forum that actually has a few people that are like the ones in that mac commercial) that can take the mac or leave it. To them a Windows machine is just as good or bad.

EGGO said:

Well as long as we're doing anecdotes, I'll be very honest here. My Vista machine has crashed less than this Mac machine, and so far I've used the Vista machine longer. I just don't like Vista because I think it's a lot of extra nothing and would've been best kept at XP.

Click to expand...

I'll admit that my Vista machine rarely crashes, and I have had Vista installed since the first month it was out. The one time I remember it crashing was when I first installed it. I got a blue screen after installing itunes. Updates fixed this though and the only other issue I ever had was the Adobe CS3 trials wouldn't work on it. Vista is a decent OS, I admit it. I actually prefer it over XP for little features here and there that they added (and no it's not the widgets or that sidebar).

OP: I don't have a MacBook Pro. I do have a low end MacBook though and I love it. MBP could only make it even better

ecodisk said:

I'll admit that my Vista machine rarely crashes, and I have had Vista installed since the first month it was out. The one time I remember it crashing was when I first installed it. I got a blue screen after installing itunes. Updates fixed this though and the only other issue I ever had was the Adobe CS3 trials wouldn't work on it. Vista is a decent OS, I admit it. I actually prefer it over XP for little features here and there that they added (and no it's not the widgets or that sidebar).

OP: I don't have a MacBook Pro. I do have a low end MacBook though and I love it. MBP could only make it even better

Click to expand...

Woah wait, what are tehse widgets and sidebar you speak of? (is interested, hahaha) I'll look it up myself.

I run Vista in a VM on my MBP, and while the OS itself is quite stable, the development tools I use (Visual Studio 2008) are not. It's a little game we play -- the IDE will throw an exception, I retry the operation, and on the second try it doesn't fail. Odd, but it IS Microsoft

EGGO said:

Woah wait, what are tehse widgets and sidebar you speak of? (is interested, hahaha) I'll look it up myself.

Click to expand...

oops, I meant Gadgets, and the Windows Sidebar.