When I bought my MBP back in December, first I was interested in a change of OS. Had been experimenting with numerous distributions of Linux, and it just wasn't ready for prime time for me. As a semi-avid reader of Computerworld, MaximumPC, and PC World for many years; there began a new trend. The contributors and editors, with their disappointment in Vista, all were experimenting with OS X. And liking it. The editor of at least one of these hardcore "Windows" mags seemed to have totally made the switch and refused to have Vista on his own personal machine. So began my own look at OS X.
I always do a lot of research prior to purchasing any type of electronic hardware. Yeah, maybe too much. At least my wife thinks so. On second thought, not. By the time I make a purchase, I am already familiar with most of the pros and cons of a device. And by being familiar with a devices drawbacks (what it will not do) prior to purchase, my disappoints over the years have been extremely rare.
Anyway, on to the Apple site to see what they had to offer. Determined that the 15", 2.33Ghz and the 256MB Vram was the Apple hardware that fit into my personal needs and desires (and my budget). It seemed pretty expensive. So, next came cost analysis. On to check out HP (blech), Sony (well, maybe), Toshiba (not too bad, but just not the internal hardware I was looking for), Alienware (the bonus I had just received wasn't that big), Dell (like their monitors) and a few others. I found as the editor in the story above, none of them could compete price wise with Apple. I basically found 2 options. I could either save $500 and take a processor 2 levels down, a smaller screen, 1/2 the Vram, no built-in camera, no FW800 (on any of them), no bluetooth, or some combination of these. Or, I could spend an extra $500-750 and would have to go with a 17" screen, a little larger hard drive, maybe a built-in analog only TV tuner (no true hardware enthusaist would even consider such a thing), maybe a step up on the video card, and an X-Fi card.
After my research, the Mac hardware just plain made sense. At any price point it seemed in the Mac line, before the extras were considered, your money was going first to the best processor. As a hardware enthusiast this was a big plus for me. I just couldn't wrap my head around why companies were pairing a 1.6 or a 1.83 processor with 256MB video cards. It just plain doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It seemed to me the off-the-shelf systems were designed for a) someone that just can't afford a computer but need one (which isn't a bad thing) or b) planned obsolescence (as in, you'll be looking to replace it within 12-18 months and give them some more of your $$$ that much sooner).
So began my foray into the world of Mac's. After my hardware decision, OS X was really only the pièce de résistance.