Is a MacBook for me?

I've never had any Apple stuff before (apart from an ipod) but I'm thinking of getting a Macbook to replace my laptop.

It'll mainly be used for internet, music and some photos so would the 1.83Ghz one suit me for that sort of use?

Also, I've heard that some software isn't compatible with Mac's. Is this still right? Would I be able to put my Norton Antivirus 2006 disc on there? If I do decide to buy a game for it, will it have to be a special Mac one? Would I be able to put my printer on there?

Hope you can help me decide!

Hi jules13,

I will answer some of your questions as I don't have any direct experience with MacBooks.

Regarding Norton AntiVirus, if you search through the forum you'll find that mostly the advice given is don't install it at all.

You will be able to attach your printer easily and I was surprised when I attached my Canon printer to my iMacG5 that it was instantly recognised and installed, unlike my PC which was fidly.

As far as the special Mac games....well there are plenty of websites where you can buy a game for your mac so the main thing is to see if the particular game will run ok on the newer Intel Macs (if that's what you end up buying) as there are still some incompatability problems with some games/software.

Good luck and I hope I've helped....

The macbook itself was designed for the sort of usage you describe. It'll handle your required tasks perfectly and let you take it up a notch (well, several) when you're ready.

Mac OS is fundamentally different to traditional PCs, so you can only use Mac software on it (normally, I'll describe the special case later ...). Certainly if you want to run games or whatnot you have to get Mac specific versions.

As I said, there's a special case: it's possible to run Windows on the macbook if you want to. You can have it set up to use OS X normally and Windows optionally. This is the best way if you want to play windows games. Note that the graphics in the macbook use shared system ram so isn't as fast as the macbook pro for the most current games.

Thanks for your help!

Games aren't such a big problem to be honest. We've got a new PC which will run most games, even the likes of Oblivion which uses lots of graphics.

I use Firefox as my internet browser and I see I can download it for a mac too so thats good.

I think the lower price MacBook would be all I need at the moment. I take it they can be upgraded eventually?

remember.....no need for anti-virus software with mac osx

jules13 said:

I think the lower price MacBook would be all I need at the moment. I take it they can be upgraded eventually?

Click to expand...

They can have new hard disks and memory, but the processor and optical drive is fixed, as far as I know. If you can spare the extra, go for the 2GHz with superdrive so you'll get DVD burning out of the box.

i think there are some mods floating around that switch out the optical drive....ill try to find a link

do it mate, best thing i done was to get a powerbook and im loving it.. only had it 3 days, not missing anything from windows

I did it!! Went to the Apple store in Sheffield and got lots of advice and a demo which helped. I've not moved since we got home. I was impressed with the setup and soon got on the internet.

Its different from what I'm used to but I like!