A Penny For Your Thoughts...

I am thinking about getting a Macbook as my main computer. Is there anyone else who has done this that can give me pros and cons of doing such a thing, in case maybe I have not thought of something? Since I will be using it for surfing, Email, office and utility type apps, and maybe a card game.
Thank you in advance.

The MacBook will handles your needs with ease. If you are interested in Burning DVD's and want to use the MacBook as your only or main computer, I would recommend getting a MacBook with the Superdrive.

I have a loaded 20"iMac (white) C2D... I recently purchased an entry level MacBook... I now use the MacBook at least 95% of the time, the other 5% is really only when I'm helping my wife or kids on the iMac...

I upgraded the RAM of my MacBook to 2GB myself, and at some point I'll either upgrade the HD (most likely) or buy an external (not very likely)... I LOVE the MacBook!

after having many windows machines, including desktops with 21" monitors, and 17" widescreen laptops, i now use my macbook as my sole home computer. my wife does have one of my old 15" hp laptops, but i don't use it at all, and i still work with a 21" monitor (attached to a small hp notebook) at work.

the macbook is a dream. it does all the normal tasks flawlessly. you may have mixed results with any higher end or sim games, but card and flash games are no sweat.

one suggestion, while some here do use the macbook on their laps, you're better off with a lapdesk, and if the leading edge of the macbook irritates your wrists, you may want to get a small keyboard wrist rest.

Cons - Tiny screen (unless you use an external monitor, which I reccomend if you want it to be your main computer)
Integrated graphics chip

eric said:

one suggestion, while some here do use the macbook on their laps, you're better off with a lapdesk, and if the leading edge of the macbook irritates your wrists, you may want to get a small keyboard wrist rest.

Click to expand...

Is a LAPDESK a desk in your lap or some other Mac?

i don't think the external monitor is even remotely necessary. perhaps if you have really poor vision, but the resolution is very nice, and despite the glossy screen is very easy to see even in bright light.

even when running multiple apps and having a few finder windows open, expose, the dock, and the old command+tab / command+` tricks work very well to keep things organized (that and moving the dock to the right or left side of the screen ).

Xiren said:

Is a LAPDESK a desk in your lap or some other Mac?

Click to expand...

a lapdesk is just a anything with a hard surface that will keep your notebook computer from overheating on a softer more insulated surface (such as a lap, pillow, blanket, etc.

i've used large hardcover books before, but a proper lapdesk with a wood top and cushioned bottom is a nice thing to have with a notebook computer.

this is the one i use currently...



picked it up at barnes and noble - it's a writing desk with a cubby underneath the surface in which i keep a set of portable speakers, two 2.5" external hard drives and a usb cable for them, a couple usb drives, a media card reader, marker for cds and earbud headphones.

eric said:

i don't think the external monitor is even remotely necessary. perhaps if you have really poor vision, but the resolution is very nice, and despite the glossy screen is very easy to see even in bright light.

even when running multiple apps and having a few finder windows open, expose, the dock, and the old command+tab / command+` tricks work very well to keep things organized (that and moving the dock to the right or left side of the screen ).

Click to expand...

Agreed... I too see no need for an external display. The 13" is fine.

Well, thank you ALL for your info and help. I will not be buying my new Mac until the next OS comes out. I know, there will be OS problems, but surely they will not be as bad as that other companies ;D

I'm a programmer among other things, and went from multiple dual boot Windows/Linux machines to a single MacBook. (My wife uses the Dell XPS-400 tower and she and the kiddo now have the IBM ThinkPad. Other machines are now gone.) I upgraded both the hard drive and RAM in the MacBook, and will likely upgrade RAM to 2G in the not-too-distant future.

I can do anything I need to do on my MacBook. I connect to lab computers at work to do the heavy duty computing (via Chicken of the VNC). I connect to Windows servers at work to do Windows things (using Remote Desktop Connection). I have Office for Mac 2004 for compatibility with people at work (inexpensive because of licensing between my company and Microsoft). I can do personal programming easily on my MacBook using the native Unix environment of OS X.

If I was a computer gamer, I'd probably find the MacBook lacking, but I'm not and I don't. It wasn't designed to be a gamer computer, and in practice it is not one. It will play virtually any card game you'd want. Just don't expect it to run something like Second Life.

If I was for some good reason going to replace my MacBook today, I'd have a difficult time deciding what to choose. Even if cost were no object, a MacBook would still be a real option. While I'd like a Mac Pro or an iMac, I like the portability and power of my MacBook. A MacBook Pro could also be an option, but it would probably be money wasted. Now a high end black MacBook would be really nice... ^_^

I use the Macbook as my primary computer and it works wonderfully. The only bad thing is how small the screen size is. While I don't mind it most of the time, the text size and everything is smaller than what you would have on a 15" or 17" computer screen, obviously. It's not too bad, but I can see why this would bother some people. Personally, I think it's cute how small and simple everything is. But once in a while I'm really tired from staring at the screen all day, and I have to squint a bit.

Overall, it should be fine to use. It does most tasks flawlessly. I would suggest getting an external monitor after a few years or if you find the screen to be too small. Go test it out at a store.

Meh...put photoshop on a Macbook and try to edit a picture. Kind of leaves you stuck at 25% or so viewing size and scrolling around every where to do any closer views.

Plus using any other program that would normally allow you not to scroll on a larger resolution.

I do some programming at work and having a 1920x1200 monitor lets you see everything. I couldn't imagine trying to do anything like that one a Macbook. Bad enough on my MBP.