Why I purchased my new Macbook...

There were three main reasons I've switched from Dell to Mac. I pray that I won't have to deal with these problems now. I got the black macbook with the 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, and 120GB hard drive. I hope that is good enough to end these beefs that I had with Windows:

1.) I'm hoping with Mac that I don't have to hit Ctrl, Alt, Delete, to end every single program.

2.) I'm hoping that every time I close a program I don't get a message that says "(not responding)"

3.) Finally, I'm hoping that the computer lasts longer than a year. This is something that Dell, and Windows in general, cannot do.

Please tell me if my Macbook will live up to these simple expectations.

your macbook will proabbly last you a good 3 or 4 years before you would even want to upgrade again. your new mac will be VERY FAST especially with the added ram. you will really like it.

good luck to you.

1) I'm guessing "every single program" is a bit of an exaggeration. But if not, you should be pleased with the Mac. I think I've had to Force Quit (Apple's phrase for terminating an errant application) maybe once in the first week that I've had my MackBook Pro. Even still, since programs are written by fallible human beings, they can and do crash on occasion - regardless of the operating system. It's just a reality that we need to face.

2) Well, this is symptomatic of a hung program and the question is a reiteration of the first. Programs crash on occasion. On Windows, when they don't "report-in" to the operating system in a timely manner, they are considered to be "not responding". This of course doesn't always mean they are hung, but it can happen from time to time. Again, I'm not saying it will never happen on the Mac, but it might - although probably not as frequently.

3) Since Macs tend not to be "disposable", as many low-end PCs are, they tend to remain technologically relevant for longer periods of time. Same thing with a high-end PC. But many times, people buy and receive garbage. But the old adage still applies... you get what you pay for. People unfortunately suffer from the misconception that PCs are somehow cheaper than they were years ago - not always true, you're just buying an out-dated, brand-new computer and its useful life will be shortened as such. Either way, Macs usually use better components to start with, so they become dated, slower.

People love to complain that Apple gets premium prices for their hardware, but if you compare them to PCs with similar specs, the prices aren't all that inflated.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Mac and Mac-forums.com. I'm certain you'll have a much better experience with it over Windows.

If you're not exagerating when using the word "every" in points one and two, then I'd say your system got hosed, probably with some malware.

As for three. Perhaps that is related to malware too, or lack of system maintenace? We run Dells where I work and they seem reasonably reliable.

Welcome to the Mac. When you have questions search the forums because so many questions have already been answered.

I was exaggerating a bit when I said "every single time" when I close programs. However, I believe the new mac will not do that as often.

i have about the same amount of hung programs on mac as i had on windows, which is one every few days or less.

eric that shouldn't be happening. I got my macbookpro like over a month ago and i have only had about 2 hung programs.

I must add something in about the hung programs problem, that you may appreciate knowing about:

Macs manage their physical RAM differently than PCs do, in that they don't "share" the physical RAM between different programs.

What this means for you: when you open a program that requires 20 MB RAM, that program lays claim to that 20 MB until it is closed. No other app can touch it.

If this app becomes unstable for any reason, because it is thus contained within that 20 MB RAM, the rest of the system should theoretically remain quite stable, allow you to force quit the unresponsive app, and resume your work. Simply click outside of the unresponsive app to get to the finder or a different program, and the system should become stable again. Quite a cool feature, if you ask me.

most of my problems with hung programs are from vlc and the occasional stuffit hang.

vlc sometimes hangs when i try to play a movie that defaults to quicktime but fails to run in qt, then without completely exiting out of qt (just exiting the window that pops up but doesn't do anything) i do a right-click > open with > vlc on the same file, and vlc just sits there like it's waiting for quicktie to give up the file.
when this hapens i need to quit quicktime, then force quit vlc, then re-open the file with vlc and normally at that point vlc opens the file normally.

VLC also emulates codecs, and I believe it does this by first looking for the codec it thinks it needs, which may be in use by the hung Quicktime app.

could be it.

i know i've also gotten safari and unison to hang too, maybe once or twice. i know for sure i've had safari do that bye-bye/restart thing a few times.

and i found a bug in audion that will hang it every time - if you use the shortcut keys to fast-forward a song from close to the beginning to around the 44 second mark or so. doesn't do it if you use the pop-up slider though.

Well actually my mac has been hanging quite a bit... but it is probably because im used to a lot of ram on my PC. I ordered a gig stick for my mac today, the reason why its been hanging alot is because i have word, firefox, itunes and usually mail open, while tinkering with garage band or idvd. This is all with 512mb ram, now ill have 1.25... so i think i should be good

12991: wow, thats a lot to have open with 512mb and expect any sort of speed. I know, I dealt with 512mb for 8 months with my macbook pro. After upgrading to 2GB I've noticed that the system will actually use as much as 600mb with just safari, ichat, and mail open. Of course its rediculously fast, and I have only used up all 2GB while video editing or playing games. OSX really works with what you give it.

Thecustomer99: You will be much happier with your new mac. And with all that RAM it will really fly in almost everything. The comments you made about PC's sounds like you had a system with not much RAM. XP handles it so poorly if you expect much out of a low ram system, you will just cause it to lock up more. I try to only use PC's at school

snoslicer8 said:

Macs manage their physical RAM differently than PCs do, in that they don't "share" the physical RAM between different programs.

What this means for you: when you open a program that requires 20 MB RAM, that program lays claim to that 20 MB until it is closed. No other app can touch it.

Click to expand...

Virtual memory can share the exact same physical memory between different applications. This action would occur if memory used by one application gets swapped out for use with another application. And to put another twist on this, that first swapped out application could be swapped back in to different physical memory. The system takes care of mapping it all out correctly so the application doesn't know better. As far as I know Windows does a similar thing. Operating systems are also capable of locking down physical memory so important parts don't get swapped out to disk, like important parts of the OS for instance.

Speaking of RAM for these machines, what is the maximum you amount of ram you can put into a 15" Macbook Pro? And will any brand of RAM work, considering that the RAM speed and and type is the same? Meaning, will ram bought for a PC work in a Mac, or does it need to be mac-specific?

The RAM you need to use for the current MacBook line is SO-DIMM PC2-5600 667 Mhz SDRAM, 200 pin. This is the newer, faster RAM that takes advantage of the Intel chip+board's speed in addressing different memory at the same time.

For the MacBook, maximum RAM is 2 GB.
For the MacBook Pro Core Duo, max RAM is 2 GB
For the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, max RAM is 3 GB (2 GB + 1 GB)

As long as the memory meets the specifications above, it'll work, no matter the brand...however, it's suggested to go with a bigger brand name for quality purposes, like Corsair or similar.

The issue of how much ram MaBook Pros take has been answered, but I couldn't find it.

The MacBook Pro Core Duo takes a maximum of 2GB.
The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo takes a maximum of 3GB.

Your manual will tell you what type of memory is required and how to change it. There is no such thing as Mac-specific ram, but the OS can be flaky if you use poor quality ram. Not all memory is created equal, so I only buy name brand. Oh, the book describes a size limitation.