I'm aware of the mighty mouse, but we're talking a physical piece of hardware that can't be modified. It's not as easy as just swapping out mice on a desktop.

I was mostly talking about the arrogance part. Apple for once humbled themselves with the way they announced the mighty mouse.

Like I said, why bother using a touchpad anyways? I hardly use the one that's on my PC laptop, and certainly don't use the one on the mac.

I don't know about you, but the vast majority of the time I use my laptop it's in places where a regular mouse is completely not usable. Plus, that's another thing to carry around.

Exactly. What's the point of a laptop if you can't use it on your lap?

Actually... Looking through the system settings on a macbook you can right click using 2 fingers.

You can set it for 2 fingers right click OR 2 fingers + click = right click.


I agree with cool matty slightly when it comes to questioning why the macbook is better than everything else.

The only reasons i can see right now are build quality, and the fact that it can run OSX as well as Vista. Oh and student discounts are nice

Oh yea.... And none of you are giving any good reasons to not get a macbook.

Lenovo has a bigger screen for the same price (even after the student discount), and has a similar build reputation.

My sister has a macbook. She likes it.

I dont really care how big the laptop is. I dont want to be lugging around a 20" laptop though....

The things I dont care about: single button track pad, "Bigger" screens.


If you were to say "this PC runs 3d animation programs and photoshop fine, even at the same time!" That would get me interested.


So far mac still seems like the better deal...

To be quite honest, seeing as they run the exact same specs, you have to be picky :/

Yea. But not THAT picky. Ive said numerous times I dont care about the mouste buttons. The thing thats making me lean towards the mac right now is the ability to run OSX (which I use daily) and Vista, which I also use daily.

Im just wondering what would make a pc better over a macbook. Isnt the pricing fairly similar if its similar specs?

I haven't checked prices lately but I've found Macbooks more expensive for comparable specs or even lower ones than PC counterparts. Of course, things might have changed but I'm too lazy to look up.

they are more expensive.

There are a few things to consider here. First off, you have Applecare. Does Lenovo offer a similar arrangement?

Secondly, you have the fact that OSX has a better OpenGL implementation than Vista. Vista's is incomplete - vendor-provided ICDs require use of the overlay surface which isn't available as long as Aero Glass is active, and the built-in OpenGL wrapper doesn't implement the full OpenGL functionality. If mb is running 3D animation programs he's probably going to need some pretty solid OpenGL support which basically rules out Vista. 3dstudio max has a DirectX mode but that's more because max is geared toward game development rather than the kind of 3D animation mb does.

Thirdly, you have the fact that a Macbook will be able to run OSX or Windows. It's not just one or the other, and having more support for more things is never bad. Plus, the hardware in the Macbook has been sanitized and when you install Bootcamp your Macbook will even burn you a driver CD so you don't have to hunt them down after you install Windows. I swear to god, every time I reformat my laptop I have to murder a litter of kittens just to satisfy my driver rage.

Damn, you guys are making me want a Macbook now. The only issue I'm seeing here is that it only has an integrated Intel graphics chip*. (unless you go for the Macbook pro) That still isn't going to do all that well in 3D programs or games despite OpenGL being well supported, right? I ask this for my sake as well, as I'm keeping my eye on the laptop market for the near future.

/edit
*Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

As far as rendering is concerned, unless you have a card designed for rendering in a notebook it's going to tax the processor more than the GPU anyways.

I tried that - mine doesn't do it by default (it's a G4). Is there a way of making it?

Applescript ftw.

/hump.

I'll google that this lunchtime. Cheers masiveWANG.

Yeop. The powerbooks have the multitouch touch pad, right? That's all it takes. At that point upgrading to 10.4 (or Leopard when it hits) would take care of it all for you without scripts.

edit: You may need to use something like this: http://iscroll2.sourceforge.net/ to get the functionality there, and then applescript the click commands. It shouldn't be too hard.

Yea all the 3d work I do uses the CPU to render things.

Although After Effects CS3 can use the GPU to render some effects.


Oh and ive pretty much decided to get a mac. It might cost more (and only have one button) but the capability to run OSX and Vista is pretty much the best thing it has to offer.
( Hell i could have used it right now. a font i was using in a project was some weird old mac filetype that doesnt easily convert to ttf. being able to open after effects on OSX and just render it quickly like that would have saved me some time. not a huge amount, but still it would have been convinient)

Is there finally a decent console or shell now with Vista?

Nope! Same ol' cmd.exe since Win2K.

I don't mind. Yeah a quick trip to cmd.exe to do things like ipconfig /release or 'find /N /OFF "text" f:\path\to\file.txt' is handy but I don't particularly need a console.

How quick is loading time for Vista/XP on a Mac?

in mouse settings in system preferences. two-finger right click and two finger scrolling are in there. the right click is not on by default.

Not in my mouse prefs Two finger scroll is there, but not two finger right click...

And I'm running 10.4.10...

:sadderthangbkface:

EDIT: FYI my machine is a "PowerBook6,8"

ah, i was thinking macbook pro not powerbook. powerbook doesn't have 2 finger right click

closest thing might be this:

http://www.old-jewel.com/onefingersnap/index.html

also maybe this http://sourceforge.net/projects/iscroll2/, but that will only work if you have an older powerbook with an adb trackpad instead of usb.

iscroll2 won't work - I do have the USB driven trackpad. I'll have a butcher's at onefingersnap at lunchtime though

stupid question here, can you run linux on a macbook?

yes you can

You can run Linux on your toaster.

My bagel runs on Linux.

That's the first thing I would install.

i believe you made your decision before you asked us.

macbook.

Not exactly!

:raise: