At the start of the year, I got a nice new 15 inch Macbook Pro when I started my new job, and as its been just over 6 weeks since I pulled it out of its box, I feel I should make a few comments. It’s been great so far and I can see why people go the Apple way of life, for some of their hardware anyway. I’m mainly talking about the iPad, joke’s about women’s sanitary gear aside, I’m thinking its about as useful as a really large iPhone… oh. wait a minute! Will be interesting to see how it progresses with new OS software on it anyway.
The iPad
Note: I should note that this article contains nothing new, it’s just my thoughts on my new toy, the machine itself is 1-2 years old now and i’m sure has been blogged/reported and talked up for much longer than that.
Hardware – The Macbook Pro 15″
Having pretty much never laid a finger on one apart from selecting a new song in iTunes I often appreciated the Macbooks beauty from afar and snubbed any notion of getting one due to the price, lack of real customisabilty and every non-Apple minded person’s plight to escape from Apple wankery and the mindless drones that mill around the orchard at release time talking about the new iBrain that will revolutionise the way we think. All that aside, it’s an amazing piece of hardware, I am truly blown away by its shape, build quality, colour, weight and its uncanny ability to make you feel like you’re slitting your wrists every time you type on it, because the front edge is so sharp.
The Touchpad is far and above the best point device (that’s not a mouse) that I’ve ever used, and in most cases replaces all need for a mouse anyway, the two, three and four finger actions are amazingly useful and even though basic support for two finger scrolling is available in Windows 7 and can be enabled in *nix, the rest of the industry is years behind.
The new Macbook Pro
The biggest down side on the hardware side is the lack of a 1920×1200 (or 1080p) screen, which I’ve had in my last four Dell laptop’s (15.4″ and 17″), and the stunted keyboard is very annoying. I can get used to the swapped ‘@’ and double quote key (even though its apparently a UK keyboard combination), and the Apple Command key takes normal functionality away from the Control key while adding an extra layer of complexity to normal/standard key combinations. For instance:
- In a web browser (any normal web browser anyway (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc)
- Ctrl + W is close, Ctrl + T is new tab, Ctrl + L is open link/focus address bar, Ctrl + Tab is cycle between tabs
- On the mac, the Ctrl key is replaced by the command key, except in the case of cycling between tabs where it’s still Ctrl + Tab (as Command + Tab selects windows in the OS). Now to move between tabs I need to be alternating between the Command and Ctrl keys to perform functions that required no effort before.
- Not just that, I’ve been much more prone to pressing Cmd + Q whilst changing thumb positions and quitting the browser completely, a few seconds wasted , but a common occurence.
The thing that annoys me most is the removal of the Delete, Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys which are admittedly available through Fn + (Backspace, Left, Right, Up, Down) respectively. This is poorly implemented and supported across applications within MacOS though, for instance going to the Home position on the start of the line in 3 different programs (Fn + Left (Normal behaviour), Command + Shift + Left (Eclipse, Don’t say a word!), Fn + Ctrl + Left (Terminal). Really, it doesn’t take all that long to learn the combination for a different program, or situation, but I think it should have been standardised int he first place.
All in all, I shouldn’t bitch though, it’s a very nice machine and I’d much prefer to carry it around than my 17″ Dell (the behemoth), a task that is neither easy as its quite bulky but also quite painful on the back after a while.
Software – MacOS
Those who know my geeky side know I get around when it comes to OS’s, distributions and user interfaces, apart from the 50% of my time I usually spend in a console window, I’m never content without tinkering on a platform wether that be something like Gnome, something more lightweight like Fluxbox or Windows. I’m 100% certain when I say this, a proper Linux Window manager setup like Gnome + Compiz + appropriate keyboard shortcuts, is absolutely the most efficient and productive interface I’ve used (apart from maybe the lack of a good word processor, if and when it’s needed 
)
MacOS on the other hand (whatever its Window Manager is called Aqua.. not Aero ?!?!), is made for idiots, and while it’s very beautiful I’ve found performing certain tasks a complete pain:
- I use terminal for more file operations as Finder is twice as interactive as Windows Explorer or Nautilus, but with the cost of reduced efficiency whilst choosing what display type you want or getting a few levels higher when browsing in column mode. Coverflow is useless for anything but browsing through Cover art in iTunes or an iPhone/iPod (funny that…)
- Window location and traversal when you have loads of windows open is difficult as minimise isn’t the same. (ever tried using expose when you have 20 text/code windows open?)
- The standard System Preferences seems to hide useful settings (to stop idiots doing what they’d do, I guess)
- The taskbar is cute and all, but can also get confusing with lots of apps open (though this is a mindset thing I’ll change over time)
