No posting for over a week! Indicating that I have had a very nice Christmas. With family, friends, good food, good wine and nice presents. One of them is of course the 17″ iMac from eirikso to eirikso… More on that later.
The image is a two second (hand held) exposure from outside our flat at new years eve.
Look forward to loads of interesting stuff here at eirikso.com in 2007.
I’m on a similar quest; soon to be converting to mac. I simply cannot get over how much I hate the design of the iMac. I think I’m going to end up with a Macbook instead just because of this. Unless someone convinces me otherwise…
Here to wish you A Happy New Year. Looking forward to the loads of interesting stuff from you too:-)
It seems this will be a good year for most of the people whom I’ve discussed it with. Lots of interesting projects going on around.
bjhess: Since I have both a 20″ iMac and a 13″ MacBook, I can probably come with some tips. If you have any plan at all on playing an occasional round of Half-Life, Battlefield or any other 3D-game, you’re pretty much out of luck.
I’d go as far as saying that the graphic card in the MacBook is non-existent. If your basic use of a computer relates around simple text-editing, programming and surfing, the MacBook is just the thing for you.
The battery-life is also pretty good, at least if you turn off Airport and reduces the brightness of the screen. One time I managed to use it for approximately 5 hours.
One thing which really annoys me about the MacBook is how the fan quickly speeds up when it gets a little bit of load. The MacBook Pro is silent all the way on this point.
The iMac, on the other hand, is a beautiful computer. Quick-responsive, fast, beautiful screen, practical design and size – it simply has everything needed.
But all in all, if you need one computer – go for the MacBook Pro. If you can afford both – go for a MacBook and an iMac.
Only my two cents, but I hope it helped.
@Henrik: Thanks for the convincing job.
I will be using a Mac to do Ruby on Rails programming. So it’ll be running a WEBrick server, an IDE or text editor, and some browsers for testing (and a music player, etc).
I would like to be able to play some games on the MacBook, but I can’t really say I _need_ to be playing any games on the MacBook. Part of me thinks it may be a benefit that I cannot play games on the MacBook.
I’m not interested in the MacBook Pro at this time. Just a little too spendy for me. If the MacBook can handle the load I described, I probably should just stick with it. Though portability is not actually a requirement for me, which makes me wonder if I’m just being obstinant about the whole iMac thing.
I do think the MacBook will have a better long term value. I like to have a laptop around for general web browsing (recipes in the kitchen, couch email), and I can do with an old computer for that. So when I roll it off the desk in a couple years I could get more use out of it, or even sell it. I have a feeling the iMac won’t have nearly the lifespan that the MacBook will have.
Keep trying to convince me!
bjhess: Since your tasks mainly revolve around programming, the MacBook works great.
So you’re a RoR-guy? Then I guess we are enemies, as I’m on Django.
I mostly use it for programming myself, and I’ve had no problems what so ever. Just be sure to upgrade your RAM. 1GB minimum, works absolutely great on 2 gigs.
On the portability-thing: For me, portability is bliss. Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m on the road, or simply when I’m not at home, so in my opinion, at least, you should go for the MacBook. It’s nice to be able to do programming out of the house.
So now I think I’ve changed my opinion. The MacBook probably works great for you, as it does for me. Since our tasks are pretty much alike, I guess my opinion does matter.
@Henrik: Interesting how our usage aligns.
I’m definitely going for the 2GB upgrade. I’m hopeful that bliss will follow.
Thanks for discussing your actual usage of the systems. That’s a really big help because looking at numbers and stats can only take one so far.
And don’t worry, I’m not drinking the RoR Kool-Aid. I just like it because I get things done faster. I’m not in any position to say it is better or worse than Django. Not yet, anyway.
@Henrik: While I have your ear, I should add… I also need to be able to do HD video editing on my Mac. For home movies. Most importantly it needs to work reasonably. I can’t say it has to be super fast since it won’t be a frequent activity, but at least reasonable. Photo editing will occur as well.
I’m kind of assuming the MacBook is acceptable knowing Apple’s target market. But maybe you have a different opinion?
(Sorry to hijack this thread!)
No problem! This discussion has interest for several of my readers. Including myself…
Good to know that you don’t feel we’re contaminating your entry with this discussion, Eirik!
On video editing: I haven’t done too much of this, but I have edited a 10 minute long shortfilm in HD-format. It went surprisingly well, I might add. Of course, some lag occurred from time to time (especially when adding filters in After Effects through Rosetta), but the experience wasn’t that much worse (and I mean that in the best way possible) than on my iMac.
As long as you have enough RAM, and the MacBook doesn’t get too warm, it’ll do the works.