Day 3 of the big switch

[Gordy]

I've owned several macs over the years, but my main rig has always been a pc of some description. Until a few days ago that is and I decided I would just use my macbook pro and get rid of the rest of my kit. A computer version of the life laundry hehe.

The original setup most of you have seen :



The mac mini has now gone to my girlfriends desk to replace her g4 mini, so that is still around, but to just have the one computer on the desk is a breath of fresh air.

I used to use the mbp for just emails diary etc and for working on the road. The pc for anything else back at home.

I've put off fully switching as there were a few things in os x that annoyed me, mainly finder. With leopard fixing most of them it was time to save myself a truck load of admin and just get rid of the pc.
I thought I would miss the big 24in screen, but I can't say I have.

So far I'm on day 3 and still loving it. Spaces makes the whole thing far easier as I can effectively have a 4 or 6 or even 8 monitor setup with just the laptop!

Leopard is truely superb, the new dock and menubar once fixed are much more better, coming from vista which is truely a pain in the backside it's an amazingly finished product for a brand new os version. Not only that, but it makes my mbp feel far faster not the slower that vista does.

I still have a boot camp installation of xp for testing and helping clients but it gets run in vmware and very rarely.

I'll have to take a picture of my new setup to show the difference, the whole office feels very different I can't quite get used to it yet hehe.

Anyway I just thought I'd share my thoughts on my switch.

[mightymouse]

do you have any problems with leopard being a fraction of a second slower than tiger? i did a fresh install on my mbp and i am feeling it. maybe i did something wrong?

also my firefox is lagging so much its unbelievable but only if its on wireless internet. i will have to go thru a few forums now to get it fix. just wondered if i was the only victim

cheers

[Steve B]

to replace her g4 mini, so that is still around

you getting rid of it?

[Gordy]

mightymouse: Seems to be fine for mine, I did an upgrade on tiger. Firefox is very quick for me. I use the wireless most of the time, only using network cable for big transfers when setting up.

Steve B: Its already gone, a client wanted it for their father.

[Steve B]

*sobs*

[Gordy]

Plenty of them g4's on ebay Steve

[charleski]

One thing I've found is that OSX really takes me back to my days at university mucking around on Unix. I'm currently trying to recompile an x264 encoder so that it'll use better keyframe intervals.

I still need to wrap my head around the nib interface system. It's so different to what I'm used to with VS that my initial attempts to blunder in and just hack some examples failed miserably. I'm going to have to find time to read the manual .

[trashcanmonkey]

I thought I would miss the big 24in screen, but I can't say I have.
.

soo, why did you ditch it?!

[Gordy]

soo, why did you ditch it?!

Just seemed silly to keep it with a laptop screen already there. I went to a lan party a couple of weeks ago and took my 17in lcd tv instead of the big display. I didn't miss the big screen then and it made playing all the new games much easier as I didn't have to tweak all the setting just to be able to use the huge res.

[Fraz]

I thought I would miss the big 24in screen, but I can't say I have.

Why not, err... plug it into the Mac?

[Gordy]

I could but I don't want to really. It just extra hassle, I'm trying for a low footprint setup stripping out all the excess I don't need.

[peterb]

Hmm - I must post a pic of my desk - the complete opposite of what you have!

[Fraz]

I could but I don't want to really. It just extra hassle, I'm trying for a low footprint setup stripping out all the excess I don't need.

Sitting at a desk for long periods of time using a laptop is gonna cause you some grief in the long run. I really would advise plugging it into a decent monitor and getting an external keyboard and mouse. Although, maybe you're not strapped to a desk for as many hours a day as I am.

I love my macbook pro, and I'm quite happy working on it for short periods of time using the trackpad when I'm working in a lab away from my office, but after a while I realise I'm all hunched up. Having a decent monitor set up so you are looking straight ahead whilst sitting up straight is a must for me.

And attaching a couple of leads in the morning when you arrive at work is not really a hassle IMO. Turning up to work in the first place is the hassle!

[Gordy]

I have an external mouse , but I find the laptop keyboard and screen perfectly fine for long periods of time.

[Gordy]

Finally got round to sorting all my cabling out so I took some new pics of my new setup.



As you can see the change is quite drastic.

[mycarsavw]

Gah I was hoping the remodel would mean you'd need a smaller desk and then you'd sell this one to me!

Looks nice and simple, I like it.

The comments on the laptop screen and long periods of time are quite true. Having only a laptop at home for a few years I found I got really bad lower back pain from leaning into the screen too much. I tried using it on a riser/dock and with an external keyboard and mouse but I still got the odd twinge.