That's it. I just ordered my shiny new macbook pro laptop (the 2.0Ghz model- I'll add another gig of ram later for 1/3 the apple cost).
I should have it the 12th. YAY. Now I just need to slipstream sp2 onto an xp install disc. Hmm, I wonder how MS is going to handle people loading xp on apple hardware and the whole 'verifying' your install thing.
Man this is going to be great! Now I just need to figure out what to do with my ibook since I don't really need TWO mac laptops.... Such wonderful 'problems' to have, no?

-james (not waiting patiently) r

PS Peter, thanks for the mouse/delete heads up. You are right, those are some pretty important issues.

You can remedy the right-click issue by installing this.
For the delete, you can remap a key using the 'remapkey' tool in the w2k3 resource kit (it installs fine onto XP).

For slipstreaming, I highly recommend nLite. Free, easy, and very slick. Integrate service packs and hotfixes, plus tweak settings. You can make your XP install unattended, too.

Nice! Thanks for the heads up. I'll need them by next Tuesday.

Bwahahah. I have my new toy. AND because I was called to Jury Duty and duly dismissed I am now home setting it up and playing around with it. Thank god for highspeed internet access for zippy downloading.

-james

i still perfer OS X ..

No virus, no spyware, no crashing…


Granted I have a pc desktop, but that has been turned in to the file server, and everything accessed remotely by my PB.

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No virus, no spyware, no crashing…

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Funny, I don't have any of those issues with XP either.

yeah, but you dont go to as many porn sites, or other "bad" sites as i do either..............

funny. I'm sitting in jury duty now surfing on my Macbook. Fortunately the courthouse has wifi.

I backedup my Macbook last nite in prep for Bootcamp. I love my Macbook but it does suffer from the heat problem, since this was one of the first ones off the line. Also, i can't wait for more universal binaries. I've been able to crash programs on my Macbook. Mostly MS Office stuff but also Firefox AND even Safari. It does suck that you can't have Classic anymore though.

I'm definitely an OSX convert. Waiting for the 12" Macbooks so my wife can drop kick our PC desktop to the curb...

I don't have any of the whine problems, but the back (just under the LCD) does get really hot.

Firefox has been updated and it is universal now. It's a LOT faster than before. However, in-browser video is borked. It it's QT you are ok, but Real or Windows video won't display for me. Oh, and flash is messed up as well.

Ah, the joys of cutten edge hardware/software.

i hear ya. mine gets hot. my mighty mouse is broken so i'm sitting at the genius bar getting replaced. I asked about my abnormal heat problem and they said it's normal. It's a portable, not a laptop...sheesh.

I agree w/ the video. I like break.com but there's no real easy way.

I started using Firefox today. I prefer it. I hate accidentally closing all the windows in Safari.

Have you tried Camino? It's like Firefox lite, built specifically for Mac. The universaly binary works great for me.

It did take a me a while to give up my precious firefox extensions, though.

what's the diff btw Camino and Firefox?

Camino uses mac interface widgets for drop down menus and list boxes in web pages. It also doesn't support firefox extensions. It does have its own ad-blocking that works pretty well.

Here's a quote about the mac-specific features:

"Dedicated Integration

Camino integrates tightly with your Mac OS X computing environment. The native Cocoa interface and the beautifully-designed icons make Camino a very useful and elegant desktop citizen.

OS X Integration
But integration does not stop with Camino's appearance. Camino incorporates features that use Spotlight, Address Book, the Keychain, the Finder, the Dock, Bonjour, Services, and System Preferences. The Camino Project's commitment to the platform shows in its support for Mac OS X versions 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4; on each version, Camino provides the seamless experience users have come to expect from software running on Apple’s Mac OS X."

Does it work with OWA now? It's been a couple of years since I've tried it...

Yeah, but you get the watered down version since it's not IE.

Without starting a flame war, everything isn't better on OSX

Funny too that it's the Penny Arcade guys that are quoted.

When Mike and Jerry (aka Tycho & Gabe) got their new whiz-bang Macs they shilled them so hard I thought one of their gag reflexes would surely kick in and they'd regurgitate er, "apple juice" all over the blankets.

I mean, here are two people who not only drank the Kool-Aid, judging by the news posts around that time (and I read them tri-weekly), they also had big Kool-Aid Pitchers tattooed across their backs and Kool-Aid UPC codes on their foreheads. They had Macs, so they shouted from the rooftops that the PC is dead, long live the Mac.

Good to see something kicked them in the groin and toppled them from their high horse about an operating system. It's an OS, many people used it before you, everyone's got a different opinion on it. Your 6 million readers a day don't make your stand on it any more valuable than anyone else's.

(/end rant)

Bren R.

Wow, fanatic much? It always sucks when people like something enough to tell other people about it, doesn't it? <rollseyes>

As to the article, I can't say I'm surprised. WoW was kicked out the door pretty quickly for the Mactels. I'm sure there's a lot of optimization to be done. Also, the OS isn't entirely native yet, so there's probably some slow down there. And I'm sure OpenGL vs DirectX has something to do with it.

Just wondering of you guys know of any issues to keep in mind (besides the typical "backup before you do the install") before I install 10.4 Tiger over 10.2 Jaguar.

I've heard of some third-party software that may become unstable or unusable but the only ones that I have installed are Mozilla and Flip4Mac (F4M apparently doesn't work on 10.2).

A simple backup will do fine. Also, go with the "Archive and Install" option. It'll keep all your user files as they are, but archive your current system files and install a fresh OS. Your old OS files will still be accessible in case you want to move some things back to the new OS. If you don't care about the old OS files, you can just trash them.

Archive and install is the cleanest way to go if you'd rather not wipe everything.

Thanks Peter. I should also mentio that I have XDarwin and Open Office. Would I have to reinstall? As I'm a Mac newbie, uh where do I find the "Archive and Install"
I do have a Mac Tips book and I guess I'll have to do some more reading.

When you run the installer, it's under either Options or Customize (I don't remember which, but you'll probably want to look at both of them. It's also possible that you may need to set up your printers again. The 10.4 upgrade is pretty clean, though.

It can go either way but it's still good for Apple since w/ Leopard you can run both OSX and Windows. You can also triple boot w/ Linux if you've got the nads to try it.

I'm sure there's a lot of people that would buy Macs just for looks and then run Windows. So what? To each his own. I'm sure there's a lot of Rio Carbon and Creative Zen owners that would rather die than give up their MP3 players for an iPod. Oh well...

I got Windows running on my Macbook and my IT dept loaded Office and our VPN s/w. I'm trying to use remapkeys to setup the keyboard so I can do CTRL-ALT-DEL but haven't figured it out yet...

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Wow, fanatic much? It always sucks when people like something enough to tell other people about it, doesn't it?

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You're missing the point, though, Ken... hypersensitive to Mac bashing?

It's just that for the year previous to their purchase, I had read all the posts of "Playing WC3 on my computer, playing Half-Life 18 on my computer, playing Perfect Dark Minus 4 on my computer..." and then they buy iMacs and the posts turn into "oMgZZZZ!!!11!!one1!! ThIz c0mPUt3r t0Tally r0x0rz! ((^_^)) kekekeke" Launching the new arena was my first foray into OSX... the non-linear edit suite was OSX, my CG machine was XP. Rolling my chair between them, I didn't feel a particular, throbbing love for either. On one, I got one BSoD and a few Critical Errors, on the other, I got a good number of "the little color wheel has been spinning now for 10 minutes"... neither one made me want to shout from the rooftops and profess my undying, unnatural love for them.

With the fervor that they were applauding the new systems, it made me wonder if they had either received a model with a shiatsu massage mouse, or a Maxim-branded version of OSX or something.

Both just feel like tools to me. If I'm roofing - I want a roofing hammer, if I'm framing - I want a claw hammer, if I'm metalworking - I want a ballpeen hammer. I've never clung tight to, say, the ballpeen as a marvel of engineering, used it for everything, secretly cursed it's inability to remove a bent nail, then sung it's praises when Craftsman announces the new ballpeen hammer that dual boots into a claw hammer.

Ballpeen hammer guy (to contractor) "Look, my ballpeen now has a claw... I bet you're jealous, you need one of these, go get it now..."
Contractor "Uh, no thanks"
BHG "You're just jealous"
CON "Of?"
BHG "Now I can remove nails!"
CON "Um... this has been able to do the same for years" *waves claw hammer* "aren't you the nut that used to sit outside the construction trailer screaming 'peen is keen!' up until last week?"

Bren R.
(tongue planted firmly in cheek)

Thanks Ken. Time to have some "fun" this weekend.

Obviously some folks do feel there is a difference. What possible other motivation would the PA guys feel for posting in the way that they did (which, for the people who don't read that site is not particularly well represented by Bren's characterization)? I seriously doubt that someone held guns to their heads and made them write it.

The ability to dual boot is really quite nice. I use both types of machines; I own both types of machines. If I could just carry one laptop, use it in OS X for most stuff, and boot into Windows (or virtualize it) for VPC and some other stuff, I'd be overjoyed.