I’m returning my Macbook
A few days ago, my laptop screen on my Toshiba (Windows XP machien) died. Well, it’s still kinda working but the screen shows funny colors so it was more or less uesless. The repair on a laptop screen would take some time and money, so I initially looked at getting a new laptop. The dilemma was this :
- I did NOT want to get Windows Vista. It takes up too much memory, and since it’s the first version of it, it would be very unstable for sure.
- I do not purchase laptops that are sub-par. That means, I only purchase laptops that are reputable. No Acers, no Gateways (Gateways, as far as I remember, have the worst screens ever). I looked at HPs and Toshibas. To get a decent Windows based laptop, I was looking at $1999 plus tax, for the new Toshiba P100, at the higher specs.
So instead of spending a lot of money on a new Toshiba, I thought I’d give a Macbook a shot. So I purchased the new Macbook Pro 15.4″. I bought that on Wednesday. Throughout the rest of the evening, I spent time on putting on all the software, with help from my friend Jordan. And then Thurdsay all day, I spent more time on putting more software on there (Illustrator, Photoshop, Parallels, etc) and then on Friday, I kept on going at it.
Here’s what I found :
- The controls were too inconvenient for me. There are many people out there who marvel at the drag-and-drop type of application handling, but I’m much more of a mathematical person when it comes to computers - I prefer the right-clicking of things for extra options. I like the “send to” option that you get when you click on the .
- It was way too slow for me. Adobe Illustrator CS2 ran much slower on this machine. When I pan the image, the drag and the lag was unbelievable compared to my PC. I already had the visual/performance setting to focus most on performance rather than visual, but it was still slow. I could not stand it.
- When I ran Firefox and Safari at the same time, it would lag so much, and Firefox crashed on me so many times over the last few days.
- As much as it is cool to use the built-in camera, the backlit keyboards and what not, if the machine slowed me down so much, the extra gimmicks were not very useful.
- The Macbook Pro did NOT have an SD card slot in it. My Toshiba laptop had a 7-in-1 card reader, so I could plug in my card from my digital camera. The Mac, did not, so I had to actually use the USB cable for the first time in months.
- The graphic effects transitioning between windows and applications, or whatever, were very frustrating for me. To switch between applications felt very sluggish and slow. With Windows XP, everything is snappy. I just could not get used to the whole smooth effects - it made my Macbook slower than it actually was, which is really really bad.
My friend Jordan, who is a Mac fan, tried to convince me otherwise, and told me that there must be a problem with the settings or something. But honestly, it’s not worth my time trying to accomodate to all the software needs and settings. It’s just too much time for me to spend.
I decided that I would just replace the screen on my old Toshiba Laptop and continue using it that way. For now, I have a monitor hooked up to it, and I will order a replacement LCD screen for my Toshiba off Ebay or something, and try to keep this alive. I felt so much more comfortable coming back to my Windows XP platform, and it will be that way for the next little while.
Ah, thats too bad. By the way, Gateway laptops aren’t too bad. I had one before I got my Toshiba (I still use it from time to time) and although the Toshiba is faster and has a brighter screen, the Gateway is better designed. For one thing, even though the Toshiba is larger than the Gateway, it has a smaller keyboard. For some reason Toshiba decided to waste good keyboard real-estate with a row of media control buttons that I never use. Also, Toshibas come with an unreal amount of software that is required to run all the components, which slows down start up. Although it presumably improves the user experience.
ahh really.. thats too bad.. I was actually just looking at getting a Macbox.. I appreciate your views as it helps me consider things that I my not have other wise. I’m surprised to here about the sluggishness, has anyone else seen the same thing?
I currently use a Gateway convertible tablet as my main computer, and my wife uses a regular gateway laptop. The screen on hers is about as good a screen as I’ve seen on any laptop. Mine isn’t as crystal clear, but that’s probably because of the active digitizer. I say, don’t be afraid of the cow!
To clear this up for everyone, the macbook Jeff had was not performing properly, it was crashing and erroring every few minutes. Being a long time macbook user, I have never experienced what Jeff’s computer was doing. Before switching to mac you also must remember, it is going to take some time getting used to. Things WILL be different it’s a big change but once you do change over and learn the system it is much much more productive.
Also keep in mind the macbook pro’s are one of the fastest laptops on themarket right now, the sluggishness was not related to the mac it self, most likely it was the 3rd party software installed.
Jeff, I wish you hadmore time to learn the system before getting fistrated, we could have fixed it up and you would have had an amazing computer. and if you dont like the smooth visuals ( which windows now uses aswell, so good luck gatting away from them) why not just turn them off?
How many days did you spend getting used to OSX? 3? I hope you don’t give up this easily on all new changes or challenges in your life. Good luck dealing with all the Windows viruses, restarts, and weekly software patches.
Wasn’t worth my time. Between the 2 or 3 days I struggled with it, I lost hundreds of dollars of productivity. I was only forced to make a choice because my laptop screen blew, but all in all, it was not worth the time at all. I regret even trying.
Wasn’t worth it at all.
I can tell you right away why Illustrator was so slow on your machine: it was running through emulation of sorts. This, of course, will cause a massive slowdown. All of the Adobe CS2 apps were written for the PowerPC Macs, not the Intel ones. Apple provides an application translator called Rosetta on all of their Intel machines which conveniently allows all of those non-native programs to run.
Adobe is on the verge of releasing Intel-native versions of their applications within the coming months. I personally have the beta of Photoshop CS3 on my Intel Mac and it absolutely screams by comparison with CS2.
I agree, i told jeff that was why it would be a bit slow… vut on his machine it was disgusting how slow it was. there was definatly somethign up with his OS.
Illustrator on my macbook core duo 2.0ghz is mcuh much much faster than it was on jeffs macbook pro 2.16ghz
Thanks bill for the info.. it does make a little more sense for the sluggisshness.
I really don’t care how some Mac users try to defend the macs in more of a personal and religious way. All I’ll say is that 95% of users are still on Windows, and numbers say the most after all in this market.
My experience was bad - and if my Apple was a lemon, then they lost my business due to lack of quality control, so be it. I’m sticking with my Windows XP laptop - I’m just going to fix up the sscreen.
right now I’m on an external monitor, and I couldn’t be happier and more comfortable, back in my old machine that’s snappy, fast, and reliable. Although it is much more prone to viruses and what not.
If you hate Macs that much dipshit, then why do you have a MacBook on your home page? Secondly, if you liked the way that your buddy “just understood” when you returned your MacBook, why the fuck are you now going around on your own blog and all the Mac posts on digg.com bashing the Mac? You are a hypocrite and have no integrity. And you’re giving your consulting company a bad name by the way.
Pardon me if I’m out of line Jeff.
To the previous commenter.. perhaps if you had the balls to comment with your name, or even your website, people here might take you seriously. Jeff’s a good guy, and his opinions are valued around here. If the post offends you and makes you angry, feel free to not read it - I’m sure he won’t mind.
I don’t hate macs, I just like to provide constructive criticism. I also have an old post titled “Screw Microsoft” if it makes you feel better.
YouAreDipShit - You’re an idiot for thinking I hate Macs and I want to bash them. My other post about iFags (which probably lead you here) is the whole point - I don’t like idiot Mac users like yourself treating Macs like it’s a pot full of precious that nobody can even criticize.
I’m not giving my consulting firm a bad name at all - at least not among the intelligent people I would like to work with. And people like you from New Jersey thinking you can just leave rude comments without even disclosing who you are - you don’t exactly fit the profile anyhow. Not good enough for me.
Yes, I am at a point where I have the luxury of picking my clients and projects.
Mr.Kee, I have never red so much windows loving mac hating drivle in all my life!
As a bussy freelance graphic designer I have allways used a pc running one virsion of
windows or another untill my Intel Pentium running pc refused to upgrade to the “New Improved”
(Buggy as hell) version!
So I got a second hand MacBookPro or ‘MBP’ as we iFags like to say!
Have I spent 3 wasted days & nights downloading pc software onto my MBP? NO!
Do I feel secure enough to wander from Bill’s TIT’s? why yes I DO!
Have I the patience to actuly learn the OSX? Apparantly I do! And as you so Intelegently articulated anyone who thinks your half harted stab at the mac OS was at best a poor excuse for a JAB is labled ‘what’, and I quote”YouAreDipShit” and “You’re an idiot for thinking”
Well to that I might add “You Are A Dip Shit” notice the “A” as in you are A Dip Shit!
Got it?!
A. learn how to spell, you jackass.
B. You’re missing my whole point - my point isn’t that Macs are better, I’m just giving my perspective of Macs.
Macs are used by only 5% of the computer users right now - that says something.
So you think it’s OK for you iFags to bash PCs, while it’s so unacceptable for me to criticise macs?
Get a grip of yourself - you’ve officially lowered yourself from a “Mac User” to an “iFag”.
Go learn some grammar and try to get the point of my articles - grade 12 English might help. My argument is NOT about how good or bad macs are - I even wrote a previous post about how I hate Microsoft. I’m too lazy to find it for you right now but you can search for it. My beefs are against the Mac users, or iFags, like yourself, who consider Macs as some sort of a religious being of some sort, with no acceptance - sort of like the standard dumb white trash who has Hitler-like Fascist ideas.
Learn how to read, learn how to write, and then talk to me. I’m drunk as hell right now and I can spell this well - I’m sure you can do better.
I can appreciate your reasoning for returning to WindowsXP. When you are busy with work it’s difficult to invest the time and effort to learn something new. That said, you have to admit you didn’t give MacOS a fair shake. I agree you gave the hardware a shake - you prefer the larger laptop with the bigger keyboard, and built-in card reader - fair enough, but 3 days is not long enough to learn a new OS and some of the things you said are downright wrong. There are no visual effects when transitioning from one app to the other. I just did it myself. The new windows simply appear over the old ones without any fancy swooping or fading effects.
I also don’t believe your assertion that because 95% of computer users use Windows so their must be something to it. The most popular of anything does not mean it’s the best - it means it’s good enough for 95% of the population.
And if you actually wonder why Mac users are so defensive, it’s because the derrogation and lies they face in the computing world every day. Walk into any computer store and you’ll hear sales staff mutter myths like “There is no Mac software”, “macs are so much more expensive”, etc. and IT staff refusing Macs on their networks because “AppleTalk brings down the network”, “They’re not secure”, etc. when PC users can connect their laptops without any complaints. Mac users hear “Oh! You use a Mac? You must not know much about computers.” all the time. Maybe if the respect came from the PC side, you’d see it back from the Mac side.
As for your choice of computers, I don’t have the problem with it. But own up to the actual reason - you went back to a PC because of the hardware configuration, and you didn’t have time to invest in learning a new OS - even if it may make you more productive in the long run. It’s not because said Mac was “slow” - issues like that can be resolved quite easily.
I like them both.
You understand that cs2 is running in emulation on a Macbook?
That would explain alot of the sluggnesh feeling with AI cs2. Also you could of installed windows XP on your macbook using bootcamp and have the best of both worlds.
Myekie
I stumbled on this blog after the frustrating experience of the past 10 days with my macbook. I am a Linux developer whose Compaq laptop died. As was the case with Jeff, I went for a MacBook mostly because of the what appeared to be good value for money. I have been giving Mac OS a fair shake before I make up my mind for good, but its just not happening. I am sure its just me, but frankly if not for the re-stocking fee, it would be back with Apple by now. In my case, its more usability and my rigid fingers that refuse to re-learn that are causing the dislike.
Another proof that Mac isn’t the ultimate demi-god of computers.
It’s simply a matter of choice and it’s frustrating to see some ifags take it so fucking personally when it comes to non-mac users or rejecters like myself and this man here.