Black Macbook 13” 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 250GB

Author background

I’m a “switcher” as ex-PC users are commonly referred to in the Mac space. My primary background is SAP consulting, so to be honest, moving to Mac makes absolutely no sense at all given that 95% of my busy revolves around working in Windows, but with VM’s becoming more common space in business, and server farms with VM’s becoming the norm, it left me with two options, run windows on windows or run windows on Mac. At worst, I could install Windows on the Mac but at least this way I could have the stability and virus free benefits of Mac. After many problems with loading multiple VPN’s and client configs and finding network conflicts, I decided to move to a virtual machine environment to allow me to run completely independent client configurations. This is a sample of the VM configuration I intended using.



My Review

My choice of notebook for my first Mac switch was the new black Macbook which offered a slightly higher spec. In reality, I would probably have preferred the white Macbook, but couldn’t be bothered to wait for the BTO (built to order) option so that meant the black was the only standard option to meet my requirements. I contemplated looking at the Macbook Pro’s for a little while, but couldn’t justify the additional cost given the minimal graphical requirements my current job offers. Screen size wasn’t critical and with the amount of travel I do, the Macbook offered a nice compromise between portability and spec. Most of my customers also have big LCD's to plug into so screen size wasn't an issue. I briefly looked at the Macbook Air however the lack of upgradability (I needed the RAM and HDD) meant this option was quickly removed from the equation.

This review covers the first 3 weeks of my life as a new Macbook user and my perspective of the “dark side”.

Review

There is nothing like the excitement of opening a new computer, its one of those experiences akin to collecting your new car and having the new car smell the first time you climb in. Apple tend to make it a special experience with what some have described as over-elaborate packaging. To be honest, it may be a little frustrating for those network administrators having to unpack 20 laptops in a row, but we can’t exactly expect Apple to tone down the experience because some may find the packaging over indulgent when it replicated time and time again, after all, opening a new computer should be a special experience and Apple make it something special.

Opening the Macbook you quickly realize why there is a price premium over similar priced notebooks, and we’re not talking about the packaging here. Even as the base range Macbook, the finishing is of a particularly high quality and my old Toshiba M100 finds itself lagging far behind in the quality department, but we are comparing a $1200 laptop and a $2000 Macbook. The lines are cleanly finished, and everything just looks and feels high quality. The touchpad is very shallow and sits almost in line with the cover leaving less room for things to get caught in the edges. The screen quality is much higher than PC screens and the notebook includes nice touches missing from convention PC notebooks like the magnetic lid and power cable. Aesthetically, everything just seems to work really well on the Macbook and its the type of design I don’t see aging any time in the near future like a lot of the convention designs which start to look old after a couple of months.

From a feature perspective, the Macbook covers about 90% of what most people would want. 2 USB ports, Firewire, mini-DVI, network, dual layer DVD writer, Wireless, Bluetooth, built in webcam and the usual audio jacks. The only real items missing for me are a VGA out (having to buy a cable to do this job is a little annoying even if its cheap) and as a business user, only 2 USB’s meant I had to invest in a Bluetooth mouse because I often have times where I need both. This was partially because I didn't realise how many right click options the Macbook actually had so initially I was doing the 2 finger touch while clicking the button which was so annoying the external mouse seemed like the only option. I purchased a mouse, bitched about the stupid design and then found out there was another alternative so I am back to happiness again.

The magnetized lid is something I believe every single notebook should have. Its something simple and ingenious and I’m surprised I dealt with the annoying latches for as long as I did. The power cable is also great and I love the touch of actually adding a light where the power cable attaches so you can see whether its actually working or not. Other nice touches I like are the supply of a short and long cable (depending on whether you attach the power cable or just the plug thingy to the power supply). I also liked the little arms that fold out of the power supply to allow you to wrap the cable around, so much neater than a velcro tie strap or some of the alternatives offered on the PC notebooks. The compatibility of the plug products and how they clip off the power supply also comes in handy as I already have an international plug adapter set for my ipod charger which can now be used on my notebook as well although this is not really a major benefit unless you already have something like this.

Graphics quality on the screen itself was surprisingly good given the lack of dedicated video RAM but I don’t play games so probably don’t push the notebook to its limits. It definitely meets my needs more than adequately. The keyboard feels less spongy than the convention PC keyboards and the more I work with it, the more I realize I enjoy it more. The webcam was one of the surprises as the combined video quality of the webcam and audio quality of the built in Microphone made webcam conversations far more appealing than previously.

The black color of the Macbook is great but also shows smudges quite easily so I’d suggest people out there test the black and white if depending on how neurotic they are about clean notebooks. The white might show dirt a little easier so there could be problems there as well, but my black Macbook gets a regular workout with the cloth supplied (nice touch). The black looks more professional and would probably suit those in a more formalized business environment a bit better. I’d also like to see a matt screen option available on the Macbook’s as a BTO as I find the glossy screens a little annoying when it comes to showing fingerprints (there always has to be some idiot who touches your screen).

Performance on the new little Macbook is great. I’m currently able to run SAP in a Parallels VM environment and it feels like its running in a native environment. Although most people would be happy with the 2GB, I added some aftermarket RAM to up it to 4GB and this has seen substantial improvements in the VM and Photoshop environments which were the only real areas that were potentially reaching capacity on 2GB RAM. Optimum for heavier usage of VM’s for me end up with a 2.5GB Mac/1.5GB Windows setup after I did some comparative testing of various combinations with software installations and batch conversions of RAW to JPG to try push the machine to its limits. (no official benchmarks unfortunately). I'd highly recommend the upgrade to 4GB for those using VM's.

In conclusion, the Macbook is great, in fact I think most Macbook Pro users would probably be happy with it given the new specs and you’d need a compelling argument to consider the upgrade (how many people really use the new touch pad functionality, graphics capability or backlighting on the keyboard?) to the Macbook Pro over the conventional Macbook. It may not be all things to all people, but performance and stability of the baby models are outstanding and Apple clearly hasn’t skimped on quality when it comes to the base range models. I’m sold on Mac after 3 weeks and I don’t think I’ll be heading back to PC's again. I think I'm slowly convincing my wife as well so her next notebook purchase will probably see her moving across as well.

Interesting perspective

Virtualisation is a very cool technology, I think it's one of the major reasons people aren't afraid to use a Mac anymore. There's much less risk involved moving over if an app is Windows only or an equivalent can't be found. Just run it in a VM!

By the way, that's a lotta VM's

Are you using Parallels or Fusion?

So... Have you learnt how to use OS X yet?

Using Parallels. I'm actually doing all of it with a single VM and multiple branches and snapshots. I didn't opt for separate VM's because of licensing issues (I have access to corporate licenses so licensing isn't an issue now but if I left my company it would leave me with a lot of licensing to catch up on) and because of drive space, every VM is about 10GB where the snapshots average out at around 1-3GB per snapshot if you install everything on your vanilla install and only apply customer specific changes to the snapshots (like outlook config, VPN's, saplogon.ini files etc). Obviously as I add MS updates the snapshots will get bigger but I'm kind of hoping that by the time that becomes a problem, I'll have a 500GB or larger drive at the rate HDD are going.

...and yeah, I am using OSX and enjoying it. The windows is only used at customers and I don't open windows unless I really have to.

That is a fantastic write up MissionMan - cheers!

Another Victim of the Mac Virus!!!!

Excellent write up mate!

Thanks.

Once I've spent some time working with this VM configuration for a bit longer, I'll probably write up something on using this type of setup (along with do's and don'ts) for anyone else who is in the consulting field and interested in using this.

So far my impressions of the VM configuration are brilliant, it does exactly what it was intended to do, but there are definitely a couple of things you need to take into account when you do it, particularly those who are new to the VM environment. I for one had issues with a corrupt XML file and had to rebuild the VM from an initial backup, because i thought you'd be able to repair from the XP CD and didn't consider that the XML file itself would get damaged.

1st class report mate - I have sent round to the stores i look after
cheers
Jeloz

That's quite a perspective. You highlighted plenty of little things that we long time Mac users take for granted such as the finishing and the little light indicator on the magsafe plug and more recently the black cloth.

The real value of any Mac won't be truly realized until you've used the entirety of the iLife apps. Wait til you start using your Mac for activities like managing your photos, editing movies of your trips, making websites, etc.

Great review. I continue to wonder why amateurs like me could see the benefits of Macs eons ago, yet professionals like you (and your colleagues) are slow or continue to fail to convert?

If I were to suspect staying with Windows keeps Windows folk in work, would I just be cynical?

Want to know why most professionals don't move to Mac? Three simple reasons:

1. They don't know what a VM actually is
2. They don't know you can run Mac with Windows
3. They don't know that Mac would offer any benefits.

With my colleagues, I can tell you the following, first of all, most of them are surprised you can actually run windows on a Mac. Given that "minor" fact, i think Mac needs to do a better job of advertising it, because if Windows reliant users don't know that, the likelihood of them even using Mac is non-existent

Its actually strange to say this, but you'd be surprised how many top people on a SAP consulting field have very little technical IT experience. I.e. if I took the average senior SAP FI consultant, they wouldn't even know what a VM is, because installation of SAP is all handled by basis consultants so its not a requirement for them to know anything about OS's or installation of software. Because they don't know what VM's are, Mac is not an option (if they don't know what VM's are, the likelihood of knowing that Mac can actually dual boot with Windows is just as low) because they rely on having to use windows on a daily basis.

You would expect IT "professionals" to take some pride in keeping up with the fast moving nature of their calling. If they haven't got the message yet about Windows on Mac which is mentioned quite often in the PC press, what additional publicity is required or would have an impact?

A fantastic review.

As from what people expect IT pro's to know and not to know you would be surprised. People generally stay within their comfort zone and for most Mac is well outside of that.

Having worked in IT / Tech support in a cross platform industry the number of people I came across that were technically superb when it came to Windows OS's etc. but would run scared from trying to support a Mac user. VM's are even scarier for most of these guys because then you are opening the world up to unix, linux and Mac OS's. These same people hate Vista with a passion - not because it's different, but because it's clunky in comparison to XP.

IT is a huge field, with many areas of specialisation. I wouldn't necessarily expect a SAP consultant to know much about virtualisation or running different client OSes on different platforms for the reason that SAP is an enterprise product that is installed in banks, etc., and why would they care about OS X?

When you specialise, you end up knowing more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing.

I found that people with a Linux/Unix background, such as myself were much more likely to switch.

Now with VM's, I can experiment with a "distributed" setup with multiple Linux VM's to simulate the use of multiple web and database servers.

Besides "IT Professional" is such an overused and non-specific word, as the OP has pointed out, the SAP pro's know their particular field but don't need to know everything else.

I kind of get sick of people saying, "hey you're a Java programmer, can you fix my Windows issue".

Its like saying a Doctor should be able to perform brain surgery when they are a heart specialist.