Day 3: MacBook Pro, Transition is nearly complete. Kool-Aid refills wanted.

NOW I know why people drink the Apple Kool-Aid so deeply. I am not a programmer by any stretch (programming seems very straight forward), but Apple coders seem to have a unique blend of fanaticism of those who love Unix [its core is a *nix variant], and those who love graphics, and those who love quality. Although it is aluminum, the Macbook Pro is lighter than my former tablet PC, and feels much more solid. I wish I could get the 8GB upgrade for this little monster, but at $1200-$1500, that just isn’t going to happen. It can access the full range of memory, which allows video to be pulled in and modified faster than I ever could on my PC. My PC has 8GB’s of RAM, but doesn’t seem to utilize them so well. Since there are all kinds of differences between the two platforms in terms of hardware and software, I’m trying to keep this within the realms of personal user experience. That means nothing technical. There are many more people out there who have never seen the inside of their computer than those like me, who can’t help but rip something open within the first 24 hours to see how it ticks.

That being said, the inside of the MacBook Pro is pretty sharp. The small hard drive I got with the purchase was replaced immediately with a 500GB HD. It was a snap to install (10 external case screws, 7 of which were short, 3 were long and I don’t know why). There were 4 screws holding bars in place that acted like shocks/pressure plates to keep the hard drive in position. Easily removed, and restored with the application called “Time Machine” that is built into OS X. It took a short bit of time to do the deed, but it was done perfectly.

Since I didn’t know anything about the Mac, I had BestBuy install the iLife application for me, along with a MobileMe subscription and some rebates as a deal by the Apple Kool-Aid drinker in charge. (Paul, I said it twice while we were talking, and now I’m drinking it too.) I wish they hadn’t named my directory as my full name. It is a pain to change from what I’ve gathered [it being Unix, I can see why] But I’ll figure it out and change it to what I want. I don’t really like the idea of people looking over my shoulder and reading my name in the top left corner of my brilliantly bright monitor. This thing could probably double as a small sun to power a solar power array.

Enough for now… Day 3 is nearly done, I’ll update if anything amazing happens today.

ps… keyboard commands are slightly different. cntrl-c = command-c on a Mac. I have a lot to learn.