MacBook Pro First Impressions
So we are up and running for Seeking Alpha, so I’ve been getting to know the MacBook and loving it. The speed and stability is awesome, so far I really haven’t had to wait longer then a few seconds for just about anything to process, with the exception of an install off CD. The interface has been easy to pick up, even though my last MacOS experience was version 6 or 7. Of course, there have been no “sad macs” like I remember so well from older versions of MacOS.
Hivelogic’s great guide made setting up Ruby with Lighty and everything a snap. The browser situation is not so cut and dried as it is on pc, as there are at least three legitimate options. Safari is just ridiculously fast - Gmail is so responsive, Firefox on my pc doesn’t compare. Camino seems nice, and I still haven’t downloaded the plain jane Firefox to see if its worth using. I’m not sold on Safari’s UI, as the everything seems tiny and I don’t see a preference for making the buttons bigger.
Also, I’m not sure how to really integreate QuickSilver beyond using it as a fast search, and shortcut keys are still a mystery to me for a lot of things (can I open/switch to Terminal from anywhere?) Also, not sure if its worth getting a .Mac account and switching my mail duties to the Mac Mail, or sticking with Gmail.
The main difficulties I’ve had have been getting used to the keyboard and the single button trackpad. I still prefer scrolling with a designated area with one finger, like most wintel laptops, versus the two button thing. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a way to do a simple page down/page up with one hand on the keyboard, which is how I like to skim articles or blogs. Doing function+delete to do what is “delete” (versus backspace) on a wintel keyboard is annoying.
Overall I’ve been very impressed, as things feel quite a bit snappier then the AMD box I have and the pentium 4 laptop my wife uses. Now its just a matter of getting the desk setup with the new monitor and still finding space for printer/scanner/etc.