Question about the MacBook Pro 13"

[tatteredpotato]

I've been thinking about getting a new laptop in the coming months, and although I've never been a "Mac Person" I've been considering getting a MacBook. I do a lot of stuff in Windows, so first off I would like to know what the Windows "Experience" is like on a MacBook (mostly in regards to the one button track pad). I would also like to have a native Linux installation as well, however I'm not sure how well that will work with Boot Camp and whether Boot Camp allow for triple boot/linux.

I'm a college student, and they have a deal now to get a free iPod touch with a MacBook purchase. I'm not looking to buy before that deal expires, but are deals like that frequent? The money I could get from selling the iPod is really the thing that might give the MacBook an edge over something like a Dell Studio XPS in terms of value.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
I've been thinking about getting a new laptop in the coming months, and although I've never been a "Mac Person" I've been considering getting a MacBook. I do a lot of stuff in Windows, so first off I would like to know what the Windows "Experience" is like on a MacBook (mostly in regards to the one button track pad). I would also like to have a native Linux installation as well, however I'm not sure how well that will work with Boot Camp and whether Boot Camp allow for triple boot/linux.

I'm a college student, and they have a deal now to get a free iPod touch with a MacBook purchase. I'm not looking to buy before that deal expires, but are deals like that frequent? The money I could get from selling the iPod is really the thing that might give the MacBook an edge over something like a Dell Studio XPS in terms of value.

With the drivers on the Snow Leopard disk, you get incredibly good support in Windows.

With the Unibody systems (so the 13" MacBook Pro), you can tell the trackpad in Windows to have the bottom right of the trackpad acts as a right button click, and you can still use 2 finger tapping and clicking as well as ctrl+clicking.

You can do a triple boot on a Mac, but honestly, unless you must have full CPU linux support, just do a VM in OS X, it will work just fine, and then you don't have to partition your drive again.

The current promo is the same one they run every summer, it ends early september every year and although they often run a Christmas/Black Friday promo as well, it isn't quite as good.

 

[nitromullet]

Windows runs well on the new uMBP 13". I just bought one a few weeks ago. The track pad is functional, but it is a bit sensitive under Windows. I had originally planned on going with a Boot Camp setup right out of the gate, and did so with Leopard. After a while I found myself just not really using Windows for anything, and when I got Snow Leopard I blew away the Windows partition completely. Granted, I do have a Windows desktop, and chances are you will need Windows for something at school.

You also might not even need to worry about running Linux. OS X supports X11, and with MacPorts http://www.macports.org/ you can install most open source software out there easily. A lot of the *nix sysadmins at a company I used to work for replaced their FreeBSD and Linux desktops with Macs because it gave them a native *nix environment to do their technical work in, but also supported a native version of MS Office which is helpful when dealing with management types.

The main value that the MBP is going to have over the Dell XPS is that it will run both Windows and OS X without you having to "hack" anything like on a Hackintosh build. Software updates for both will work and won't have the chance of rendering your OS unusable.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Thanks for the info, Windows support is important to me since I'm a tinkerer, so I like playing around with a lot of things/technologies, and some of which are only avalilable on one platform (XNA, .NET, iPhone apps, etc), so having options definitely adds value as nitromullet said. I guess it just comes down to whether or not my bank account can take the hit when I get around to buying (probably will wait till around Christmas/BF to see if anymore deals roll around).

 

[rdp6]

There's always the student ADC discount; not certain how it is now, but the deal was $99 for the membership, gets you a year's worth of dev mailings (and a t-shirt) and a one time 20% discount on hardware. The discount was less for ipods and maybe other stuff, but was great for getting a mbp a few years ago. Although I'd have to say that the back to school promotion is pretty awesome.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: rdp6
There's always the student ADC discount; not certain how it is now, but the deal was $99 for the membership, gets you a year's worth of dev mailings (and a t-shirt) and a one time 20% discount on hardware. The discount was less for ipods and maybe other stuff, but was great for getting a mbp a few years ago. Although I'd have to say that the back to school promotion is pretty awesome.

I'll have to keep that in mind. The current promotion is great, however I'm just not ready to buy at this point in time, so I'll just have to see what the future brings.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian

Originally posted by: rdp6
There's always the student ADC discount; not certain how it is now, but the deal was $99 for the membership, gets you a year's worth of dev mailings (and a t-shirt) and a one time 20% discount on hardware. The discount was less for ipods and maybe other stuff, but was great for getting a mbp a few years ago. Although I'd have to say that the back to school promotion is pretty awesome.

I'll have to keep that in mind. The current promotion is great, however I'm just not ready to buy at this point in time, so I'll just have to see what the future brings.

The ADC price for the base 13" MBP is 1,079.00. After the $99, for the ADC membership, you don't save much at all.

 

[tatteredpotato]

So I ended up in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, and I'm planning on visiting the Apple store down here tomorrow. I'm leaning towards picking one up, even though I'm feeling a little rushed... I got a chance to play with one of my friends 13" MBP's and am rather fond of the hardware. Needless to say I very well may be a Mac owner come tomorrow night.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
So I ended up in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, and I'm planning on visiting the Apple store down here tomorrow. I'm leaning towards picking one up, even though I'm feeling a little rushed... I got a chance to play with one of my friends 13" MBP's and am rather fond of the hardware. Needless to say I very well may be a Mac owner come tomorrow night.

There is always the refurbed route as well. 13" base MBP for $999+tax.

 

[Parasitic]

If you are a button-guy, then the one-button (or no button, for that matter) may take some used to. However if you're a tapping guy (I mean those who tap on their trackpads to execute left clicks), then you'll love the large trackpad on the Macbook Pro, especially if you enable two-finger taps for right clicking.

 

[Dacalo]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
So I ended up in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, and I'm planning on visiting the Apple store down here tomorrow. I'm leaning towards picking one up, even though I'm feeling a little rushed... I got a chance to play with one of my friends 13" MBP's and am rather fond of the hardware. Needless to say I very well may be a Mac owner come tomorrow night.

There is always the refurbed route as well. 13" base MBP for $999+tax.

I see myself going in this direction soon. Refurbs look basically new right?

 

[ric1287]

Originally posted by: Dacalo

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
So I ended up in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, and I'm planning on visiting the Apple store down here tomorrow. I'm leaning towards picking one up, even though I'm feeling a little rushed... I got a chance to play with one of my friends 13" MBP's and am rather fond of the hardware. Needless to say I very well may be a Mac owner come tomorrow night.

There is always the refurbed route as well. 13" base MBP for $999+tax.

I see myself going in this direction soon. Refurbs look basically new right?

No ipod deal then. You pay an extra $100 for the retail and get to sell/keep the $230 ipod (sold mine for $150 profit)

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Dacalo

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
So I ended up in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, and I'm planning on visiting the Apple store down here tomorrow. I'm leaning towards picking one up, even though I'm feeling a little rushed... I got a chance to play with one of my friends 13" MBP's and am rather fond of the hardware. Needless to say I very well may be a Mac owner come tomorrow night.

There is always the refurbed route as well. 13" base MBP for $999+tax.

I see myself going in this direction soon. Refurbs look basically new right?

They will look brand new, Apple's refurbs are not scratch and dents. They are either systems that were defective that Apple fixed (like a certified pre-owned car), or a system that was purchased and then returned within the 14 day window (I don't have a car analogy for that one). In both cases they are taken back to the factory, cleaned, fixed up, and repackaged. You do not get the shiny Apple box instead it is plain cardboard, but it does have the same warranty, so there is really little reason not to go refurb.