I want one of these., New Mac laptop and iMac Options

[*mipadi*]

Good news from MacWorld San Francisco today! Apple began it's transition to Intel chips with the release of a new iMac model and a new laptop called the "MacBook Pro". I'm rather envious of the MacBook Pro: it features a dual-core Intel processor at 1.67 or 1.83 GHz, digital/optical audio in and out, a 256 MB graphics card on the high-end model with dual-link built in, 15.4-inch LCD, remote control for controlling music and DVD playback, a magnetic power adapter (so tripping over a power cable will detach the cable, rather than yanking the computer), a built-in digital video camera (for videoconferencing), and a bunch of other sweet stuff. It's about 4x as fast as the PowerBook G4. And it's about an inch thick and weighs only 5.6 pounds!

The iMac line got a bunch of improvements, too. The new iMac features the Intel Core Duo chip like the MacBook Pro. I'm not positive what the other features are, since I'm not as interested in the iMac, but it is reputed to be much faster than the previous iMacs.

[sadolakced acid]

looks pretty nice. i, of course, still fail to see what's special about macs.

[*mipadi*]

looks pretty nice.  i, of course, still fail to see what's special about macs.

Oh, the hardware's nice, but the secret lies in the operating system.

[sadolakced acid]

Oh, the hardware's nice, but the secret lies in the operating system.

alright, then what's so nice about the OS?

[*mipadi*]

alright, then what's so nice about the OS?

I can only list why I like it, but there are several good reasons:

1. The GUI. I find it to be a lot better and much more comfortable than that of other operating systems. I like that the menu bar stays at the top of the screen, instead of traveling with the window (the menu bar thus effectively has infinite depth and is very easy to click). I like how applications generally stay open until you tell them to quit, instead of quitting when the window is closed. I like how the Dock only shows an icon for each application, rather than a tab for each open window (as is common in Windows, KDE, GNOME, and most other windowing systems). I like the wide range of keyboard shortcuts, which are easier to use and remember than in Windows. I like how the notification area isn't cluttered with useless icons (as is common in Windows). I also really like how applications have a consistent look and feel, something not always found in Windows. Plus, the interface is beautiful, yet functional.

2. Bundles. I like how applications don't need to be installed—they can just be dragged from one place to another, or onto another disk, or uninstalled by putting them in the trash. All the necessary files are contained within the application bundle itself, which just appears to be a single file. A lot of files are like that, too, which makes copying files simple.

3. Special characters. I can type characters in other languages with simple keyboard modifiers, rather than having to remember 4-digit numerical codes. And everything's based on Unicode, so reading characters in other languages does not require the installation of special software.

4. Rich development environment. Objective-C and Cocoa is one of the nicest languages and API's I have used—and the development tools on OS X are free.

5. Stable. OS X rarely crashes. Apps that crash rarely take down the entire system.

6. Viruses. No need to worry about those. No need to worry about spyware, adware, or any other malicious software, either. It's good to take some precautions, but protecting a system doesn't require the constant care that Windows does.

7. User friendly. Apps are easy to install, uninstall, and move. System maintenance is simple. Many powerful tools have a GUI and a command-line equivalent. Maintenance and setup is not as difficult as in other systems—most things work right out of the box.

8. Built for the 21st century. OS X was designed mostly from scratch for the 21st century. Unlike Unix variants or Windows, it doesn't have legacy technologies, code, or interface elements from the 1980s or before—it was built to take modern computing into account.

9. Hardware just works. I don't have to worry about drivers, ACPI support, graphics cards not working—everything just works. Of course, the trade-off is that the specific hardware can be somewhat limiting in terms of processors, motherboards, even graphics cards, but I don't mind paying the price for a system that's functional, one that I don't have to play around with to make it work.

10. Drag and drop functionality. I can drag a URL to the desktop, and have it turn into a file that opens up a webpage when double-clicked—no need to save a bookmark, and I can file it anywhere. I can drag text easily from one app to another, or save it as a clipping on the desktop. Images can be dragged from an application to the desktop, or into other apps.

Those are a few reasons that come to mind. I'm not saying it's perfect, of course—it has some things I don't like about it—but OS X is an excellent combination of ease of use and raw power and functionality. I think most people, if they used it a bit, would come to at least admire it, if not switch to it. I've met a lot of Windows fanatics who hated the old Mac OS, but quickly came to live OS X once they used it a bit. But I'm not concerned about people switching—those are just ten of my own personal reasons why I think it's a nice OS.