There is an updated article about my opinion!!! See MacOSX - The truth revisited

After having turned my "old" (actually it wasn't that old...) notebook into a coffee machine - which it couldn't handle and - who wonders - died afterwards, I observed the notebook market for a few weeks. I observed the prices, the hardware etc. and made a list of components I found essential for my new notebook (which were at least):

• Core 2 Duo Processor > 1,83 Ghz
• 1GB (DDR - for Core 2 Duo) RAM
• SXGA+ or WXGA+ display

As you can see I was very decent! And after having observed the marked and also considered waiting for the christmas time to pass by I found my new future notebook:

• MacBook Core 2 Duo, 2GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 1280x800 WXGA

(The WXGA+ or SXGA+ displays were too expensive for me at this time and I didn't find worth it spending much more for this feature...)

I hesitated a little bit because of MacOSX but I knew that Linux would work fine too on this notebook and if I struggled with MacOSX I easily could switch (I already found a Gentoo MacBook howto...). And to be absolutely cool I ordered my Mac with an US keyboard layout :D

I even got a good price and ordered my MacBook on the apple.de store (1.280 EUR with a "second skin") - it received in time on 2006-12-11.

After using my MacBook for about two months now I find it worth writing a little report about my experiences:

First of all I have to tell you that I used Gentoo Linux only (no dualboot or similar) since 2004-04-07 (this is also the date of my registration on forums.gentoo.org). I always used KDE and was always happy with my decision to leave the world of Microsoft... My new MacBook changed a lot for me: First I needed to getting used to MacOSX and the new "us" keyboard layout. I think I'm good at handling GUI programs and getting the point of how programs work - I also found myself pretty comfortable in KDE after a short while - but MacOSX is different... Allthough it is designed to be easy and intuitive...

I won't say it's unusable at all but right now I don't feel too comfortable. I use a lot of shortcuts and programs like "Quicksilver" to be as fast as possible. I even decided to think NeXT-stylish and abandoned the idea of having the list-view in Finder being stored correctly and switched to column-view. I find it quite usable now and like the idea of it!

I won't go into details what I like/dont't like about various MacOSX programs - there are enough wish lists you can find on the internet. I tried to make a list of programs I use to make work more comfortable - you can find it here.

But I think some things that should be shipped with a modern operating system that claims to be used on a desktop:

• Software/Program/Package Management:
  The most important thing I miss on MacOSX is a package manager or similar! Right now programs have to offer uninstall programs themselves - which only a few do!
  It's fine for programs that are only installed in /Applications and have only some preferences stored in ~/Library, but any programs that require root-access and therefore store files at other places in the hard disc it is simply not manageable (I know you can see a list of all files a program installes in the package manager that installes .pkg files - but no comment on that).
  Whenever I see some stupid advertisements (I don't say they are not funny!) from Apple about viruses etc. I just would like to cry because such a fundamental thing is missing! Especially when you come from Gentoo :P. I don't say that Windows does it any better because of having leftovers in the registry etc. KDE handles this much cleaner IMHO... (~/.kde/share/configs, ~/.kde/share/apps). And what the heck is this mess with fink, darwinports, i-installer etc. meant to be?? The next thing I will try is to get portage working on MacOsX.
• Wireless Connections:
  I never thought I say this, but configuring and managing wireless connections is almost as annoying as it is in Windows! Yes, this is possible... You can setup some preferred wireless and you will be connected _eventually_ (sometimes you get connected and sometimes not...) - but if you don't get connected you have to enter all the information about the access point yourself. Am I making something wrong or what?
• Responsitivity/Speed/Performance:
  I don't say that MacOSX is slow! It is pretty realiable and the performance is good most of the time. But there are so many reported cases that MacOSX is slow (I even had this issue once) and no-one really knows what helps. Repairing disc permissions, resetting the pram etc. are suggested but are seldom the solution.
• FileManager:
  The Finder is a good idea and it is fast and reliable, but honestly: A few more features like "command-x" for moving files, a working ftp support would be VERY nice. And these ".DS_Store" files are a joke - aren't they? Constantly storing a choosen view-style and some more preference options would be great too... Please try konqueror and you'd like to stick with it...
• Window Handling:
  As I said: "MacOSX is different". One major thing a user faces every day is how applications and their windows are handled. It is IMHO the most difficult thing someone new to MacOSX has to face. After these two month now I cannot really say I like it. I know how it works and how to cycle through windows using "command-`" but I am not as quick as under KDE... And "witch" is too slow for everydays use...

But of course - not everything is bad - there are a lot of things I like and finally make me stay in MacOsX for now:

• Spotlight:
  Meta search that realiably searches through documents, mails and much more. Just try it out - you will miss it on other desktop systems! I never thought I would use it in the beginning...
• Hardware support:
  The hardware support for the built-in components simply is AWESOME.
  Dualhead works out of the box - just plugin in and configure the position of the screens. The touchpad which allows two-finger right-clicks, scrolling and zooming (very useful for i.e. watching those small videos on youtube).
  The function keys (sound, background-light, eject).
  Sleeping and Hibernating (using the DeepSleep Dashboard Widget) is great! Especially if you come from linux and are used to occasional issues...
  The build-int microphone and iSight also work like a charm and I had no problems with them so far.
  The battery life time which is about 3-4 hours when actually WORKING with the MacBook tops most other notebooks.
• Dashboard:
  Yeah, it's a waste of memory etc. but I like and use it! I just use three widgets right now that really ease the pain too: DeepSleep (for hibernation), iCalEvents and the built-in weather widget.
• Preinstalled Software:
  This is a big plus because lots of good software is shipped with MacOSX and you can really do something with it right out of the box.

One of the only things that really convinces me to stay on MacOsX is the excellent hardware support I could never have under linux and the release dates of Leopard and KDE 4. Stay tuned!