Agreed. Bringing the 13'' Unibody to cafes or campus already drives me nuts. Especially if you have a messenger bag. With a backpack, you don't feel the weight as much.
Get a base-model MacBook and upgrade the RAM yourself. I haven't opened up the new Aluminum model, but if it's anything like the preview MacBook it's super easy to upgrade the RAM and its' FAAAAAAR cheaper to do it yourself. OS X needs at least 2GB RAM to run well, I'd suggest more than 2. (Although, I think the new Aluminum's use tri-channel DDR3 in which case you'd need at least 3x1GB sticks. I'm positive that'd be plenty).
Agreed. I just shove mine in my backpack with my other books and don't really feel the weight difference.
Yeah it's easy in the Unibodies as well. 2 GB runs fine and it's standard for the MB line now.
Yeah CS4 tends to be the common reason people upgrade to 4 GB. I used to be a PC gamer and on my Mac, I see little reason to upgrade my RAM for now. It's sad because I wouldn't have blinked twice at upgrading RAM for my desktop, so I think in the long run, this Macbook has saved me some money haha.
Also, the trackpad on the MBP is just amazing, its so large and the multitouch.. it makes things so much more easier and its just an incredible piece of hardware that is so intuitive in navigating the screen. Play around in the stores with both, but the touchpad may be what ends up being one of the most significant differences.I agree. Whenever people ask about the differences between my previous gen Blackbook and my new Unibody, I just say that it's the trackpad. The new Nvidia chipset is pretty nice, too, but the main noticeable difference for most consumers is the trackpad.I think whether you for go the macbook or the mb pro, really depends on how much money you want to spend. I ended up going for the MBP because I was used to having a 15 inch screen, and this screen is absolutely beautiful, as well as the increased power over the 13in MB's because I'd thought I'd still be into recording and djing and such as a side hobby but I'm far to busy in grad school and probably won't have time either med school so sometimes I think I should've just gone for the MB rather than the MBP because the MB is much lighter and easier to carry around in a backpack or messenger bag. I was always used to having a dedicated graphics card so I felt it was important to have one, but in reality I often never switch to it (on the new MBP you have to log off and back on to switch between the onboard graphics memory and the dedicated card) and the onboard graphics are absolutely great anyway, especially for anything we'd be doing.
Good luck with your decision. There are also many great new PC options for relative inexpensive prices, and if you're looking to save money and still get a rather strong computer then pc is probably the better option for you. I've been told the Vista horrors have been worked out and its a pretty good system now - but just realize more and more of what microsoft is doing is faux mac.
A tablet? Better make sure the notes are all online and aren't provided on paper. Those Fujitsu tablets are also extremely expensive. The Mac OS will never be attacked at the level that Windows is. The amount of malware on the Windows OS is growing at a staggering rate. Mac marketshare may rise, but it won't grow to any large proportion of the market. Windows a more secure OS? It is simply not. If that was the case, no antivirus or antispyware program would be required. Not that I have any issues with other computer vendors or Windows in general but I prefer Macs. The OP did in fact ask about which Mac to buy.
The fact remains that every OS has security holes and I would hope that Microsoft has a good security team to patch vulnerabilities when they are found. Despite the fact that you say that Apple must be extremely slow patching some vulnerabilities (obviously they are in some cases), but I don't plan on handing my computer or home network over to a hacker so they can try and steal my documents or information. That is where most of the vulnerabilities are and it would require physical access to my network. However, no amount of security can cure the problem of a user downloading and installing a trojan by giving their administrator password. Add that to pirating iWork or Adobe CS4 and you have social engineering at its best and one of the biggest trojans for Mac out there (not saying much however). Difference is that the countless viruses for Windows is that nothing can prevent a new virus from spreading before the antivirus companies even discover that it exists. There is nothing to stop it.
FYI I do enjoy the fact that you believe hackers will target the Mac OS because the users have what I'm assuming you mean either money in their bank accounts or credit limits on their credit cards. What you fail to realize is that creating a virus for Windows allows the hacker to make thousands of dollars a day by creating botnets. Plus, there are just a lot more Windows computers out there that are vulnerable to all kinds of attacks and a higher amount of money to be made. Not only that, but a virus spreads without user input. The only thing out there for Mac are trojans, and they require user input and cannot spread from user to user. How many trojans have there been in the history of Mac OS X?
Tell your friends who bootcamp all the time with their MBP that they are wasting their money. Though I have a feeling that you are exaggerating a bit. What are they doing on Windows? Video games? Tell them they got the wrong machine.
Last, your post wasn't a stereotypical pro-Windows post at all.
My question is how you have so much time for video games. Only time I have is during breaks. (Very limited time). But with the 9400 M G on the MB I have to say it has handled the games well. (Though I haven't played the extremely heavy duty games on which very few notebooks would handle).
