Thinking of getting a Macbook Pro: any alternatives?

Supasaru said:

Macbook - If you have money to blow, it usually is really nice hardware. They're trendy and the interface has a lot of pretty things. I personally don't believe there are any real advantages over any of the above for casual users.

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It's for the casual user that the advantages are the most obvious. Shit just works on Mac OS, where things easily get hairy in any version of Windows.

Way better things to spend the money on. She probably already has a laptop that's still useful.

I also like how your statement seems like you think I'm anti-apple when I've been pro-mac for a while now. My statement of spending money on other things is towards sage since it sounds like he's gonna be shelling out the money for a laptop she doesn't really need. I don't think she'll really understand how good that mbp is until 4-5 years later.

Supasaru said:

Worst sentence ever. "can and have made c based linux gui apps" - fail. Clearly it's not a "Linux GUI App" if it's inteded for multiplatform use.

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no it was specifically a gui front end to a linux command line application that used linux scripts, commands, and directory structures. it definitely did not work in windows nor was it designed to.

Supasaru said:

Netbook - Cheap, great battery life, "fun" and you can get them in pink.

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Decision made .

Get a used Powerbook. Should only run you a few hundred.

All I have in the house is Macs. Switched over about 10 years ago because I got tired of playing tech support for everyone I knew. After the switch, I could just tell them I no longer kept up with windows, etc, etc...find someone else

not sonic said:

no it was specifically a gui front end to a linux command line application that used linux scripts, commands, and directory structures. it definitely did not work in windows nor was it designed to.

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You wrote a zenity script for gnome from Windows? The equivalent of editing a text file? I thought you said it was C based? A C based script? Not possible.

Thanks for clearing up that you can write text in Windows. I was afraid you couldn't.

You're making this more fail than it already was. Stop.

sammybean said:

Decision made .

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I thought that was an influence. Vaio's were available in pink for a while - I almost had to take out a $2500 loan.

Kristian Meller said:

It's for the casual user that the advantages are the most obvious. Shit just works on Mac OS, where things easily get hairy in any version of Windows.

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That's debatable. Most first-time Mac users spend most of the day thrashing around trying to figure out what they can "do like I can on Windows." I would even venture to say that Macs can be worse than PCs - if a PC "has a bad day" you can probably fix it. If a Mac has a bad day, they want you to reformat and completely reinstall everything when a completely useless no-smoking-sign looking thing appears that doesn't tell you what caused it to fail.

On a funny note, one of my favorite things to do is have someone with a Macbook tell me "my Mac is broken and I can't reinstall because there's a disc in the drive and I can't eject it." I usually take it from them and hold it over the nearest waste basket and power it on - the CD ejects and I ask them if they knew they had to drag it to the trash can to eject it. (Protip: If you hold the trackpad down while powering up, the CD ejects).

I personally hate Apple, their philosophies and by-proxy their products. The hardware is nice, though. Anyway, I don't want to get into Apple vs Everything. If she has already made up her mind that she wants one - get her one.

And just FYI - we only have 1 out of 5 PCs in this house that run Windows, and that's only because my girl needs CS3 for work. She gets around just fine on my LInux PCs and enjoys all of the GUI effects and efficiency bonuses (expose - just like Apples, multiple desktops, "rootless" windows, etc). She's a professional graphics designer, but by no means a computer scientist.

Supasaru said:

You wrote a zenity script for gnome from Windows? The equivalent of editing a text file? I thought you said it was C based? A C based script? Not possible.

Thanks for clearing up that you can write text in Windows. I was afraid you couldn't.

You're making this more fail than it already was. Stop.

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no. youre making assumptions. i said nothing about zenity. i wrote a gui, in c, using gtk+, to effectively launch and modify settings for another command line c application, and some scripts.

my entire point was that its not that hard to interact with or even write for linux in windows. but instead youre nitpicking and making assumptions and trying to call me out on semantics and totally missing the point.

not sonic said:

no. youre making assumptions. i said nothing about zenity. i wrote a gui, in c, using gtk+, to effectively launch and modify settings for another command line c application, and some scripts.

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So once again, you wrote a C application for a multiplatform framework (gtk+).

Zenity was only an example - and it sounds like you could've (should've) achieved the same thing with Zenity or even js/VBS than writing a front end in pure C.

Either way - you're still editing text on Windows. If you're proud of that, then I congratulate your achievement.

I don't care how and what you did. I already know from previous experience that you throw stuff out there trying to be some heady internet dweeb and it all turns out to be as stable and legitimate as Jenga. This conversation is over.

cool story bro.

maybe gtk is multiplatform. and maybe you could separate the gui layer. maybe there are easier and better ways to implement a gui.

but maybe that wasnt the point of the project.

if you want to be like that then all programming is just editing text.

maybe you should go back to misusing broken to describe fighters.

http://numberbox.net/blogs/mutilating-something-similar-to-but-must-not-be-called-tetris

I'll send you the source to it if you'd like it. It's a multiplatform limited Tetris clone that I wrote in about 2 weeks for a course. Builds are available for Linux Console (ncurses), Windows console, Linux GTK, Windows GTK. It is truly multiplatform with preprocessor statements littering the whole thing as a proof-of-concept for multiplatform programming.

Edit - And this isn't the only thing I've written like this. I can't send you anything I wrote for the company I worked for in Florida.

For the slow, that whole thread on broken fighting games was split from a good thread where someone said, "this franchise has always been broken" and I replied, "all franchises have had their broken moments - give this franchises new engine a chance before you deem it borked." It takes a certain level of maturity and intelligence to grok that an abstract concept like "broken fighting game" can't really be legitimately quantified - thus the reason I strung everyone gullible enough to leap in on for days. HnK, which I love and was just playing, is completely broken. Infinite combos and Instant Kills can finish matches in mere seconds - making it not competitive. Then again, is it really broken? If you decide to shift your perspective to the point of the game being to leverage the engine against your opponent and they accept that - the competitiveness of the fighter is restored.

Anyway, we're polluting this thread.

cool, i'll check it out.

and on top of that ill concede to you that making a gtk gui for linux in windows is not the best example of windows-linux interoperability.

I have an older laptop im willing to let go for 100 + shipping. Sempron 1.6 ghz, 1gb ram, 40gb hdd, dvd burner, win xp home. Works as new. Kb was never used even. Runs word and any browser with flash ive tried just fine. And of course picture viewing would be fine as well.

EDIT: meant 100 + shipping (which would be about $10). And the screen size is 14.3 or 15".

Force said:

I have an older laptop im willing to let go for 110. Sempron 1.6 ghz, 1gb ram, 40gb hdd, dvd burner, win xp home. Works as new. Kb was never used even. Runs word and any browser with flash ive tried just fine. And of course picture viewing would be fine as well.

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Good deal.

Force said:

I have an older laptop im willing to let go for 110. Sempron 1.6 ghz, 1gb ram, 40gb hdd, dvd burner, win xp home. Works as new. Kb was never used even. Runs word and any browser with flash ive tried just fine. And of course picture viewing would be fine as well.

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Comes with 5GB of porn that your sister is sure to enjoy!

topher said:

Get a used Powerbook. Should only run you a few hundred.

All I have in the house is Macs. Switched over about 10 years ago because I got tired of playing tech support for everyone I knew. After the switch, I could just tell them I no longer kept up with windows, etc, etc...find someone else

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Kind of like having a manual transmission when I was in college...

Hey fish, can I borrow your car?

-Can you drive stick?

Phyeir said:

Comes with 35GB of porn that your sister is sure to enjoy!

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I fixed your typo. But hey, think of it as a bonus!

Disclaimer: to those of you with no sense of humor, the winxp home installation would be new/clean. Porn is optional/extra.

sounds like a swell deal, Force. I don't think I'll be buying anything anytime soon since her b-day is on new years day, but yeah...if anyone else wants to jump on it, go ahead.

I can understand the netbook arguement, but there's a few things notable about macs vs pcs.

-no worries about spyware, malware, viruses, adware, etc.
-Macs are better built and last a LONG time. My Dad had his iMac for almost 10 years.

I know people who have had problems with their PCs and have to buy a new one every 3-4 years.

Beefy Hits said:

-Macs are better built and last a LONG time. My Dad had his iMac for almost 10 years.

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Pretty true!

Beefy Hits said:

-no worries about spyware, malware, viruses, adware, etc.

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Absolutely false. Completely and absolutely false in every way imaginable.

There are just as much heebie-jeebies out there you can get on a Mac and it's really very silly to let people think that they're absolutely safe on a "super, infallible virus pr00f Mac." There have been plenty of viruses and other malware for Macs including a large botnet made out of Mac users that decided to pirate Photoshop.... that's just funny.

Anyway.... As for everyone that's about to say, "I've had a Mac since I was born and never caught a virus!"

Well, I've had at least one Windows PC in my home for 19 years and... I've never caught a virus or any other malware. So I suppose I could say Windows has "no worries about spyware, malware, viruses, adware, etc" but that would be completely misleading to the rest of the population.

Edit -
More food for thought.
Macs are actually more prone to Java related attacks. Why?
Because you can't update Java out of band on a Mac. You can only update when Apple "feels" it necessary and *NOT* when Sun (now Oracle) deems a critical issue worthy of an update. So, in an analogous comparison to "Macs don't get viruses," that means that Windows is actually more secure than a Mac.

Moral of the Story -
Computer like things are exactly that - computer like things. Apple made the iPhone and hardware hackers everywhere are having a blast breaking it apart. iPhones aren't safe from malware, OSX isn't safe from Malware, Windows isn't safe from Malware, Linux isn't safe from Malware, the 360 isn't safe from Malware... We can keep going all day.

LoneSage said:

sounds like a swell deal, Force. I don't think I'll be buying anything anytime soon since her b-day is on new years day, but yeah...if anyone else wants to jump on it, go ahead.

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let me talk to her sage. I will send her a message on fb tonight.

btw, I have seen all of Brook Goin's videos and I am ready to propose to her.

-Future LoneSage.

i don't know much about the current macbooks. my 12" ibook g4 is almost 6 years old and i still use it for about an hour per day. i never even re-installed the os or anything like that. i would love to upgrade to an ipad but as long as it's still working, i will not replace the ibook.

if it has to be a netbook, then i would suggest to get one with the dual core atom and the nvidia ion graphics chip. that combo is much faster than a regular netbook. fast enough to play 1080p movies and hd youtube content.
i have an asrock ion 330 nettop with a 24" lg sreen as my main system and don't think i will have to upgrade anytime soon. it too has the dual core atom and last year's ion chip. power consumption for the nettop, the 24" screen AND the netgear router is less than 50 watts, btw.

wasabi said:

let me talk to her sage. I will send her a message on fb tonight.

btw, I have seen all of Brook Goin's videos and I am ready to propose to her.

-Future LoneSage.

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i love it when i'm drunk

Force said:

I have an older laptop im willing to let go for 100 + shipping. Sempron 1.6 ghz, 1gb ram, 40gb hdd, dvd burner, win xp home. Works as new. Kb was never used even. Runs word and any browser with flash ive tried just fine. And of course picture viewing would be fine as well.

EDIT: meant 100 + shipping (which would be about $10). And the screen size is 14.3 or 15".

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Ok my sis wants me to ask if it comes with a webcam and if you have a picture of the laptop. Thanks brah