Earlier in the year I decided to splash out the rather ambitious price for a Macbook Pro. Apple had only just released the new model, so it seemed a good time to get it, without a few months later experiencing the gutted feeling of a new, much better model being released for the same price (which happened with the Mac Mini).
It does give me a horrible sense of guilt for having so many computers, most of which are sat there with no purpose any more. When I think how much money went into those, it’s never a good feeling. I guess I can redeem that by donating all the machines to people in the family, though it seems the desire for desktop machines is waring thin.
So, why a Macbook Pro? Here comes my obligatory list-style summary:
- It can run anything. Yes, anything. If I want to play games (which is rare these days), then I will install Windows 7 and dual boot. This point alone makes the previous gaming laptop redundant. If I need to test something in IE6, then I put Windows XP into a virtual machine, likewise with any Linux distributions.
- My workstation is anywhere I need it to be. It is a light machine for carrying around – MUCH lighter, and much more slim than the gaming laptop. Digging it out in Starbucks, or a library is a breeze, likewise with getting it there.
- Previously I would carry a monitor, a keyboard, and the Mac Mini between the house in London, and the house in Cardiff (I don’t own those houses). Obviously, the portability of a notebook makes that effortless.
- It runs Ubuntu server edition in a virtual machine, which any machine on the network can access as if it were it’s own standalone machine. No fussing around with MAMP, WAMP, and whatnot (I shut down the virtual machine when connecting to public networks however, but so far any development work done whilst using a public wifi has been iOS development).
- I don’t have to switch between machines anymore, especially when I can switch between operating systems on the same machine. It does still sound like ‘effort’, but the amount of physical space on my desk, and under it, is drastically reduced, let alone not having 8 different plugs routing through extension cables.
- If I need to demo something to a client at a meeting, then there is never a case where “ah, I can’t view that file with x or y” – as with before, if I need a certain OS, it will be somewhere on the Macbook Pro.
- I still have dual monitors when at home. The legacy of the desktop machine is that there are two monitors which would typically be redundant. One is hooked to the Mac Mini, which is in turn a TV set top box, the other is the companion monitor to the Macbook.
- I don’t use it yet, but because of iTunes’ impressive sharing abilities, if I want to watch a recorded TV program in a different room to the Mac Mini, I only need to sit in front of the Macbook, and stream the recording over.
Now, most of those points aren’t unique the Macbook – if you don’t need OS X, then you don’t need a Mac. But if you are weighing the pro’s and cons when looking for a machine that can handle any desktop-related situation, with any piece of software from the last decade, then this is a winner.