Comments on: Never been happier to be a conformist

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:28:59 +0000

You’re correct on the trackpad issue. It is a 15" MacBookPro I’ve just never had any trackpad issues on my Dell (work) laptop that is two years old. Of course these could be software (driver) issues. Basically the trackpad has mind of its own. I’ll be using one finger and it will start scrolling the page (two fingers). I’llhave using a jerking (left/right) motion repeatedly to "unlock" it. The airport will just drop my connection frequently. It likes to lock up a lot ("spinning beachball").

Sorry, you didn’t ask for all that info. It is less than a year old (8 months now), so it is under warranty. I do plan to take to the Apple Store, but the Apple support model sucks. Unless I pay them for the extended warranty (which is twice as much as any other PC warranty), I can’t schedule an appointment in advance. Why do I have to schedule an appointment anyway? From what I have seen on Apple’s support site I can expect a minimum of a 2 week turn around though.

On a lighter note, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to all the windows.

There I go again. Sorry for the rant. AS they say, the first impression is the most important, and mine hasn’t been that great.

By: Simeon

Simeon — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:07:28 +0000

Well Bryan, I am sorry that you are having problems. But because you said trackpad, I am gonna assume this is a laptop. Which means your problem with not being able to switch out parts is not apples fault. If it was a dell you would be in the same boat.

But that doesnt change the fact that its giving you grief. How long have you had it? 1st year is covered by apple care and within 30 (maybe 15) days you can exchange it. Maybe you got a lemon.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:57:51 +0000

Well, I bought a Mac andhave had nothing but grief. Mainly hardware related (trackpad, airport card, etc), but I can’t just swap any of it out. Don’t get me wrong I am NOT a M$ fan (I’ll never own Vista), I really wish I was having better luck, but I’m now looking at Ubuntu.

By: John W

John W — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:40:58 +0000

Ah yeah Sean!!! I still have my PB 520. No C though :( My batteries (spend the clams for a second) are both shot. and still to this day, expensive!!

By: Sean Corfield

Sean Corfield — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:25:58 +0000

I’m enjoying this trend. I test drove a Mac Classic back in the eighties but couldn’t afford it (I couldn’t afford *any* computer back then). My first Mac was a PowerBook 160 (named for the 160Mb HD). I bought a PowerBook 520c when they appeared (a color laptop!) and then a Performa 630 and then a Performa 630+ (an early PowerPC model). Then I spent five years in the Windows wilderness (with a Fujitsu LifeBook 400 that lasted just one year before falling apart, followed by a Dell Latitude – which I still have and which runs Red Hat Linux now, then a Toshiba Tecra 8100 which lasted 18 months before falling apart) and then I came back to Macs with a PowerBook G4, followed by another PowerBook G4, then a 15" MacBook Pro and now, after leaving Adobe, a 17" MacBook Pro.

Oh, and after the Windows laptops which lasted less than two years, I should note that I sold the PB 520c when it was ten years old and it still worked perfectly (except for the battery).

I switched my wife to a 17" iMac (PPC) several years ago after many years of Windows machines and she loved it so much she recently upgraded to a 20" iMac (Intel) and tells all her friends to get Macs…

By: John W

John W — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:48:34 +0000

"And none of them (except ryan) have been disappointed with the switch."

he’s just doing it wrong ;-)

By: Sammy Larbi

Sammy Larbi — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:25:37 +0000

"Everyday I see more and more developers switching to macs."

Which I’ve found funny ever since they released that "don’t use a Mac if you’re a programmer" commercial =)

By: rob

rob — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:07:36 +0000

Good post Sim – I too dislike being part of the crowd (for the sake of being part of the crowd), but the good news is you were part of the crowd before there was a crowd :)

@DamonGentry
You would’ve disliked Macs 10 years ago – I hated them.

I totally dig my Macs, but OS 9 was horrible from a developers stand point IMO (no offense to Apple guys, I just found it unusable). OS X came out in March 2001, and even it was a bit rough till about the Jaguar release – about August 2002. Tiger is the shizzle though, and Leapord is going to be fsking awesome.

… yikes, I just realized, I am a Mac geek …

By: Rob Wilkerson

Rob Wilkerson — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:03:46 +0000

I switched about 6 months ago, but you didn’t have anything to do with it. Sorry. :-)

Like you, though, I’ve been noticing the trend toward Macs within the development community as a whole and I think it indicates nothing but good things for wider adoption. I really think that technophiles and, perhaps more specifically, professional technophiles drive the adoption of technology because – wrong or right – non-technophiles trust our opinions, our judgment and our expertise. All else being equal, non-techies will often take the recommendation of someone who "knows" and follow that path.

As a technology vendor, I think the best thing you can possibly do is get the technology community behind your offering. Others will follow.

By: Jeff Self

Jeff Self — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:46:28 +0000

Welcome to the Social! Oops. wrong line. I’ve been on Macs for 5 years now. I "switched" from Linux. I dropped Windows back in the mid-90′s. There is definitely something building here. A co-worker of mine attended the Python Conference in 2004 and he commented on the number of Macs there. I estimate there was about 30% Macs at last years CFUnited conference. I anticipate it to be about 50% this year. Much to the chagrin of Ben Forta and Adobe probably.

Like you, I’m starting to mess with Rails quite a bit. At our local Ruby User’s Group meeting last night, all seven of us had Macs.