MacBook Pro first inpressions...

[lensman]

I picked it up this afternoon. Have been playing with it since then, and I have to say so far I'm underwhelmed...

This is supposed to be the fastest thing, top of the line 17" hi-res glossy screen, 200 GB 7200RPM drive, and 4Gb RAM, 2.6 Intel Core Duo... Maybe it's Leopard, but it just seems like it's barely able to handle what I'm throwing at it.

Of course I'm annoyed at the silly one button mouse. With it's odd key combos and double finger positions I have to use to get a simple right click.

The static graphics are pretty enough, but I haven't been able to get something as simple as SecondLife Windlight to even run stably.

Skype, was easy enough to install and the voice quality was good, but I'm surprised that the isight camera didn't handle the low light situations better. (I'm used to the Logitech cams)

Firefox and t-bird both worked as expected.

RDP works, but is annoying, in that it still doesn't mount any shared drives.

So to all the Mac users, am I mising something? is there some default setting that eats away at performance that I need to change, or does it just take a while before the kool-aid hits?

Also are there any other apps you would recommend I look at? (Next on the plate for work apps is of course office).

Comments

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

I love my MBP and think its performance is just fine. I've been a Mac user for years, so I'm used to one-button mice, but you can connect anything you want to the MBP via any of the three USB ports and do your mousing any way you like. :-)

As for SL, I do not understand the problem, but it has something to do with the way OSX (not just Leopard, iirc) handles the video card, and as far as I know they are working on a solution. I did mention this problem to you when we talked about Macs awhile ago. There are pages devoted to it on the SL forums, and several people have found a workaround that works for them. My solution has been to partition the MBP's hard drive and run SL under Windows. Not the perfect solution, but it does effectively limit the time I can spend on SL. Desktop Macs don't have this problem; only MBPs have it. The SL blog just did a story on it recently.

RDP I don't know a thing about, but there appears to be a lot out there if you do a google search on 'rdp+macintosh'.

Apps I'd recommend: Adium for multimessaging, Colloquy for IRC if you use IRC. NeoOffice, a Mac-customised version of OpenOffice (though OpenOffice runs find on the Mac and may be more to your taste as it uses PC-style command keys and not the ones Apple invented), is available and runs fine. The only thing NeoOffice doesn't do that MSOffice does is properly display comments in MSW docs that have been commented or edited or done that change tracking thingy with. I have to use this because the publishing/writing world is tied to it, so I have to have a copy of MSW on the Mac. I don't bother with any of the other bits of Office, as OpenOffice/NeoOffice saves seamlessly in anything you want.

Not everybody is going to be happy with a Macintosh. For lots of people, the PC look and feel are just better. As with things like page-layout software, in my experience, sometimes the thing you start out with is just going to be the thing you're comfortable with. I have had Macs at my house since 1986, and before that I had Apple ][s, so I really prefer the Macintoshes. Not everybody is going to feel comfortable OS-swapping, and you might be one of those people. Give the Mac a week to grow on you. In the UK, Apple has a 14-day no questions asked return policy, which I assume is the same in the US. If you don't like it, there is a way out. :-)

[apogeeperigee.livejournal.com]

Seconding Adium for IM combo goodness.

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've been using Macs since 1984 as well, but I still hate the one button mouse. :-) But I knew that going in, so it's just an Apple gripe there :-)

SL - I know you pointed the problem out to me I was just surprised at how bad it was. I haven't spent the time on the forums to look at that part yet, but I think Parallels and xp/vista/linux are my next set of installs.

I haven't looked at Adium, but will try that out (I had been thinking Pidgin, which is what I use on the PC.)

As for going back, Work bought this so that I'll be able to support the bosses. ;-) So there really isn't any going back, just finding the paths through the mine fields :-)

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

In that case, you can join me in writing numerous letters to both Apple and SL to get this problem fixed. ;-)

And yeah-- I was surprised at how bad it was too. Trading 'up' from the MB to the MBP felt a little odd when I couldn't even run SL. ;-)

[apogeeperigee.livejournal.com]

As for performance, I am very confused that it is performing sub par particularly with those specs. My MBP which is LAME compared to yours has been doing great. I have been pretty happy with not only the performance, but the stability of the OS...I have not had to reboot since I have used it (aside from OS updates) and it recovers from individual app crashes great!

I am still on Tiger...and haven't used leopard yet, so I am not sure if that is making the difference.

Is it SLOW or having stability issues?

[lensman.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't quite say it's sub-par (I'm still trying to figure out where par is on this), but it is slower than I expected it to be given all the hype I've heard.

It may well be Leopard (Which is why I aimed at the higher end Mac knowing there was a new OS in the mix.)

It's just not what I expected, apps start okay, but I also would call it blazing fast either. the only app that's crashed has been sl-windlight. (But that is an apps issue)

[developer.livejournal.com]

check if either file vault or time machine are on

[lensman.livejournal.com]

No Time Machine yet (I need a second external HD for that to work). I haven't checked FileVault. I'll look there next and see if that is it...

[developer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, file vault is a terror. It is the encrypted part of the harddisk, but it has to encrypt and decrypt constantly from what I understand, thus becoming a huge bottleneck.

If all else fails I'd haul it in to an Apple Genius Bar and demand that they figure it out.

While I've never felt like my mac fly, the experience is more 'smooth' when they are running great, that machine shouldn't feel slow.

Also let's not rule out ram failing -- I feel like macs are very ram dependent machines. Part hardware is not unheard of -- I just got my second logic board in my ibook g4.

I've found in general older macs that are stripped down to what they need can continue to be quite serviceable.

[unseelie.livejournal.com]

it's leopard.
I know some of the developers for Apple.
they *hate* the newest OS. it has fewer issues than VISTA: but it ain't pretty.

*I* might partion the hard drive and slap XP on that sucker so I can work. ( and play city of heros, but thats only because I am not a WoW whore, yet)

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Okay that was my personal guess, and I was hoping there was some known system setting to gain back the performance.

Well here's to hoping apple can change the spots on this leopard :-)

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

i had the opposite experience .. things seemed to speed up a lot on my macbook after leopard was installed. you've got quadruple the memory i do, even. i can't seem to run windows happily on this machine, so i was forced into the deep end. after a few months the one button mouse still bothers me, but not as much. i rely strongly on keyboard shortcuts, and my muscle memory has already changed; i flounder a little on windows keyboards now.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

Remember that Leopard has to ask both Steve Jobs AND the MPAA for permission for every click. That takes some CPU cycles.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

What are you throwing at it? Leopard on my MacBook (2.0GHz Core Duo, 2GB) runs as well as Tiger did.

Logitech mice Just Work. Have for years.

Windlight isn't stable.

Never used it myself, but iGlasses comes highly recomended:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/

RDP is annoying :). Cmd-K in Finder brings up the servers list. You can set up network mounts there.

If you've installed *any* kind of anti-virus software then get rid of it. There are *no* OS X viruses. There are 2 or 3 trojans and you probably already know about them. OS X virus scanners scan for *Windows* viruses, and they kill system performance. Especially Norton/Symantec. If you absolutely must have a virus scanner then use ClamXav.

Don't quit apps when you're done with them like you would with Windows. Hide them instead. New, clean windows will be created when you click on the Dock again (if you closed open windows previously).

The X server that Apple shipped with Leopard was, unfortunately, not completed in time for ship date. It's buggy as all-hell. Updates here:
http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/xquartz

Beyond that? Dunnow what you do so it's hard to make suggestions.