Return of the MAC

Just so that my newly expanded international audience doesn't get too worried that I might inflict some off key UK R&B schmoltz on them the MAC I am referring to is not Mark Morrison but in fact a shiny new MAC Book. Although in fact its not shiny because its a rather nifty Matt black, it's just new.

Gotta love Google Images - turns out this guy is called Mark Morrison too :o)

(Can I just reiterate this is not a picture of me - he's called Mark Morrison and I don't know him, its funny and if you don't know why Google Mark Morrison the singer)

Firstly I must say hello to the international audience I have alluded to, thanks to links from my com padre Rob at bugeyedchron, and his rather popular brother Thom, this humble little blog has now been visited by people in all kinds of places including Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Norway and China. I hope you have been informed/entertained and please be assured each new blob on my Google analytics Geo Map makes me very happy :o)


So to the Mac...
Normally I am a Windows person it must be said, I don't like Microsoft particularly but I am a developer, I write programs and web apps, mostly cross platform actually, but I like an easy life, I like a choice of development tools and I like things I can tinker with. I suppose you could say I like PC's but that does not mean Windows. In fact I would love to use Linux more often but it just not quite there yet on the desktop.

I have had a hankering for a Core 2 Duo machine for some time as my Dell laptop is getting a bit long in the tooth but I have a feeling that a Vista based laptop could be a bit lacking in the trouser department as XP does not run that quickly and newer laptops do not have that much more horse power. I almost went for a desktop but the opportunity to swap out my Ibook presented itself and I have been really very impressed by the new Mac books so I thought - "twist my arm I'll have one". I have only had it a day but it has definitely impressed far more than the original Ibook did, here are a few Plus points:

Seems nice and quick, a good step up from what was already a quick machine
Much better value for money, Ibook was expensive compared to the PC competition, this seems good value
love the inbuilt Isight, great quality, very convenient for Skype
Screen is the best I have seen on a laptop
Still like the CD drive, its a great piece of design
The new magnetic power connector is brilliant, probably the most vulnerable part of a laptop is instantly rendered much more robust,
Lovely tactile keyboard.

What more could you ask for in a laptop? Frankly not much, I suppose you would think me ungrateful if I said outlook and a maximise button :o) , throw in Half life and I would never go back!

Seriously though, within 2 hours I had FireFox, Thunder bird, Open Office and Skype on it and I began to feel quite at home, its almost unfortunate that my Flash Pro license is PC only because I would move my license if I had the option.

The only dark cloud in my otherwise seamless experience was that MySQL Maestro does not have a Mac version so I am having to use Cocoa, its OK but just the sort of compromise which gets on my nerves. I am keeping an eye on Parallels and crossover just in case they solve this annoying aspect of running a mac.

Will keep you posted.