macbook good enough?

[CCAccount0909]

<p>

Everyone I know with Intel Macs runs Windows with either Boot Camp or
Virtualization.

I’m talking about virtualization for backwards compatibility, not virtualization for running a completely different OS. For example, Apple dropped support for OS 9 virtualization with Leopard.</p>

<p>

Palm Desktop.
Office 2000 (our Corporate standard)
Cisco VPN
MSYS (there’s a patch to get it to work and I’m doing some hacking to
try to get it to work).
Various Visual Studio/Platform SDK/SDK tools. I got my first BSOD
on the new machine trying to install Microsoft’s own tools on Vista
x64.
Antivirus software. The salesperson specifically asked me what office
and antivirus programs I was planning to use and apparently had a
list of applications that didn’t run or didn’t install on x64.
Embedded Flash, Java in 64-bit browsers.</p>

<p>I’ve been on x64 since 2004 and read planetamd64 which is one of
the better places to deal with x64 issues (drivers, hardware,
software).

Most of those programs are for the commercial sector. Once again, I’m referring to consumers.</p>

<p>

iTunes did support x64 in one particular version and then it broke
in the next release. A little while after that, you could install
it but not all of the pieces worked. I’ve been running iTunes on
x64 for several years.

That must be a problem specific to your system, then. According to the [iTunes</a> page](<a href=“http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/]iTunes”>iTunes - Apple), 64-bit Vista is supported.</p>

<p>

I try to stay on the legal side of software licenses.

It was a rhetorical question.</p>

<p>

What does the issue of Hackintosh have to do with battery life?
Did someone run a benchmark of a Hackintosh system?

The problems with Hackintoshes display how closely OS X is integrated with Mac hardware, meaning that optimization of things such as battery life are very easy to do, in comparison to Windows.</p>

<p>

That x64 is in stores is a huge sea-change from 2003. 4 GB of
laptop memory runs about $100 retail these days. Computers with
Vista should come with at least 2 GB of RAM. When 4 GB has better
$/GB (maybe we’re already there), there will be a push to drop
in 4 GB of RAM and there’s your impetus for going to x64. I can
see people that consider themselves power-users going to x64
just because they want 4 GB of RAM in a consumer model instead
of the 2 GB budget model.

By that time, 64-bit should be well supported. If a 64-bit OS comes preinstalled, drivers aren’t going to be an issue. The only issue is 3rd party software, in which support for 64-bit software is being added all the time.</p>

<p>

In terms of marketing I’d say that Apple doesn’t spend a lot of money on it.

Maybe not, but their advertisements are nevertheless some of the best in existence.</p>

<p>

Their web site is awful and that’s the portal to the
company’s products.

Apple’s? There isn’t anything particularly wrong with it that makes it worse than any of the other companies’.</p>

<p>

Where they shine is word-of-mouth recommendations.

This does play a big part, but it’s augmented by their physical stores and the halo effect from the iPod/iPhone. It’s very easy for a salesperson at an Apple store to get someone who walks in to buy an iPod or iPhone to walk out with a MacBook as well. So they don’t have to get the customer into the store; the iPod/iPhone does that.</p>