Item : B001D8S9E2 Customer Reviews Successful Switch by .. DavidTN (Tennessee) I must say that I've make a successful switch to Mac from PC, thanks in no small part to this little 13.3" 2.4Ghz aluminum beauty. The commercials are right...just turn it on and it works. I can't believe how fast this is with just 2 gig of Ram. It powers up and down so fast that I'm going through caffeine withdrawels (as I used to brew a cup of coffee whenever I started or shut down my previous HP PC laptop.) I love the crisp, bright screen, and can't believe how much of a fan I've become of the illuminated keyboard. I run MS Office for Mac and have Fusion for a few Windows apps. I switched to Mac because a couple buddies of mine did years ago (and survived!) and their Macs have never slowed down and are still running like new. I swear, every PC I've purchased...gets slower and slower every couple of months (even with deleting cookies, optimizing drives, etc.) GOODBYE VISTA! I've switched and won't be going back. This new Mac laptop rocks and seems built to last. Thoughts from someone who has switched by .. Benjamin Jolivet (Boston, MA) In the first couple days after getting my Macbook, I felt like the guy who is last to see a movie everyone loves. Everyone has been laughing and quoting it and telling me I have to see it, and when I finally get around to it, I think "Oh . . . but it's just a movie." After about six months of researching and being sold on Macs, I thought "Oh . . . but it's just a computer." It was a sad moment when I realized it wasn't going to change my life. I suppose as sort of a non-computer person, I was seduced into expecting it to hold me when I cried and make me breakfast in the morning. It doesn't do either one of those things. I'm happy to say that I've grown quite fond of my Mac, after a fashion, even though it consistently refuses to do my dishes and hasn't actually changed my life. I will probably never be the Mac culty I thought I might become, but I don't see myself going back to Windows. I've sipped the kool-aid and found it delicious refreshing. Some things I like: -It doesn't come loaded with a lot of useless stuff you'll never use; the applications that do come installed are things you're going to use, or at least want to play with. -Leopard is really easy to use, and it's incredibly attractive. (I'll be a geek and admit I love the genie-in-the-bottle effect when minimizing something to the dock.) -The "Scrabble tile" keyboard is really nice and looks sleek. -The whole system and the unit are simple. There aren't extraneous lights, buttons, etc; everything does what it looks like it's going to do, and it doesn't look like an airport landing strip. -The backlit keyboard is actually really useful; I wasn't sure it would be. -The trackpad with all the gestures isn't as "gimmicky" as I'd read; the 3-finger forward and backward, and 4-finger expose features are really useful (though the 3-finger gestures don't work in every application). -Finding files is so easy, and it's actually led me to be more organized in my saving of work; Time Machine works incredibly well--I can't remember a single successful backup of my Windows computer, ever. That's not Mac-freak speak; it's true. -It's light and compact and I don't need a special bag to put it in, I can fit the adapter and the notebook in my backpack. -The battery life, while not quite as good as advertised, is miles above what I'm used to. -Office for Mac isn't as bad as a lot of the reviews I read say it is; I actually like it and find it simpler and easier to use than the Windows version. It did take some adjustment, though. Some things I don't like: -It is beautiful, but it's a scratch magnet. Aluminum is a soft metal, and within days I had three or four noticeable scratches that I can't trace the origin of. I broke down and put on a see-through Speck case for it, because my OCD was kicking in. I hated the case at first, but it's ultimately not that bad--aside from the dust that collects in the front, bottom corners. I just feel as though something that costs this much should stay pristine longer. -Screenshots, which probably isn't a common practice for most people, is sort of complex. -Shortcuts take some getting used to. Using "command" in place of "alt" for Word shortcuts is a big change--and when I go back to work to use a Windows computer, I make mistakes doing that, too. -I'm not yet sold on "Mail" and "iCal" being better than Outlook. One of the reasons I was sold on the Mac was the "Mail" feature of Notes and To-Dos--this feature has actually not worked correctly once. When I talked to AppleCare, they told me most people don't use that feature and so they don't have much information about it. About 3 or 3 weeks later, I'm still waiting for word on what's wrong with it. It's minor, clearly, as most people aren't using it, but I was annoyed. -Finally, there's what my friend calls "Mac fear." Essentially, the terror that comes with realizing you've spent a huge amount of money on a notebook and that it could get stolen or somehow damaged. I never really worried about that before. AppleCare protection plans and LoJack for Laptops alleviate the fear, but not much. Ultimately I like the Mac a lot, and I'm glad I made the switch. As someone who works full time and also goes to school online full time, I find that it's important to have a computer I don't mind sitting in front of and lugging around with me everywhere. That's the Mac. If you're interested and can afford it, go for it. But, if, like me, you had a relatively new notebook and you were wondering if you should give in and replace it, I'd say hang on for a while. At the end of the day, it's just a computer. A nice computer, and one that works well . . . but, again, it's not going to pay your rent, wash your car, or have dinner with that relative you can't stand . . . buyer beware. I love it by .. Asad Joheb (CA, USA) After 13 years with Windows I have moved all my stuff to Mac, cause I luv it. Everything is well thought and prepared for ease of use. Only thing is the price, a bit steep on pocket but its okay. Only one thing I want to say, Apple should include a better codec support for Quicktime. XVid, Divx, Matroska etc doesn't play. I've Gone to the Mac Side by .. Mary J. Graf (Minneapolis, MN) I've been an IT professional for almost 20 years and just made the leap from PC to Mac. I will never go back. I love my little Mac Book and bring it with me everywhere. It is so intuitive and user friendly that I was shocked how quickly I was all set to use it. Normally when you by a PC it takes at least 1/2 hour to complete the final Windows set up, not to mention setting up your wireless and printer. The Mac did it all in less than 5 minutes. MacBook makes MSBloat look good by .. TypicalUser (Arizona USA) After years of pent-up frustration with the bureaucratic, non-intuitive, user-hostile functioning of PCs, Windows, and Microsoft Bloatware, I was really looking forward to my switch over to MacWorld. I bought a 13.3" Macbook upgraded with the best available processing and memory. Right out of the box, the thing looked beautiful and sleek. I switched it on and that's where the fun stopped. The MacBook and OS Leopard make Microsoft products seem efficient, intuitive, and logical by comparison. I've had mine a month now, and I'm a reasonably intelligent person, so it is fair to say I've given it all the chance an average person should. I look forward to using it as a $2K aluminum frisbee very soon. Examples: I recently spent a 4-hour cross-country flight trying to get the word processor to let me expand the default working window from 5" to a more full=screen adult size. But you can't do that. Apparently MacApple also doesn't want you to be able to re-name files, or move them around among folders. Even deleting them is not a one-key process, you have to drag them here, drag them there, play miniature golf with them, just to get them in the "trash." But backing up a couple of weeks; right out of the box, most programs started out with some kind of error message. "Hold on there, you can't do that, who do you think you are" So I had to burrow dep into the settings and preferences to try to reset things to get Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes etc, to run at the basic level. And oh by the way, all "Help" menus are online, so you must be connected to the internet to use them. That's a problem when your problem is that the MacBook won't connect to the internet. So there went another weekend for me, wandering through settings and preferences in weirdly arranged menus, trying to set the computer to the most obvious basic settings to get it online. What sold me on Macs was the reputation that everything about them is "plug and play." My experience is that almost nothing is. Now it won't let me send emails while I'm on the road. And the trackpad is going bad, after 4 weeks of service. When the CD drive ejects a disc, it sounds like somebody folding a CD jewel case in their hands until it snaps into pieces. I sense big trouble in there soon. So: I spent big money experimenting with the switch from PC to Mac. I used to keep a Bill Gates Voodo doll on my desk, sticking pins in it everytime I ran into some typical PC dysfuncion. But now Apple has made me a big fan of PCs. I'll be going back. The backlit keyboard is nice, and the glossy screen is not the problem other reviewers suggest. The real problems with this product are not those superficial things. The real problems are inside. Run, do not walk, away rom this product.