Mac OS X Bumped Up to 10.5.6

Prior to the CES 2009, here's the candy for mac users. Run the update and be blessed!

Mac OS X Coveted Application List for Windows Equivalent

I know its a long windy road for first-timers, while contemplating if his windows applications would even be available in a Macbook to begin with. Rest assured, its from a been-there, done-that approach I pen this article. Believe me, it does take some getting used to for some applications.

• Mail - Mac mail got that licked over Outlook or Thunderbird. But hey, Thunderbird is also available on the Mac OS X. And if you are using Opera Mail, things still look rosy with no change in how you pull your mails in.
• Windows Media Player - Living in the 21st century, I have long ditched WMP for VLC, making VLC the preferred choice to play back all my media files encoded in any universal codec on earth. How about iTunes? It's good too.
  
• Remote Desktop - Microsoft offers Remote Desktop (Mac) 2.0 for a while now and my daily use of it indicates blue sky condition.
• DOS - Mac's variant called Terminal may throw you off a bit if you are a hard-core "ipconfig" user, forcing you to now use "ifconfig". Ping still works there but you are better off using the jazzy GUI of Network Utility found in Mac's application folder.
  
• VPN Client - Cisco offers a Mac variant of her Cisco VPN client and my use over the last year to connect to remote office sites prove as smooth as silk. You may want to check with other vendors if one is natively available too. SSL VPN is always available to those who doesn't.
• IE - Who needs IE when Firefox, Opera and Safari is readily available. OK. Some very old bank ecommerce sites may still grumble when you fire up Firefox but that's quickly becoming history. For die-hards, the only two current options to have IE on a Mac is achieved either with vmware fusion or boot camp.
  
• Microsoft Office - Again, a mac variant is available from Microsoft or better still, Neo Office, Open Office or Google Docs, which is just standing next to you. For ultra-sleek documents, consider iWorks, which I use primarily today
• Torrents - Vuze is around, whose worrying?
• FTP - Filezilla rocks!
• Anti-virus - What virus? OK, as a precaution, have clamXav ready. All others are just a waste of dollar with an entailing conspiracy theory behind each vendor.
• Music Composer - Garageband just puts older props to shame, with the movie - Music and Lyrics demonstrating its ease of use by Hugh Grant. Windows does not bundle any such goodie.
• Windows Movie Maker - Dive in to iMovie. You won't be sorry. Small learning curve.
• Windows Explorer - Mac's equivalent - Finder. Enough said. Cool as ice.
• Acrobat Reader - Built-in by default in Mac OS X.
• Java Runtime - Built-in by default in Mac OS X.
• ZIP - Built-in by default in Mac OS X, but use unrarx if things get out of hand.
  
• Others - Most commercial apps like Photoshop already offers a Mac version; and that includes games. But, let's face it - hard-core games are still played today in Windows. Sorry.
  

Major Difference and Conditions to Justify a Macbook Pro

I own two Macbook today, one of which is a 15" pro. True justification comes from both a technical point of view and commercial-sense point of view. Both of them have been upgraded to 4GB of RAM and both are on Mac OS X 10.5.

As far as I am concern, screen size was the first reason I contemplated a Pro. The Macbook's 13.3" just couldn't handle my concurrency theory and its non-LED type screen makes it painfully dimmer to work with at her brightest setting. I initially wanted a Mac Cinema Display but it contradicted my mobile workspace theory. Next, the keyboard. The Pro keyboard (not on the latest model though) just makes typing fun and fast. The thickness of the laptop is another factor to switch camp, giving me a far better grip and weight distribution while carrying the Pro.

The processor gain wasn't significant (between the two) as the 64-bit OS cuts through the day's work load effortlessly. Windows OS is generally still a 32-bit OS (64-bit is available but suffers from driver availability and application support). Lastly, it was the built-in DVI port that the Pro has that won me over as my days are packed with several presentations.

Historical Background

Its almost a matter of fact that most of us grew up with Windows OS. Hey, Steve just did not get a team he needs like he does today, and most notably different, he took the long but rewarding road to a different approach to OS design. Enough said. Windows XP is well-supported and has a major following but is plagued with the lack of fundamentals at the core. The 32-bit road is overused to the detrimental effect to Microsoft and her official announcement recently to terminate her support just signal to the world its time to move on. I used to tweak the OS so much it that became a cult in its act but there's only so much you can do. The Internet threat is not getting smaller each day and Windows OS are the target boards for more hackers to pride themselves in crippling it. Windows Vista is a disaster, waiting to be salvaged with a rebranded name - Windows 7.

As far as I am concerned, this will just be another disaster waiting to happen sometime in mid 2009. Application developers who rallied into lifting up Vista are now faced with a dejavu again in less than two years from their investment. Face it, reformatting the Windows OS is becoming part of my job scope every six months or so, just to maintain it at her peak state. A new approach has to be taken. Against flogging a dying horse, I moved on to Steve's camp hesitantly out of necessity and I thought you should too...soon, if you don't wish to be sandwiched to death in your organization or home.

Welcome to the Apple Macbook Pro Lab!

Welcome to a new blog I hope will be useful to Macbook Pro users.