I am starting a Master’s Degree program, next week. After reviewing the financial situation with my wife we have decided that I can get a laptop. Now, everybody has their own opinions, I want a MacBook – a 17″ Pro to be exact. Here in is my dilemma, I can get a 13″ Black MacBook with a minimum hardware profile right away, the 17″ Pro will take a few more months.
I will probably dual boot XP because the University that I am attending [online] only supports the Microsoft platforms – which bugs the hell out of me. So, I have an old laptop that I am borrowing until we [the wife and I] can make a decision. To be honest, I think that I could enjoy a light yet powerful notebook – a 2.16GHZ with 2GB of RAM. I will not be doing any “heavy lifting”, I just need something to for class that is portable. I have read many posts regarding how much someone loved their old 12″ or 13″ iBook. They enjoyed that fact it didn’t break their back to carry it yet it still supplied plenty of computing power; on the other hand, I am a power user.
I like having lots of screen real estate, when I attended my 4 year, I had a dual [19″] monitor pc. I loved it, It was very easy to work on and I found that I was able to accomplish my work faster. I really like the 17″ screen for a laptop. My wife had a 15″ Dell when we got married that we used for several years, until it died, and I adapted to the smaller screen quite well. I believe that I can adapt to the smaller screen on the 13″ and with Exposé I feel comfortable that I can manage the smaller workspace.
On the other hand, with 17″ of screen I can manage a lot and still have room for more. I won’t have to even think about getting another laptop when school is done, because I will be able to use the 17″ long into the future [maybe 4 years] without complaints or a longing for something “bigger and better”. Of course, the 13″ may surprise me.
Sigh – still 17″ of glowing real estate!!! Now, we can’t forget that the new 17″ Pro’s also come with RAM expandability up to 4GB! which means I can game on it if I wanted to and not have to worry about resources. We are talking about plenty of power for future use and it would be large enough to serve any mobile computing needs. It would also mean that I would have to get a new bag [briefcase or backpack] to carry it and it would be a lot harder to ‘hide’.
I am at a cross roads and I am not sure what to do. I am not worried about OS X – Leopard or the new iLife, because I plan on picking up the family pack [5 licenses] so that we can have that for both of these computers and any that may join the family in the future. I have that all settled in my mind.
Now, I just have to decide.
What do you have to say? Any thoughts?
iron wil
