think tank forum

so basically someone wants my macbook pro. i need to get something new and will get about 1000 for the mbp to spend.

im going back and forth on what to get.

currently i have a thinkpad and the macbook pro. thinkpad is now dead but loved working with it. like i said before, im moving to china soon and only want one computer. i prefer true unix for a dev environment but have to have the mac for certain things (iphone hookup and a few other random things). i dont like using the mac for development day to day though.

I was thinking about a new macbook pro at first but just dont want one. So now it basically comes down to this.

x200 - love it, unix supported, it runs osx86 good enough for my needs. but is 12" - 1280x800 enough for everyday.

could go with the t400 which is similar but a bit bigger and higher rez.

problem is for this deal to go through i need a computer by saturday so i can get all my shit off of this one and give it to the guy on sunday or deals off. lenovo wont ship new ones for 9 days. but there is a decent deal on an x200 i could pick up tomorrow on craigslist.

fuck you, time.

anyway. i guess the real question is --- is 1280x800 enough? my x41 now is 1024x768 but i dont use it all the time. i go to my mac for videos and shit. ill be in my apartment mostly. but it will make random trips with me around the world.

any opinions on using that size day to day or even x200 experience?

for two summers now i am 1024x768 only (x60) and i'm fine with that. 1280x800 is enough for 720p video - i say yes

actually i think i may now go with a T series (T400). Has DVD drive, higher res, faster, camera, etc.

one thing i can figure out is between these two.

one is much better - 2x ram, 2x hd size, higher resolution, camera built in, faster processor, DVDRW, etc

but its 100 bucks cheaper.

the only diff i can find is the one that is cheaper had has all all the features has a totally different model number -

647511U -- more expensive, less features
2767E2U -- less expensive, more features

was there actually a newer series or something?

fuck it. just getting a 13" macbook pro tomorrow.

hahaha. this is like your emacs thread. I love it.

i really don't see why you have to have a mac ("iphone hookup + other random things?")

macbook keyboard is crap, thinkpad keyboard is pure typing pleasure.

This alone is reason enough to avoid macbooks and buy thinkpads.

I have no issues with the macbook keyboard, but even if you do, there is no way you can prefer the thinkpad touchpad to the macbook one. for some reason apple is the only laptop manufacturer that is smart enough to make a touchpad big enough to not be annoying to the point of making me want to use an external mouse. touchpads on every other laptop I've used are between like 1/4 and 1/2 the size of the macbook ones, and I don't understand why!

Touchwhats?

touchpad? trackpad? or are you making a point about never using the mouse? ;)

admittedly, if I did own a thinkpad I would probably use openbsd and a window manager that required minimal use of the mouse. I've yet to use a modern web browser that is a pleasure to navigate/browse with using the keyboard (maybe firefox + vimperator would help with this though). unless you count links with numbered hyperlinks. that was pretty awesome.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bilodeau/288865105/sizes/o/

i just decided to do this cuz i can get a macbook pro 13 for 1000 basically and that will leave me a few extra bucks to get a new fast drive for my thinkpad x41t. now i have both.

> i really don't see why you have to have a mac ("iphone hookup + other random things?")

can't work with my iphone on bsd/linux. gotta have a mac.

also, use video to chat quite a bit (i dont work in an office so i use it for meetings and i travel alot so this is how i talk with friends and family. just works. everytime.

also, no OS's runs very good on the x200 or t400.

oh, well, before I ever used a decently sized touchpad I thought those little nubs were better too ;).

trackpoint > all other built-in laptop pointing devices

> for some reason apple is the only laptop manufacturer that is smart enough to make a touchpad
> big enough to not be annoying to the point of making me want to use an external mouse.

Too bad they're not smart enough to make two (or more) buttons...

You're right, the touchpad on the macbook is much larger than most others, I dislike it because it is so large ...
I never experienced the size (Or lack thereof) of a touchpad as an issue (Except maybe on netbooks), although some notebooks do make touchpads with really bad feeling/response.

On my thinkpad, the touchpad is disabled in the BIOS ... I always use the trackpoint.

> also, no OS's runs very good on the x200 or t400.

I don't know about the x200, but FreeBSD runs pretty good on the T400.

two fingers on the touchpad + click for right-click makes me more than happy. I prefer the single button anyway because the way I orient my hand always causes accidental right-clicks on two-button touchpads.

don't get me started on two finger scrolling either. I never thought I'd like a touchpad, but I totally love the macbook ones.

PS - let's find a game that we can play and test our mouse accuracy/responsiveness/speed/whatever and see who does the best with different mouse setups! any suggestions?

bought a macbook pro 13" and a 500gb wd passport external for backups. easily fit in my backpack.

i thought i would dislike the smaller screen/resolution but its perfect. i like the smaller size and dont miss the extra pixels at all.

happy camper.

also, i love the bsd's. way more than osx. but im not into fucking around as much as i used to be. i used to love to play with broken stuff and accept short comings of hardware not working perfect. now i just want the hardware to work. windows isn't an option so that really just leaves me with a mac.

macvim is great, have a decent terminal, most unix software i need is available. suspend/resume works flawlessly everytime (this is huge for me), 7hr battery, audio/video are great in all aspects, ipods/iphones work, use office only a few times a year but its available, same with photoshop, quicksilver is pretty cool. its pretty nice, really.

if i could run wmii-3 it would be ideal. a tiling window manger is truly the only thing i miss on day to day work.

but now i can still play with openbsd on the x41t (anyone have an x40/x41 they want to trade for it?).

sounds like a pretty good setup. didn't realize you were talking about the mb PRO 13".

depending on how much $ i drop on a turntable in august i might get a 13" with my educational discount..

yeah i got the cheap one too. $1190 and $1090 with edu discount i think. i dont really need the faster one. i dont play games and 95% of my time is in

macvim, terminal and firefox and have mysql, django server and apache running in the background. i turn off spotlight (i just use quicksilver).

could use anything for that really. really missing a tiling window manager still :(

the faster one probably wouldn't benefit you at all in games either. laptops are all gpu-limited these days.

yeah, the 13" mbp is $1099 here and includes a $229 ipod rebate.

so i can get the 13" mbp for $1099 and the 160gb ipod for $20.

this seems pretty tempting, especially if i got this as well.

:D