Thanks for all the advice and tips! My new MacBook Pro showed up yesterday and I spent most of the afternoon setting it up and messing around with it and so forth. I really like it, although a lot of the things I like are honestly just because I am comparing it to my 4-year-old crufty Dell Inspiron that was on its last legs.
I haven’t installed Windows yet but I think when I do I’m going to go with Parallels.
I’ve only been using the computer for a day and already feel pretty well used to all the user interface stuff. The trackpad is really easy to use and the lack of official buttons is not problematic. As other people have pointed out, the entire surface of the trackpad is a depressable button (although amusingly, when I find myself clicking it, I’m usually hitting the sector where the buttons were on my Dell trackpad - old habits, etc.). I am really liking the two-finger swipe and the other gestures. Navigation is much easier on this machine than I am used to.
One thing that stood out to me is that this is the first computer I’ve ever bought on which my very first action wasn’t to go delete all the pre-installed crapware, i.e. Yahoo toolbar, Free AOL!!, etc.
I opted for the 13" MBP, which was a downgrade in size from my 15" Inspiron, and I was a bit worried that the screen would seem too small for me. Actually I have found that I don’t really notice the size difference at all. The screen “feels” about the same, possibly because the resolution is the same as on my Dell. Also, laptop weight is not really a concern for me (after years of lugging 40-pound toddlers around, I’m hardly going to bitch about a 5-pound laptop) but the weight difference is noticeable. This machine is very lightweight and feels like I am carrying around nothing at all. So that’s an unexpected bonus.
If I had one complaint, it would be the lack of “maximize window” feature, although that’s not a huge deal, because you can fairly easily just size the window out to take up the whole screen if you want. But it would be nice to have a “maximize” function.
Oh, and also, I was quite amused by this: We have three PCs in the house; an ancient Windows ME machine, my Windows XP laptop, and my husband’s Windows Vista laptop. We went through a hell of a time a few months ago trying to set up file sharing between the two laptops over our home wireless network. Not for love, money, or sacrificial goats could I get the *#$ing Windows XP shared folders to show up in Vista. We finally gave up and transferred everything via thumb drive.
Last night, I hooked up the Dell and turned it on so that I could transfer some files from it onto a thumb drive (because I’ve learned my lesson, right?) and then when I sat back down at the Mac, I saw that my Dell’s computer name had showed up in the Devices list in Finder. The MBP just automatically picked it up, as soon as it logged on to the network.
Anyway, I’m a pleased user.