I’m new to the whole “mac world”. Before this week, I’d never owned or spent much time using an Apple computer. Last Tuesday Apple released an update to their extremely popular Macbook Pros. The update addressed a number of hardware problems that happened as a result of their switch to Intel and included some performance upgrades. The processor speeds are the same at 2.16 and 2.33 but the new laptops are now powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo chipset with 64bit support. This upgrade will come in handy when Microsoft Vista and Leopard are released. Apple also equipped the stock 2.33 model with a whopping 120GB hard-drive and 2GB of memory. How could I not pickup one of these bad boys? I placed the order the same morning of the announcement. One week later, a brand new Macbook Pro arrived at my door step!

The computer was all ready to go, right out of the box. I booted up and within a minute I had my Internet connection setup. I started downloading software right away. I found the installation process much different. Unlike when using Windows software, Mac software doesn’t contain hundreds of files. Instead it’s all packaged into a single application, which can be moved around to different directories without affecting the way the application operates. Removing applications is easy, just drag the application to the trashcan. No add/remove programs required and there’s no left over configuration documents after a application is removed.

One of the coolest features in Tiger OSX is the ability to manage widgets. There is one for every purpose you can imagine. With the push of a button you can have everything from translations tools to RSS widgets at your fingertips.

Another selling point for me was the ability to run Windows and linux within Tiger OSX. Through using parallels I’m able to check websites and applications that I develop without having to jump onto another computer or restart.

If you’re thinking of making the switch, take a moment to read this guide and check out these benchmarks. I’ve also attached a really great video walkthrough demo of Tiger OSX.

View on Google Video

[tags]Apple, Mac, Intel, Core2Duo, Windows, Blogging[/tags]