Now that I finally have Virtue Desktops working correctly, I can say that my new new new computer is finally perfect, at least for the time being. This is the third new computer I’ve had the pleasure (?) of owning in the past month, and after I got it I had to wait another week before the RAM and hard drive upgrades arrived. I received the new hard drive yesterday and, thanks to the number of times I’ve now done this, was able to go from virgin platter to reasonably usable system in about an hour and a half. This morning I copied over all of my music and documents and such and finished configuring a few additional programs, and now I finally have a rockin’ setup again. Yay!

But but but, this is a *MacBook*, and the last time we checked in, you had a *MacBook Pro*! What happened? Read on…

What happened? The MacBooks came out. It’s pretty simple and I don’t have much to say. There was a vast difference between iBooks and PowerBooks. IBooks couldn’t span to external displays, had slower processors, less in the way of storage and RAM, all kinds of stuff. But the MacBooks have almost the exact same specs as the ‘Pro models, with only basically two major things that make them disappointing:

# Stupid glossy screen that is annoying and reflective.
# Disappointing graphics chipset which makes using certain pro apps, high-end games, and a 30″ Cinema Display impossible.

That’s it.

And here are the advantages:

# (Slightly) smaller than the MacBook Pro 15″
# Plastic doesn’t get as hot
# Better AirPort reception
# Longer battery life
# Smaller power brick
# User-upgradable hard drive (!)
# Cool new keyboard and magnetic latch system that keeps the screen flat against the case while avoiding the annoying dirt that builds up on the screen from keyboard contact.

Keep in mind also that my experience with the MBPro was not the best. Performance-wise it was great, the screen size and resolution was marvelous, and the little touches like the light-up keyboard were of course great. But the machine got very, very hot to the touch, especially in the wrist-rest area, and made annoying high-pitched buzzing noises that were giving me headaches. The MacBook has neither of these problems.

I’m about 95% satisfied with this computer, and by downgrading I saved myself $1000. Not a bad trade-off, especially now that I’ve upgraded to 2GB RAM and a 120GB hard drive with non-Apple (and thus far cheaper) components.

I’m not sure were Berkman were paying for my machine if I would have gone the same route, but I suspect the answer is yes. This is one cute, functional, powerful, and happy little computer.