Apple and the new MacBook Pro are awesome!

I have now had a MacBook Pro for a month, and I'm really impressed. Fortunately, my work bought it, stacked with 4GB of memory. I'm programming in Objective-C now. Anyway, by sheer hardware, it's impressive. The unibody is simply gorgeous. The new placement of the connectors and the SuperDrive is very clean.

After using it a while, the biggest deal has become the new trackpad. It's bigger as far as space, and the whole area is a button. The is so much nicer and e4asier than any other trackpad I've used. It is more sensitive to touch, and just acts smarter. When you're clicking and moving all day, evrything that makes that easier is appreciated.

I've been programming for, and using, Windows PCs most of my career. But I have to say I enjoy the Mac far more. Programming with XTools is a joy, though not perfect, it's as good as Visual Studio ever was. It also forces the programmer into MVC programming. This is a good thing. It's practically impossible to do "bad" programming. This explains part of the reason why Mac "just works." It's not a fluke, it's not just the hardware, though that is a major factor. In Windows-based tools, it's outrageously easy to get sloppy. In Mac, it's incredibly hard. That's not something I hear regarding Mac vs. Windows. It deserves to be a biger part of the conversation.

The last thing I want to mention is the intangible -- less stress. I find myself doing fewer steps, fewer clicks, more stability, more speed. These are little thingts that simply add up every day. I had no idea how much more work was doing inside Windows. My wife has had a MacBook Pro for a full year, and I have not rebuilt her machine once. That was something I did at least twice a year. The only time she has problems is when she's running something in Windows/Parallels. Again, it's just something I notice.

My wife has found it amusing that I have become "Mac happy." Guilty as charged. I have more reasons than most typical users to be that way. Yes, Apple products are shiny, cool, and age very well. Nut make no mistake, there is competency there, a lot of it. Considering the freefall of Microsoft into incompetence and denial, the contrast couldn't be more stark right now. I have beenj converted, and I'm not going back anytime soon. Great job, Apple!