I just updated my computer. The previous primary cpu was a 12" laptop, 1.5 ghz PPC chip. 1.25 gig of RAM. 80 gig drive. All plugged into a 23" Cinema Display. I got all that at a great deal when I was working for Apple three years ago. Right before the first time I tried to quit that job.
The new guy is a MacBook. Specs are to the right. I got the biggest built-in drive I could (from Apple), 250 gig. The built-in display is 13". One noteworthy thing that I've not seen mentioned elsewhere is that there's no non-Apple software bundled, aside from a demo version of Mac Office. The old laptop came with some serious software free-love. These days, not so much. I'm not sure who changed their minds, I'd guess it was Apple.
I've used a laptop as my primary computer for at least 10 years. I like the flexibility of having everything in one place, all the time. I've always backed up my data in a way to protect against laptop loss. I've never had a laptop die on me. (knocking on wood...)
The biggest change as I moved from the old system is the new MacOS - Leopard. I wrote about it a bit, after upgrading Molly's MacBook. (not quite so juiced, thank you very much.)
Leopard is great. The combination of a faster computer and and an OS written to take better advantage of that power is a joy to experience. A lot of the time you'll find yourself with software that is a little ahead of the hardware. i.e., it's pokey. (and I'm Gumby). So far, that's not the case with Leopard. Everything is just faster. And so far, everything works. (I'm keeping the previous laptop around. It's the Mac I'll use when I need to run a Classic app.)
There are (literally) hundreds of new features or enhancements. I'm using Time Machine for backup. Haven't tried to restore yet, but so far it looks painless. Spotlight is finally useful. In the old mac I'd get the spod almost every time I used Spotlight. Now it's fast enough to use as a launcher, so I can retire the interesting, but always flaky, QuickSilver.
iChat is improved, allowing me to retire the amusing, but flaky Adium. (Open a Console window with Adium running...)
So far, so good. I'm liking the new setup. Now, all I have to do is quit exploring and start working and I'll benefit from the productivity boost.
