Friday, December 01, 2006

Why my next computer won't be a MacBook

Lately I've been wanting my next computer to be a Macintosh. Beautiful GUI, Unix under the hood, Apple hardware. Yummy goodness!

One of my co-workers was kind enough to give me a demonstration of his white MacBook. I was very impressed, but there are a number of things that I didn't like:

  1. The pixels are too small for the screen size.
    Here's the standard response I typically get: Change your font size! Icons in MacOS X are scalable! Etc.
    I know, I know. Believe me, I know. But I still spend a lot of time doing things like browsing the world wide web, and there's a lot of content on the world wide web which (a) doesn't render correctly if you increase the font size in your browser, and (b) has graphics (such as navigation icons) that are fixed size (and often very tiny).
    For most people this probably isn't an issue, but my vision isn't that great.
  2. I don't like glossy screens.
    I'm sensitive to glare. I prefer matte screens. Enough said.
  3. The MacBook only has one mouse button.
    I'm not sure why Apple has been pig-headed about this issue for so long. The utility of a second mouse button is huge. I know there are ways to work around the lack of a second mouse button, but they're simply not ideal.
  4. I'm not happy with the keyboard.
    Some highlights: There are no stand-alone Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys. I use those keys frequently. The Eject button is too prominent. Reaching for Backspace results in hitting the CD/DVD Eject button too often.
  5. Smooth laptop surface picks up too many fingerprints.
    Perhaps it's just my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder talking, but I don't want a laptop full of ugly fingerprints.
  6. Lack of built-in analog modem.
    Part of the allure of laptops is their mobility, right? We might want to use them for traveling, right? And the MacBook doesn't have a built-in analog modem?! It just seems like a strange oversight to me.
  7. Strange power adapter.
    The MacBook power adapter sticks out from the wall even farther than typical wall warts. Bad design.
  8. Video adapter needed for external displays (at extra cost, of course).
    Forgive me for having old fashioned monitors and LCD panels. I don't want to pay extra for the adapter. A standard (translation: old fashioned) video port should be built-in.

Despite all these things, MacOS X is so damn good, it almost (almost!) overrides the things I don't like about the MacBook. But that's a subject for a different time. :-)

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