Scott Stanfield's Blog

"Perspective, do you have any of that tonight?" – Antono Ego, Ratatouille.

Sure the MacBook Pro runs Vista faster than any other laptop (watch Misprint or read the PC World article). But after spending about 20 hours using it this weekend to work on a Visual Studio 2008 demo, allow me to share some perspective. For those of you barely containing your contempt for Apple, the gripes should satisfy your rage for another month.

But for others, like my friend John Alexander who are seriously contemplating a new laptop, there are serious choices to make (mostly between Apple, Dell and Lenovo). Of course, he's concerned about giving in to the dark side (dark, as in Job's black mock turtleneck) while still properly representin'. If you grew up programming in Windows and are agonizing over the same decision, here's some perspective from me.

First, let's start with a little quiz. Are you:

• Curious about how the other (better dressed) half lives?
• Using an iPod and couldn't care less about the Zune?
• Living within 30 minutes of an Apple Store?
• Spending a lot of leisure time lounging at the local Starbucks?

If you answered yes to these questions, the scales tip in favor of a MacBook.

Quiz 2, do you:

• Spend most 80% of your time in Visual Studio?
• Plan on blowing away the Leopard partition to maximize space for Vista?
• PWNWTFBBQ in video games?

Then yes, go with a Dell or Thinkpad T60 with a decent (i.e., non-integrated Intel) video card.

For me, my personal life (pictures, movies, music and casual browsing) centers on the MacBook running Lepoard OS X. Professional (CEO and general development) stuff is done on a Dell Precision desktop (quad-core) and the MacBook Pro in Vista. I also have a Thinkpad X60 for the Tablet functions and when I need a really tiny footprint.

But what good is a laptop if it's powered off?

Boot Time

The Mac wins on boot time alone. Given a choice between grabbing my Thinkpad X60 or the MacBook, Apple wins simply for the fact that the damn thing boots, sleeps and shuts down obediently and quickly.

Vista power-up to desktop takes 50 seconds to the login screen, then another 30 seconds to a usable desktop after logging in. That's 1:20 seconds versus just 50 seconds to the desktop in Leopard. Granted, I don't actually log in, but the ability to press the power button then come back less than a minute later and start working is sweet.

Power down is a different story. Just 12 seconds for Leopard versus 35 seconds for Vista.

But here's the thing: I rarely power-up or power-down OS X. I just shut the lid and sleep works. Always. Maybe Vista SP1 will fix this, but it doesn't work enough now for me to fully trust it. Then there's the scenario where you shut down Vista, close the screen, it goes to sleep instead. So when you reopen the lid, it faithfully resumes the shut down process. ARGH!

Now, I have purchased over a hundred IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpads for my company over the past 5 years. Our current de facto box is the Thinkpad T60, a very fine machine. I still pine for my Thinkpad T60, which I passed on to one of our developers.

Here's a short list of pros and cons for Windows developers contemplating running Vista through Boot Camp:

Cons

1. The MacBook Pro can get quite hot in Vista. I should've measured it, but couldn't find my gauge. Only matters when employed in literal laptop-mode and easily remedied by a pillow or heat-shield. If you need to type for long periods of time, it will be uncomfortable. The power management works much much better in OS X; barely warmer than a kitten.
2. The keyboard layout is just enough different from Windows to constantly irritate you. For instance, the lower-left keys on the keyboard are fn, ctrl, alt/option, apple/clover. Windows is typically ctrl, windows, alt. Now the apple/clover key doubles as your windows key (what the heck is that clover thing?), so that's cool. But notice the difference in order. And the extra fn hanging on like an appendix doesn't help. The "extra" features totally work (volume, screen brightness, keyboard backlighting, eject). But the lack of a dedicated page up/down, insert, delete will drive you nuts while programming.  
3. Touch pad is, well, touchy. You even glance at it while typing and your mouse cursor will scurry away. I'm constantly, accidently hitting it. Again, works great in OS X.
4. The leading edge is barely beveled which irritates my wrists.
5. Also, right-click is two fingers on pad plus a button click. Compare this to simply tapping the pad with two fingers in OS X.

Note:  all of the above is remedied by an external (Windows) keyboard, mouse (Logitech G9) and monitor.

Pros

1. It runs OS X.
2. Fit and finish is unsurpassed.
3. Possibly the only laptop with Firewire 800, handy for this 10GB 1080p videos you're trying to edit in Sony Vegas.
4. Incredibly bright LED-backlit screen. Eye-searing.
5. Parallels allows you to run your Boot Camp native Vista partition from within Mac OS X. Great for the blow-your-mind Silverlight demos (dev in Vista, then apple-tab back to OS X to test in Safari).
6. Front-loading DVD drives give me a slight thrill.

   And finally,

7. I'll never get tired of attaching the magnetic charger.