Mac Law Students

Next Version of OS X: October: 17 Comments

1. John wrote,

   I was distraut over this news as I had finally made the decision to wait until Macbooks were preloaded w/ leopard before buying (June is only two months away) and then this. Oh, well I guess I’m gonna wait until the WWDC anyway and hope that by then the MBs will have the Santa Rosa chipset.

   (delete this comment if it is too dweeby)

   Link | April 13th, 2007 at 9:40 pm

2. Erik Schmidt wrote,

   “Dweeby?” Dude, you’re at Dweeb Central here. Bring it!

   Your comment points to what I think is the biggest problem with the delay. I’d be surprised if it didn’t hit their summer education buying season. A Leopard release this summer would have given Apple even more of an edge in comparison with Vista-equipped PC laptops.

   A new rev of the MacBook/MacBook Pro would definitely be a good WWDC gift.

   Link | April 13th, 2007 at 9:52 pm

3. John wrote,

   RE: the summer education buying…some mac forums are suggesting the possibility (the desire) for a student discount for leopard if a new computer is purchased after june but before leopard release….i’d like to think something like this would happen but in the words of thom yorke…”nice dream”

   Link | April 14th, 2007 at 1:15 am

4. Michael wrote,

   I just purchased a Macbook Pro - I can say that this news doesn’t really surprise me. I am glad that they are waiting to get this right. Still, I won’t be jumping on Leopard once it is released so this news does not disappoint.

   I do think that Apple is well served by Tiger. I do hope that whenever they release the new set of Santa Rosa equipped Macbooks and Macbook Pros that they include 2 gigs of RAM.

   Link | April 14th, 2007 at 1:22 am

5. Kaitilin wrote,

   I heard it will be release in June/July - along with some new lappys!
   This is what I hear, from someone in the know!
   I’m holding out till then (but that also may be because that is when my next scholarship payment comes)

   Link | April 14th, 2007 at 6:19 am

6. Maggie wrote,

   I’m in the same situation! I finally decided to pull the trigger and go the Mac route (after 15 years of being a PC user). I’m starting school again in August and don’t know what to do. I can go w/o a new laptop for a few months if need be. What do you all think!?

   Link | April 15th, 2007 at 10:27 pm

7. Erik Schmidt wrote,

   Hi Maggie,

   It will probably take some time to get used to using your Mac. It’s not a tremendously steep learning curve (a classmate of mine switched a month or two ago in mid-semester), but you may want to have some time to play with the machine a bit.

   I’d be surprised if Apple waited until October to roll out new MacBooks and/or MacBook Pros. The WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) takes place in mid-June, and I would be suprised if they didn’t release either a new MacBook/MacBook Pro or the long-rumored flash-drive subnotebook. So you may want to wait until after the WWDC to decide.

   I think the hardware will be more important than which version of OS X you get. The current version of OS X is really Apple’s best yet, and it while I think Leopard will offer some spiffy improvements, you can’t go wrong with OS X 10.4.

   The MacBooks/MacBook Pros are nice machines, but you know how it is with hardware; you generally want to buy the newest machine possible. So my bottom line recommendation (for what its worth) is that you hold off on buying until July and hope that Apple rolls out some new hardware.

   Link | April 15th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

8. Jorge wrote,

   What is exactly is the Santa Rosa?

   Link | April 15th, 2007 at 11:13 pm

9. Erik Schmidt wrote,

   Santa Rosa is a new integrated chipset from Intel. Basically it provides faster performance, much better graphics capabilities, and battery life. The latest rumors say it will be ready to drop into shipping computers in May.

   Link | April 15th, 2007 at 11:18 pm

10. Maggie wrote,

    Thanks for the info! Two more questions, if you don’t mind:

    How does one go about learning the fundamentals of the Mac? Simple things like looking through directories/making new ones, installing programs, connecting to different wireless networks, browsing the contents of a usb drive, etc… Is there a tutorial that comes up when you first sign on? Should I just go to the store and ask a salesman to help?

    Two: What is the difference b/w Boot Camp and Parrellels? They both seem to let you operate Windows but one is free and one is not. Why would I need the latter? If I need to run SofTest, would BootCamp work?

    Two.Five: If I can manage to find the disks that came w/ my current Dell (not likely) can I use the copy of Windows that came with it (I think that’s what the disks were)

    Sorry for all the confusion, I just can’t wait to get my new Mac! Also, I’ve decided to go w/ the MacBook 2.0 ghz in white (or it’s equivalent in July). Is it easy to upgrade the memory later if need be? Is it worth the $ to upgrade to 2gig now?

    Thanks again!

    Link | April 16th, 2007 at 2:14 am

11. Erik Schmidt wrote,

    Hi again Maggie,

    On learning the Mac, there are several resources for this. To be honest, I don’t know which ones are best, because I’ve been using a Mac for so long. However, these look pretty good:

    http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/switcher/ - direct from Apple

    http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/1875/ - good list of keyboard/command equivalents

    Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition - David Pogue’s books tend to be easy to read and very helpful. I bought an earlier version of this for my mother in-law when she switched, and she loved it.

    On the subject of memory, it is not difficult to upgrade memory. Although it depends on what you plan on doing with your MacBook, if you’re like me you’ll wind up doing everything with it. My advice is to buy as much memory as you can afford. It does make a noticeable difference in overall performance, particularly if you use your Mac for things like graphics, movies, and other RAM-intensive tasks.

    Boot Camp is a boot loader distributed by Apple. Basically it tells the Mac at startup time which operating system to use. With Boot Camp, you can only use one operating system at a time (at least until you reboot into the other OS). Whether you’re using Windows or OS X, applications will run at native speed. Some comparisons between Dells and Macs running Windows XP (using Boot Camp) find the Mac actually runs Windows faster.

    Parallels is a virtual machine, so it is a program that runs on your Mac and allows you to use Windows programs while you are in Mac OS X. There’s a good brief intro to the advantages and disadvantages of Parallels here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Orchant/?p=405

    As for using the copy of Windows that came with your Dell, I’m unfortunately not familiar with the ins-and-outs of how Windows licenses work. I did find an interesting piece in TidBITS about this, though: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8512

    Hope this helps.

    Link | April 16th, 2007 at 3:23 am

12. Adam wrote,

    I too am planning on switching from a PC to a Mac for the first time. I am heading to law school in the fall and wanted to make sure that I was familiar with the Mac before I started school. I have been planning on getting the 2GB MacBook. Do you have any ideas what changes will be made to the MacBook at the WWDC? Also, do changes to/new hardware equal a price increase? I understand that you can’t for sure say what will occur but you seem much more “in the know” than I am. Thanks for your help!

    Link | April 16th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

13. Erik Schmidt wrote,

    Hi Adam,

    Thanks for joining the conversation. It’s great to hear from switchers.

    Usually with Apple when a new piece of hardware comes out, the price remains about the same (or a bit less) for the replacement version, assuming it’s roughly the same machine. So for example, the base configuration of the original PowerBook G4 (2001) had a list price of $2,600. The PowerBook I bought in 2005 had a faster bus, more RAM, a bigger hard drive, etc., and had a base list price of $2,300.

    There have long been rumors of a 12″ (or possibly smaller) MacBook in development, which could be the ideal student machine. I used to use a 12″ PowerBook and I love the size and portability. It would be great for use on the cramped classroom benches at our school. Alas, my wife now uses it, and prying it from her would not be good for my health. Anyway, this smaller MacBook wonder supposedly would run on flash memory, so it would boot up in… a flash. The latest rumor is that it will be shipping the second half of this year, which isn’t a very helpful estimate.

    The standard MacBook is probably due for a replacement in June or July (again, take this and all guesses with a big grain of salt). Check out this guide, which shows the length of time between hardware revisions: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook

    If you have any other questions, just ask. Hope this was at least somewhat helpful.

    Link | April 17th, 2007 at 2:36 am

14. Adam wrote,

    Thanks for the help Erik. Looks like I’ll be waiting until Julyish!

    Link | April 17th, 2007 at 1:30 pm

15. Jorge wrote,

    Is it better to have larger screens for law school? I am split between the macbook pro 15 and the macbook just because of the size issue

    Link | April 17th, 2007 at 7:17 pm

16. Erik Schmidt wrote,

    Jorge,

    That’s a tough call. I’m a big fan of screen real estate, but at the same time, there are times when I wish I had a smaller laptop. The desks at our school are rather restrictive, and it can be tough to fit a 15″ laptop and the casebook on there at the same time.

    At home I hook up my PowerBook to an external monitor to provide extra screen space. That can help with smaller laptops, if you go that route and have an old monitor lying around.

    Link | April 18th, 2007 at 3:13 am

17. Jorge wrote,

    Hey Erik Thanks for the help! Hopefully Apple brings out more options in the portable department in June.

    Link | April 18th, 2007 at 9:43 pm

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