Entries Tagged 'apples' ↓

Since I use web/email quite intensively, I decided to make pure Intel binaries for my Intel MacBook. You can also use them:

Firefox-2.0.0.2.en-US
Thunderbird-1.5.0.10.en-US

Quick F.A.Q.:
Q. What is all this about?
A. Intel binary builds are optimized for running on Intel cpus so they’re a few percent faster than the regular ones (and almost twice smaller )

Q. Why my “Firefox” became “BonEcho” and “Thunderbird” – “Mail/News”?
A. I cannot distribute binaries with Official mozilla.org Branding so these are so called development releases.

Q. Can I build these on my own?
A. Yes, build instructions are here (they are for both- universal and individual builds):
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Mac_OS_X_Universal_Binaries

Q. Is it hard to build them?
A. It’s really easy. It’s just that for the first time it takes quite a lot to download and install.

Q. Do you have your own builds with –enable-official-branding?
A. Yes

Q. Can you share them?
A. No

I know, I know – it’s been a while since my last post here. I’m OK, it’s just that I got too busy recently.

Wondering how is my switch to Mac? Did I finally receive it? Although it took three weeks to ship a MacBook from US to France, it did ship. As for a switch, I will not get into details, as it would probably be yet another successful Mac switcher story, I’d just mention that OS X has exceeded my expectations – it has more cool software than I would ever need, keyboard shortcuts can be learned quite easily, the interface is really nice as well as other features I got used to, that will stop me from switching back to windows or any other OS for a while.

Is MacBook 13″ enough for me? Frankly – yes. It’s not as small as it sounds. Yet, it is really powerfull: 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4MB L2 cache per CPU, 2G of RAM – I wouldn’t ask anything more from a todays notebook.

Anyways, what bothers me is that it has been only a month, but I already had two issues with the notebook:

1. This is really funny but when I received the notebook, it just did not work out of the box. After an hour of reading the book that’s been shipped with the notebook, I came to the section where RAM upgrade procedures are explained and I thought “since they had to upgrade notebook with 1G additional RAM module, maybe they did not insert it properly” and I was so damn right. After reinserting both of the modules, the MacBook started working and the excitement has begun.
2. The Battery. Yes, it’s already dead. And, as far as I know, it’s not the first time for apple: in the middle of 2006, “Apple has initiated a worldwide battery exchange program for certain rechargeable batteries that were sold for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro computer systems from February 2006 through May 2006″. I find users with the same problem this year too. I guess apple changes battery supplier in the beginning of every year and looks like this year is an unsuccessful one too.

But don’t get me wrong – I like my mac. It’s just that nothing is perfect. Even macs aren’t.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous article, after unpleasant experience with my current HP notebook, I’m moving to mac. Right now, I’m at the crossroad: MacBook or MacBook Pro?

I never really liked big notebooks. For me, 14″ is a natural. However, you probably know that MacBooks don’t come in 14″ – it’s either 13″ MacBook or 15″ (and 17″) MacBook Pro. Inches (and the price) – is not the only difference between them, so I’ll put some pros and cons for your consideration.

There’s a general comparision chart for MacBooks, which points out main hardware differences. I will concentrate more on details (small details, big impact, isn’t it? )

…

MacBook:

Cons:
- Tight desktop – 1280×800 (can I expect more from 13.3″ ?)
- 5400 rpms hard drive (pro has one with 7200 rpms)
- Not illuminated keyboard (pro has one..)
Pros:
+ Firm touch keyboard (a really cool touch)
+ Comes in black (or white, if you prefer)
+ Is really small and cute (the finishing stroke?)

…

MacBook Pro 15″:

Pros:
+ Wide desktop – 1440×900 (14″ could reach that)
+ Illuminated keyboard (wish MacBook had this)
+ choice for 7200 rpms hard drive (better than 5400, really)
Cons:
- Ordinary touch keyboard (MacBook has a really better one)
- Comes in grey (I love pure black)
- Not as cute

If you had some experience working with both or have some solid arguments on one or another, please share. What are my needs? I’m unix sysadmin and MacBook should become my workplace. For the meantime, the winner is MacBook 13″.