So why? Well, not to replace my Dell XPS machine, which has been my faithful companion for the last 8  months I have worked as a freelancer. With 4 GB memory it runs Vista just fine. No, for 2 reasons I wanted to get a Mac: first, to be able to test my web sites on a Mac, as more and more users have Macs. Second, to be able to develop Iphone apps. As mobility is important to me, a laptop was a natural choice. A 15 inch Macbook pro would have been a more productive option, but equally more expensive. So I settled for a Macbook 13 inch.

So what is my first impression? I never owed a Mac, but worked quite a lot with Macs like Apple Classic at the universities I studied. So I have some experience with them, but not too much recently. So getting to know the specifics of Mac OS X will get some time. For instance I am used to type blindly, so doing Apple-C instead of Ctrl-C etc. will take some time. Also Ctrl-Home doesn’t really seem to have a Mac equivalent. Of course operating the new trackpad will take to get used to, but is already fun. Increasing the font size by just swiping two fingers is a breeze, haven’t tried apps that allow rotating images yet. Resize/minimize/maximize buttons are located at the left top hand corner, not right as on Windows. And maximizing works differently.

Of course under the hood is a real Unix (FreeBSD) operating system, so within 15 minutes I was having a go at the terminal. Quite a relief to type in a command like  locate java | grep -c class. There is a lot preinstalled, like Java, and even Maven (although not the version I need). A root account you need to activate first, but after that you can change what you want, su-ing to root first.

What does it look like? Well perfect of course, it’s Apple. The aluminum case is perfect, and so is the LED screen. Quite sharp, but a bit shiny/reflective.

How does it perform? Pretty good, Eclipse runs just fine with 2 Gb of memory. Hard drive is not too fast, but still pretty fast. But what is really remarkable to me is battery life: 4-5 hours. My XPS does 1-1.5 hours, what a difference. I don’t know if it is because the laptop is so efficient or the battery is so good, but it is impressive. Also it is pretty cool, perfect to have this machine on your lap.

Overall, I am quite happy with my machine. I downloaded the Iphone SDK and am anxiously awaiting my Iphone. Will be a lot of fun!

More reviews:

http://gizmodo.com/5063492/macbook-and-macbook-pro-dual-review

http://online.wsj.com/video/mossberg-reviews-new-macbook/5143CE13-603E-438B-8E39-5FDE666726E3.html

http://www.obsessable.com/news/2008/10/16/warhammer-online-on-a-macbook-2008-running-xp/