I’ve owned a number of Macs over the years – a Mac Classic, Apple IIe, PowerPC 7200/90, Mac Mini (G4 processor running Tiger), and a 20″ iMac (G5 processor running Leopard). Six months ago I decided it was time to buy a Mac with an Intel processor. I like laptops and so I decided to buy a new Apple 2.26 GHz Macbook. Why write a review about a laptop that is no longer the current model sold by Apple? Because I have used it extensively the past 6 months to do development, productivity, and design and it is the best laptop I’ve ever owned. It doesn’t have the hardware in the MacBook Pro line, and the white case is the same used in older Mac laptops, but I don’t care. It is everything I hoped it would be, so let’s take a look at the equipment. I write a lot of reviews, so I installed a lot (see Software Latest and this blog for my reviews) of software: Full size keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.Built-in speakers and microphone and camera.Video – NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics (shares some of main memory). Design products -Adobe CS4 and CS5 Master Collection.Productivity products I- MS Office, Final Draft, Movie Outline 3, Ulysses.Development products – Eclipse Ganymede/Galileo, IntelliJ IDEA 9.x Community Edition, STS, MAMP, MySQL, Tomcat, Mathematica 7, FileMaker Pro 10, FileMqker Pro 11 Advanced, and Bento 3.

Most of these programs take up a lot of space, yet they run fine and I have not had any issues with performance unless too many are opened at the same time. A memory upgrade could help, but is not in my plans for the near future. I take advantage of Spaces to arrange different types of applications to different windows and have no problems switching between the programs as needed. I have my browser and Word open in Space 1, develop websites (using DreamWeaver) and graphics software (Photoshop, Fireworks) in Space 2, work on Java and C code in Eclipse and IDEA in Space 3, and use Space 4 to work on scripts and stories with Final Draft and Ulysses. Very efficient way to organize the desktop – not as good as dual monitors, but still a lot of help.

File maker pro 17