As I have documented in the past few months I have had interest in moving away from the world of Windows into either Mac or Linux. I gave Ubuntu/Kubuntu/PCLinuxOS a far chance but in the end the experience was less than wonderful. As you can imagine I have driver issues, the applications lacked style and for the most part I ran into random errors that I couldn’t fix, or had the patience to.

Last summer I bought a G4 iMac with Tiger and began to use that almost exclusively for a month, the computer was great but I mostly use my laptop and I prefer it to any desktop, so I upgraded my XP laptop to Vista. I could go through and talk about all of my problems but that could take a little while, so just read my previous post.

Last week I bought a refurbished Macbook for $850 from Apple.com, this Thursday I received the computer. I can honeslty say this is the best computer I have ever used. I appearnce, the speed, the ease of use is making me wonder why I ever used Windows. I have had a great experience so far but I have hit some brick walls,

So here are the 5 things I live and don’t like about Mac so far.

1. SPEED! My computer boots up in about 30 seconds and programs launch almost instantly. When my computer starts there aren’t any annoying programs that start up like with Windows, *cough* MSN messenger.

2.iLife iThank you- I have had so much fun with my pictures, movies and even making crappy music, I lack any talent, with the great iLife suite. GarageBand can keep me busy from school work for hours at a time and iMovie is easy to use and iPhoto is starting to take over Picasa for me.

3. Iwork 08- Great programs but I don’t like the fact that I can’t use my Pages files with Office, seeing as I am a student in a Windows only school. Keynote is awesome and I can’t wait to start making presentations.

*Update, thanks to my readers I now know how to use my Pages files in Word, thanks guys!

4. Weird random issues- Sometimes my Macbooks screen will flicker with movies playing in Quicktime and times the screensaver freaks out and goes from black to my desktop over and over.

5. The cost was amazing- For $850 I got a Macbook 2.0ghz, Apple Remote, and iLife 08, pretty good deal right? Oh wait I get a full 1 year warranty and 90 days of phone support, thanks Apple.

As I mentioned a few days ago I bought a Macbook, my first intel Mac. To my surprise within a few hours of ordering my package was shipped out, awesome, that was on the 11th. The next day, Saturday, on the Fedex tracking site it showed that my Macbook was being shipped to Reno, NV, nice, but heres the down side, according to Fedex.com it has yet to reach Reno! Also on the site it is showing a delivery date of the 17th, this Thursday, but I am skeptical of it getting here on that date, so why does this matter? Well I have to sign for the package but the time the Fedex guy gets here I am usually in class so I will have to skip a class to sign for it, and if the package doesn’t arrive that day then I will have to miss another day. Doesn’t sound like a big problem but I can only miss four days of class before being dropped. I am probably being a little paranoid and impatient waiting for the new computer, but I hope it is here Thursday because,

This is the most excited I have ever been for tech product.

That’s right I just but my first new Mac, kind of. I bought a Macbook from Apple’s web site as a refurbished machine for only $850! This is a great price for any new/refurbished computer with the specs that I will list. The computer comes pre-installed with Leopard and the great iLife 08 suite of software. The computer is a 2.0ghz intel Core 2 Duo with 1 gig of ram, but I already own 2 gigs that will work with the computer, it only comes with a 80gb hard drive so I will be buying a external drive soon. I am so excited to receive this computer because it will be my first real Mac, I own a G4 iMac and its getting a little out of date now.

So if you own a Macbook or have any thoughts on the computer please leave it as a comment!

Also a full review will be coming soon!

So if you are like me and you want to go to the Mac camp but find yourself limited on funds? Then this article is for you. First off you might want to stay away from the newer Macs if you have a limited cash flow so look for at least a G4 Mac. If you are entirely new to the world Apple then you need to know that G4 Mac computers are that the CPU ranges from 500MHZ to 1.25GHZ. While this might not be enough to play a lot of the newer games it is enough to allow you to surf the web, check e-mail, use iLife and iWork 08, even PhotoShop. So now that you know how powerful it is now you need to know what you can get and for how much.

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5. Itunes Movie Rentals- it would be nice to pay a few bucks to watch a movie once, unlike $15 I pay right now for a DRM filled movie.

4. A cheaper Apple laptop- To be honest I am always broke and a sub $800 laptop would be nice, please listen to me Apple.

3. Usable apps for iPod and iPod Touch- With developers being allowed to make apps for the device, starting in Feb 08, I hope they come out with useful apps that are better then the current open source apps.

2. Continued Zune development- I hope that Microsoft keeps pushing out firmware updates for the Zune and keeps making it better.

1. Zune + Xbox Live- How nice would it be to download a movie on your Xbox 360 then sync it to your Zune? Amazing right? Also being able to use your Zune pass on the Xbox 360 would be nice, just think of the possibilities people.