Yeah, most users are like from PC and making the transition harder just doesn't seem to make sense. The keyboard is alright, just wish I could switch a few buttons

What about that idea abou OLEC or something keyboard which allows you to mix and match keys, might be cool if Apple did that.

MuffinDCC wrote:

QUOTE:
What about that idea abou OLEC or something keyboard which allows you to mix and match keys, might be cool if Apple did that.

Did you mean OLED? Interesting idea about the mix and match keyboard. The problem is, there are less keys on a Macbook. They would need to provide spaces for plugging in the extra keys. If the Macbooks shipped with Apple standard keyboards that could be configured like PC keyboards, those spaces would be empty and exposed.

They made it so you can run Windows on Apple hardware. That was surprising. But then it is a pain in the butt to run Windows because of the keyboard and mouse on the Macbook. Seems like a logical next step to change those as well. Majority rules. I guess they don't want to alienate their loyal user base further. But I'm sure they are happy to sell their users a mighty mouse and make it just hard enough to run windows so that they eventually get frustrated, buy OSX native software and convert to OSX only.

Yeah, OLED, that sounds familiar lol. I wasn't entirely sure what it was called but the idea seems cool. To be honest, the keyboard doesn't bother but like most things, if someone asks you, you start thinking The only major bug-bare that I have are with the §/± and the mini-enter key, just a complete waste of keys which could have been something productive.

As for windows. I use Parallels to run XP in Virtual Machine. However, the extent of my usage is to Internet Explorer Testing and use the UI interface of the gaming programme I use (a glorified chat room really, hehe). Therefore, I am not really affected about the different in keys as I don't really work in Windows anymore on my Mac. However, I only experienced one problem and that was with this cool plugin I installed called TextExpander allowing you to automatically change some text you have written to something else (really handy if you are typing the same monotonous responses in forums, hehe). For some reason, it kept interjecting random keys but I just disabled it for Parallels and all is well.

You say about their loyal user base, but (insert ignorance here) I read a lot of reviews about the Macbook Pro before I bought it and a LOT of people have issues with the keyboard, not something major but would be interesting to see what the statistics where for it. As an Englishman, complaining about something is in our genome lol but we don't really care.

But overall, I am only nit-picking at some small imperfections, not that anything is perfect but it really is the best notebook I have ever owned...the Fwwwr factor

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[Additional Random Thoughts]...

Have you watched the new Macbook Air videos/media stuff? It looks really cool. But I was wondering if they would offer an upgrade for the Trackpad on the entire Macbook line. Considering, I bought my Macbook Pro a month ago, the new trackpad options would be great to have, if it was just a software upgrade of course

Yikes!!! The Macbook Air looks insanely good! Apple can be really annoying. I love the design, but I know it would be a hassle to actually use it. My choice of operating systems are in this order: Favorite Linux Distro (Currently Ubuntu), Windows, OSX. I don't want to have to repurchase Adobe Creative Suite so that i can run it effectively in OSX. And of course, the keyboard and mouse are not so good. So that rules out buying a Macbook.

Darn. That thing is a beauty. Except that it has a POS 4200rpm parallel ATA hard drive (unless you spend major dough for the solid state). 4200 PATA drives are practically legacy hardware at this point in time. Just plain stupid, but a classic case of Apple ingenuity.

Looks awesome indeed, but I would never buy it as I have no use for it (well, its ultra portable purpose anyway)... wouldn't say no to a free one though hehe.

I can't wait for Adobe products to become redundant, they are bloated, over-priced software. I use 1%, if that of their actual software and what a *waste* of money it is. Shame I need Fireworks to actually do my work, I would gladly use a Mac orientated appliance.

As for the HDD, if you are crazy enough to actually buy one, I think you'll have the cash for SSD Quite a nice little optional bonus.

I really hope they do release that trackpad firmware, if possible. Kinda annoying if they don't and where the hell is 10.5.2!!!

I completely agree with your comments about Adobe software. CS2 is buggy, bloated, prone to crashing and over-priced. I bought an educational version with student discount years ago, and it was still pretty expensive. Unfortunately I need Photoshop for the work I do for clients and my own projects. I've tried using Gimp. It just doesn't have the functionality that Photoshop has. At least not yet. The things I do would take a lot longer or not even be possible without Photoshop. It would be great to be running 100% open source software though.