Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

I'm not in any way interested in getting into computing for its own ends. I just want a simple, powerful, robust machine for producing work and realising ideas on. The appeal of Apple for me is the elegant coherence of the entire package, inside and out.

..sounds like you should (as has already been suggested) buy the fastest macbook you can afford, incl. maximum RAM, and you'll be quite happy for a couple of years.

The appeal of a computer for me, is that I want to be productive so I can get off the computer as soon as possible.

This is where Apple fails, for me.

I simply am not as productive using an Apple computer than I am using a Linux machine. Nowhere near.

My current experiment is Apple hardware with Linux virtual machines... I get 90% Apple and then the last bit is where I am productive. But the nagging thought I've had, is why I'm spending 90% of my time in that last 10% that isn't Apple. It seems pointless to me, yes the Apple hardware is awesome but I end up having to fight against Apple to be able to have simple things like a tiling window manager (one keystroke, put my two windows side by side).

I'm going back to Thinkpad because of the software, not because of the hardware. I realise I am happy compromising the physical product a little but I'm not happy compromising the software environment.

To me, Apple = simplicity. But what that really means is that they've simplified the interfaces to such a degree that to perform any non-simplistic task actually takes far more effort.

Apple software is the Esperanto of computing... far fewer words, much simpler for everyone... but it takes a contortion to express any complex thought effectively.