New Toy!

In January my trusty Dell notebook died. Specifically, the power connector to the mother board stopped working so that I had no way to plug the computer in or recharge the battery. This, of course, rendered the machine unusable. So I have been reduced to sneaking blog entries on my computer at work during down times or on my desktop at home. Well no more! As of yesterday I'm the proud owner of a new MacBook.

So far I've repartitioned the drive so that I can eventually add Linux and (ugh) Windows to the system. Linux because I actually do most of my work in Linux, though now most of my writing and graphic work will likely be in Mac OSX. Windows will, unfortunately be added (on the smallest partition) so that the few programs I use that only run under Windows (mostly games) will still work on the new notebook. What is nice about the MacBook hardware is that it will allow the three operating systems to exist on the same hard drive (though in different partitions) and run all three (one at a time). This puts it miles ahead of many systems that can only run Windows or Linux and Windows. How easy it is to install Linux and Windows is an exercise for the weekend.

So here are some pics of the new beast:

Here it is opened up. It's taking a bit to get used to the keyboard layout and spacing, Though given time and use that will be a non-issue. It's interesting that the display is the same width as my old Dell, but not as tall. Though this makes the screen a little smaller, it also makes the computer smaller and easier to lug around.

Here it is closed, from the back. The computer is much smaller in footprint and in thickness than my old Dell. It's also lighter. Best of all it has a completely different system for holding the power supply to the computer. On the new MacBooks, the power cord is held to the computer magnetically. This means much less force between the connector and the motherboard, hopefully alleviating the problem my old Dell had.

Another plus is the battery life. My old computer would give me about an hour if I was careful and didn't run too much. This new notebook under full power has at least three hours of battery life, upwards of six if you're careful. Score another one for Apple hardware. The battery life of my old notebook was a bit of a pain on my cross Canada adventure last summer. Though three to six hours still wouldn't be enough for a multi-day trip on a train, it would provide much more time for typing up one's thoughts as one goes along. So with luck I get more than the two and a half years I got out of my old notebook out of this one. RIP Dell 1150, hello MacBook!