MacBook Pro

Well it looks as if the time has come for a new computer. I'm currently using a trusty Mac PowerBook G4 as my main computer, which has served me well over the last couple of years, but alas requirements of a computer science major are strongly urging me to move up in the world to an Intel based MacBook Pro. That said, I'm really looking forward to the speed improvement overall, as well as being able to use Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Parallels, in case you are unfamiliar, is an application that allows Intel based Mac users to run Microsoft Windows simultaneously to Mac OS X without rebooting. In other words, I will be able to run Windows and Mac OS X at the same time. This will allow me to use applications currently required for my major that only run on Windows such as Xilinx ISE and Visual C++, while still enjoying my cozy home in OS X.

On the hardware side I'm excited because as I mentioned before the machine will be much faster, but also because I've read that the new MacBook Pro is lighter than its predecessor PowerBook G4 (from this website, which also has a nice comparison of speeds between the older PowerBook and new MacBook Pro). This is great news to me considering how often I carry my computer to and fro.

The only hard part about this whole transaction (besides the additional school loan) is the wait. This time its not the wait for the computer to arrive, which is also always painful, but the wait to place the order. It turns out that Apple will be releasing a new version of the OS X operating system (Mac OS 10.5 Leopard) sometime this spring. I also did a little research and found this time line detailing the date of every major release of the PowerBook/MacBook Pro series. From the looks of it, a hardware upgrade is due on the MacBook Pro around the same time as Leopard is schedule to come out. Considering that this may be as early as two months from now, I'd better bide my time and wait.