My original thought when I started Almost There Part 1 was to write down what I was thinking while dealing with Apple in the Enterprise Environment. I always thought I would be able to look back and see if Apple improved on things I felt the need to comment about. After the MacWorld 2008 keynote I felt the need to deviate a bit from the Enterprise focus and take a look at Apple's Mac lineup.
MacBook is a good all around notebook. I think the 1280x800 resolution is too low for my needs. I'm used to 1400xSOEMTHING on my 14" Dell Latitude.
Stepping up to the MacBook Pro gets you a choice of 15" or 17" versions. I've seen the 17" version, and I write it off as luggable not portable or notebook. My experience is that people who think they want a laptop this big release that after buying the thing and lugging it around on a trip or two that they really wanted the smaller one.
The latest Apple notebook, the MacBook Air is impressive, but to me it seems to be the companion to a more powerful desktop computer. With no optical drive you won't be using it to watch movies on the plane unless you buy your movies from iTunes or convert your DVDs, or obtain your movies some other way. Even still, transferring these files from one computer to another it limited by the lack of wired Ethernet.
Overall Apple's line of laptops feels complete. Entry level, mainstream, desktop replacement, and the ultra hot (though I'm not sure why) ultra portable are covered. Like many others, I think there is a hole in Apple's desktop line.
The MacMini is a great Small Form Factor computer. I use two of these at work as a Mac test environment, and would consider replacing my own work desktop with one if I could pack some more memory into one. I use virtual machines all the time at work on a less powerful processor, but 2GB of memory just isn't enough. As a standard office desktop or the Mac you buy to transition from PC to Mac the MacMini is great.
The iMac is a nice powerful machine and is what I'm considering as my next computer. It's slick, it's fast, it's powerful. It would replace my huge CRT with a slick LCD, and it would do everything I want to do and then some today. The one thing that gets me down here is the inability to upgrade the video card as the iMac is an all in one computer.
To get the ability to upgrade video cards down the road, I'd have to go with a Mac Pro. Without a doubt these are powerful machines.Apple has abandoned the Core 2 Duo processors and gone Xeon. I'm not sure I need that much power.
What I'm really looking for is an enthusiast computer. Something between the iMac and the Mac Pro. Room for two hard drives, a good amount of memory, and the option of changing out PCI-E cards supported by Apple. It's a very "PC" mind set, but it's what I want.
