( Caution ... rant approaching )
I initially visited Best Buy to purchase the MacBook, as I had recently gotten a "rewards points" card from there and thought this would be a good way to rack up some points. I'd had some less than stellar experiences with Best Buy in the past; overpriced merchandise, pushy extended warranty sales, and general lack of a clue. But this visit was dramatically worse. I walked in to the Best Buy in Apple Valley, MN expecting to drop over $2000 on a new MacBook Pro. I was on a schedule and wanted to just grab one, pay for it and leave. After trying mostly in vain top get someone's attention, the first guy I spoke to kept trying to convince me that the 15.4" MacBook Pro on display was actually a 17". We walked over to the 17" machines and he said something about those being wide screen so they "looked" bigger. Unbelievable. So I asked if they had any 15" machines and he said no. Even though I was looking at one. Anyway, there was somebody there who seemed to have a bit of a clue, but he was busy helping all the people who came in after me. Without delay, I left. I went to the Apple Store at the Mall of America and they were fantastic. Ok, rant concluded. Thanks for indulging me, I could go on for hours about how much I dislike Best Buy. I really wish Fry's would open a store in Minnesota!
Anyway, since this is my primary development machine, I wanted to make sure it was robust and would last me at least a little while. I opted for the latest MacBook Pro with a 2.4GHz CPU. Like I said, I will add more memory soon; if I need it.
I've loaded VMware Fusion, which appears to be incredibly well integrated into the MacOS environment. I'll be setting up my full development environment(s) in the coming days, so I'm looking forward to writing about my experience. This is my first real experience with MacOS, so I'll chronicle my struggles, discoveries and successes here. Mac people, please go easy on me.
