Calling the Mac experts

[frogbeastegg]

At the start of the year I was toying with the idea of getting a macbook of some sort to do my writing on. I got made redundant before I could look into it much; now I have a new job and the idea has returned. Thing is, I don't know anything about macs. I haven't used an Apple system since the early 90's. So I was hoping some of the people who do know about them could tell me if there was any point to buying one, and which particular type would be best.

I do not want to abandon my PC. I still intend to do all of my gaming and internet browsing there. The macbook would be for writing and little else, no distractions present on the system.

I'm considering it mainly because Macs have a reputation for "just working" and, if you listen to the enthusiastic praise, never suffer from any problems at all. I'm sceptical. I can see that they will suffer fewer problems relating to things like incompatibilities, but less problems with things like hardware failure? How many times have I nearly lost work due to some sort of PC failure in the past 5 years? Lots of times, the last being less than a month ago. My desktop is a great machine; I've had one bout of trouble in 2 years and 4 months. However that's the longest by far I've gone without PC problems of some sort, so I know it's the exception rather than the rule.

Macs also seem to have the reputation of being the writer's tool of choice. There's supposed to be a lot of powerful, easy to use writing and editing software available for them. I have no idea what’s out there. Currently I use Word 200 and, while overall it is great, I have been hitting some of its limitations. It’s not very good when wanting to move around large documents, such as locating a specific chapter midway through the manuscript and returning to edit it. My current manuscript is so big I get graphical glitches sometimes, or lines missed out in the display but which still exist invisibly in the background and reappear after I scroll the section up and down a bunch of times. I want to be able to write books - proper hundreds of pages long books with chapters, notes and everything –and I want to do so without pain.

So basically I want a proper, complete, easy to use and powerful dedicated writer's tool which won't be plagued by the occasional apocalypse. Is there any point in my getting one? It does seem like a lot of money to spend for one purpose based on the faint wish that somehow it will be better than my existing setup.

[Lemur]

I'll jump in before the others. OS X, the current Mac operating system, is based on BSD Unix, so yes, in general it "just works." Hardware failures are platform-agnostic, however. Your main source of insecurity in any laptop is ye olde hard drive, and no OS can change that. Backing up is essential. Fortunately, text documents are (relatively) small, so something as simple as a flash drive can back up your entire opus.

As for writing tools, it's true, there are a slew of interesting and useful tools available on OS X. Some are ports from Linux, some are home-grown, and many are also available on Windows. Examples:

Scrivener
z-write
Storymill
Novelwriter
Storyist

And so forth, etcetera, etcetera. I've given up on MS Office for long documents. When Office '07 couldn't open a perfectly good RTF without crashing to the desktop, I uninstalled the beast and downloaded OpenOffice, which has proved much more stable. Now I do all of my contract work in OO, and my wife has converted her business to using exclusively OO. Why pay good money for instability?

If the laptop is meant to be a writing pad, I wouldn't recommend going any fancier than the smallest, cheapest Macbook Pro, which is going for £900 right now. The aluminum frame adds durability, and the multi-touch pad is implemented very, very well. Keyboard is okay by me, but your mileage may vary.

Almost no maintenance is required for a Mac. The only virus seen in the wild requires you to download an application with a weird name, and then double-click the thing. I don't think our resident amphibian is sufficiently gullible to be at risk. Defragmenting is a waste of time. The only thing I'd recommend is firing up the Disk Utility once every six months or so and having it repair permissions. That's it.

I've been using Macs (and Windows) since the days of the coal-powered punchcard computer. Feel free to ask for any clarification.

-edit-

I see the new Macbooks are using the freaky-advanced new laptop battery that gives you much more battery life. Kinda cool.

[frogbeastegg]

Scrivener

That looks perfect. Just perfect! If it's not then several of the other mac only ones looked well worth a try.

Hardware failures are platform-agnostic, however. Your main source of insecurity in any laptop is ye olde hard drive, and no OS can change that. Backing up is essential. Fortunately, text documents are (relatively) small, so something as simple as a flash drive can back up your entire opus.

Currently I use 2 hard drives and a USB stick. The mac looks like it offers two extra backups for me. First there's the time capsule thingy; automated backup to a seperate external drive. Second there's a lot of extra safeties built into writing programs like Scrivener, things like the creation of an automatic seperate backup each time you save.

No viruses etc, good. Combine that with the fact that there would be no need to update drivers, software etc, no programs coming and going, and that in short the system would be incredibly limited in use, and nothing but a hardware failure should impact it. Right?

If the laptop is meant to be a writing pad, I wouldn't recommend going any fancier than the smallest, cheapest Macbook Pro, which is going for £900 right now. The aluminum frame adds durability, and the multi-touch pad is implemented very, very well. Keyboard is okay by me, but your mileage may vary.

That one looks fine. I can get one for £828 on amazon.uk.

The apple shop in town is offering the same for £1,000 but with a time capsule included. It's one of the old style capsules which have just been discontinued in favour of the faster, newer model. I'm not sure if that's a good deal or not; the capsules seem to be around £229 normally, however it is an older model and I do see that some people have trouble with them.

Both look to be limited offers so if I'm going to go for either I should do so ASAP. :shuffles feet: I don't know! I still don't know if it will be what I want - I don't know if I will be able to get on with the thing. I've been a PC user since the days of DOS.

This one can burn CDS or DVDs, correct? I'm having a hard time finding any information about what the super drive can do; you'd think they would make it clearer.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Our esteemed prosimian colleague covered most of the bases for you. I have been a dedicated Mac user for some years now and thus find OSX a much easier and more reliable beast.

If you can get the MacBook Pro, it's well worth the extra money. Since you are in the UK, you should keep an eye out on the Apple site for refurbished kit. You can often get a very good deal, and the bugs have been ironed out by the first user. If you want to be very mobile (if you enjoy writing in out of the way places for example) the MacBook Air is an absolute gem - especially if you get it on a refurb deal - otherwise a bit expensive.

For writing, the MacBook Pro (and Air surprisingly) keyboard is really balanced very well. It's got a lovely solid feel, and the finger gestures available on the trackpad make a mouse all but useless. I really rely on mice, but with my Air, I never miss one.

As you know, I used to write for a living, and I cannot recommend Scrivener too highly. It is everything a writer needs - a fantastic interface, awesome filing and categorisation facilities for research (web, photos, scans, documents) editing and searching features to die for, and a really clean full screen writing "tablet". As a professional scribbler, Lemur may have his own view which will be very worth considering, but I would buy a Mac just to have Scrivener. You will drool with excitement.

Superdrives are fully functional CD/DVD drives. On other points, the fact that Apple make the hardware and control software standards means that integration and reliability are very good. One can always get a lemon, but I have found the Apple stores (if you have one near) are very, very helpful - and you have a 14 day rejection period, even for refurbs. (You can get Scrivener on a 30-day trial so you could try your Mac and it together and if you hate the experience, send the computer back).

Note that you can also install Windows if you must, using Boot Camp to partition (though you need a full copy of whichever version, not an upgrade). Thus you can play games natively - though things like Civ IV have their own Mac port - and even RTW (urgh) is being ported in August.

For creative work like writing, you will never look back if you get a Mac.

Edit: Oh, I forgot. Time Capsule is one of those occasional Apple embarrassments, like Apple TV. They are enormously slow over wireless and all but useless. Get a reliable external drive like LaCie and use the Time Machine software built in to backup to it (one of Apple's truly inspirational ideas - utterly simple backup that just works - you'll never lose anything again).

[frogbeastegg]

Ok. That all helps, so thanks to both of you.

I'm leaning towards the £828 macbook pro on amazon. A £71 saving compared to the Apple bricks and mortar price is considerable. Unless there's something important which only the apple shop can offer me?

The amazon one is definitely the right one isn't it? The details all look identical as far as I can see. I'm wary of the price ...

[Banquo's Ghost]

The amazon one is definitely the right one isn't it? The details all look identical as far as I can see. I'm wary of the price ...

Yes, it's the same version. Since I'm in the UK at the moment, I looked up the Apple store and you can get a refurb of that model for only £729. Now that's a good deal (it has the usual 1-year warranty and qualifies for AppleCare too, so no risk to my mind). Bear in mind these come and go depending on availability.

Apple has the 14 day return policy, whereas I don't know if Amazon does.

[Lemur]

No viruses etc, good. Combine that with the fact that there would be no need to update drivers, software etc, no programs coming and going, and that in short the system would be incredibly limited in use, and nothing but a hardware failure should impact it. Right?

Even if you have programs coming and going, OS X is much more neat about it. Where a Windows application is allowed to write to the registry, the Program folder, the User folder, the Application Data folder, the Windows folder, and just about anywhere else it likes, apps in OS X are allowed to write to a maximum of three locations, all clearly labeled. (One of which cannot contain active code.) I don't know why Windows has never introduced a measure like that. Saves heaps of headaches when it's time to clean up your machine.

This one can burn CDS or DVDs, correct? I'm having a hard time finding any information about what the super drive can do; you'd think they would make it clearer.

The so-called superdrive can burn DVDs and CDs. No Blu-ray.

-edit-

Personally, I would not recommend the Macbook Air. No internal DVD drive, much higher price, and all to have a laptop that it wafer-thin. Well, maybe if I fondled one in person I'd change my tune, but I think the low-end 13" Macbook Pro is the smart buy.

-edit of the edit-

Another nice thing about the Macbook pro: LED backlighting, which means a brighter screen that won't darken over time, as most fluorescent-backed screens do.