Advice on Mac laptop buying wanted.
 

I am debating buying a mac laptop, mainly to get used to the operating system since I keep finding myself having to do some kind of support (or passing it up) for macs.

It is also going to be used for the purpose of seeing if I need a Windows based Laptop anymore. I have always been a Windows user, or Linux on my servers, but I'm ready for a change. After installing Vista and using that for 3 weeks, I went back to XP and now am determined to never use windows again at home if at all possible.

I don't need a top of the line Mac, mainly because I don't want to spend $1000 for a 13" top of the line model.

I don't think I'd mind a PowerPC version at all as long as it would run the newest OS.

Since I will be completely new to Apple again, I don't know much about what I'm looking for. What recommendations do yall have as for the minimum hardware I should look for, or models I should look for, prices, etc.

I would prefer a 15" or bigger screen model since I will probably be doing programming from it (inside a VM) every once in a blue moon.

I'm very VERY happy with my 15" MacBook Pro. I retired a Windows laptop and a Linux desktop, and now use it exclusively, dual-screening with a 24" widescreen LCD.

What Rat said - I have the 15" and it's beeeyoooootiful. You can get the student/teacher version of Office for about $120. I didn't go crazy, but I did get a fair amount of memory etc so that I could make it last a while. I'm not the type to buy laptops regularly. See this thread! We talked about it a bit before it degraded into "mac vs. pc" stuff. :)

You can find refurbished Mac laptops that are only 1 generation old at a reasonable discount, and considering how long they last you'll still be in good shape. Imagine buying a 2004 BMW instead of a 2007 Kia.

Get the first generation Intel MacBook Pro 15". I found one for my mom that was around $1k. It had a good processor and more than enough ram. Don't get less than a 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB ram. I'd never get less than 2 GB ram personally, but being a Mac guy I obviously love throwing money at my computer.

I appreciate the comments (and link to the other thread Jess). I think I am going to troll on ebay for a few weeks and try to catch a good deal on one of those MacBooks. I don't mind spending up to about $1000 since I know I could re-bay it if I fall in love with Mac and decide I want to upgrade to a newer model (or if I hate it).

I'm a bit depressed that I just sunk $600 into my PC for upgrades a few weeks ago...

If there's an Apple Store around where you live, stop on in. The Specialists there are trained to help you find the complete solution.

The nearest Apple store is about an hour away. I've been watching ebay for the past couple days, and finally settled on a 13" Macbook, brand new for $900 w/ Leopard OS. I'm going to use this until I know for sure I want a beefier one.

intecel - if that laptop is brand-new as in unopened, there is something fishy about the deal. Be wary.

I should have said 'damn near new' instead of 'brand new'... He says it was purchased a week ago, and is including the receipt. It has only been turned on for a couple hours total.

He is getting his Leopard disk in the mail monday/tuesday and will ship that to me when it comes in.

I figure it's a decent deal. If I had gone thru apple, it would have cost me $1070 with my school discount.