T60P VS MBP, now that it can run windows......

[pundit]

1. Weight: I have the 6cell battery, and the T60p is just a wee bit heavier than the MBP.

I had both the 6- and 9-cell, and I've measured my MBP to be lighter, but it's very dense. I don't know how else to explain it, but it looks a lot lighter than it weighs.

2. Screen: the MBP's screen was a bit brighter. My T60p has one stuck pixel.

Neither my MBP nor the T60p had dead pixels, but my T60p had a much better vertical viewing angle, and much more noticeable set of darkened corners.

3. MBP has Dashboard. I thought that was the slickest thing until I found Konfabulator (aka Yahoo Widgets) for Windows. This is a draw.

I thought this was a gimmick at first, but realise I use it a couple of times an hour. It is useful, and cool looking for the first few minutes.

4. Like you, I am a photographer. Where is the Intel-compiled Photoshop? Doesn't exist yet. My combination of Photoshop7 and Picassa (for slideshows) cannot be beat.

I haven't ever used photoshop, so don't miss it. I built GIMP from sources within my first few days of owning it. It is Intel compiled, almost by definition!

5. Heat: The MBP's heat was unbearable, and Apple is still screwing around with their own loyal customers by not even acknowledging the problem. My T60p runs much, much, much cooler. Same CPU, same video card (ATI V5200 vs. ATI X1600). This is a huge win for the T60p.

Here are my temperatures under different conditions. The T60p is cooler, the MBP is quieter.

6. I'm a Unix-head, and I love the idea of the MacOS being BSD. However, I've got Linux running inside VMWare. It's pretty close, but MacOS wins here.

As cool as Mac OS purports to be (and how much I love that I can close my lid, go home, reopen and even shell scripts continue like as if nothing happened), there is so much about the BSD userland being old-school that bothers me. I'm still on the fence about replacing OS X with a modern GNU.

7. Looks: The MBP is sleek and sexy, that is for sure. But scientifically speaking, the T60p is more manly.

I think it definitely looks sexier. While that doesn't affect me, the fact that it turns a lot more heads in my---otherwise geek entrenched circles---does. And why would you assume I'd want to look more manly? Different people have different agenda, you know.

8. The freaking Alt-Tab combination works as expected on the T60p for my ssh terminal programs.

I am not going to argue for OS X on any front. There is just so much about it that soon gets to me. And it's mostly me having to unlearn and relearn things, but still.

Anyhow, I think the MBP and T60p are the absolute two best laptops on the market, bar none. Maybe I will re-visit Apple's notebooks next year when Photoshop CS3 is Intel-compiled and Apple fixes the heat problem.

And since Intel-native versions of Adobe apps were not my concern, I decided to dip my toes into Apple waters anywhere. I do not find its warmth "unbearable," just as I didn't find my T60p's fans running "unbearable."

[There, I think I've "fair and balanced"ly (TM) presented my views on different parts of the tale.]

Obligatory link to other notes here. For the three people who haven't chanced upon it yet.