I have this decision to make recently and it is driving me up the wall. I need a laptop because I sold my other laptops and now I am left with nothing. I have some ideas but each idea leaves me wanting more. I think to know what type of laptop you want, you first have to address what you need the laptop for. First I am going to list my needs and then I am going to list the pros and cons of my actual laptop choices.

• I use Zend IDE (Users Java runtime) for coding
• I use Firefox
• I use the Adobe Suite of products
• I edit video
• EMAIL!
• I game occasionally, mainly online Poker
• Instant messaging
• SSH to servers (command line connection)
• Database administration (Navicat, more Java runtime)
• FTP client is important
• Some type of remote disk is import, SFTP should be based on

So quickly off the top of my head, above is what I need in a laptop. The first order of business when making any type of computer purchase is operating system. I was a long time user of apple products. I have owned macbook, macbook pro, mac pro tower. I love the apple operating system. I also have strong feelings for the vista operating system (I’m crazy huh). Lets start with the cons of the two operating systems.

OS X

• Java runtime environment seems slow to me. (Zend, Navicat)
• When I hit the red dot in the corner of the window it does not exit the app
• Maximize button is good for nothing
• Solid enterprise email application is non-existent (Outlook 2007 is what I prefer to use)
• Gaming support is not as far along as I would prefer
• Firefox in OS X is just fair at best. Crashes fat too often
• Accessing applications still seems like a task rather then simple, unless its on the dock
• Windows media support is not that great, If it is embedded in a website, forget it

Vista

• No native terminal that runs unix tools (I hate cygwin)
• Constant administrator pop up, choose yes to continue (not that bad, just on installs or certain folder access)
• Not as slick as OS X, interfaces.

Well, I really thought I had more complaints about vista…hmm. Well thats what I need and thats what I dislike about each operating system. So now you know my torn position. I have many pros for each operating system. The last major thing is display size and resolution. I am looking at either a 17″ macbook pro with HD display or an HP HDX with 20″ WUXGA display.