Bigger is betterhttp://norman.walsh.name/2007/08/03/bigger10802007-08-03T08:42:04-04:00$Date$NormanWalsh2007Norman WalshDoes size matter?EmilyDickinsonDeath is the supple Suitor
That wins at last-
It is a stealthy Wooing
Conducted first
By pallid innuendoes
And dim approach
But brave at last with Bugles
And a bisected Coach
It bears away in triumph
To Troth unknown
And Kindred as responsive
As Porcelain.(Laptops, folks, we're talking about laptops. I
don't accept any responsibility for what you
thought I might be writing about.)Several months ago,
I hinted that I might
switch. I
saved my pennies and when the time came to actually make the decision,
the pennies went into the home
reno fund instead, conveniently saving me from having to
actually, you know, decide.But the warranty on
this ThinkPad is just about
to run out and I have another collection of pennies, so I think it's time.I'm about 99% sure I'm going to switch. Mostly for the novelty,
I think. And for a few commercial apps that I want to try. I have some
reservations about moving to a “closed source” platform, but
realistically, it's not going to make that much difference. I'm going to run
the same few dozen open source programs I've always relied on
(Emacs,
Perl,
Python,
rxvt,
NetBeans, etc.). There's an enormous universe of
free software out there and shifting platforms isn't going to change the
miniscule fraction of it that I use, and to which I sometimes contribute, in
any perceptable way.And, although I don't use very much commercial software at the moment
(Saxon is the only thing I can think of;
I have an old license for VMware, but it never ran
fast enough to tempt me to upgrade, probably because I don't have enough RAM),
there's a universe of that, too, so my using
Photoshop or
Lightroom (instead of,
or in addition to,
GIMP) or OmniGraffle isn't going
to be a perceptable change either.The trackpad's going to suck, and one mouse button is stupid,
but I'll get used to it. The thing that really worries me right now is
focus-follows-mouse.
That could be a show-stopper. (I suppose, worst case,
I can scrap OSX and run
Linux on it.)And, coming back to the title of this essay, the size. Do I go for the
15” or the 17”. (Yes, I know, the little 13” is wonderful, but I want a laptop I
can work on without an
external monitor and I want a desktop
replacement; small and light are nice, but I'd carry a sack of bricks if it
gave me more horsepower.)Consider:The cardboard underneath my Thinkpad in that photo is the size
of a 17” MacBook Pro, the black
line on the cardboard marks the dimensions of the 15” MacBook.Everytime I pick up a 17” MacBook, I'm reminded of a tray table.
But realistically, it's not that much bigger than the 15” which isn't
much bigger than my ThinkPad (smaller in one dimension, bigger in the
other).And I can get a 1920x1600 display on the 17 incher. So I fret
about the size, but really, I'm going to get the big one, aren't I?
Yeah, probably.