The screen on my 17 inch MacBook Pro was cracked and I had no money to properly sell CLEAR. As my very last asset - and the final tie to my former life - I sold my Mac for $550 on Saturday, $100 less than I wanted. Had the screen been in good condition, I could have gotten $1100 for it.
Selling the Mac was bittersweet. I want a new unibody Mac, but I don't have the funds for one. And, I needed a Windows machine, but I didn't want to go so cheap. However, my options were limited, so choices were made in the name of being successful. Not only will I miss the Mac, all of my data is locked up in the Mac format. Very difficult to convert it back for use on Windows.
The sale of the Mac puts me in business. Its sale helped me to get a new Acer Aspire 5516 laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic for $299 at Micro Center, a Canon PIXMA iP2600 inkjet printer for $30 at WalMart and a CLEAR USB modem with the first month of service paid for.
I expect to be very successful selling CLEAR. I plan to have a new 17 inch MacBook Pro by November. I will also upgrade the printer to a unit that scans, copies, faxes and is network capable.
Using Windows Vista isn't that bad. It takes a bit longer to startup and shutdown, but for what I need, the job is being handled well. This is the most exposure I've had to Vista. I moved to Mac OS X when my XP computer crashed in 2004. I have used the evaluation version of Windows 7 and it is nice. But, I'm sticking with a Mac as my primary choice.
The Acer Aspire 5516 is actually a nice computer. If you're looking for a very inexpensive NEW Windows computer that looks good, you can't beat it. I recommend it. It compares well to the $999 MacBook. Other than the 1.6 GHz AMD processor and lack of a webcam and integrated microphone, the feature set of both computers are identical - 160GB hard drive, DVD burner, wired and wireless networking, 15.6-inch display (1366x768, compared to the Mac's 1280x800 13.3-inch unit). And, with a clean install, this little Acer can run the 64-bit versions of Vista Ultimate and Windows 7 Ultimate.
The Acer has an SD Card slot, a very helpful feature the Mac lacks, unless you pay $200 more for the aluminum unibody 13 inch MacBook Pro. The Mac is built a bit better than the Acer, but for $299, I've let A LOT of things slide.
As a technology professional, I will have an ongoing need for a Mac and a Windows computer. As such, the Windows laptop will continue service for Internet Explorer, the Windows version of Microsoft Office and specific programs that do not run on a Mac. Even though I can run Boot Camp with my Mac, I prefer not to have a Windows installation on my Mac. Everything else, I prefer to handle on a Mac.
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