White laptop. Does it show fingerprints?

no, it doesn't show fingerprints or smudges easily. it's very smooth and hard on the outside, much like an ipod. inside, it's a "softer" matte off-white plastic.

the trackpad is slightly rough, and made seemingly of the same material as the inside plastic that make up the palm rests.

Yes, a little but not as bad as the black one (IMO). Just from what I have seen at the store.

The white MacBook is made out of the same materials as the iBook.

From experience, I can say it is nearly impossible not to scratch the iBook.

Yes, fingerprints are visible on the outside of the case, and the outside will have scratches on it's surface immediately after you touch it for the first time.

But, the scratches are usually very fine, and very light. The outside of ours is covered in light scratches that go every which direction.

Most of them can only be seen in bright light, or when tilted into the light. But, there are a few larger scratches in the case from being stored in the carrying case.

The inside of the computer is made out of a more durable finish. So, you won't see fingerprints and scratches as easily on the inside surface around the keyboard.

The high-gloss surface is the problem. You cannot have a high-gloss finish without it being susceptible to scratching (unless it's glass, and then you need a diamond to scratch it).

The black MacBook should not develop scratches as easily as the white one. It should only scratch if you make a significant scraping against it. It shouldn't scratch just from touching it or resting it on your lap like the white one.

But, the black may show fingerprints more easily. But, those wipe off. You can't just wipe-off scratches.

Hello,

Ok thanks. I think I may just save my money I'm only
16 and go with the white one scratches won't kill...
my wallet will

No problem. Everyone has their own priorities 🙂

Also once I buy one do you have anything you
reccomend me do (I've never owned a Mac). Should I do
the Super Duper thing, or delete the languages to
free up space, or anything else you reccomend? (I
just saw a post about that stuff but am not really
sure what they actually are)

I would not delete all the other languages. I've actually seen a few programs and updates that would not install properly if you used a separate utility to remove the foreign languages.

I haven't personally had a problem with this. But, I have assisted others who found this to be the cause. I cannot remember which programs or updates were the problem though. But, it came down to a problem caused by the update requiring the foreign languages to be there (or else it was something else that was broken by manually removing them).

If you want to leave the foreign languages off, then I would recommend performing a clean (fresh) installation of your entire operating system and it's programs. This would be done by formatting the hard drive, and re-installing everything from scratch. Then, choose the custom install option, and deselect any languages you don't want.

This would be much more reliable.

But, unless you went with the absolute smallest hard drive, I probably wouldn't worry about the extra languages. They take up between 2 and 4 GB of space depending on what you have installed. Usually closer to 2 GB.

I've never used SuperDuper, I have personally used Carbon Copy Cloner.

But, I don't have any personal problem (or experience) with SuperDuper.

It is always a good idea to make a backup copy of your entire system.

A bootable back-up copy can save you a lot of wasted time (and lost data) if you should suffer a hard drive failure, or a system failure.

Imagine taking your dead computer to the shop for servicing. And, you get it back with a fresh installation of everything. All you data is gone.

Now, if you had a bootable backup, you'd just copy that back to your hard drive, and be back to normal. No time lost (O.K. maybe an hour for the restore).

Oh and also should I worry I will get a glossy screen instead of a matte
screen?

That I can't give you a definite answer on. I'm still trying to determine how big of an issue the glossy screen is myself. I have never had a glossy screen. So, my concern is whether it will be as durable as the old matte screens that I am accustomed to. I can't offer you an opinion there yet. Sorry.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Hello,

Great thanks for taking the time to write all that
out. I'll be sure to make backups every now and then
🙂

Always glad to help 🙂

One last question does the MacBook boot Windows
standard or is that an extra cost (want it b/c some
programs I use only run on Windows) if it doesn't
that would be fine I guess I will use my old PC to do
that stuff...

The machine has the ability built-in.

But, you do need software to enable it.

First, you need something like "Boot Camp" or Parallels to enable the machine to run Windows.

Then, you need to purchase a Retail package of MS-Windows (The full version).

"Boot Camp" is free from Apple at this point (public beta)

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Parallels is a commercial program.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

And, Windows generally costs around $200 ($185 at the right shop) for the full version retail box.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/default.mspx

Hope this helps.

I just got home about one hour ago, I am on my brand new White Macbook 1.83 GHz. The outside (Plastic Case) shows finger prints very well, the trackpad is very very smooth which is very nice, and the clicker is a little rough, but in my opinion perfect. It is an amazing laptop! I am loving it!

Hello,

I don't think I will need to purchase Windows because
it should have come on a boot disc with my Dell
right?

Not necessarily.

First, that would be illegal. The Windows Operating System is licensed for 1 installation per Windows package / Install disk.

Second, the OEM disks that come with computers are licensed specifically to that computer. So, you cannot legally use it with another computer even if you removed it from the first one.

Third, many of the OEM disks are not full installation disks. Some of them are actually everything except the installation routines. I've seen this with a few Gateway systems. The installation disk was actually a "Companion disk", so without the installation routines (which were only on the hard drive) you could not perform a full installation. Kind of leaves you in a bad spot if the hard drive actually fails.

Also what boot program do you reccomend? Boot camp or
that other one? Also since Boot Camp is just a beta

Can't comment on how buggy it is. I haven't tried it.

is it really buggy? And lastly when they do update
Boot Camp to not be beta to install the new version
would you lose all the stuff you did on Windows
previously?

And, Apple has not indicated what will happen when the final release is available. Apple doesn't make future announcements. You find out when they do it.

The difference between Boot Camp and Parallels, is that Boot Camp enables you to only startup either Windows or the Mac OS. You choose which one you want each time you turn on or restart the computer. A menu type selection.

Parallels allows you to run Windows at the same time as the Mac OS (basically running along-side or on-top of the Mac OS). But, you do get a little slower Windows performance this way.

I haven't tried either personally yet. I am still trying to decide which Intel system I want, and when I want to upgrade. I'm still making do with my older PowerPC Mac systems at the moment.

Well, it's getting late here.

If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them tomorrow.

I hope I've been helpful.

I'll be back on sometime tomorrow.

Hello,

Oh okay... well that sure is cheap of Microsoft...

Yes, but that's the way it goes.

Last quesion I saw a post saying that the up and down
arrows on the MacBook have a hardware problem is this
true?

I'm going to have to leave that one for someone else. I don't have a MacBook yet. Still considering it.

Well, it's off to bed now. Talk to everyone in the morning.