Following my recent traumas with our MacBook I’ve been sent my old Dell by work. It might have no battery life, a cracked case, a power supply that doesn’t work in the UK, a screen that’s fading to nothing, less memory than my iPod Shuffle, but it’s served me well for over 4 years so I’m happy. And hey, the hard drive and keyboard are both in good condition, as they’re newer than the rest of the machine.
Now Macs are often criticized for only having one mouse button. To misquote Peter Cook in the Pete and Dud Tarzan sketch, “I have nothing against your left mouse button. The trouble is, neither do you” I too thought this, and think it still for the desktop (that’s why I have a Microsoft Wireless Mouse with 5 buttons, which allows me all sorts of essential Expose goodness too). But on laptops I’m converted; the Mac way is better.
But, and it’s a but of J-Lonic proportions, only if it’s a newer Mac laptop, specifically anything with the special right-click feature. This interprets two fingers on the trackpad along with a click as being a right-click, and is so much better than having a separate button that, were such things in the line of being routinely funny, this wouldn’t even be funny. Combine it with two fingers moved up and down to indicate the desire to scroll (contrasted with the British signal of two fingers moved up and down to indicate your desire for someone else to remove themselves from your presence in a sexual manner) and the Mac wins hands (and indeed, fingers) down.
I still like my Dell though. It hurts so good.