My Apple Vista Laptop: A No-Go

For what it's worth, I retract my initially positive response to installing Vista on the Apple MacBook Pro 15" (late 2008). Since my last post about Vista, I have reverted to working on XP Pro SP2 until I find a way to get Vista to work properly.

In the meantime, I wanted to make readers aware of the following problems I've had running Vista on my MacBook:

• There have been very unpredictable freezes (mouse frozen) that require a hard power-down, i.e. press and hold the power button down until it shuts down. It may happen within 30 minutes, it may take a week (which is why I didn't notice this at first). I've been through various hardware driver versions, and it occurs both with a base system without updates, and with any and all updates.
• Under the default installation and drivers, iTunes has nearly constant audio popping. Windows Media Player works fine, but for years I have purchased music through the iTunes music store (using XP on PC hardware) and would like to continue doing so.
• Vista runs the MacBook Pro hot and there is no way to control fan speed permanently across reboots (i.e. properly) to help cool it down. For example, my PC *quad* core Vista work desktop averages maybe 30-45 degrees centigrade for CPU/GPU, my MacBook Pro running Vista: 65-80 degrees. I know this is a deficiency of Apple's fan support under Windows because if I reboot from a Vista session back into Mac OS X, the fans spin full-tilt trying to cool the laptop down!

I've spent some long, frustrating hours of re-installs and troubleshooting using standard Windows methods and suggestions from Apple support forums. Although I'm past my 90 days for phone support (it's now $49 per incident), I can make an appointment at an Apple Store, and will probably do that, both to make Apple aware of the issues, and to give them an opportunity to fix them. Even though there are numerous threads about similar problems on their support site, I continue to read that Apple phone support is unaware of it.

The closest I get to a working Vista system (no freezes and no audio popping) is by doing the following:

• For freezes and iTunes audio popping: Remove the nVidia display drivers (unacceptable: no external display support).
• For iTunes audio popping: Disable KbdMgr.exe (no hot keys for display brightness, eject, etc.).
• For iTunes audio popping: Disable various network adapters (no wireless, bluetooth).

Obviously, this results in a system with greatly reduced functionality. It's akin fixing brake problems by not driving.

I have tried Vista SP2, which just became available to the general public, and a short test resulted in no freezes. I also had no freezes under Windows 7 RC during a short test. Neither fixes the iTunes audio popping. I have a second hard drive that I use for this testing, so I may swap it in from time to time, to see if the freezes are really gone. However, for now I need to get on with life!

As for the overall issue of running Windows on Apple hardware, I simply expect Apple to live up to its claim that Vista works on Boot Camp. They made the claim, they need to back it up.

UPDATE: I bought Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and Boot Camp 3.0 does not correct the lack of the ability to turn keyboard backlighting totally off, like you can on Mac OS. It also does not improve the DTC latency issues, and therefore iTunes behaves just as badly. Not sure about crashes because I no longer care. If I need Vista or Windows 7 I'll by a PC.

Review - Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life

I recently watched the documentary titled Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, and enjoyed it very much. The film does a great job of portraying the history of her life via a central theme: her passionate sense of life, and her quest to make the most of it.

The tone of the movie is very positive as it follows events from the perspective of her struggle for freedom, both political and ideological (i.e. to free man's mind, if you will), and rides on her undying desire to always find the best in everything. There are some great bits about her relationship with her family members, her encounters with movie directors and executives, and other lesser-known personal details. I was struck by the extent to which she was aided at critical moments by sympathetic souls who saw her vision and passion and helped her, and how grateful she was for it. I already knew that, but I mention it because it runs contrary to the silly negative views of Rand as some sort of anti-social monster. To me, that speaks less of Rand, than of a person's views of what social interaction should be like!

I also had forgotten that for a time, she lived in a home designed by Richard Neutra. Even before reading The Fountainhead, I thought I wanted to be an architect, and have always loved modernist architecture (being a solitary worker, I was eventually turned off by the contingent nature of architectural projects). Perhaps I need to revisit the idea of owning a home like that, on a more modest scale, of course. And perhaps in the mountains.

I recommend you see this film if you are an admirer of Rand or are curious. Unlike with some movies these days, I think you'll find your two hours was well-spent! It's both informative and inspiring.