So you’re finally leaving us, white MacBook. I guess this day was inevitable; can’t say I’m all that broken up about it. Heck, the sooner you move out, the better.
Still, we had some good times, didn’t we? Yeah. Remember when you were all new and polished, and you showed me how much faster your Core Duo processor was than ‘ol iBook’s PowerPC ticker? That was awesome. And you were so sexy — your smooth, sculpted shell gleaming under the sun, the perfect size for fun on the go.
And boy did your shell come off easy. I’ll never forget the night I swapped out your memory and gave you a new hard drive. It lasted what, three minutes — but it was the best time I’d ever had doing that.
But then you started to crack up. And I mean, in the bad way. I remember how I watched you slowly shed that thin strip of veneer (why do all my memories of you have to do with things being peeled off?) between your shell and your keyboard, until they seemed almost completely separated. You just sat around like that. We’d have lunch with friends, and they’d ask “dude, why does your laptop have a big hole in it?” I’d get so embarrassed.
So we went to the Apple store, and they gave you a new body (isn’t plastic surgery awesome?) and you were good as new. And that’s where I saw her — an aluminum MacBook Pro. She was faster than you, had more memory…and she had the hottest bod I’d ever seen. She wore one single, seamless piece of aluminum, all the way around. The fact that she was also a little skinnier and smarter than you didn’t hurt either.
That aluminum MBP (that’s her nickname) and I are together now. And since we got together, there are even thinner — way thinner — laptops out there; the new MacBook Air is smarter, lighter and faster than you ever were. And less expensive to be with. And yeah, her screen is two inches smaller (her big sister has the same size screen as you, but is $300 more to get to know than you were), but I’m not really into big screens. Heck, my iPad (yes, I’ve been seeing an iPad on the side) has a smaller screen than the MBA and I like her just fine.
It’s not your fault. You tried to keep up — as the years went by, you became faster, smarter; even your endurance improved. But you’ve looked almost exactly the same for five years now, and that white shell of your has been around for, what, ten years? I know, it was all the rage when you were young. But look around — white is about as fashionable as a mullet now.
You’re a dinosaur, white MacBook. It’s time for you to go. And take that silly iPod Classic with you.
When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.
87 responses to “Bye, White MacBook; Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out [Opinion]”
iPod classic is not silly. It is 160gb.. a lot of ppl out there still appreciate that size hahaha !
Humpf! We still are very happy with our white MacBooks. Both of them. They still do exactly what we bought them for — word processing, spreadsheets, email, web browsing and light “first pass” photo editing. I just installed Lion on one of them, and it works just great. They’re absolutely as useful a tool today as they were the day we bought them. Sure, I’d love to get a new, svelte MacBook Air. But, I really don’t need it. For heavier work, we’ve got a nice i5-based 27″ iMac.
As for the iPod — mine’s a real iPod classic, with only a 80G hard disk. And, I’ve got plenty of space left.
Just because a piece of tech is older, there’s not necessarily any reason to trash it — especially if it’s doing its job. Our societal “it’s old, it’s junk” mentality is a large part of why we’re in the economic mess we’re in.
What a great romance piece!
This would be offensive if it wasn’t so funny, I love my MacBook but i can’t wait to upgrade to the Air and get a 27″ iMac as well
still using my late 2009 white macbooks. it is sad that they have to go, but that’s where you go with technology and inovations… cycles and the graveyard of it just what makes it exciting…
Three weeks ago I laughed to myself while walking buy TWO TABLES of white MacBooks at an Apple store, for this very reason. White plastic…your day is through.
Agreed! What is Apple without a click wheel iPod anyway. Not an Apple I know.
I think Apple is missing the boat with this one…I still don’t see the Air as a low-end notebook, it’s a niche market machine. For those of use who don’t need massive computing power in our laptops, the Macbook is the perfect machine. Easily upgradeable and more than capable of doing everything you need and more than a few things that you want. Kinda makes me wonder how much longer the Mac Pro has to live now that it’s the only machine with easily replaceable bits. Looks like I’ll be hanging onto my Macbook as long as she’ll run.
The iPod Classic should stay. While I may not have 160 GB of music in my iTunes, I do appreciate being able to use it as an external hard drive. Takes a hell of a lot less time than burning a DVD if I want to bring a movie file to a friend’s house.
Very well wrote piece.
i nearly cried…
Didn’t they try to get rid of the Macbook once already?
i think we will see it come back
Well . . . I understand that Apple is trying to convince folks that the better way to go is with the 11″ MacBook Pro, and that they think this is a “smart marketing move”. But the MacBook was an entry level laptop computer that could truly be a person’s primary/only computer, and the Air is not ready for prime time in that area. These users will not likely be convinced that a computer with less horsepower, with a cripplingly small mass storage device, a smaller screen, no DVD player, etc, and costing . . . what? $150 more is the way to go. Poppycock!!!
Well . . . I understand that Apple is trying to convince folks that the better way to go is with the 11″ MacBook Pro, and that they think this is a “smart marketing move”. But the MacBook was an entry level laptop computer that could truly be a person’s primary/only computer, and the Air is not ready for prime time in that area. These users will not likely be convinced that a computer with less horsepower, with a cripplingly small mass storage device, a smaller screen, no DVD player, etc, and costing . . . what? $150 more is the way to go. Poppycock!!!
Writer of this poor and stupid article: maybe you think that entryway macbook air, with 64GB space, and 11`screen is better?? I think Apple ditched white one too early, they should wait till there is 256GB space in the smallest air at least.
we will miss the only real Macbook. Because it remind us the old days when we were still heretic for the rest of the world….the black was for the rich ones, the white for the rest of us!
I’ve had my white MacBook since ’07. Still running strong and it’s got OS X Lion on it now! =]
NO. Leave the iPod classic alone. It’s what makes Apple, Apple.
I still use my white macbook (2008 model I think), I’ve used it to some pretty heavy duty stuff and it was up to the task fine, Would yo be able to comfortably run fcp on a 11″ mba? If you want to use stuff like this and are on a budget there still grreat machines I think
It is high time it was thrown out this misery.
I don’t think its time is up until an equal replacement arrives. I am on my second white Macbook (Late 2010) after owning my previous model for 4 years. It is my only pesonal computer and I couldn’t replace it with a MacBook Air as it simply wouldn’t have enough Hard Drive space to function as my only computer. My iTunes library alone would use all of the available space.
The WhiteBook is dead. Long live the Whitebook!
I am fortunate enough to have one of the first i5 27″ iMacs, and it is a great computer (though I wish it had Thunderbolt or whatever it’s called – stupid name). But these little white MacBooks are workhorse machines. I didn’t mention it in my diatribe above, but I can even do some fairly impressive video editing on it with Final Cut Express (I’ve run Final Cut Pro 7 on it as well, but that wasn’t real pretty).
Sure, they’re “only” dual-core machines, but their time is far from through.
agreed, cant live without my classic. i like music, i need 160gb
Very well written piece, even ;o)
I wouldn’t be interested in the White/Black plastic MacBook, but it could have made a nice entry level, inexpensive laptop. You know, kind of like the iPhone 3GS of the laptop market. A nice $700 price with a Core i3 chip…
Writing this on my white MacBook now (Nov 2010) and I love it. It does what I need it to do, it can handle everything I throw at it. Editing a video in iMovie is a chore and takes an age, but for a base config machine, it’s awesome.
IF I get another Mac laptop, damn right it’ll be a MBP. Like hell am I gonna put up with an 11″ screen, hardly any storage, and no DVD drive. No, I rarely use it, but it’s good to actually have it there in case.
This is the best thing I’ve read all day. Granted, I haven’t read a lot today, but I feel comfortable saying that it will be the best thing I read all day.
Yes. That’s correct. Just visited myself in the future and I have confirmed that this will be the best thing I read on July 21, 2011. Congratulations.
In the picture, that’s one of the older models of the MacBook, because it has that square base.
Yeah, I wholeheartedly disagree with the discontinuation of the iPod Classic. Until SSD gets small enough and cheap enough to have storage of over 120GB in an iPhone or iPod Touch, the Classic needs to stick around. I’ve got over 150GB of music (as do many other people this day in age, with it’s ease of accessibility), and I’ll be damned if I need to sift through 90 other GB of music regularly to make playlists and have access to an album I haven’t heard in awhile. And don’t retort with anything about the iCloud or GoogleMusic, because until they come COMMONPLACE and WELL TESTED, they are still an untried and unknown variable compared to having almost 200GB of storage in your back pocket. The Classic’s time will come, but not until other, newer technologies evolve to reasonable prices and stability.
That’s just mean. She doesn’t deserve what you just said…
Fuck you Apple. Some of us don’t want to pay an extra $200 for RAM and an aluminum body, because we can buy the RAM cheaper somewhere else and just get a case.
You’re poor and stupid. You’re also gray and have no facial features.
You’re absolutely right. I’m not saying we should all dump our old gadgets — just that the white MacBook’s time is up at the Apple store.
Thanks!
The base 11″ MBA actually costs $50 less, and is now faster than the MacBook was. That and the shed weight, higher-def screen and SSD drive makes for a pretty compelling primary laptop, especially for the consumer group the MacBook was primarily aimed at: students and those without heavy processor needs. Plus, optical drives are going the way of the floppy drive…
I have a white Macbook and I love it, even though now it feels like a grandpa. Hope to migrate to a Macbook Pro soon, but I’ll always remember the white Macbook as my first Mac. Sigh. :’o)
Like! :)
Yeah, this is potentially a big drawback; read John’s piece for tips on how to adjust to the smaller HD.
Yeah, this is potentially a big drawback; read John’s piece for tips on how to adjust to the smaller HD:
http://www.cultofmac.com/how-t…
You’re absolutely right; it’s my old ca. 2007 MacBook.
Thanks George; be sure to wipe the TARDIS down after use.
Wait till you try an i5 combined with an SSD.
Well, I’m already pretty spoiled. At work, we have some current-version, all-out Mac Pros, each with dual-quad processors, 32GB RAM, and fiber channel connections back to a pair of 32TB arrays. We can deal with something like 22 simultaneous streams of full HD footage across the fabric — or 64 streams of SD video. Sheer madness! :)