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Running Windows on a MacBook - forgetting something?

A common meme going around the blogosphere right now is "my next Windows laptop will be a MacBook". Although I understand the sentiment  - they do make very nice laptop hardware - I wonder if these people have noticed something rather important (at least, important to me). From the pictures I've seen of the MacBook, it still only has one mouse button. I don't know about you, but I don't relish the idea of running Windows without a right mouse button.

It's possible that I'm wrong, that the pictures are deceptive, and there's actually two buttons in there (or maybe some kind of two zone button bar, similar to their mouse). But without that, the idea of a VistaBook is a non-starter to me.


22 Comments

  • ..."it has two 480-Mbps USB 2.0 ports..."

    rings a bell?

  • What, you mean plug in a mouse? Ever try using a mouse sitting in coach on an airplane? Sorry, not a good enough solution for me.

  • And the fact that that it's firmware isn't BIOS compatible...

  • what do you mean plugin? Never heard of wireless?

  • Chris - the BIOS issue supposedly isn't a problem for Vista (although it is for XP).



    Srdjan - Wired or wireless is irrelevant. You're still talking about using a mouse. No thanks.

  • Using OS X with only a one-button mousepad isn't a problem for me. The OS UI is designed well enough that I rarely need to access a context menu. For those times when I do, I just hold the ctrl key and click the mouse button. I'm sure a similar shortcut key could be set up under Vista.



    Actually, the two button mousepad on my Dell laptop annoys me. The two buttons are so close together that I'm always hitting the right one when I mean to hit the left one.



    A bigger problem for me in either case is that the damn mouse pad is below the keyboard. I'm 6'4", when I'm in an airplane seat I don't have a lot of room to go moving my arms around to hit mousepads. So I end up bending my wrist at weird angles to move the mouse. Hurts like hell after a while.

  • Macbook is still a 32-bit processor so you can't run the XP64 bits on it. EFI has a BIOS emulation mode, but Apple isn't using it on their laptops.

  • Yeah, what you're actually forgetting is the fact that anyone who buys a Mac to install Windows on it is a moron.

  • Would love to use a Mac and OSX but I need to use Windows (yes, I really do) The only way I can move to Apple is if I can use Windows on the same machine for some of the time. The only way Windows users can migrate is Apples that support both OS (and I can't wait)

  • and one more thing: you're all still idiots. give up the one-mouse button excuse. everybody, and i mean everybody, even little children, use two mouse buttons. everybody. why? because not everybody wants or has a cute little mac driver to pretend to the touchpad that it has two mouse buttons. not everybody has two arms so they can use the stupid ctrl or clover (and wtf is that called anyway?) button for the right-click. and not everybod wants to carry around a freaking mouse (wireless or wired, you idiots) to use a right mouse button. ergo, you're all still lemmings and idiots to believe in steve jobs saying you don't need two mouse buttons. hey i think he once said that the g5 is the world's fastest cpu. and you believed him, you losers.

    I'm George Bush, and I rule the world.

  • You do rule george. Mac OS is an over polished hyped up linux. The reason you can't get viruses on mac's is because they don't do anything, or allow you to do anything serious when it comes to the basic platform. This is why no one develops softare for mac's really. And the only software developed from mac's usualy started off on linux. Like all of the web browsers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not to fond of linux either. But after you spend the 5 hours it takes to get everything working propper and mounting your old NTFS file system it's not to bad asside from the opensource 3d rendering software. Mac's are for people who were to dumb to not get spyware while using windows. Or for people who just want a 'cute little computer' to accessorize with their volkswagen. The operating system is still weak when compaired to windows and hte work windows has done in the development community.

  • Wow. You guys get all excited about OSX don't you? if you don't like it just don't use it. I'm getting a Macbook but I also have a PC so won't be putting Windows on it. If others choose to then so what? Just use your Right mouse button and then choose "Back".

  • I've been running Vista on my MacBook Since beta two. I have 2 gigs of ram in it and it runs like a dream. Vista needs a least one gig :-). All the drivers are there except the trackpad. Now when that does happen, the machine will work as follows: tap with one finger on the trackpad: left click, tap with two fingers: right click. Problem solved :-). Until then the work around is a program called AutoHotkey. It allows you to map the enter key on the keyboard above the trackpad to right click. I'm now running RTM Vista and everything is still working great. The MacBook Vista machine is awesome!

  • Place two fingers on the trackpad and click the button below it. That is right click.

  • No it isn't. Didn't work for me.

    And secondly, when all the games that I play work on OSX then I'll use it all the time. Until then, it's Windows for me.

  • To right click on a macbook all you have to do is hold down ctrl while you click.

  • If you guy's would actually try and do a search or use the help menu and explore, you can set the pad up so that in mac os or windows right click is simply done by hitting the pad with two fingers (two finger tap) instead of one!

    Martin

  • LOL WOW THATS SO CLEAVER OF APPLE "Place two fingers on the trackpad and click the button below it. That is right click." THANKS ALOT IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS ANSWER


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  • Yo, you guys have got far too much time on your hands, but your time is my time saving. putting two fingers on the pad and clicking does work in XP. shweet shweet

  • ctrl+click is not working on my macbook

  • Using Windows XP or Vista with one-button touchpad, just put two fingers at the same time on the touchpad, and click the button... the right click menu will open.

  • First... I agree with georgebush that MAC is people with the IQ of "Forrest Gump" LOL on that one... very good.

    Second, I realize that mac makes people dumber and more ignorant with so call "easy" that they made.

    Third... so many people ask me to install windows on their so called "powerful" Mac.... Duh... If you think mac is good, why install windows...

    The best solution for the people on number 3 is to throw away their mac and buy a windows laptop.... and yes.. you can play lots of games too....

    Lastly been trying to sell the mac for someone who has "repented" back to Windows... and what... no one's want to buy it... Too expensive, to not useful, cannot play games, bla bla bla

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