mattbell

I'm planning on getting a MacBook Pro to replace my aging laptop and perhaps my desktop as well. (Covered earlier in this post)

I'm thinking that most (say, 80%) of my computing will still be done at home in front of my two huge monitors. However, I'm sick of dragging my aging laptop along when I need to go somewhere else -- I want something good.

I'm trying to decide between the 13" and the 15" Mac Book Pro. I'm leaning toward the 13" as it's smaller and lighter, but the 15" has a good bit more screen real estate. The 17" feels way too big and heavy. Have any of you had regrets either way about the 13" or the 15" MBP?

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Why it might be hard to replace my desktop:

- The MBP only supports one external monitor. To support two, I'd have to buy an additional piece of hardware (almost $200), and even then the combined resolution of the two monitors (3360x1050) may be too high for the graphics card. I could replace the two monitors with one ginormous one, but I think I'd have to go all the way up to 30" to get as much space as I have now. Plus, I like having a "central" monitor and a "side" monitor. I can have itunes, email, or some other occasionally used window on the side monitor while having my work on the central monitor.

- I have a lot of software that I don't have the original CDs for. There's probably a way of handling some of this gracefully... except that I'd be jumping from Leopard to Snow Leopard.

If I don't replace my desktop, I'll need to figure out how to effectively share large amounts of data across the two machines. I haven't used DropBox and its ilk for things beyond a few tens of megabytes.

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Also, is there anyone at Apple who'd be willing to buy it on an employee discount for me?