I've had this Macbook now since...
::checks the tracking number in his Gmail box::
...March 16th. Ish. Almost two months, now.
And how is it going, you might ask?
Well, I've found out a few things about Macs since owning this one.
(Mac ads, you are not entirely correct.)
First...yes, you do get cryptic error messages. Not very often, though - I have had exactly one cryptic error message so far.
("Error 36" was the message. A quick search on Mac help not only turned up the meaning, but the solution: When attempting to connect to a Windows network that doesn't encrypt its passwords, OS X won't let you. You have to manually configure it to do so, with a command-line-style program.)
Second...yes, the system can get hung up on a program. Thus far, I've had Azureus take the longest to actually get closed, I've had one program flat-out fail to work (had to use an older version of the same), have had Heroes of Might & Magic 4 dump itself or outright freeze in the middle of one battle scene, and have had to force-quit Camino when it likewise froze.
Third...yeah, I've had to manually reboot a couple times. Not many, really...but a few. HoM&M4 caused most of them, admittedly. Maybe it wasn't designed for OS X 10.4?
I haven't figured out how to switch out of full-screen applications like games, either. None of the regular keys work.
Now...on the good side?
If I put more RAM in this, bringing it up to the 1 gig that almost nothing these days should do without, it'd probably perform a lot faster. But as it is, this is a fairly sweet computer. Battery life is pretty good even with the wireless working, although I don't know if I should be running it down more before charging it up. (Some batteries prefer that.)
I think it has roughly half the power of my original Compaq laptop. (That was a sweet one too, I think I even had 2 gigs of RAM in it.) However, it performs about as nicely.
So I'm a happy chappy. Even got me some whiteness-protectors - a keyboard overlay that collects dust like nobody's business and the handrest/trackpad/button protector currently in the mail.
Ebay is good. :-)