I think that PCMCIA is dead long time ago. Everything now is USB (or FW) plugable. The issue about Macs no having FW ports is not really a problem for me, the FW devices I have are also USB.
One thing I can tell you, Byte: I am an iMac user. I had a Mac laptop some years ago. After buying a Wintel laptop last year, when it gets broken, as sure as hell I will get a Mac laptop again. 
That is why the mac is a bit more expensive.
The hardware in it just doesn’t break after a year 
Thats not entirely true.
The reasons why the macbooks is a “bit” more expensive than a pc laptop is:
The design, fancy lamps and such are expensive aswell.
Mac OS is kinda idiot proof. hard to get virus and malwares and such. plus you can always just take the macbook to the store if you get the angry maccomputer sign on your screen…
I would say, if you know what youre doing (and it sounds like that, when youre talking about hackintosh and all), then definetly get the fujitsu.
Yes, you can buy pc laptops with same or even better specs for around the half of what the mac computers costs. And if youre not happy with windows, DOS, linux or whatever, you can always install mac OS.
I have never owned a mac, but i have used them around in schools and places, and i must say that most of the time they just work and seem pretty failsafe, but they are just too crammed up with glittery smartness and “cool” designs for me. I find it very uninspiring and it must take alot of the CPUs resources.
But i guess if you like shiny objects, go for the mac.
Actually i must conlude that the only fair reason , IMHO, to chose a mac over a pc is if you like the design enough to pay the price.
or offcourse, if youre so afraid of electronics that you cant read up on google on how to install mac OS on a PC. My mother is like that. But she still uses a pc with win xp and is pretty satisfied with that.
I sound so angry, im really not. These are just my observations. correct me if im wrong.
Firewire is on the way out. USB 3 is on the way in.
Apple was the first to support it (Firewire is an Apple trademark), now they are the first to drop it.
People are furious, yes. But it’s a dying standard.
I owned 4 types of firewire cards (ESI, Presonus and Alesis)
I cannot say how frustrating it was to get these things to work like my X-station (which is USB)
Problems with: Weird sounds while loading songs in Renoise, on/off/on till it syncs, weird plops/dropouts, losing the card (yes my cable was ok)
Indeed, I found a TI chipped card that served the interface but only belkin makes those for my new laptop.
sweex is still very bad is still my conclusion after buying the expresscard (Belkin is expensive and hard to get).
Not wanting anymore trouble, I also ordered an Edirol UA-101
Bliss
Unfortunately, USB3 won’t be here till 2010, and chances are it won’t provide backwards compatibility for firewire. So just like old standards like vga, serial and cat5, firewire’s not going anywhere any time soon. Not until firewire devices start becoming paperweights will the standard disappear.
usb wont be compatible with firewire at all just like current usb devices, but it will be backwards compatible with usb 2 devices. firewire, to me is already a legacy port. along the lines of is serial and parallel port brethren.
Nothing but trouble with USB audio interfaces. USB and audio simply don’t mix. Constant pops and clicks (no matter the latency), strange artifacts…
Pfff, I wish I bought that firewire card…
PCI-e or PCI-x buddy…
Which interfaces did you use? I’m really getting confident about the reliability of my Edirol.
Never experienced this solid performance with any of my firewire interfaces.
Macs come with firewire 2 which is quite fast (800mbps) and although I’m not aware of many sound cards supporting that yet, it can be great for external hard drives. The 6-pin (powered) firewire jack is really handy, you can use some firewire devices without having to plug them into external power. (4-pin PC firewire interfaces have no power). That being said I’m a PC user, I wish I could afford a mac though. Even though I’d probably just install bootcamp.
Well, my new laptop is gonna be here on monday… it’s got firewire… and e-sata. I’m getting the fujitsu I linked to above 
I’m using an Edirol UA-25. When I get my new desktop PC this summer I will be happily putting in my old M-Audio Audiophile 
Just want to throw this in allthough I know it’s probably not relevant anymore. But maybe it helps someone else decide about getting a Mac Book Pro or not .
I for one, got myself a MB Pro, and got a little bit upset when I found out about the following:
Apparently the new Mac Books Pro are shipped with a really cheap Agere Firewire chipset which is reported to lead to all sorts of problems with quite a number of well known Firewire audio interfaces, be it RME, Presonus, Motu (they even mention it here [1]). Only the Apogee Duet claims to work perfectly with the new Mac Book Pro FW chipset.
If you plan to do get an FWIF make sure your computers FW uses a Texas Instrument chipset.
[1] http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technotes/…nd-pcmcia-cards
Macs have been known to not use TI for quite a few years now. Afraid but it comes as no surprise that you are having problems with a firewire audio interface on a new MacBook Pro. In fact there is apparently not a single laptop in production using the firewire chipset (from discussion reported by a KVR user/systems integrator and a representative from Texas Instruments) which is part of the reason why that, even though I have what I believe to be the last laptop to use TI, I am trying my hardest to avoid getting a firewire audio interface as I’m suer I will upgrade at some point in the future.
So are you liking your new laptop, byte smasher? Though the new Macbooks have firewire it seems…
I’m happy my laptop has the TI firewire chipset!
What laptop?
Good move! I’m lovin Fujitsu.
I’ve never owned one until I took a gamble on it about 1 month ago. Looks like your model is veery close to what i’ve got.
http://laptoppimp.com/interesting-laptops/…k-a6220-review/
When you compare the features and hardware side by side its truly a no brainer. With UWB, USB2, and Firewire, you can use any type of interface on the market.
DWORD: is your “stereo mix” working? I can’t seem to get it to show up in Vista 
Sorry I didn’t notice your response sooner (I forgot to tweak my e-mail settings).
I’m not at home but i’m going to check on that later tonight…
Do you mean stereo mix on the soundcard utility?