iBook/MacBook views?

I have a PC for my main machine at home but was wondering about buying a laptop. Im curious about the iBook's and MacBook's because I like the style that the mac offers. But are they any good. I know that some files are specifically for the windows platform but would this really cause a huge problem? Plus are freeware applications easy to come by for the mac's or is most stuff major branded?

To me, right now is not a good time to buy a mac because Apple is in a period of transition. They're just moving to intel, have something out now that allows a dual boot to windows xp, so who knows what the future holds for them. Depending on what happens or what direction they take, a mac bought now could be rendered obsolete a lot sooner than the normal product lifecycle expectancy. Who knows what they will do. They may go strictly into the software business side of computers, or they could phase out their operating system altogether and specialized in fashionable, boutique style pc's, or they could get out of the market altogether and specialize in niche market consumer electronics, which they are very good at such as the iPod. They may very just chug along. Until they come out with something that says, this is our plan for the future, I'd shy away from a mac.

I've also been curious about the mac line up. My roomie has a iBook g4, its pretty sweet, and considering how old the laptop is... its pretty fast. OS X has some pretty cool features and just seems more organized... or something.

I think Apple will probably start using the Conroe based cpus in thier G5 towers sooner or later. Since they are making the transition to Intel, it only seems like the logical thing they can do.

If I were to get a mac in the near future, I'd wait till the mobile version of Conroe comes out.. merom i believe its called... that should make a macbook, macbook pro, or an Imac very appealing.

Prot said:

To me, right now is not a good time to buy a mac because Apple is in a period of transition. They're just moving to intel, have something out now that allows a dual boot to windows xp, so who knows what the future holds for them. Depending on what happens or what direction they take, a mac bought now could be rendered obsolete a lot sooner than the normal product lifecycle expectancy. Who knows what they will do. They may go strictly into the software business side of computers, or they could phase out their operating system altogether and specialized in fashionable, boutique style pc's, or they could get out of the market altogether and specialize in niche market consumer electronics, which they are very good at such as the iPod. They may very just chug along. Until they come out with something that says, this is our plan for the future, I'd shy away from a mac.

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Any computer can be rendered obsolete, so this is a very poor argument Intel is shifting processors from high numbers to lower GHZ but more work-per-cycle (ala AMD). Nonetheless, the Conroe/Merom platform remains very attractive to most.

Anyhow, now is actually a very good time to look at a MacBook. Not only will the system compare to a windows-based laptop, but the dual boot solutions make the MacBooks very flexible, especially the Parallels program (the better dual boot program of the two).

My suggestion would be to check out an apple store if there's one in your area. You'll find just about every item that apple has to offer on display for you to play with yourself.

The current MacBooks have above-average build quality (they're made by Asus), and a style that is top notch. Also worth mention is all of the other goodies that come with the MacBook, but I will leave that up to you to check things out). The most common negatives with the MacBook include possible overheating and the fading of the palm rest.

deception``

yes i agree with deception`` now is a great time to buy a mac. the intel chips are much better then the G4s they replace, and the power mac replacement "mac pro" will be out soon packed with a conroe inside.

there is actually a good amount of freeware available for os X, plus you can run X11 software and windows/PC software using virtual PC. or if you have an intel mac you can use apple's bootcamp software to dualboot with windows xp. OR you can forget bootcamp and use Parallels to run windows xp/2k/me/98/nt/os2/3.1/dos, pretty much any x86 operating system, at native speed in a window/fullscreen on your OS X desktop.

for the most part apple's build quality is high end, usually if a certain model has issues apple is good about doing the right thing and issuing recalls. their warranty service is good as well.

I agree these Macbook 13.3 inchers look great. Core Duo rocks, can drop a first gen memron if need be, and parallels looks sweet. Also Asus makes these I think.

Just to throw in some stuff, I bought an new ibook last November and it's solid as a rock. The build quality is outstanding. I can get over 5 hours off a battery doing most of the stuff I do, like using text editors, surfing the net, listening to music, etc. It'll easily watch a movie and then some, but it'll be closer to 3-3.5hrs. My only complaint is that I only got a 40gb harddrive and I like music I'm thinking about dumping a bigger hd in once 10.5 comes out though!

I didn't have anything specifically in mind and there isn't any program I need on a day to day basis to survive but I didn't have much of a problem finding stuff to do things I did in windows. If you have a friend that owns a mac, they can be very beneficial in discovering neat programs and such, as well as a great way to play around with a mac to figure out if it's really for you or not. I highly recommend trying to get your hands on one for at least half an hour or so to determine if you like it or not.

To me the only con was the price. They're a little more and if you think you're just going to end up dumping windows on it anyway, you can get more hardware wise out of a dell for the money.

For laptop use, I support getting a macbook or even a iBook if you can get a deal. Blah blah, all my laptop posts are about my supporting mac laptops, but I believe they are the best for most mobile use (browsing, email, movies). I think mac does mobile use right, great battery life and easy of use. You don't want to spend a few extra minutes getting your laptop to work when you are just checking email when you have 10 minutes free time. If you are watching a movie with friends, you would like to just plug in your laptop (which you would have on you since macs are small) and have the movie show up on the tv with no configuring. Around here my girlfriends friend got a new macbook pro and ipod video for $1200 instore, so that might be their special now.

highlights:

Very easy to use and stable, put in a dvd it plays, plug in an ipod it loads itunes and the songs, plug in a digi cam loads iphoto and shows your pictures. Updates the software and OS are very quick and easy, just press a button. I turn off or restart my laptop less than once a month.

Quick sleep mode, close the lid laptop sleeps, open it, wakes up in seconds to where you were. In sleep mode the laptop uses very little power, you can leave it asleep for a few days.

Scroll pad feature of the track pad is awesome. When you place two fingers on the track pad, it acts as a 2 axis scroll wheel, makes browsing very easy.

Battery life, I do get the 6 hours advertised with my ibook when browsing, I get a minimum of 3 under heavy load, ie playing games, video or dvd.

Movies, you do have to buy the composite video adapter for about $10 if you ebay, but all you do is plug it in and it configures TV out.

Wireless works great, just click the top right hand corner of the screen to join a network. This is true for windows too, but I always had problems with my windows laptop, probably the card i was using.

appearance, I think apple laptops look great, some people deny caring about looks but they are huge factor when you think about it.

For macbook, you get a built in iSight webcam, which is very good vga quality and no more slow G4 cpu. The intel duo is noticeably faster than the old G4.

For iBook, you get a usable CPU and a real video card. 32MB radeon 9550 on the last model.

Size, I liked my iBook because its small and fits in my backpack.

Warranty, its only 1 year, but if you have a local apple store, in my experience, service was great and my laptop was repaired within a week under warranty.

Cons:

If you are used to windows, you will miss some of your programs. I can't do much work on my laptop for this reason but I mostly use my laptop for movies and web browsing.

Price, you probably can get a small dell for cheaper.

Games, you probably won't be able to play many games. I'm not sure how good the new intel video is compared to radeon mobile chips too.

Sound, idk the quality of the new macbooks, but iBook speakers are pretty much worthless. If there is any background noise, you can't hear DVDs at all. Headphones are needed.

there are reports of macbooks overheating
http://www.google.com/search?q=macb...ient=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

It's up to you, if you are considering a mac, make sure you play with one first. I got mine because I loved my friends powerbook and using them in the apple store.

I think the commercials now hit it dead on, apple is really good at 'life stuff', PCs are better for 'work stuff'. My desktop will probably stay windows, since its what most office/engineering programs are made to work with. (and day of defeat )

Plus are freeware applications easy to come by for the mac's or is most stuff major branded?

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What kind of programs? OS-X is bsd based, and there are a lot of ports of open source software. So far (knock on wood) I've been able to find free software when i need it. This is where you need a hardcore mad user as a friend, they seem to know a free program for anything you need.

The funny thing too is even installing open source unix/linux programs are easy. A good number have been ported and using fink, http://fink.sourceforge.net/, you just choose the ported programs you want to install from a gui. I grabbed xmms and quite a few programs for my engineering classes (even though I rarely do work on it) from this.