Help me convince myself to switch!

daen1543

Since the recent announcement of iBook/G4 I've been extremely tempted to get myself the 12" model.

Pluses:
- Long battery life (Apple claims 6 hours, hmm...)
- Portability
- OS X 10.3
- Price ($1000 basic configuration + $90 for an 802.11g adapter)
- Modern graphics card (Radeon 9200 is better than the GF2 MX 200 in my desktop, heh)
- DVD/CDRW drive

Potential problems:
- Default 256Mb of RAM not enough (Or is it?)
- CPU too slow? (Is a 800MHz G4 processor enough to run X11 comfortably?)
- Quality problems?? (One person had his iBook repaired 3 times in a one-year period, with multiple motherboard replacements. I find this hard to believe as I've never had a motherboard die on me.)
- I've heard that not all DVD's will play on a Mac. Is this true?
- Do you find the general lack of custimizability confining? For example, in OSX, I can't resize windows by Alt + RMB, like in X11, something I like very much.

I'm a Math/Computer Science student, and I plan to use it for programming, LaTeX editing, wireless internet.

I'll be thankful for any comments.

silian87 · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:28 pm Post subject:

-Ram is enough!
-Cpu is good for X!
-For the qualality problems I don't know, but I think that is better of x86 laptop.
-For the dvd I don't know too, but I think that it's so strange...
:wink:

_________________
Musica che ascolto: http://www.last.fm/user/silian87/

Silian87 FAQs: http://marentax.homelinux.org/~silian87/silian87-faq.txt

GTalk: silian87@gmail.com

dementedblitz · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 Nov 2002 Posts: 88

6 hour battery life is for when the ibook is idle..
if you can rackup on ram, do so..
_________________
"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was."

ange · n00b Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 19 Location: France

well, I'm going to order an ibook G4 today here is why :
- it's nice
- chipper than an equivalent x86
- good hardware : ppc, graphic card, ...
- good GNU/Linux support
- battery life

about dvd : don't know

about airport extrem (802.11g) : be carefull there is no Linux support for
this card, it's not the same chip as in airport classic ones.
I will buy a small usb 802.11b adaptator.

Now about the os I will put on this wonderfull box : Gentoo GNU/Linux. Why ? because I like it and I prefer an OS under GPL.
So if you use GNU/Linux on a mac you'll be able to : program, do LaTeX editing, and wireless internet (if you use a small usb card like the Netgear MA111).

about quality : apple is not a small company you'll always have the possibility to send back the computer to got it repaired. But I know few people who got problems with apple hardware but a lot who got problems with x86 box.

jcmorris · Apprentice Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Posts: 174

ange · n00b Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 19 Location: France

check out the Netgear MA111 adaptator, I know it works on x86 under GNU/Linux and ms win don't know about OS X.

Crypto · n00b Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 14 Location: Portugal

I'm new to the mac world so I can talk about what I know from now

I can say that, for a notebook, i'll never have anything besides an Apple.

I got a used Tibook 667 15'' w/ 768 mb ram an that thing just r0cks

I have a few friends with the 12'' powerbook, an they are satisfied too.

For the use you intend to give, the processors are more than enough, and besides that, they are good looking, light and have great performance.

You may have problems when installing gentoo, but there's always someone who has solved that, so don't worry about it.

Oh, the only thing not so good is that, for now, you won't have any airport extreme under linux.

So .... don't think twice ... go for it .

Linux rules ... specialy running on an apple laptop wheather it is a powerbook or an ibook.

Be cool everybody...
_________________
Portux -- a portuguese linux portal

--->ON LINE SOON <----

atom · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 7:20 am Post subject:

i bought a 12" powerbook a couple weeks ago. i love it, thats all i can say. i've seen the 12" ibooks and they are sweet as well. you would be happy with either.

the only reason it isnt running an alternative to panther is the lack of airport extreme support. (i need my wireless

FlashLight · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 106

I just got my iBook a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving it so far. Linux seems very friendly with it and all my hardware seems to be working just fine.

Go for it.

cloudaj · n00b Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 17

There is no DVD problem with a mac, at least under OSX anyway. So any DVD problem would be purely gentoo / software related.