[jindrich]

hi, i've been using macs for a long time and i'm considering buying one of the new mac laptops. but i'm REALLY concerned about their capabilities.

I use Pcs as well as macs, and must say PCs are a hell of speed demons rigth now. and way cheap, even branded laptops. i have yet to find a comparable mac, speed-wise. (i can't believe i'm saying this)

i'll use the classical apps from adobe and macromedia, plus 3d and audio apps.
Can some OWNER tell what i should expect? how do you like your giga-powerbooks? are they comparable to __fill_specs__ PC?

does VPC run (pun intended) in a gigaTi? i need to check webs in explorer under windows.

i'm afraid new Centrinos simply kill current powerbooks.
btw, I'm using a ti550 right now. and it's slow.



thanx.

[seanyepez]

First of all, which Apple notebook are you asking about, the 1-gigahertz TiBook or the 17-inch PowerBook? The 17-inch PowerBook is not made of titanium.

The 550-megahertz TiBook you have is nice, but I think you'll be extremely impressed by the 17-inch PowerBook if you get to use one in person. It's truly in a class of its own.

Intel's new Pentium-M processor is nothing to laugh at. It's fast, and its power conservation features are very nice. Notebooks sporting the Pentium-M processor are probably faster than the 17-inch PowerBook in every way, but they're unsightly and they don't run Mac OS X. Apple products have always been famous for their industrial design, and the 17-inch PowerBook is no exception. I think you'll miss Apple notebooks' awesome aesthetic appeal if you decide to go with a PC notebook of any kind. I find Mac OS X to be extremely conducive to productivity. To me, Windows is nothing more than an operating system I run on machines dedicated to either video encoding or playing computer games.

The only way you'll know how irritating it is to use a PC notebook for work is if you actually have to use one on a regular basis. However, if you have no problems with using Windows to do whatever you do, you don't need a Mac, and you shouldn't get one. Macs are more expensive, and they're definitely no match for PC's in terms of raw performance. I recommend you read Walter Mossberg's review of the 17-inch PowerBook at http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html.

[AssassyN]

Hi!

First off, your TiBook 550 probably does seem a bit dated with today's digital demands. And replacing it with a new 15" TiBook, or even better, a 17" AlBook would surely make a large difference.

If you *need* OS 9, you have no choice but to purhase the high-end 15" TiBook, as it is the only remaining PowerBook that can actually boot into OS 9, however, if "Classic" mode in OS X will do, then either machine would do.

In your question about comparing them with Wintel notebooks, well, each machine has their pros and cons. The new "Centrino" based notebooks are astounding really...their battery life is superb (though extra batteries are insanely expensive on some of them) and thier speed is quite impressive. However they usually lack a DVD-burner and 802.11"g" wireless technology, and they don't take advantage of FireWire (400 & 800) like the Apple notebooks will. Too, the new high-end Centrino based notebooks (namely the IBM ThinkPad T30 & T40) are extremely expensive. They cost a great deal more than the 17" PB maxed out. They also do not run OS X, and to a Mac user this is a huge downfall; Mac OS X is just such a joy to use, and with buying a Wintel notebook, you'll be sacrificing that pleasure.

So if you priced out a IBM T40 to cost about the same as a 17" PB, you could expect about equal performance in most areas, with the T40 proving stronger in a few aspects and the PB proving stronger in a few aspects; it's really tit for tat. And Virtual PC 6 is a great improvement from VP5, and many Mac users have found that with a large amount of RAM allocated to it, it runs quite well for most programs.

Also, with a new Wintel notebook, you're sacirifcing the amazing astetics of the PowerBook, and I'm not just talking about looks. Sure, it looks better than any Wintel notebook out there, but it's also much more portable in the aspects of weight and espc. thickness and bulkiness. Plus, the new PBs have shown to run extremely quiet even with intensive use.

In the end, I'm sure you'd be satisfied with either machine, but I just recently switched (got the machine yesterday, have been waiting forever) to a 17" PB, and I must say it absolutely demolishes the PC laptop I had before this in every way. The machine runs so smooth, and applications run extremely fast...be assured of this, the 17" PB w/ 1 GIG of RAM is flat out fast, and I love it and can't recommend it highly enough.

Hope this helps, and feel free to post any other questions!

[JakBeatZ]

I was a long time (15 year) PC user, up until about a week after the keynote at Macworld this year.

With the company I'm with now, I was using a Dell, and before that I blew through two Toshiba's (both blew up on me, literally). With the company before that, I was using a Dell for almost two years. Before that Dell and back until the very beginning I was using desktop PCs. Mostly all running Windows of some sort, but more recently I had Linux running on my Dell and have had Linux PC desktop workstations aswell along side my windows boxes at work a few years back.

For the last 2 years, mobility has become very important for me. I am an IP network engineer, operator and planner by profession. This field requires me to be mobile. While any laptop would technically do the trick and fit the "mobile" bill, there were a few things that "I" wanted in order to be able to do my job more productively.

1) Local UNIX Shell. Windows just doesn't have this. You need to install an SSH client and hop onto one to your unix boxen of choice from there either to do your development or what have you.

Before I switched (Late Jan, roughly), I was working for literally months on finding the right distribution of Linux for my Dell i8200. Running Linux would allow me to get the UNIX shell I wanted. I know that I could have installed linux on my windows box under VPC, but that is was a hog when I tried it, even on my new, top of the line i8200 when I got it. I loved this laptop because of the screen and the hardware stability and the support Dell offered. Complete Care is a godsend for laptops, especially when you accidentally run over it, drop it, spill honey inside it -- it's OK, It's covered!! Anyway, I digress: I spend months trying to get my Dell to run linux properly and never quite got it.

That sucks!

2) Ability to sleep/hibernate and restore/resume quickly and without performance degredation.

When I switched, I was in the middle of trying to fix RedHat to sleep bugs. These bugs were just plain aggrevating and would allow the laptop to sleep sometimes, but when it worked, it took about 15 seconds to wake up, and when it didn't work, I had to reboot. Windows sleep/hibernate worked, but I found that when you woke it up, it just never seemed to run as well as it did before the sleep and it's just a matter of time before you had to reboot.

3) NOT having to re-format my windows box every few months because all the crap installed on there inflated the registry to a point where a 1.2Ghz machine was running like a 500Mhz, swapping, memory flying all over the place.

This was the most annoying Windows feature of them all. I don't need to elaborate any more here.

4) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Screen realestate! Dell's 1600x1200 is truely THE BEST display I have ever seen (that's only because I haven't seen the 17" display with my own eyes yet!)

Those were my 4 biggest criteria. While I could have lived without these things, it was very annoying.

A buddy of mine has had an 800Mhz TiBook for as long as I can remember. When he showed it to me for the first time, I put my nose in the air and balked "Mac, Bah! They are Shyte! Who would run a Mac? Only idiots use Mac's" Why did I say this? Because ignorance is bliss and I had never even touched one before seeing his.

The more and more I saw it, the more and more it intrigued me. The UI was the last thing I took interest in. The first thing was how pretty it was.. I was impressed by the widescreen and the casing of the laptop. Never had a I seen anything like that before. Second was the fact that it was built on a UNIX back-end --- and it worked! I couldn't get my PC to run UNIX properly! This meant that he (like me, network guy) had his UNIX shell locally.. I was more interested. Then, I finally said to him one day "Wow, your battery must last a long time. I mean to be able to leave your laptop running while it's in your bag" He said "Huh? What the F*ck are you talking about?" I said, "Well, when you bring your laptop out of your back and open the lid, it's already on. You leave it on all the time then, right?" With a rather insulting laugh he said "No, you moron... (Me and this guy have a very interesting relationship -- we trash talk eachother to a point where people think it's going to come to blows.. but that's just how we get along, and it's great fun! Again, I digress) when I close the lid, the laptop goes to sleep. When I open the lid, it wakes up before my screen is fully open." he said looking at me with a sheeping "I know more than you" grin. I was truely impressed - BUT, it was still a Mac, and only... well, no one used Mac's cuz Mac's are still dumb.

The more time I spent around my friend, the more intrigued I was with that laptop, BUT the one thing that kept me from taking more of an interest in Mac's was the fact that the 15" TiBook resolution was only at 1280x854. If you take the rectangular display and turn it back into a square display (like all the PC laptops) and change the resolution relative to the screen size, it would just be 1024x768 when it's all said and done. That's just too small for me. The more time I spend around my friend, the less that started to matter.

All of a sudden, it was Keynote time. Jobs releases the 17" Aluminum PowerBook with Bluetooth and 802.11g (Remember, I'm a network guy, stuff like that talks to me on a weird level ). I was real interested now, BUT even with the 17" display, the resolution was only 1440x900. The first Dell I ever had was about 4 years ago when they pushed the envelope with their 15" Displays that did 1400x1200. That was a great resolution. Anything on top of that was gravy! The 17" was +1400. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I wanted to try these things. If I liked it, I would buy one.

A co-worker of mine (3 of the people I work with at the office are all Mac people aswell, so they are all trying to convert me) had an old clamshell PB500. He told me I could use it for awhile. Almost 3 months later, I'm still using it. My Dell has been sitting at home doing nothing for 3 months while I continue to be amazed with this little 500Mhz G3. I can only imagine the 17" when it arrives.

I have been totally converted and will never look back. I will be selling three PC desktops I have at home and getting a G4 when the 970s are released, most likely with a 23" HDCD.

I know this is a "Switch" rant, but I get back to the point now by saying that as far as speed goes, IMO the only reason that Intel needs to keep boosting their processor speeds is to compensate for the exponential growth of the Windows registry. I think the CPU with the PB is going to be plenty. I don't run many processor intensive apps on my laptop, but I still want it to be quick. Just the way that OS X is architected means that I don't have to deal with the slow-downs that plague Wintel boxen so the slower CPU I can use because I think in the end, the speed diffferentials between Intel and Mac will even themselves out, relative to the OS.

To hell with Intel, that's what I say now!

[PoisonTooth]

For what it's worth, I am considering replacing my TiBook with a new ThinkPad T40, which I ordered a few days ago. When I get it, I will compare the two side-by-side and decide which goes and which stays. My main gripes with Apple are (a) speed, and (b) crappy, unappreciative service from Apple.

And reading through this thread, I have to laugh. So many of you spout so much BS about Windows it's hard to believe you're serious. If you have THAT much trouble with a Windows box, then I submit you're probably not the most technical person around and don't understand what's happening with your machines. I've used Windows for YEARS, and the only extended problem/crisis I had is an XP Pro box which crashed randomly at ~ 1 hour intervals, and continued to do so for weeks on end (which was maddening). After tons of diagnosis, the motherboard was found to be bad, and I RMA'ed it with Newegg and got another. Been running perfectly since, no hiccups whatsoever.

[MusicalTone]

Hey, nice post Jak. I sold my PC boxes too and am very happy with my 15" Ti SD. I still use my WinXp Sony Vaio for certain things (havnt got photoshop for the mac yet) but manage most others on my mac (Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, Adobe InDesign) and whilst I do notice a large difference speedwise between the PC and the mac, and frustratingly a lot of keyboard shortcuts I used in Flash are different on the Ti, overall I must say that working on a mac is a more pleasurable experience. I think I have used the analogy elsewhere but here it comes again - its a bit like comparing a suked up subaru with bucket seats to a Mercedes. Sure the subaru is gonna be flat out 0-60 MPH faster and louder, but the Mercedes is no slouch and you will be travelling in total luxury, safe in the knowldedg that every detail has been obsessed over and designed with elegance and style, and works every time. There is just no substitute for class. The only advantage I can see to getting a PC right now is that they are faster in the 0-60 sense, although continuing my analogy - if you are a serious driver the Mercedes will allow you to cover 1,000's of miles effortlessly.

Personally, I have both.

Antonio

[jindrich]

many thanx for your replies.
first, you DON'T NEED to sell me into macs/ellegance/osx AT ALL. As a decade+ macfan i'm already trapped in

My main concern is exclusively SPEED/PERFORMANCE. i can't say i'm productive enough with the Ti550; whereas i work faster with, say a 2yr old IBM PIII@1ghz desktop i have at the office. I won't either mention the latest P4 desktops.
Simple things like browsing thru lotsa files, or ftp transfers, or working into Freehand, Flash, emagic logic or ProTools with the Mac is starting to make me angry (basically because i can compare said performance with pcs). oh, ti550's heat and fan noise is quite annoying too.

Macs are more expensive in europe than in USA, but branded PCs not (why?). I want to stay Mac -specially because after apple bought emagic, logic in now a mac only soft- but i fear current apple laptops may not cut the mustard. I'm going to invest considerable amount of money into software as well (audio and 3d apps) and don't want to make a mistake.

i can wait some month, but not much. i'd get the 17", or more likely a similarly equipped alu15".
Sad thing: if i sell the ti550 i'll add XYZ€ to buy the latest powerbook. But this same XYZ€ amount would get me a brand new fast PC laptop -not the latest centrino though (and i'd still keep the ti550, but what for?)

DVD burning is nice, but i dont need it by now (and not at x1)
Unix, apache and php on board is a plus, however.

seayepez, assasyn,
which apps do you use? do you crunch the machine with heavvy cpu taxing apps? are the gigaTi/17" fast enough to what's standard in wintel land today? honestly.

-------------q
First off, your TiBook 550 probably does seem a bit dated with today's digital demands. And replacing it with a new 15" TiBook, or even better, a 17" AlBook would surely make a large difference.
-------------/q

the Ti550 is just 1 year old. and it's outdated. i'm afraid it already was when it shipped.
Maybe i should wait for 970. (and buy a wintel crap inbetween)

i only want to make sure current powerbooks are fast enough to be PRODUCTIVE. I work with lotsa apps at the same time, and type/move the cursor like crazy. and i want the app to respond, whether is the terminal, word or freehand.
Right now i work on a pc, and the Ti550 is... a nice toy.

thanx in advance.

[PoisonTooth]

My main disappointment with my TiBook 1 Ghz came when I had to do some heavy PowerPoint editing and doing so on my TiBook was just really sluggish. Not downright slow, but laggardly enough to make me transer the PPT to my Windows XP Pro box and do it there.

I really like OSX, but I think Mac hardware is in dire straights. The delta between Apple's CPU performance and that of Intel (Centrino in this thread's context) is staggering. Apple tries to wrap its performance issues in shaky marketing and aesthetics, but that only goes so far.

Like I said, I'll see how the ThinkPad T40 is. If I like it better, I keep it and sell my 15" TiBook, which is only about 45 days old. If I don't like it, I keep my TiBook (or perhaps upgrade to a 17", which are sitting, in stock, in the Troy Apple Store in MI).

[urrl5201]

The IBM T40 is not as fast as the Acer Centrino either. You should take a peek at that if your mind is made up for a PC laptop. I would not trade my DVD-R 17" for any PC. For what I need it for they just don't measure up.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by jindrich:
seayepez, assasyn,
which apps do you use? do you crunch the machine with heavvy cpu taxing apps? are the gigaTi/17" fast enough to what's standard in wintel land today? honestly.

I use PhotoShop 7.0 for minor file alterations (just handling digcam images, resizing, editing, etc.) and although I don't use any huge files or major Photoshop work, I can safely say Photoshop runs much faster, smoother, and just plain out more elegantly than it does on my 1.2Ghz Athlon box. I also use Virtual PC, all the standard "iApps" included with Apple machines, and Microsoft Office v.X. I greatly prefer Office v.X over Office XP on my Wintel box, it looks better, the layout is WAY improved, and it just performs better in my honest opinion.

There's no doubt with ~$3,000 I could've purchased a "faster" Wintel notebook, but I didn't because I just appreciaite the OS X system so much more, and honestly, it's more fun to work with, and that's what is truly important. Plus, it runs all the programs I need elegantly, quickly, and without hesitation. I have a GIG of RAM in mine, and having 5-8 programs open at once is no problem whatsoever. My machine handles multitasking like it's a peice of cake, and I'm extremely satisfied with it's overall program performance.

I'm more satisified with this purchase than pretty much any other purchase I've ever made, it is PLENTY fast for all of today's standard apps that you'll likely encounter, and it just makes life more fun in working w/ those programs.

[PoisonTooth]

Originally posted by urrl5201:
The IBM T40 is not as fast as the Acer Centrino either. You should take a peek at that if your mind is made up for a PC laptop. I would not trade my DVD-R 17" for any PC. For what I need it for they just don't measure up.

The only difference between the Acer TravelMat 803LCi and the ThinkPad T40 is the GPU RAM and the HD speed. On my T40, I got the faster HD, so that evens that out. As far as the other 32 MB of VRAM, it's not really that important to me. I'd much rather have IBM's build quality.

[Podolsky]

I have Dell Latiude and a Tibook (667) side by side on my desk at work all day long. I go back and forth share desktops between the two systems and have them synched etc. I can say with out a doubt that even though the Dell has a faster cpu and is more recent -- the Mac running X is in every way and in every application a far superior, far stabler and far faster computer. I know of no single function where Windows 2000 or any single app it runs out performs the mac. The only reason I run the Dell at all is that my office is windows only outfit and we have some apps that we all need to use that only run under Windows XP. I cannot stress this enough - unless there is some game you love that isn't on the Mac or you are forced by employer to run these crappy systems - don't. Just don't go there unless you have to. In fact, very soon Apple will be leaving Wintel so far behind you won't be able to see them.....switch - with extreme prejudice.....

[Dache]

Get a Centrino-based notebook.

Until a few days ago, I was seriously considering buying the 17" PB, until I actually saw one in the store. While I LOVE the way it looks, I think it is overpriced for the features. Mind you, I work in graphics/DTP, so, I've used Macs for a long time. Why am I getting a Centrino?

1. They are NOT more expensive than PBs:
I just bought a tricked-out Latitude D800 for about the same price as a TiBook 1Ghz: http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/produc...latit_d800.htm

2. You get more:
My D800 has longer battery life, better performance (centrino has a wider FSB than the G4), newer graphics card, brilliant display with more resolution at 15.4" than Apple's is at 17", which gives it about 1.7 times the screen real estate of PB17. Also, modular, hot-swappable drives, built-in infra-red, Up to 2GB of RAM (not just promised, but ready to go NOW) better warranty, onsite repair. Also, because the optical drive is not slot-loading, I can also write to the mini-cdr/w.

There is no DVD-R module right now, but, at 1X, PB 17 is better off with an external one, anyways.


3. More upgradable.
My dell has a user-upgradable hard drive, mini-pci card, and, of course, the modular drives, and three different types of docking stations, one of which can also accept modular drives itself. In short, this laptop will not be hopelessly outdated next year, unlike the PB17"

If quality of graphics and upgradability matter to you, getsomething like my Dell.

[tanhauser]

Originally posted by Dache:
Get a Centrino-based notebook.

1. They are NOT more expensive than PBs:
I just bought a tricked-out Latitude D800 for about the same price as a TiBook 1Ghz: http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/produc...latit_d800.htm

I recently had a chance to handle a friends D800, and was really not that impressed at all.

First off, in my opinion, the only real advantage that I saw in it, from my own point of view, was the battery life. Other than that, I would still pick up a 17" over it.

Now, in my case, if I buy a laptop it's going to be used as a laptop replacement, which basically means that I wont be traveling that much, which means that longer battery life is a non-issue for me.

I also didn't like the D800's resolution. Sure you can do 1600 but honestly, things on the screen are way too small for my taste, and when you pull in 10+ hours straight of usage, your eyes become tired quickly.

For DTP especially, I would not buy a D800, for games maybe, but certainly not for DTP.

F

[PoisonTooth]

Originally posted by Podolsky:
In fact, very soon Apple will be leaving Wintel so far behind you won't be able to see them.....switch - with extreme prejudice.....

Please explain how Apple will soon leave Intel "so far behind you won't be able to see them." Also, don't even think about citing PPC970, as that has not been confirmed, you don't know when it will show if it ever does get confirmed, and you have no idea how it will stack up to Intel's best at that time.

I have a Mac like the rest of you, but stupid comments like this are typical of the strange zealotry within the Mac community.

[american_whale]

I have been waiting far too long (in the UK) to switch from an ageing PC to a 17-inch Powerbook, but this thread is giving me plenty of food for thought, and the centrino machines look very impressive indeed. IBM Thinkpad ... mmmm, nice ...

[cambro]

First of all, if speed and raw performance are your primary concern, you shouldn't be getting a portable anyway because one of the biggest speed hits is the HD, regardless of processor, but more to the point...

My Ghz Ti book is plenty fast to do a lot of demanding work simultaneously.

Right now, I am batch processing 53 photos [tiff->jpg, resample and resize] in Photoshop, while posting this message in Safari, and running Apache, MySQL, Mail, MS Word, a TRANSPARENT TERMINAL window (need I say more), and Illustrator ALL AT THE SAME TIME with NO LAGS anywhere. I'm doing this right now. My Ghz Ti also plays Quake III on maxed-out quality settings smoothly (~65 fps in heavy action; >90 fps out of battle), has never crashed, wakes instantly from sleep, connects effortlessly to wireless networks, has a battery that will go an easy 3 hours, more if usage is lite, and it has a fantastic wide-aspect screen.

WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE DO with your laptops that would make the slight speed gain by going wintel even worth considering??

Seriously. My PS batch processing is already done, all in the background while typing this mesage, and I could hardly tell it was going on except for the windows opening and closing behind Safari. Ok, more speed is ALWAYS a good thing. Definitely agreed. I'd love it if my PB were even faster and maybe the batch processing I just did would have taken x seconds less on a souped up Centrino, but at WHAT COST?? I just don't want to get there fast, I want to enjoy the ride, pick my own route, and not break down when the road gets rough!

For those that go by the numbers, please, get a Centrino or whatever. As for me, I go by what I can get done and the Ghz TiBook has lived up to all of my expectations and more. A PB and OS X are a powerful combination. But then again, what do I know? </rant>

[NightEyes]

I use an IBM Think Pad at work and it does have a nice build quality, but at home I have the PowerBook 17". Both are great machines, but for me the difference is the OS. Having Unix under the hood makes all the difference. For the apps I use, Office, Photoshop, Macromedia Studio MX, the PowerBook is plenty fast enough. The drawbacks to the T40, besides the bloated OS, are the lack of internal DVD-R drive, older, slower 80211.b standard, and no built-in Bluetooth. But if you don't plan on using these features anytime soon, then I'd still go back to the OS. Give me Darwin (Unix) over a DOS-based OS any day.

Just my .02. Good luck with your choice.

[mbryda]

Originally posted by Dache:
I just bought a tricked-out Latitude D800 for about the same price as a TiBook 1Ghz: http://www.dell.com/us/en/biz/produc...latit_d800.htm

Good luck. Dell's notebooks of late (as most of their desktops) are not fairing well. IIRC they are #3 or #4 in laptop customer satisfaction behind Apple, IBM, and Toshiba...

If quality of graphics and upgradability matter to you, getsomething like my Dell.

If getting a quality computer matters, you definitely don't want a Dell.

[MusicalTone]

Havnt been spending much time at all on my PIII 1.2ghz Vaio since buying my 15"SD, but spent a while on it today and whilst the response/feel of the PC seemed fastser than my mac, I must have waisted any time gain and more clicking 'yes' in dialog boxes every time I wanted to do something! I mean, if I clicked the empty recycle bin button its because i wanted to empty the recycle bin for christ sake, stop asking me! What is the point of having ever faster processors if the OS gets in the way everytime you want to do something? Its like having a mother in law from hell on your shoulder "do you really want to do that" ..."wouldnt you rather be doing this, that or the other, are you sure?" Arghh. Stop messing with my head. LOL. They are faster though.

[american_whale]

I think that the latest M$ efforts are pretty useable and probably bear comparison with OSX (I have FINALLY got my PB shipping notice (goodbye Thinkpad), so I stand ready to eat my words). My own big gripe with windows flavours I use is that they refuse to acknowledge the existence of any filessytem or OS not constructed by M$, so it is a hassle making anything coexist with them. A metaphor for the company itself.

[ngrundy]

Well the comparison may not be exactly even side by side but in november I replaced my

(yea ok so it's not a laptop, but it's what i used to use)
Dual P3 866
Abit VP-6
1GB SDRAM
2x40GB HDD
Matrox g550
SBLive Value
Intel EtherExpress
Sony 16x10x32 SCSI-2 Burner
Pioneer 10x SCSI-2 DVD Drive
2x 17" CRTs (running 1280x1024 each)

With:
1Ghz TiG4
40GB HDD + 80GB External firewire
512meg RAM
8x8x24 Combo Drive
Internal LCD

What I do?:
Computer Science work I run apps like...
Apache 2, Mysql, PHP in the background for my Web Development course and to write web apps for projects and what not.

Java, C, Perl, Python, shell scripting and stuff.

Project Builder and plenty of vi.

Writing up essays and crap for intro to government, web browsing (both safari and camio at the same time with some 20 tabs between them). iCal, iTunes, Address Book, iChat, Proteus, Terminal, Mail, Stickies and other random stuff are always open (open on boot)

I now do what used to take me 2 machines (the p3's and a DEC alpha running freebsd) on my laptop.

IMHO the Powerbook is faster than the x86 system in day to day tasks. It spends most of it's time running in reduced cpu mode (667mhz) as I spend quite a few hours a day on battery power at uni. Something that I noted was that when I walked out of the lecture theatre today the four people using PC laptops (couple of dell 8200's a compaq evo and a new sony vaio) a couple of them had power adaptors hanging out the back of them, yet I still had some 35 mins of battery life even after 2 hours of lectures and 2.5 hours of tutorials.

I wouldn't be worried about the capabilities of the powerbook, mine has excelled. Doubt I'll be using a windows system again for a very long time.

[solagratia1600]

Hi all,

reading your contributions have been interesting. I currently own the TiPB550mhz, 512ram. I have been using it for about a year now, using it for Maya, After Effects motion graphic, Flash MX, Director, web stuff, and for internet activities. I find it most satisfying. Though, I do want better speed, but its not something that I am very dissapointed about. I discovered recently that I am running Maya with an under-qualified video card. It still works. I guess, with the Mac, it is the overall productivity results that matters. Overall it is a pleasant experience working with the productivity tools. My problem is with internet connection with the recent MacOSX. It's pretty bad, interms of modem connection drop out, and Apple is really slow in responding to this issue. Not every OSX users are having this issue, but a large group do have this problem, and Apple only acknowledged it recently, with less than a satisfactory solution provided temporarily before seeing the new OS10.2.5 coming out. I have discovered too that Photoshop 6 (OS9) runs faster than Photoshop 7 (OSX). I am not sure this has anything to do with OSX, it could be that Adobe need to streamline the software abit more for OSX. Though, I am happy to run some old softwares on OS9 since I am using them within OSX. I am looking forward to the new 17inch PB.

I think users have to acknowledge that there are strengths and weaknesses in each computer companies, may it be Apple or Wintel/Dell. I would say, a better advise would be looking at your needs, and your financial capability. If the hardware/software helps you in your work and leisure, buy the suitable computer that fulfill those needs. If you can afford two, even better. I was a PC user many years back, and I have accustomed myself to use Mac since then, and I do love the Mac computer. Though, I am not kidding myself that Apple do have their weaknesses in their products. OSX is a good software, and it will only get better if Apple keep up their good work. Adding to this, I think it will only help as well for Apple to consider adding speed (processor and HD, and DVD burning speed) to maintain the competetiveness and giving even better investment values for its customers.

my 2 cents worth
solagratia1600

[forcelite]

I have VPC 6 on a 12" albook, 384 ram and it is 70% on a scale of 100%. I have previously used a ibook 600 384 and it was a 30%.

I pride myself on being a good 1-10 judge too. I hate the people on amazon that give things 5 out of 5 stars, almost nothing deserves that, cause that would obviously mean flawless,

also hotornot.com is a perfect example of how most people rate higher than they should, check it out if you have never.

[jindrich]

very useful comments, thanx to all.
I'm still on the Mac side but, as a multi OS daily user, entertain the tought of centrinos laptops is just about a sane thing to do (IMHO).

BTW, Is it me or Adobe and especially Macromedia (with its MX suite) are putting more efforts optimizing their products on wintels now rather than on Macs? Maybe the lag i'm observing is because of that? (ie, freehand 10/mx runs MUCH faster on OLD wintels than on my Ti550).

i'd really appreciate if someone could aprox tell the performance difference of Maya/lightwave/4D and Logic/protools running on gigati/17" vs current wintels.

I'm with you than i'd sacrify a little performance for having the Mac style of things. But only if that little is not *too much* (i know how it went comparing audio apps in general, and it wasn't very nice to us).


peace.