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NDBounce · Jun 18, 2003, 10:28 PM

Hello,

I just took a new job working for a non-profit agency. I also managed to talk them in to allowing me to use a Mac, which they will purchase for me.

My job will be largely Web Development, using ASP, photoshop, illustrator, and Dreamweaver. The office is also working with an outside vendor on a .Net implementation, after which I will be doing a lot of working with the MySQL database doing queries, reports, etc.

I will also be doing help desk work.

I will have a PC with all these applications on them, mainly b/c I may need to use Access for some things.

Soooo, I am looking to get a Powerbook. I am looking for advice from people with experience with these machines AND who do similar type of work. I personally like the size of the 12" powerbook, as I will do some traveling as well on this job. But I am wondering how that is to work with. There are extra PC monitors in the office that I could connect the powerbook to on a daily basis if screen size becomes an issue (providing that the powerbook supports video out to a PC monitor). But I am not certain whether this is advisable or whether the 15" powerbook would be a better buy. I fear the 17" is probably too big to travel with, and is probably too expensive. But I wanted to get an opinion from people before I put in a purchase request.

Peace,

O
B unce!

mixtup · Jun 19, 2003, 01:21 AM

The 15" would definitely give you a pretty big speed advantage over the 12" and wouldn't lag far behind the current 17".

You could use Access through VirtualPC, though I dunno how well it would perform, esp. for work. Maybe some more experienced users can shed light on this... This might be useful if you're traveling and away from the PC.

If you need to buy now, buy now. Prices are great for both the 15" and the 12". However, if you can wait 'till after WWDC it might be worthwhile to hear any hardware announcements. If they speed bumped the 12" to 1Ghz (and wishfully thinking, gave it L3 cache) AND shipped them quickly that would be a good pick for what you're describing.

Hope that helps. Post if you need more help!

juanpacolopez · Jun 19, 2003, 11:49 AM

Originally posted by mixtup:
The 15" would definitely give you a pretty big speed advantage over the 12" and wouldn't lag far behind the current 17".

You could use Access through VirtualPC, though I dunno how well it would perform, esp. for work. Maybe some more experienced users can shed light on this... This might be useful if you're traveling and away from the PC.

Actually... in some things (UT2k3, Warcraft III... games mostly) the 15" @ 1ghz is actually faster than the 17" by virtue of the ATI video card (w/ better drivers etc.).

But that's beside the point since the original poster said nothing for games. As for VirtualPC... on my Ti it runs great... I've used Access in an office environment (our helpdesk database is, unfortunately, Access) via VPC and it runs GREAT. On a side note though, I run VPC w/ 512Mb allocated to it (I have 1gb)... this helps A LOT. Also, make sure you use Win2k Pro w/ VPC... it runs significantly faster than XP (I've tried both).

NDBounce · Jun 20, 2003, 10:58 AM

Thank you for the advice. I can wait until Monday to hear about hardware announcements, so I will most likely do that. I probably will end up needing a 15" TiBook though, from the sounds of things.

juanpacolopez - Can you admin a Win2K server using VPC and Win2K pro? Or even better yet (but probably wishful thinking on my part) would I be able to admin it from OS X?

Peace,

O
B unce!

BkueKanoodle · Jun 20, 2003, 11:24 AM

Originally posted by NDBounce:
Thank you for the advice. I can wait until Monday to hear about hardware announcements, so I will most likely do that. I probably will end up needing a 15" TiBook though, from the sounds of things.

juanpacolopez - Can you admin a Win2K server using VPC and Win2K pro? Or even better yet (but probably wishful thinking on my part) would I be able to admin it from OS X?

Peace,

O
B unce!

I use a 15 inch ti to Admin our Microsoft Network. Sadly, you can't do alot in OS X as far a 2000 adminning, but all other admin tasks can be done in Windows 2000 with VPC.

If your going to have a windows machine too, I recommend putting XP on it and using Microsoft's RDP Client for OS X instead of VPC. I have my Windows Laptop sitting on a shelf, turned on, and any time I need to do some Windows work, connect to that. It's kind of spooky, because when you run it in fullscreen mode, you'll think you have XP running natively on a powerbook. Its also much faster then VPC for me. (could be that 2.2 ghz processor in the windows laptop wasting its life away running access when it really wants to do some gaming.

)

The bonus? My biggest complaint about my windows laptop was that it only supported 1024x768 resolution. RDP solves that because I can run a session on my powerbook in its native fullscreen resolution.

juanpacolopez · 01:39 PM

Originally posted by NDBounce:
Thank you for the advice. I can wait until Monday to hear about hardware announcements, so I will most likely do that. I probably will end up needing a 15" TiBook though, from the sounds of things.

juanpacolopez - Can you admin a Win2K server using VPC and Win2K pro? Or even better yet (but probably wishful thinking on my part) would I be able to admin it from OS X?

Peace,

O
B unce!

When you use VPC, provided everything is configured correctly, as far as Windows is concerned it's running inside a fully-functional PC. Anything (aside from 3d games and such) that you can do inside a BASIC win2k box, you can do in VPC.

Having said that, if you're admining a Win2k Server (that actually has the Server, Advanced Server, or Data Center version of the OS installed) and have terminal services installed on it... there IS a Remote Desktop Client for OSX that will connect to a windows server with ease.

I'm using this set up as we speak in fact, to admin a Win2k Advanced Server machine 2 floors down. If you have a reasonably fast (switched) network... RDP is actually "almost" like being there. Beats the hell out of VNC, Timbuktu or any of those other guys, as much as I hate to admit it.

juanpacolopez · Jun 20, 2003, 01:38 PM

Originally posted by BkueKanoodle:
If your going to have a windows machine too, I recommend putting XP on it and using Microsoft's RDP Client for OS X instead of VPC. I have my Windows Laptop sitting on a shelf, turned on, and any time I need to do some Windows work, connect to that. It's kind of spooky, because when you run it in fullscreen mode, you'll think you have XP running natively on a powerbook. Its also much faster then VPC for me. (could be that 2.2 ghz processor in the windows laptop wasting its life away running access when it really wants to do some gaming. )

How much RAM does your Ti have? Because I have 1Gb (512Mb gets alloc'ed to VPC when it runs) and VPC runs a good bit faster than RDP on a switched 100mbps network.

Though honestly, RDP doesn't eat a 1-2Gb chunk of your HD when you're not using it... so it might be a better option in some cases.

If any of your apps, for example, have graphical displays (charts and such) that update at a regular interval... VPC will be MUCH faster for this, as screen redraws (even as good as RDP is) over RDP are still slow. Depending on the rez of the window that's drawing, it could be a truly huge (at least perceived) performance difference.

I use both, personally, because I admin a win2k adv. server... but I also have a couple (Access mainly... as I said earlier our entire support db is in Access, for reasons I have yet to fully understand) of windows apps that I need to run locally.

I guess it depends on exactly what you need.