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RedHerring · Jul 7, 2001, 02:22 PM

First off, after two weeks, I can report that I'm extrememly happy with my iBook purchase. Keep in mind, this is my first laptop *and* my first Mac.

It's almost suprising to me how easily I "fell into" this computer. After a little time playing around with OS 9.1, I felt right at home. Its hard to explain, but after using Windows for almost 5 years, I assumed it made sense. But after using OS 9.1 for a couple of days, I starting thinking "geeze...this really makes better sense". Like I said, i t's really hard to explain, but it's just a feeling. At fist I thought it could be newness-syndrome - you know, where anything new seems really cool for a while, and then after some time, you're left wondering "what was so great about that". But, after only 4 days of ownership, my iBook went with me on trip to visit my brother. He, too, is a Windows user, and after the show-and-tell session I gave him, he was on eBay looking at Macs! So, I'm ruling out newness-syndrome.

After I ordered my iBook I made CD backups of everything special to me on Windows machine (a Gateway). When my iBook arrived I made the transfer, and since then, my Windows machine has become a very expensive paper weight. It hasn't had power to it since I got my new iBook, and I'm thinking of turing it into an mp3 stereo system.

Because I'm convinced - now that I have this iBook, what else is my Gateway good for?

Ryu · Jul 7, 2001, 03:07 PM

Gateway? I don't know what config. you have but I personally had a home-made PC when I bought my iBook. Now I am looking forward to sell it to get a Playstation II since I only use it to play games.

If you're not into games, you have buy a digital camera or other devices that suits better for your iBook and your use.

If you want to keep a desktop, well, you can sell it and get an iMac from eBay...

PS. All depends how much your Gateway is worth.

RedHerring · Jul 7, 2001, 05:09 PM

Sell the Gateway and put it towards buying an iMac! That's a *great* idea!! I hadn't even thought of that.

Hmmm...is there a Kelly Blue Book for computers? hahaha. I would have no idea how much to sell the Gateway for.

But thanks for the suggestion...that's a very good idea!

Ryu · Jul 7, 2001, 06:48 PM

It's great to hear that I could be a help.

Make sure to wait for few weeks untili MWNY and see the new iMac coming out. You may have more choice and surely have better price if you are going for a deal on e-Bay.

[ 07-07-2001: Message edited by: Ryu ]

RedHerring · Jul 7, 2001, 08:47 PM

There's a new iMac coming out at MacWorld?

Hmmmm...Do we know anything about it yet?

Duo · Jul 8, 2001, 12:41 AM

Originally posted by RedHerring:
There's a new iMac coming out at MacWorld?

Hmmmm...Do we know anything about it yet?

Its going to have a LCD screen, prolly 15inches, maybe faster cpu's, PC133 ram and most likely a GeForce2MX vid. card.

Duo

Joel · Jul 8, 2001, 02:41 AM

Originally posted by RedHerring:
Hmmm...is there a Kelly Blue Book for computers? hahaha. I would have no idea how much to sell the Gateway for.

If you try selling locally (i.e., through the classifieds), remember that you can probably get more for it than you could through eBay. I've seen *really* old computers compared to any Gateway you probably have been using recently sell for $300+ in used computer stores in my area. So, if your machine is in good condition with a monitor and some extras I bet you could get at least $500 for it. Maybe more, who knows? I say, go for the iMac!! I'd have one if I had the cash. I'm currently saving for an iBook this summer for college. I can't wait!

-Joel

RedHerring · Jul 8, 2001, 02:02 PM

Hmm...$500, huh? I could probably live with that.

It's an Essential 450: 450 mhz PIII, 128 MB of RAM, 40 GB HD, CD-RW, CD-ROM (for very easy CD to CD burning), 15" Gateway monitor, SoundBlaster Live! sound card, Voodoo 3 w/16 MB video memory, 56k modem, some sort of the ethernet card, and, of course, a keyboard and mouse.

It's a really good computer. It just has one drawback - Windows! haha. My brother got almost the identical computer at the same time I did, and in his words, "My computer has served me well...my OS has not". Haha.

But now I'm wondering about this new iMac that's coming out. With all these improvements being added, is there any way possible that it can remain at a price similar to the current models? I can't afford a G4, and I read in another forum here at macnn that the new iMacs might have G4s in them. That will raise the price quite a bit, won't it?

RedHerring · Jul 8, 2001, 02:07 PM

I'm currently saving for an iBook this summer for college

Joel -

That's exactly what I bought my iBook for! And now the iBook is making me wish school was starting back up sooner! Imagine that? A computer making a student wish the summer would hurry and end.

I must be a freak

funkboy · Jul 8, 2001, 05:19 PM

Congratulations on the new iBook! Can't wait till mine actually ships...

The statements about what the new iMac will contain are rumors, and only that. We'll only know what the new iMac contains July 18th, the day of Steve Jobs's keynote address at MacWorld. Jobs is the iCEO of Apple, since you probably don't know

A G4 and/or LCD are all possibilities - a major change in the looks of the computer are sounding very much like a guarantee, though. Don't buy an iMac until you see what new stuff comes from Apple...

I'm guessing you don't have an AirPort Base Station or AirPort Card in the iBook, so these may be wise investments for the cash you get from your Gateway. What is AirPort? Think wireless internet
I got a sweet deal on a card and a base station, and I think it'll be great to have my iBook be wirelessly connected to the internet all over my house and backyard (you can go 150 feet away from the base station itself) . You can wirelessly connect to networks (either wired or unwired) , so you can transfer files from anywhere, too.

Most of all, have fun with that iBook!

Jul 9, 2001, 10:46 AM

As the name suggests, I so badly want to sell my Yikes! G4 and get an iBook. RedHerring, you want a G4 but cant afford it? Interested in mine at fair price?

400 MHz G4
320 MB RAM
23 GB HD
Intellimouse Explorer optical mouse (5-buttons and a wheel)
17" monitor
OS X
Office 2001

Is the market value on that lower than the iBook/iMac range?

x user · Jul 10, 2001, 12:23 PM

Originally posted by <Seduced by the iBook>:
As the name suggests, I so badly want to sell my Yikes! G4 and get an iBook. RedHerring, you want a G4 but cant afford it? Interested in mine at fair price?

400 MHz G4
320 MB RAM
23 GB HD
Intellimouse Explorer optical mouse (5-buttons and a wheel)
17" monitor
OS X
Office 2001

Is the market value on that lower than the iBook/iMac range?

The current used market is dry, so the price on that G4 would probably be around $1100 (if it's an apple monitor, $1300). With the iBooks at $1300 you could probably make it work

graffix · Jul 10, 2001, 04:12 PM

Imagine that? A computer making a student wish the summer would hurry and end.

I must be a freak

Nah... just a show off...

(I'm looking forward to the drool-factor too... especially when I boot up Enlightenment and Gimp within XDarwin under OSX... it's a computer geeks wet dream...

)
g.
P.S. You're not the only one who wishes it'll get here sooner...

[ 07-10-2001: Message edited by: graffix ]

vmarks · Jul 15, 2001, 10:32 AM

You can sell your gateway,
or you can put linux or FreeBSD on it, and learn about how to use Unix- This will make you a more knowledgable user when you move to OS X.

dreilly1 · Jul 15, 2001, 12:30 PM

What to do with your old Gateway?

You could always put Linux on it - I have a Linux box running a netatalk server for extra storage for our Macs. It's an Appletalk server running under Linux.

However, for some reason Netatalk doesn't play well with OS X. I should probably read up on NFS, and use that to share that drive instead.

I'm in a similar position -- after I got my iBook, my SmurfyMac (B&W G3) just didn't get used as much. I'm putting it up on eBay this week to find it a good home.
(anyone interested...?)

RedHerring · Jul 15, 2001, 07:56 PM

Well, after much thought, I decided to keep the Gateway. But now ya'll have me thinking of turning into a Linux machine. I completely formatted it yesterday, and have a minimal Windows 98 install on it. I have several high dollar programs that I bought for it, and I'm not sure I want to just ditch them all together. At the same time, I can't afford to re-buy the Mac versions of them either!

But perhaps the answer would be to put Linux on it and leave a small partition for Windows to use in those rare cases when I need to use those applications I can't afford to rebuy. Maybe down the line I can completely rid myself of Windows. In all honesty, I haven't used the Gateway once since getting my iBook. But I'm paranoid that as soon as I get rid of the Gateway I'll need it for something! haha.

Is there a certain Linux distro that's mac-friendly?

vmarks · Jul 16, 2001, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by RedHerring:
Well, after much thought, I decided to keep the Gateway. But now ya'll have me thinking of turning into a Linux machine. I completely formatted it yesterday, and have a minimal Windows 98 install on it. I have several high dollar programs that I bought for it, and I'm not sure I want to just ditch them all together. At the same time, I can't afford to re-buy the Mac versions of them either!

But perhaps the answer would be to put Linux on it and leave a small partition for Windows to use in those rare cases when I need to use those applications I can't afford to rebuy. Maybe down the line I can completely rid myself of Windows. In all honesty, I haven't used the Gateway once since getting my iBook. But I'm paranoid that as soon as I get rid of the Gateway I'll need it for something! haha.

Is there a certain Linux distro that's mac-friendly?

do this:
1)keep your win98 partition, and only install those expensive apps you invested in, nothing else.

2)pick a linux distribution, and install it. (Mac-friendly distro? all distros treat macs alike, if you're running netatalk or NFS services.)
I use Debian, which means I have to download a lot of things, or RedHat or Mandrake if I'm lazy and don't want to have to go to a hundred different web pages to get utilities. I won't start linux distro wars here.

3) dual boot the gateway for when you need the win98 stuff, or run Wine. or VmWARE. Your windows apps will then be available while you're booted under Linux. be warned, this is fine for one or two apps, it's not great at subbing for a native system, in that it's a little slow sometimes.

Basically, the Gateway can be a great big file share for the iBook.

and, as I said, it's a good way to learn the basics of unix that will apply to OS X (although if you wanted to really learn OS X internals, you'd install OS X on the ibook, or FreeBSD on the Gateway. FreeBSD makes up much of the terminal userland in OS X, and you can still do all the neato things with fileshares that we're talking about here. )