[kevin11599]

hey everyone,
I'm completely new to the mac world but have REALLY got into researching it in the past months becuase of my discovery( lol ) of the ibook at a local compusa. I am completely in love with the ibook, from its looks to combodrive to processor, EVERYTHING seems so perfect. I'm in the process of saving up the money to buy my new ibook and make my PC to MAC conversion, I've been using PC's for probably 10 years and have no experiance with the MAC OSX, but after looking at it and using it, it seems so much more stable and versitale and easy to use, so i'm ready to move away from Bill Gates and worship Steve Jobs, lol. Can anyone help me with my conversion and tell me what i will need to know with the MAC? and any other things about OSX i might not know? also i had some ibook questions. . .

1. I understand the "MHz Myth" so what is the comparision of a ibook 600MHz G3 to a PC processor? what computer or laptop could the ibook compete with and probably win?

2. Is the 12.1in screen hard to get use to? or use? ( i know theres a 14.1 but i want the small and light book)

3.Should i worry about getting dead pixels or a broken drive on my ibook?

4. Any other cool info is appricated! thanks everyone!


-Kevin

[Gametes]

Hello Kevin; welcome to the Macnn Forums. These are the best ones, and I think you'll like it here. Especially once you get that iBook. For some reason, everything just looks and works and feels better on a Macintosh.
My first piece of advice is to start calling it 'Mac' instead of 'MAC'. People get kinda worked up over that.
Now that that's outta tho way:
1) "Compete with" is difficult to measure, since every user will do different things and each processor has its own strengths. I'd say that in general, I have found the 600Mhz iBook to "feel" like an 800 or so PC. The bottom line is, you won't notice speed, really. It's nice and balanced.
2) Stick with the 12.1. The screen is very sharp and bright, and definitely not small for it's design. Good call not wanting the 14 inch, chich has the same resolution in the end. (Unless you have very poor vision, there is no reason to buy that whopper.)
3) I don't have either of these problems, and it's a production tautology that most don't. It might happen to you, but no, I wouldn't worry.
4) Well...ask around!

[seanyepez]

The 600-megahertz iBook feels like a 233 megahertz Pentium I when it's running OS X.

Under 9, the iBook could "feel" like a 500-megahertz Pentium III. My friend's 650-megahertz Sony VAIO that he bought about two years ago felt a lot faster than my 500-megahertz Pismo running OS 9. Don't expect stellar performance, but 9 is significantly better than X.

The 12.1-inch screen is nice. It looks a little bit small under 9, but OS X's bloated window sizes make it look perfect for OS X.

Seriously, though, the iBook delivers subpar performance under anything but OS 9. Without a G4's AltiVec optimizations, the operating system feels slow and unwieldy.

You shouldn't worry about getting a broken drive. If broken drives were so common, you would hear about it. However, bad pixels can happen. Strangely enough, I've never seen an Apple notebook with a dead pixel.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>The 600-megahertz iBook feels like a 233 megahertz Pentium I when it's running OS X.</STRONG>

Well, maybe it's a little faster than I said.

It's definitely nothing compared to a 400-megahertz Toshiba Pentium II notebook, though.

[Subzero Diesel949]

I disagree. I too have a iBook 600 and OS X does not feel slow at all (compared to my clamshell iBook). Yes, OS X is much snappier on a G4, but you have to remember with a laptop you are sacrificing speed.

As far as which OS to use, OS 9 is a speed demon, yet prone to system freezes and crashes. OTOH X is much more stable, and should become much better with the updates (10.2 is around the corner).

Make sure you upgrade your operating systems to OS 9.2.2 and 10.1.2 via Software Update. Under OS 9, go to your Apple Menu =&gt; Control Panels =&gt; Software Update. If it's not there, navigate to /System Folder/Control Panels. You can make an alias of the Control Panels folder and drop it into Apple Menu Items.


In OS X, all you have to do is go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences. You will see Software Update in the window.

[kevin11599]

Thanks for the awnsers and the welcome to the forum! I'm not a big professional computer user, 90% of the time i'm on the computer is becuase i'm doing email,internet,instant messeging. I want the portablitiy for 2 reasons, To do my email and internet all over my house with a airport and to be able to take my computer in the car to my reletives or on vacation. I want the combo because i think watching DVD's on the road or on the sun poarch would be so awesome and "burning a CD in my lap, is groundbreaking"(quote from some guy in the ibook dual USB video on apple's site), lol. I also might be doing light gaming, AOEII, cardgames, that kinda stuff, so the video card doesnt' worry me. . .
do you think that i should wait for a G4 ibook? I still have a little while to go before i get the money for this an di don't wanna spend 1500 dollars and it be old news in a week.

-Kevin

[kevin11599]

another question (sorry)


- How much ram should I get? for what i said i'd be doing above^. If i'm running OSX all the time. . .


-Kevin

[Subzero Diesel949]

The thing with Apple is that once they release a computer at MacWorld (say MWSF), six months later it becomes outdated at another MW (Paris in our example) due to a speed bump or other modifications.

I was surprised that Apple released an updated iBook at MWSF, given that they just updated the line in September with the current 12" models (speed bumps).

So yeah, you could wait until summer for a new iBook, but if you need it NOW, go with the iBook 600 combo drive. It will hold better resale value.

[Subzero Diesel949]

Originally posted by kevin11599:
<STRONG>another question (sorry)


- How much ram should I get? for what i said i'd be doing above^. If i'm running OSX all the time. . .


-Kevin </STRONG>

The minimum for OS X is 128 (although it can run on 64). 256 is okay, 384 is optimal (I'm about to go from 256 to 384 soon).

[flatcatch]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>

Well, maybe it's a little faster than I said.

It's definitely nothing compared to a 400-megahertz Toshiba Pentium II notebook, though.</STRONG>

Yeah, the G3 simply chokes with OS X. I have a iBook 600/Combo with 384 MB of RAM and it's a great machine... monitor is nice... OS X is sexy... the iBook is sexy...

However, the responsiveness when running things like iPhoto and general OS X stuff like genie-effect of apps in and out of the dock, window resizing, launching the fricken' Calculator of all things, is nothing short of a gross embarrassment for Apple. Don't get me wrong, I really like this machine and I like tinkering with OS X, but I can't belive Apple even allows OX X to be displayed in public on these things. My 800Mhz PIII VAIO laptop with Win2000 runs circles (and circles) around the iBook for basic OS actions, web use, launching apps, browsing through folders, etc etc. I'd love to show off the iBook with OS X to everyone I meet, but usually don't since it clearly is so slow and kind of am embarrassment. Photoshop is more respectable, and of course booting into OS 9 picks things up.

In the end all this will bode well for Apple though, since as soon as there is (well, if EVER) a 12" subnotebook from Apple with a G4 I'll be selling my iBook 600 in a hearbeat to make the upgrade. I played with a new iMac 800Mhz at MacWorld and OS X is much nicer on that machine.

Sorry to kick Apple in the shins on this, but that's the way it is.
I'm still glad I got the iBook though, since it is such a refreshment from Windows.

[Justin W. Williams]

Originally posted by Subzero Diesel949:
<STRONG>

The minimum for OS X is 128 (although it can run on 64). 256 is okay, 384 is optimal (I'm about to go from 256 to 384 soon).</STRONG>

I have 384 in my iBook, but I think you'd be better suited to max out the RAM to 640 if at all possible. I know i will be as soon as I can afford it

[btober]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>The 600-megahertz iBook feels like a 233 megahertz Pentium I when it's running OS X.

Under 9, the iBook could "feel" like a 500-megahertz Pentium III. My friend's 650-megahertz Sony VAIO that he bought about two years ago felt a lot faster than my 500-megahertz Pismo running OS 9. Don't expect stellar performance, but 9 is significantly better than X.

The 12.1-inch screen is nice. It looks a little bit small under 9, but OS X's bloated window sizes make it look perfect for OS X.

Seriously, though, the iBook delivers subpar performance under anything but OS 9. Without a G4's AltiVec optimizations, the operating system feels slow and unwieldy.

You shouldn't worry about getting a broken drive. If broken drives were so common, you would hear about it. However, bad pixels can happen. Strangely enough, I've never seen an Apple notebook with a dead pixel.</STRONG>

Don't scare the newcomer away so quickly, seanyepez!

Anway, welcome kevin11599. We're glad that you're joining us!

[kevin11599]

So what OS should i use? Does OSX really run that bad? and 9 that good? Right now i'm sitting here on a 733celeron :o with 128ram and i'm donig ok with my stuff. Do you think i should get a G4 Mac or the ibook like i planned and what OS should i be using?

[btober]

Originally posted by kevin11599:
<STRONG>So what OS should i use? Does OSX really run that bad? and 9 that good? Right now i'm sitting here on a 733celeron :o with 128ram and i'm donig ok with my stuff. Do you think i should get a G4 Mac or the ibook like i planned and what OS should i be using?</STRONG>

Get the iBook and run OS X on it. It's really very good. I have 640 MB of RAM in my system, but 384 should give you ample performance.

[flatcatch]

Originally posted by kevin11599:
<STRONG>So what OS should i use? Does OSX really run that bad? and 9 that good? Right now i'm sitting here on a 733celeron :o with 128ram and i'm donig ok with my stuff. Do you think i should get a G4 Mac or the ibook like i planned and what OS should i be using?</STRONG>

You should head into an Apple Store (if one is around you) or at least somewhere where you can test drive OS X on an iBook vs. a PowerBook G4 or tower system. OS X isn't HORRIBLE in speed, but I did have much higher expections when I picked up my iBook 600. Fortunately it's gorgeous, stable, and fun so I can look past that for now. But head into a store and check out the speeds... if you're happy with the iBook pick one up!

If you're new to the Mac I'd just go with OS X... it's where Apple is headed, so might was well put your time and enthusiasm into getting your hands dirty with X!

And 384 MB of RAM should do you plenty - I'm sure one of the big vendors have a 256MB free RAM & free printer specials on iBooks... http://www.macmall.com, http://www.maczone.com http://www.macwarehouse.com ..... you pay just about retail, but the free stuff may even it all out.

- fc

[ 01-24-2002: Message edited by: flatcatch ]

[ 01-24-2002: Message edited by: flatcatch ]

[kevin11599]

Thanks! now that brings up the big question, where should i buy my new lover?
Locally i have circuitcity and i know i don't wanna buy it there it just so happen they have mac and its where i first saw that beautiful machine but anyway, the nearest apple retail store is a good 3hours away but about 30minutes away is a Apple Outfitter which is certifined by Apple ( http://www.macoutfitters.com/ ) and i also have the great old internet, so where do you think my best bet is to buy it? Any cool accessories i should look into? I REALLy want a nice bag/bookbag/sleeve, any ideas?

-Kevin

[alien]

Hi,

I upped my iBook 500 MHz from 128 to 384 MB. Smartest thing I've done so far, cause there used to be a lot of swapping to and from the disk when switching between or starting up programs. So those things are much faster now. But don't buy extra RAM from Apple... Expensive!!

There are still a lot of things that feel slow. Particularly rendering and scrolling of complex web pages, and particularly in OmniWeb (an otherwise very nice browser). These are not helped by upping the RAM. (A G4 would help.)

For the most part, I don't care. It's so good-lookin', and I'm a lazy person anyway. It should be noted that it's parts of the user interface that feels slow, not necessarily all the things under the hood.

The screen is Wunderbar... OK, maybe not for people with poor vision, but to me it's probably the best I've ever used.

I have no dead pixels. I haven't heard many complaints over this. But remember that if you buy directly from Apple, they won't take it back unless there are a certain number of them. Other dealers could have different policies. A broken drive should be repaced at no cost.

OS X is made for the future, and not for the G3. But there was tremendous improvements between 10.0.x and 10.1.x. We're all expecting things to improve further in 10.2, hopefully sometime this spring. I hope that includes battery time, which is a lot shorter under X than 9.

Except those speed issues: This baby is sweeeet!

[phantomdragonz]

i have a 600 Mhz ibook and the speed is not an issue at all. period. dontr be scared away. i have 128 megs of ram amd i bet i will notice a difference when i get a total of 640 Mg but thit will come sooner that later i hope. welcome to the forum, the people here are great and very very helpful.

P.D.

[kevin11599]

Thanks for all the help!!! if you have any other information about the ibook or anything else you wanna bring to my attention PLEASE DO! you guys are really helpful and thanks for the welcome! i'm on my ibook bag search, any suggestions? I want somthing that i wont worry about my ibook in and can drop it down on my bed and throw it over my shoulder before i leave in the morning. A good plain, well made bag!


-Kevin


Why was i ever PC, Mac is such a nicer group of people and so much more helpful then the competing companys of the PC world. . .

[beacon73]

Ditto from me about speed on my 600 DVD under OSX.
It is slower than my PC notebooks running win2k at comparable
speeds....

anyway, when you are ready to buy, don't buy from MacMall.....
I had a hoorrible experience from them....long story short...
i orderd from them, it was backordered, they shipped the free printer
and usb cable seperately...i cancelled my order, they wouldn't let me
return the un-opened cable and printer....so i got stuck with the stuff
at pretty non-competitive prices....also, they lied about their free printer offer.
for a couple days they had the epson 777i printer as the FREE printer after
$50 manufacturer mail in rebate and $10 macmall rebate....i come to find
out, there was NEVER a Epson rebate for that printer (i called Epson and
complained, they sent me inkl cartridges for free)...but i had to pay for the
stuff in the end....and the Manager at MacMall i spoke with was REAL RUDE,
even when i was professional about the whole thing......MACMALL = BAD

one thing though, save yourself some money and mail order the ibook...you'll
save on tax, as there isn't tax from most mail order placed....i picked www.cdw.com
they ROCK.....and i have bought 2 apple notebooks and a ton of other stuff from them etc...and they are usually pretty competitive on price....

later

[alien]

There was a few threads on bags way back in June after the introduction. You cound either search the forums or start a new thread. I'm sure a lot of people will have experience from long-term use by now. (Sorry, I don't have one...)

You could need an external mouse. I have an MS Intellimouse Optical. It's nice. The basics work, but the drivers aren't ready yet. I'm sure there Kensington and others have good products too.

If you want to play DVDs on the TV, buy the AV Cable.

And a pair of headphones is a must! Or maybe an iPod if you can afford it...

[flatcatch]

A few other pointers:

* Yes, as mentioned above never buy RAM from Apple. One place that usually has excellent prices is http://www.crucial.com w/ free 2nd day shipping.

* You can get the Apple Extended Care 3 year warrantly coverage for around $250, but note that you can opt to purchase the plan anytime within 12 months from purchase of the machine. So if you don't feel like spending that money now don't sweat it... you have all year.

* There are a lot of nice options for cases... do a search for "case" in the iBook forum for past conversations.

* I got my iBook from warehouse.com - they've moved down to only 128MB of free RAM (I got 256MB free for the "free" $49 install fee which still was a decent value), and I sold my free printer on eBay for $50.

[uvray]

I'm a relatively new ibook user as well (owned one for 4 months). I bought one right after my Toshiba 400mhz notebook died on me after a year and I thought Macs would be more stable.

In the speed issue, yes, Mac OSX is slower. I used to run linux on my laptop and definitely, the load time was dismaying at first. But there are a lot of PLUSES that make up for whatever you can possibly get from a pc laptop.

1) the screen is beautiful. I don't know how much you have to pay for a lcd like this on a pc laptop but this was a bargain. Reading text is actually enjoyable.

2) it's quiet. There were very few places I could actually take my toshiba because the fan was unbearably loud. My brother recently tried out a Compaq as well, and that too had a very loud fan. You won't have this problem w/ the ibook.

3) OSX is really stable. Programs tend to stay in that one place you put it, and I haven't had a major problem with it yet. Some programs are still a little buggy, like IE, but it's no real biggie.

I'm relatively new to dealing with Macs but so far, I have no regrets. I have seen and used WinXP and it doesn't even come close to the elegance and ease of osx. And if you're getting a notebook soon, most notebooks come with the XP Home Ed. now, maybe even a bastardized version w/ only the "rescue" option. If you get the ibook, you get OSX, the full version, nothing clinging to it. So far I've no regrets. My brother traded in his Compaq for an ibook too and he's completely hooked too. It seems people are generally really happy with this little box

[phantomdragonz]

fan? what fan? lol (it's so quiet i have never heard it.)

i have a timbuk2 bag w/ sleeve. it is built like a frickin tank. the padding is good i dropped it from about 3-4 feet and it made a soft landing on the cement. i was not worried about my ibook at all. they are expensive but you pay for what you get. they now have a special sleeve for the ibook (i had to get a medium size because the small was too small.
headphones are a must and the av cable is VERY handy when doing powerpoint or dvd movies in a hotel room/normal tv (with rca cables) the screen is beauityful it is just awesome.

Timbuk2 web page

P.S. i got green,grey,blue color scheme in ballistic nylon, it looks good. the shoulder pad is a must. and my sleeve is white, matches the iBook!

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by phantomdragonz:
<STRONG>i have a 600 Mhz ibook and the speed is not an issue at all. period. dontr be scared away. i have 128 megs of ram amd i bet i will notice a difference when i get a total of 640 Mg but thit will come sooner that later i hope. welcome to the forum, the people here are great and very very helpful.

P.D.</STRONG>

You have an extremely low bar for performance. A 733-megahertz Celeron will smoke an iBook running OS X.

Speed is an issue.

Don't buy RAM at the Apple Store. Get RAM at www.crucial.com or another on-line store. Apple RAM exponentially more expensive than compatible, third-party memory.

Under OS X, your Celeron will perform much faster for OS operations than the iBook will. Actually, if you're running a cluttered installation of Windows 98 or ME, the iBook might be faster. XP and 2000 are much faster than their 16-bit cousins.

As with all notebook versus desktop decisions, I recommend you buy the desktop unless you need the portability. You will get a faster machine with more storage for a lower price. However, you will sacrifice portability, a feature that comes at a very high price.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by uvray:
<STRONG>1) the screen is beautiful. I don't know how much you have to pay for a lcd like this on a pc laptop but this was a bargain. Reading text is actually enjoyable. </STRONG>

The screen can be found on similar notebooks from HP and Sony. Actually, the Sony LCD (R505 subnotebook) is a great deal brighter and more vibrant than the iBook's display.

It's a nice screen. However, it's nothing special.

[uvray]

the Sony laptops are nice, but they tend to be fragile. And if you're not willing to shell out for the more expensive ones, the lower priced ones are not worth the purchase. Some of them sound good on paper, terrible in reality. Part of the reason I bought my Toshiba (and my brother his Compaq) was that they looked exceptionally good on paper, for the price they were charging, but you don't know until you actually use it.

And I lauded the screen because I thought the LCD on my old laptop was good, at least one of the better ones out there. My eyes can't handle looking at CRT screens for too long and so a good screen is important for me. First time I opened up and viewed the ibook, I was like "whoa, so nice" because it was much nicer than my old one. Sure, it is just a personal bias stemming from a personal experience, but it was nice. It's very easy on my eyes.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by uvray:
<STRONG>the Sony laptops are nice, but they tend to be fragile. And if you're not willing to shell out for the more expensive ones, the lower priced ones are not worth the purchase. Some of them sound good on paper, terrible in reality. Part of the reason I bought my Toshiba (and my brother his Compaq) was that they looked exceptionally good on paper, for the price they were charging, but you don't know until you actually use it.</STRONG>

I don't know what you're talking about.

The low-end model (F-series notebooks) absolutely blows. I wouldn't ever buy an F-series Sony notebook. I'm talking about the high-class, super-thin, ultra-sleek R505 series.

[JoeG4]

Can't make much of a comment, but the Apple LCD's really are great stuff, the only way you can make a good comparison is doing this, it does not matter what other people say:

Look at all the computers you can IN REAL LIFE, check them out at every aspect, if they're locked down ask a store guy to unlock it so you can get a better feel for it, and if you look at the 'superthin' laptops, remember that for most features you'll need a bulky dock.

Try every aspect you can, how nice the OS is, how pretty the laptop is, how delicate the screen is, and how responsive it feels, I did all that when I got my G4.

Normally speed doesn't matter, comfort, looks, feel, and how it feels to YOU, are what matters.

[holzi]

buy that ibook


i did it about two weeks ago,
and i just love it.
i got the 600-dvd only-ibook.
i just have 128 megs of ram,
and os x is not the fastest on it,
but why use os9? os x is apples future.
but for what i�m doing with it,
i don�t mind. but i will up my ram
to at least 384 (a 512mb-stick is just
too expensive right now, compared to the 256)

and the speed doesn�t bother me at all.
(my desktop-pc is an athlon 1.1ghz with 512 meg ram,
which is fater than my ibook, but a lot louder)

[Paulus]

Something else you will get with the iBook that wintel
machines just cant come close in is battery life
You will still be going strong when your wintel buddies
have run out of steam (Just like in the Duracell add)

[zigzag]

The G3 processor isn't as good on OS-X as the G4, but you can expect that with time, OS-X will get faster as Apple improves it. Besides, the iBook is a compact portable - you can't have everything.

It doesn't sound like your applications are that demanding, but you like portability, so I'd go ahead and buy the G-3 iBook and add as much RAM as you can. Who knows when the iBook will get a G4 processor.

[seanyepez]

Originally posted by Paulus:
<STRONG>Something else you will get with the iBook that wintel
machines just cant come close in is battery life
You will still be going strong when your wintel buddies
have run out of steam (Just like in the Duracell add)</STRONG>

PC notebooks have caught up considerably. A comparable Dell Inspiron 4100 gets about 3 hours out of its battery in real-world tests.

[pilauh]

I have a 800 Mhz 2001 iBook (combo drive, 20 MG HD) with 384 RAM and it rocks... of course the improvements of 10.2 will be welcome, but that babe is already a rocket !

[kevin11599]

800MHz!?!???! did miss some new annoucemnt? i know i'm not a Mac user but i thought the apple site would of posted it . .... lol, but seriously i know what you mean, so it really is not that bad? good, cuase i'm going to a mac outfitter tomarrow. . . YAY


-Kevin

[kevin11599]

Will a 30GB hard drive make a difference in speed than if i had a 20GB hard drive? Now after reading so many posts and using a ibook at circuit city (APPLE OUTFITTER TOMARROW!) i'm looking at maxing out the ram at 640 and maybe a 30GB hard drive if it will make a difference in speed and also i could use the extra space in the long run. . .


-Kevin

[seanyepez]

There's no 800-megahertz iBook. He might be talking about an 800-megahertz iMac.

I wouldn't take the above poster seriously. He says his iBook has a 20-megabyte hard drive.

[joltguy]

Originally posted by phantomdragonz:
<STRONG>i have a 600 Mhz ibook and the speed is not an issue at all. period. dontr be scared away.... </STRONG>

I'd have to agree. I'm surprised to see the number of people who have issues with the speed of OS X on the new iBooks. I just got mine this week (incl. 384MB RAM) and I am astonished at how snappy OS X feels. Much nicer than on the Lime iMac DV I have at work. I think it's been posted before, but take a look at this link:
http://macspeedzone.com/5.0/AllScores.html

It pits the iBook against several of it's Mac brothers and I think that the numbers might surprise you.

[ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: joltguy ]

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>Under OS X, your Celeron will perform much faster for OS operations than the iBook will. </STRONG>

I didn't know a Celeron could run OS X ...

Anyway , I have the original 500 MHz iBook , and since I had the RAM upgraded to 384 MB , OS X speed is on par with Mac OS 9 (for me anyway) . Only the actual app launching may take a little longer , but at least you don't have to wait until the whole damn thing is ready for you ...
Go for the iBook , it's an Insanely Great machine You'll have lots of fun with it !

[seanyepez]

Under OS X, the iBook won't feel as fast as the Celeron. Fine.

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>The 600-megahertz iBook feels like a 233 megahertz Pentium I when it's running OS X.

Under 9, the iBook could "feel" like a 500-megahertz Pentium III. My friend's 650-megahertz Sony VAIO that he bought about two years ago felt a lot faster than my 500-megahertz Pismo running OS 9. Don't expect stellar performance, but 9 is significantly better than X.

Seriously, though, the iBook delivers subpar performance under anything but OS 9. Without a G4's AltiVec optimizations, the operating system feels slow and unwieldy.
</STRONG>

I realise that this is totally subjective but I disagree with almost everything you say. My impression is as follows:

My 600/384 iBook handles X beautifully well. Very fluid, no hangups, no spinning wheels. Whenever I boot back into 9.2 (mostly to use PhotoShop) I am surprised how much better X performs and how much I prefer the GUI.

Read further in this forum and see how people like their Ibook.

On the speed issue, the iBook - to me - easily feels as fast as a 1gigahertz VAIO we've got at the office. Saying it performs like a 500 P3 sounds like utter nonsense to me. I mean, I would not recommend it for heavy duty PhotoShop rendering or nonstop FinalCut work but I have done both of these things on my iBook in an emergency and it has performed flawlessly.

YMMV.

[seanyepez]

What is the VAIO running in terms of operating systems?

How much memory does it have, and what kind of hard drive is in the machine?

The VAIO should easily feel faster than the iBook. There's something serously wrong with the machine if it's not.

[namannik]

[$0.02]

I have the original iBook - a whopping 300 MhZ ! I run OS X on it full time. Yes, it can be slow, but not unbearably slow for what I'm doing (internet, word processing, iTunes). The stability, features, etc., far outweigh the loss in speed when I switched from OS 9.

[/$0.02]

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
<STRONG>

You have an extremely low bar for performance. A 733-megahertz Celeron will smoke an iBook running OS X.

Speed is an issue.
</STRONG>

I disagree. Amongst my computers I have a P3/750 running WindowsXP, a Celeron/500 Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 2000, and a G3/600 iBook. The P3 is very responsive, but it has 768 MB of RAM. The Vaio is slow as hell and no fun to use on Windows 2000. The iBook has 640 MB of RAM and works great in OSX. Very fast, very responsive. It's comparable in performance to my G4/450 running OSX, and much faster than the Vaio.

I'm not sure why you're so anti-iBook. Did you try one with the RAM topped out? It easily doubled my performance when I upped the RAM to 640 MB.

[ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: Arkham_c ]

[Tomacorno]

I purchased my first Mac in November - iBook 600 combo. I added a 256MB chip to bring my RAM up to 384MB. I use OSX almost exclusively - since it is my first Mac I don't know any better and get irritated if an app wants to open in Classic. The speed and feel of the iBook are fine. It is faster than my work PC (Windows 98 on Dell Latitude with 650 PIII and 256 MB RAM). Where I really notice a difference is when running multiple apps. Yes, I can do it with my PC but having multiple apps open and doing something noticably degrades the PC's performance. Forget about copying files to a cd for burning while doing something else - or even, sometimes, surfing. This is not a problem on my iBook. I have yet to find myself closing my e-mail app because I need the iBook to only concentrate on the drawing I am editing (as I sometimes have to do on the PC). As a matter of fact, it is possible to forget how many apps I have running on my iBook because failing to quit them does not drag down performance like it does on my Win 98 machine. OTOH, my work PC is running Windows 98 and my work mail app is Lotus Notes so I am not comparing the best PC set up out there to my iBook. OTOOH, the iBook line is on the bottom end of the performance scale for Apple computers. The PIII Dell was top of the line when purchased and I remember being disappointed that there was not much performance increase over my previous box (I think it was a 200 MHz pentium w/MMX). Even now, the PIII should be a better performer than a dang Celeron which makes it hard for me to believe a 733 Celeron could "smoke" my iBook. I am happy with my iBook's performance for writing, browsing, and limited graphics work. I admit that had I waited until Macworld (once I decided to replace my home PC with a Mac) I would have had a hard time deciding between the iBook and the new iMac - mobility + price, or extra power + price. I purchased the iBook and I am pleased so far. Good Luck.

[ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: Tomacorno ]