[eightoeight]

I have a Dual 2ghz on pre-order, but am having second thoughts because I won't get it until "on or before 10/2" or later if Apple decides to delay my order. I started school and miss having a computer, there are ample computer labs available to me, but I usually spend more then just 1 hour sitting in front of the computer I've seen quite a few people around campus with their 12" PowerBooks, surfing the web, or chatting, taking advantage of our expanding wireless network. When I see them I'm like "OMG I WANT TO DO THAT" However, the 17" model seems quite large and quite expensive. I had a 15" TiBook but was very disappointed in how the screen would warp, the rear ports (it was a struggle trying to get my ethernet cable out) and a sense of fragility (even though it's probably not). The 12" looks very sturdy, portable, but is it powerful? I was excited about the Dual 1ghz PowerMac G5, and I think I'd be happy with it because I wouldn't have to worry about power, or about upgrading in the near future. A 15" PB seems like the best option, however the TiBook is not something I'd want to own again. An updated 15" would be the computer for me, most definately...but I don't think I can wait that long. A 3ghz is on the way, and so are new PB's, so maybe I could just buy a 12" PB in the mean time. However, if I did do that, that'd use up all my computer funds and I most likely would not get another computer. I want my decision to last, which seems to == Dual 2ghz PowerMac, not that I need all that oomph. What disappoints me about the 12" is that I highly doubt I will be able to play Halo on it...a game I've really been looking forward to. What sucks is that I can't be happy with the 12" nor the 2ghz Either way I'm going to miss the portability or the power. A lot of people seem to like the 12", and no doubt it's powerful enough for e-mail, writing papers, programming in Java, etc...and it's portable. I feel like cancelling my order for the 2ghz and picking up a 12" because I could have it NOW (well, a week or so), and not in a month...but it's like...patience is a virtue and maybe I'm better off waiting for what's going to be a kickass machine. I just wanted to know what other people think of my situation that might be helpful in helping me make a decision. Thanks.

[Mithras]

Get the 1.8Ghz G5, save $1000, and buy a used 800Mhz iBook for toting around campus.

That way you have speed when you want it, and portability when you want it. No compromises.

[Earth Mk. II]

IMHO, having 2 computers is overkill for college.

What I would suggest is since you've already ordered your G5 - don't change it. You spent the money for it and it should last you as long as you need it to.

Make due with what you can get done in the computer labs. For portability, get a USB keychain drive. It's not the same as toting a laptop around, i know - but at least it's convenient to carry to labs and class and compatible with any computer with a USB port on it. Get a bigger one (>128 MB) and put your class work and projects on it.

Once you get the G5, either turn on remote access (sshd) and ssh into your machine to do all your work and keep it in one place, or keep using the USB keychain to transfer files back and forth.

[eightoeight]

Thanks for your opinions. I think the G5 is a keeper. Not that the 12" is any less tempting.

[cSurfr]

Originally posted by Earth Mk. II:
IMHO, having 2 computers is overkill for college.

Do you think 2 computers is overkill for college, as in the people living in the dorms, or ? I am also in this same situation, but I am doing graphic design. A tower for home use, I think would be ideal, and a laptop for class would be nice too. Do I just get the tower and an iBook, or do I wait until later this year and get an updated 15" book (if they ever show up).

Thanks,
-cS

[eightoeight]

I'd say if you had unlimited funds, get a Dual 2ghz G5 if you can wait, then when the PowerBook's get their update, get a 15". I always thought the 15" was the sweet spot for portability and power...unfortunately I don't like the 15" TiBook (I've owned one...unhappy about it). Well, good luck with Graphic Design

[Earth Mk. II]

Originally posted by cSurfr:
Do you think 2 computers is overkill for college, as in the people living in the dorms, or ? I am also in this same situation, but I am doing graphic design. A tower for home use, I think would be ideal, and a laptop for class would be nice too. Do I just get the tower and an iBook, or do I wait until later this year and get an updated 15" book (if they ever show up).

Thanks,
-cS

Well, unless there's a clear benefit from taking notes on a computer (i.e. your handwriting sucks to the point that even you can't read it, or you can actually type faster on a computer than you can write in a notebook), then I'd seriously recommend against using a laptop for note taking. Besides, doodeling in notebooks is a rite of passage for any student who gets bored in any class. You just can't do that on a computer. (Oh yeah - don't forget about sketching down diagrams of various things for you math and science type classes. Non-sequitur: Diagrams help a lot - even if the prof. never draws one on the board, make one up anyway. That's your "Earth Mk. II Succeed in School" Tip of the Day)

What I saw most of the time from my friends who bought laptops for college some 3 years ago - is that after the first month their laptops only moved farther than my desktop ever did on weekends and holidays. For all practical purposes - they used 'em like desktops.

There are a few exceptions of course, LD's and students with "special needs" being one of them. However, for an art student I fail to see a clear advantage. Not being an art student myself, I'm willing to be enlightened on the subject, of course. But it seems to me that any class that deals with computer graphics will have access to a halfway decent computer lab. That goes for most any area of study for that matter. So, no. I don't see a need for a student to have both a laptop and a desktop at school, especially if they live on campus.

Personally, I know that if I had a laptop and a desktop at the same time, one of them would end up as a paperweight 98% of the time. I'd probably just end up putting my 'book into target disk mode and use it as a $1,500 external hard drive. Naturally, YMMV, but at least go to class for a week or two or three and see if you'd actually use both a desktop and a laptop enough to make having both worth the cost.

Whatever system you get now (G5 or PB), it'll last you all 4 years - it may not be a speed demon all that time, but it'll do what needs to be done. And that's really the point, isn't it?

[vancenase]

i say go for the 'Book. but a few things ...

1. that way, when (if) you get a girlfriend (or if you already do), you can still do your work at her house -- bonus!

2. chain it to your body like the plague (too many horror stories of stolen laptops on campus)

3. it'll probably be plenty fast for you for a couple years ... just don't sit down in front of a G5 until you are ready to buy again

4. they just look darn cool.

5. similar to #1, you can 'work from anywhere' -- library, classroom, coffeeshop, on set at the jerry springer show ...

if you choose to just get a laptop, go for the powerbook -- very nice screens! of course, the decision is yours ... and so the is the money!

[melman101]

Well let me tell you, last semester i had a **** load of electrical engineering classes, and the 12" could definitely not handle that in the least bit. But if you can type fast, you can definitely take notes in your computer sciencee / math classes. Also there is some software, called LaTex which is great for math classes. Think of the amazement of all your fellow classmates when they see you typing notes on your computer. all of my friends are like damn im not taking notes, ill get em for you (which is kind of unbeneficial cause they get to spend 100% of their attention on listening). But I can type way faster than I write, and it looks better. I've had no problems drawing in Photoshop or OmniGraffle the nootes I need for my classes. Plus I use it at work, as well, so its really convienent. It is one of the best computers I ever owned. As for Halo, just get an XBOX and you'll be fine. The money you save on buying the 12" instead of the G5 is enough to buy a modded xbox, www.xteammods.com, for Halo. Enjoy.

[compact]

I know LaTeX fairly well, and there is no way in hell you're going to be able to take notes in it. It's great for writing up papers,but the formatting is way too specific for speedy use; if there was any kind of reasonably complicated formula (even a complicated fraction) you'd be screwed.

Until handwriting recognition gets to the point where it can accurately deal with formula (which seems like it would be a long way off) students in the mathematical sciences are doomed to pens and pencils.
I don't know enough about CS classes, though. If the symbolism was light it might work, but I still think a word processor with an equation editor would work better.


\imho

[melman101]

Yeah after a few looks at LaTex I've decided against using it, and continued using my blessed MS Word. I can do pretty good.

Mel

[clf8]

Originally posted by melman101:
Yeah after a few looks at LaTex I've decided against using it, and continued using my blessed MS Word. I can do pretty good.

Mel

LaTex for taking notes??? someone's on crack.
As far as computer science goes, the my old iBook 466 can do what you want, unless you start getting into graphics courses. Nothing you're going to be coding is going to be so large and intensive that the computer can't handle it. Besides, you're gonna spend the first 2-3 years writing data structures and basic programs to understand OSs and contention and who knows what else. By my junior year, the majority of the coding I did was by logging into a unix box and doing development there.

If you wanna play games, get a Playstation2.

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by melman101:
Yeah after a few looks at LaTex I've decided against using it, and continued using my blessed MS Word.

LyX

[Arch.]

If you are in college you should be using ADC. I got my 17 for 2,600. You ought to look into it!

[LfGrdMike]

Well you can save your ADC, and then just use the Educational discounts. Those are really good right now. Save that ADC discount for another purchase after college. As far as I understand it (I could be wrong) YOu dont have to be in college to use ADC.

[DanielPritchard]

Originally posted by LfGrdMike:
Well you can save your ADC, and then just use the Educational discounts. Those are really good right now. Save that ADC discount for another purchase after college. As far as I understand it (I could be wrong) YOu dont have to be in college to use ADC.

You do have to be in college to join ADC for $99 a year (Student membership). Otherwise it costs at least, like, $1500 a year.

My 12" PB was $1279 with it. Bums me out that it's once per lifetime, but maybe I'll just buy a gift membership for a friend before graduation (3 years from now) and use his to get an upgrade.

(edited to show the nature of my incorrect approximation, see below.)

[Moose]

Originally posted by DanielPritchard:
You do have to be in college to join ADC for $99 a year (Student membership). Otherwise it costs at least $1500 a year.

ADC Select: $500/year.
ADC Premiere: $3500/year.

[DanielPritchard]

Originally posted by Moose:
ADC Select: $500/year.
ADC Premiere: $3500/year.

Oops. I meant to go look up the exact numbers before I posted that. But still, since the discount is 20% of retail, you'd just break even on the "Select" membership on a $2500 machine. You'd have to spend more than $2500 on hardware per year for it to be worth it. Worth it, I guess, for those of us who are lucky enough to have that much Mac money. :-) Lucky them.

[tie]

Originally posted by Pierre B.:
LyX

Don't waste your time on Lyx. Very inflexible and awkward, with poor previewing. I converted some LaTeX documents to Lyx, with varying sophistication. Only the very simplest, which used only amsmath stuff, was previewed in any meaningful way (matrices were expanded). When I tried to view the dvi files, most gave errors and would not compile. The one file which would compile was missing substantial portions; it seems to have been a lossy conversion!

[LfGrdMike]

Well I have 4 years starting on september 10th. Right before I graduate on my 4th year all use the ADC discount. It think it will be smart in the end because the discounts now were great like the free iPod and stuff. I saved a lot of money. Anyway thanks for clearing that up for me guys. Otherwise I would of been like 25 and would of found this out the hard way.

[MacGallant]

The CS Dept and the head of the Computer Science dept at my college (CalStateLA)are not mac friendly. They have no knowledge of Macs and insist that my brother, who is a CS major, to get a pc.(My bro changed his major from Psych. to CS recently.)

I tried to inform about the benefits of MacOSX but to no avail.
The dept head seemed pro Microsoft and pro windows and Mac-ignorant (and may even be anti-Mac!)

So is it true that Macs (even with MacOSX) can't be used in the CS environment and get respect at all as a platform for CS?

[Earth Mk. II]

Originally posted by MacGallant:
The CS Dept and the head of the Computer Science dept at my college (CalStateLA)are not mac friendly. They have no knowledge of Macs and insist that my brother, who is a CS major, to get a pc.(My bro changed his major from Psych. to CS recently.)

I tried to inform about the benefits of MacOSX but to no avail.
The dept head seemed pro Microsoft and pro windows and Mac-ignorant (and may even be anti-Mac!)

So is it true that Macs (even with MacOSX) can't be used in the CS environment and get respect at all as a platform for CS?

Well, if your department insists on using MS Visual Studio, then your mostly SOL if you want to go mac. (ok, ok - there's virtual PC, but do you really want to sit around and watch your code compile for that long the day before your final project is due?)

However, if your uni uses unix style environments (either a real unix, linux, or cygwin) like most uni's, I'd imagine that you can probably use your mac at home and bring your work in without your profs knowing any difference - except maybe your extreme aversion to anything on a floppy disk. Heck - sophomore year I ended up just ssh'ing into my box from class and doing my class work that way.

So CS on a mac can be done, and done very well. But if you're stuck in a windows world using windows tools.... get a windows box.

[Theodour]

The 12" powerbook comes with OmniOutline, which is all I ever use for notes anymore. It is fast and easy to manipulate.
It also comes with OmniGraffle, which is cool too, but I can't use it fast enough for in-class note taking.

Although I can't speak for about the performance of Visual Studio .NET, I did run Visual Basic 6 in Virtual PC 5 acceptably for a VB class.

Now, I run IIS in VPC using Virtual PC 6. Running it in the background it is fine for testing ASP pages.

It is nice, because I can code in BBEdit, or whatever, and test the VBScript right there in my Powerbook.

Now, if only I could find a PHP class ...