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2005-01-29, 02:23 PM
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#1 |
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Programming till my fingers bleed.
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 876
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Cleo et al., - Need apple advice :)
Ok I am thinking about my wife and I moving completely to Mac. I however don't want to spend $2k a piece on the laptop. I am currently using a Compaq 2.6ghz (Celeron) with 2.6ghz processor. Most of the time I have my normal 17" LCD monitor hooked up.
I guess my questions is are the $999 I-Books any good? They say they are 1.25 GHZ which is the PowerPC, how comparible is that to what I have now? I was thinking of upgrading them both to 512mb of memory which would bring the price up to like $1074 x 2. I don't do much with mine, but browse the web, maybe edit some word documents, and do my programming (i use Zend IDE which has a Mac version) and I am using Linux full time right now. The wife will just use it for billing (which is done through online resources, upload photos, etc). She might do some word document type stuff right now as well. I use OpenOffice for my linux box at the moment, but am wondering what all comes with these iBooks, are the sufficient for what we are doing and are they worth it? Please share your thoughts on these iBooks and if you think they are worth it. I am looking at the 12" screens (which as I said I mostly use my LCD so that doesn't bother me too much). Would these be comparible to something like a compaq presario laptop? Andy |
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2005-01-29, 02:31 PM
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#2 |
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Hello, is this President Clinton? Good! I figured if anyone knew where to get some tang it would be you
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: maine
Posts: 447
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Never had a Mac and should probly shut up haha but,that lil mini mac might be good for your wife since she doesn't need it for anything too intense.
I'll leave the rest to the fruit experts hehe. |
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2005-01-29, 02:33 PM
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#3 | |
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Programming till my fingers bleed.
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 876
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Quote:
 Even though it would be cheaper to get 2 monitors and 2 mac minis, but I dont think it would fit our needs Andy |
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2005-01-29, 02:54 PM
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#4 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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The main difference between the iBooks and Powerbooks is the Powerbooks will drive a second monitor for increasing your desktop space. I use an old 22" CRT for my main monitor and the my Powerbook's screen for my second monitor for pallets and stuff when I'm home working in my office.
The iBooks only support video mirroring so if you plugin an external monitor it will show the same thing as the build in screen. Also the 15" and 17" Powerbooks have a PC card slot that most people never need. I do use mine for reading my camera's flash card and sometimes to gain more FireWire ports but most people don't need this. The Powerbooks are also somewhat faster, have lighted keyboards, etc. Here is a list of software that you will find on a Mac's drive. http://www.apple.com/ibook/software.html I see they are still listing Appleworks which has been replaced by iWork so I'm not sure which they are giving. Appleworks is not very good. For commercial software here is a small list http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/ You can run most nix apps in X10 like OpenOffice, Gimp, etc. As long as you don't mind giving up the Mac interface, drag and drop, things like that they are fine. The iBooks have some RAM soldered on the mother board and one slot. Macs love RAM so get as much as you can, it really helps. All the current Macs are fast so it isn't really an issue unless you are doing video work or high end Photoshop. I do video work, Photoshop work, and all my web work on my 17" 1Ghz. Powerbook at it is nice as fast but not as fast as my neighbor’s duel processor 2Ghz. G5 tower that he has. List of retail Apple stores. http://www.apple.com/retail/ ibook page http://www.apple.com/ibook/ Powerbook page http://www.apple.com/powerbook/ I usually buy my stuff mail order either from MacMall or ClubMac. http://www.macmall.com/ http://www.clubmac.com/ |
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2005-01-29, 02:57 PM
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#5 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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For you nix geek type.
$ top Processes: 72 total, 3 running, 69 sleeping... 223 threads 14:56:14 Load Avg: 1.29, 0.94, 0.72 CPU usage: 21.6% user, 18.7% sys, 59.7% idle SharedLibs: num = 125, resident = 40.1M code, 3.22M data, 14.9M LinkEdit MemRegions: num = 14131, resident = 556M + 13.6M private, 142M shared PhysMem: 111M wired, 569M active, 320M inactive, 1001M used, 22.8M free VM: 10.6G + 84.6M 297497(0) pageins, 377806(0) pageouts PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE 1752 top 17.1% 0:01.78 1 16 26 404K 412K 2.24M 27.1M 1751 bash 0.0% 0:00.03 1 12 15 184K 868K 1.29M 18.2M 1750 Terminal 0.7% 0:02.57 3 67 166 2.26M 19.5M 28.6M 233M 1676 iTunes 0.0% 8:36.73 6 367 436 18.9M 31.7M 38.1M 271M 1667 SecurityAg 0.0% 0:00.38 1 55 107 1.25M 16.2M 23.8M 226M 1666 WeatherMen 0.0% 14:35.08 2 63 162 94.8M 7.46M 76.7M 304M 1634 httpd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 9 88 80K 1.72M 304K 28.4M 1307 Safari 9.6% 3:11:14 9 302 1690 165M 36.0M 166M 400M 1270 lookupd 0.0% 0:20.65 2 36 136 1.92M 868K 2.68M 29.5M 721 Adobe GoLi 5.9% 2:46:41 4 121 725 39.4M 32.6M 17.1M 509M 542 iCal 0.7% 29:05.29 3 124 337 17.5M 23.7M 23.3M 254M 533 AppleSpell 0.0% 0:03.24 1 57 66 580K 1.64M 4.96M 69.9M 531 LiveDictio 0.0% 0:04.04 1 67 139 2.20M 6.42M 13.8M 237M 530 BBEdit 6.5 0.0% 8:11.58 4 100 211 4.61M+ 20.6M 17.4M 283M 522 Stickies 0.0% 0:07.58 2 98 231 2.34M 18.1M 17.6M 264M 521 Adobe Imag 0.7% 53:01.18 3 108 436 22.1M 35.1M 36.7M 353M 517 Address Bo 0.0% 0:07.31 1 99 258 5.21M 20.7M 22.8M 238M 516 Internet E 0.0% 37:51.94 6 119 323 44.3M 27.2M 54.6M 315M 515 CopyPaste- 0.0% 10:27.46 1 78 150 2.10M 17.1M 6.66M 231M 514 ICQ 3.4 1.4% 51:05.87 8 214 231 4.21M 22.2M 20.2M 246M 511 Mail 0.0% 6:07.43 7 162 359 10.6M 28.5M 32.9M 268M 457 Spell Catc 0.0% 0:00.54 1 64 88 524K 1.18M 9.43M 197M 443 Spell Catc 0.0% 0:24.63 5 225 434 5.48M 21.8M 13.5M 244M 440 Spell Catc 0.0% 1:39.35 6 269 206 5.96M 19.8M 13.5M 244M 439 UniversalA 0.0% 7:19.26 1 61 97 700K 4.62M 11.6M 207M 438 MouseWorks 0.0% 6:51.52 1 59 70 476K 2.99M 6.75M 194M 437 Extensis S 0.0% 24:48.27 2 116 206 7.14M 17.8M 20.8M 253M 436 iTunesHelp 0.0% 0:00.64 1 54 62 324K 3.14M 4.46M 201M 435 ABF HotKey 0.7% 14:24.34 1 61 100 2.37M 5.62M 12.8M 209M 433 iCalAlarmS 0.0% 0:02.79 1 65 90 532K 12.6M 9.81M 220M 423 automount 0.0% 0:04.10 2 29 27 132K 712K 716K 28.3M 420 automount 0.0% 0:04.63 2 28 27 120K 712K 2.09M 28.3M 413 rpc.lockd 0.0% 0:00.01 1 9 16 0K 300K 276K 17.7M 404 nfsiod 0.0% 0:00.00 5 29 23 0K 300K 264K 19.6M 389 ntpd 0.0% 0:25.67 1 10 18 104K 404K 612K 17.9M 355 Finder 0.0% 33:10.92 1 117 194 5.55M 29.5M 22.1M 256M 354 SystemUISe 0.0% 5:03.32 5 260 395 39.2M 20.3M 47.4M 299M 352 Dock 0.0% 1:18.86 2 145 189 1.91M 24.4M 22.4M 241M |
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2005-01-29, 02:58 PM
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#6 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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$ ls -ln
total 10745 drwxr-xr-x 2 501 99 68 31 Dec 1969 ???Move&Rename drwxrwxr-x 160 0 80 5440 24 Jan 10:18 Applications -rw-r--r-- 1 0 20 389120 15 Dec 14:18 Desktop DB -rw-r--r-- 1 0 20 651264 15 Dec 14:18 Desktop DF drwxrwxr-x 14 0 80 476 5 Jan 21:06 Developer -rw-r--r-- 1 504 80 20 28 Aug 2003 FRoot007973422 drwxrwxr-x 46 0 80 1564 11 Jan 16:33 Library drwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 512 29 Jan 14:57 Network drwxr-xr-x 5 0 0 170 23 Jan 11:05 System drwxrwxr-t 9 0 80 306 23 Dec 07:21 Users drwxrwxrwt 4 0 80 136 29 Jan 12:45 Volumes drwxr-xr-x 4 0 80 136 15 Dec 14:09 automount drwxr-xr-x 37 0 0 1258 26 May 2004 bin drwxrwxr-t 2 0 80 68 15 Dec 13:19 cores dr-xr-xr-x 2 0 0 512 25 Jan 20:43 dev lrwxr-xr-x 1 0 80 11 15 Dec 13:19 etc -> private/etc drwxrwxrwt 3 0 0 102 11 Oct 2003 lost+found lrwxr-xr-x 1 0 80 9 25 Jan 20:43 mach -> /mach.sym -r--r--r-- 1 0 80 570256 25 Jan 20:43 mach.sym -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 3863440 7 Nov 19:07 mach_kernel drwxr-xr-x 7 0 0 238 25 Jan 20:43 private drwxr-xr-x 63 0 0 2142 25 Jan 20:23 sbin drwxr-xr-x 11 0 80 374 20 Sep 13:44 sw lrwxr-xr-x 1 0 80 11 15 Dec 13:19 tmp -> private/tmp drwxr-xr-x 13 0 0 442 12 Sep 2003 usr lrwxr-xr-x 1 0 80 11 15 Dec 13:19 var -> private/var |
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2005-01-29, 06:11 PM
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#7 | |
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Programming till my fingers bleed.
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 876
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Quote:
Thanks for the info , it definitely looks like the iBooks would be sufficient for us. Do the macs work with the standard PCMCIA LinkSys network cards or do you need to have the airport extreme network stuff? |
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2005-01-29, 06:31 PM
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#8 | |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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Quote:
The internal Apple card is the way to go. Their Airport Express card is a fantastic base station too. It has a place to plug into your home stereo and you can stream music to it from iTunes. |
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2005-01-30, 08:39 AM
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#9 |
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Are you sure you're an accredited and honored pornographer?
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Taunton, MA USA
Posts: 62
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BBEdit! BBEdit rocks - I use it every day.
A good friend of mine is dating the CEO of BBEdit's parent company.. hehe, she gets all sorts of cool swag... That said, the ibooks are likely fine for what you're looking for. I have an older PowerBook G4 that I bought in 2003 - 2 years old and it still kicks the tail of just about anything out there - just be sure that you drop in more RAM like Cleo says... Bryan
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Great Affiliate Programs: EzyOnlineIncome |
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2005-01-30, 10:57 AM
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#10 |
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Programming till my fingers bleed.
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 876
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The problem I have is I dont want to replace my entire wireless network in my house, and I travel to different family members homes all the time as well who also have the linksys equipment.
Will the apple cards work with the existing wireless network setups I have? I don't want to replace and with my family having them, it would serve me no purpose to have a laptop if I cannot use the wireless. So if I get the apple internal cards do those work with the linksys style routers? |
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2005-01-30, 11:01 AM
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#11 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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Apple cards use standard WiFi. They don't care what you are using as a base station.
Angel has the Linksys WiFi router and so does Luna, they both are Mac users. You can even get a Airport Express to add to your existing wireless network and then you can stream music through your home stereo. |
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2005-01-30, 11:07 AM
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#12 | |
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Are you sure you're an accredited and honored pornographer?
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Taunton, MA USA
Posts: 62
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Quote:
I have an Airport Extreme in my office b
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Great Affiliate Programs: EzyOnlineIncome |
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2005-01-31, 09:14 AM
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#13 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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Apple came out with new Powerbooks today.
Nothing too exciting other then a bit faster and a bit lower prices but the 17" does now support the 30" external monitor and comes with a 100 gig drive. http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html I may move up to this model in the next few months from my older 17" Powerbook since one of my programs needs the better video that is in the newer model. Guess I need to sell more porn. |
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2005-01-31, 11:37 AM
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#14 |
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Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Southeast Florida
Posts: 27,936
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I saw this today on the MacInTouch.com website.
Performance Comparison: eMac G4, iBook G4, iMac G5 and Mac Mini http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html |
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Linear Mode
