ibook or intel/amd laptop?

[LuckyTaxi]

My soul wants an apple badly, but considering the fact we're a windows/linux shop i would hate to buy the apple just to play around with it and not be able to do anything constructive out of it at work.

I would rather get a thinkpad r20 series and dual boot XP and bsd. that way i can work on the web stuff for work on the bsd side and use xp for everything else.

BTW ... i currently own a laptop with a 15' screen. I love it, but i find more laptops with a 14.1' screen. would i even notice a difference?

 

[rchang713]

If you're using BSD for work stuff you should have no trouble using the Mac for work. OS X is built on BSD and basically any application you use in BSD can be run on OS X. Apple has a decent X11 out that will be out of beta in june. There's a project called fink that has ported many *nix apps to OS X including gimp, openoffice, emacs, etc. Plus apple includes gcc so you can download the source and compile most applications yourself. I bought a TiBook and have been using it while working in a totally linux research lab at my school for the better part of a year without any problems. In terms of screen size, the most important thing is the resolution you're used to running at. If your 15" is always set at 1024 x 768 you won't really notice a difference using a 14" ibook, if anything the fonts will look crisper (but a little smaller). If on the other hand you're used to a 15" screen at a much higher res like 1600 X 1200. Be warned that the ibook's display can't go higher than 1024 X 768 on both the 12" and 14" versions.

Goodluck,

Richard

 

[jeffmin]

I wanted a PowerBook, but got a Dell instead. I had OS X envy, but installing ObjectDock took care of that.

Native X11 support would still be nice though. If worse comes to worse I have 5 GB partitioned off for a future Linux dual-boot.

My suggestion is to forget about Apple. You end up paying twice as much, but don't get twice the product. Anything you can do on a Mac, you can do (less-sexily) on a PC but the opposite does not hold true. Why limit yourself when you're putting down over a thousand dollars?

 

[govtcheez75]

I bought a Powerbook, but that's only because I have a Desktop PC. I had an IBM T20 that got stolen, and this was the replacement. My friend from school uses an iBook, and I've played around with it and just fell in love with OS X. I at first bought a Dell Inspiron 4150, but received 3 defective ones (a few dead pixels, and one with a TERRIBLE fit and finish), and was fed up. I asked for a refund, and took the Apple plunge. The only thing I really needed to do on my laptop was have Microsoft Office suite, surf the web, and play occasional games, and my Powerbook handles all this very well, and looks great doing it.

 

[notfred]

I bought the iBook and am totally happy with it.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

lets say i get the ibook ... can i run apache on it? i need to work on web stuff at home.

 

[oniq]

Originally posted by: lilcam
lets say i get the ibook ... can i run apache on it? i need to work on web stuff at home.

You sure can.. You should check out MacOSX.com, lots of info. and stuff in their forums.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

def will check that place out

 

[ProCoolingKevin]

I'm a PC guy all the way but I need a laptop for when I study abroad in Spain next year. I bought an iBook and I'm having a great time with it. When I'm in Spain, I just want to take a bazillion pictures. iPhoto is so nice for that stuff. Plus I can get the new iPods... drool... I honestly think Apple has a good feel for the laptop market. It's a shame their desktops still blow.
-Kev