- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
- Messages
- 201
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 18
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
- Your Mac's Specs
- 13.3" 2.26 GHz MBP, 2GB RAM, 640GB HD
i have had my 12 inch ibook g4 for about a year now and wanted to detail my experience with my mac during this period.
i have never owned or really spent time using a mac prior to getting an ibook. the reason why i got an ibook was because i wanted to take advantage of wireless internet in my house and i like the notion of having a portable computer. i also wanted to get a computer i could carry around when i go to school. i was looking at the toshiba a70 which had the 15 inch widescreen lcd and some of the dell models like the 1150 which was very well priced but heavy and kinda ugly. my friend who is a mac user recommended my an ibook because of his love for the operating system ease of use and the size of the 12 inch ibook.
my friends who were windows users recommended i stick with pc simply because of the availability of software as well as price. the ibook during the summer of 2004 was expensive as it did not include the airport card at that time. basically i held off from getting a laptop that summer until the fall came along. apple decides to drop their price of the ibooks and include airport express. i went to the mac store near my place to take a look at the ibook and i was not impressed with the brightness of the lcd. i felt it was not as bright as the toshiba and dell computers i was looking at.
i was getting real confused and didn't know which way to go. should i cough up a couple hundred dollars more for a toshiba or go for a dell?? i ended up going with the ibook because i realized weight was an important factor for me as well as the fact the only competitor for the ibook in it's price range was the dell 700m. however, the dell 700m was still about 300 dollars more than the ibook. i bit the bullet and ordered my ibook. i customized my ibook to have a 60 gig hard drive and went to a computer store and bought a stick of 512mb kingson ram.
initial impression:
sharp looking laptop and i found the OS did a good job with font smoothing and rendering of jpegs. i just found that everything seemed to look "nicer" on a mac and i think it has something to do with the operating system, please forgive me cuz i'm not an technical wiz. i found that it was very easy to adjust the settings and set up programs on Mac OS X versus Windows XP. if i had to describe it, mac os x is dummy proof. i liked that a lot and i am fairly experienced with microsoft windows. i did find my ibook sluggish and not as zippy as a windows machine and ic an still say that till this day. however i do find that OS X is more stable where i can open up a whole bunch of programs but the computer will not operate sluggishly like my P4 desktop. one thing i have to note is that when i use my ibook on highest performance it makes a huge difference in speed compared to automatic and battery saver. so for those who have never adjusted their power settings, try it out especially when ur hooked up to a plug at home.
i like the ilife software that comes with my computer and it is an excellent package that symbolizes mac quality. i find the programs for mac are well designed and easy to use. a big plus for any user like me who likes simplicity.
i have been using my windows xp desktop and have to admit it would be hard for me to use windows now that i have used mac. i am not saying this as a mac fanatic but coming from a person who uses computers for word processing, internet and managing my digital files like jpegs and mp3s.
i will say that a mac is a good investment because i feel that i can use my laptop because the software does not get outdated as fast as windows software does. just look at all the people still using old mac machines compared to users using old windows machines.
verdict:
recommend it 100%
now i will admit that macs do cost significantly more than a windows machine. if all you do is word process and surf the web, heck you can use a very inexpensive pc and i wouldn't blame you if could not justify buying a mac. as a person like myself who can justify spending more because i do use a computer a lot, i will strongly state that both systems, windows or mac, do the job. it's a matter of preference. however, hopefully with intel chips coming into upcoming mac computers, prices may drop a bit more to make them more competitive.
i have never owned or really spent time using a mac prior to getting an ibook. the reason why i got an ibook was because i wanted to take advantage of wireless internet in my house and i like the notion of having a portable computer. i also wanted to get a computer i could carry around when i go to school. i was looking at the toshiba a70 which had the 15 inch widescreen lcd and some of the dell models like the 1150 which was very well priced but heavy and kinda ugly. my friend who is a mac user recommended my an ibook because of his love for the operating system ease of use and the size of the 12 inch ibook.
my friends who were windows users recommended i stick with pc simply because of the availability of software as well as price. the ibook during the summer of 2004 was expensive as it did not include the airport card at that time. basically i held off from getting a laptop that summer until the fall came along. apple decides to drop their price of the ibooks and include airport express. i went to the mac store near my place to take a look at the ibook and i was not impressed with the brightness of the lcd. i felt it was not as bright as the toshiba and dell computers i was looking at.
i was getting real confused and didn't know which way to go. should i cough up a couple hundred dollars more for a toshiba or go for a dell?? i ended up going with the ibook because i realized weight was an important factor for me as well as the fact the only competitor for the ibook in it's price range was the dell 700m. however, the dell 700m was still about 300 dollars more than the ibook. i bit the bullet and ordered my ibook. i customized my ibook to have a 60 gig hard drive and went to a computer store and bought a stick of 512mb kingson ram.
initial impression:
sharp looking laptop and i found the OS did a good job with font smoothing and rendering of jpegs. i just found that everything seemed to look "nicer" on a mac and i think it has something to do with the operating system, please forgive me cuz i'm not an technical wiz. i found that it was very easy to adjust the settings and set up programs on Mac OS X versus Windows XP. if i had to describe it, mac os x is dummy proof. i liked that a lot and i am fairly experienced with microsoft windows. i did find my ibook sluggish and not as zippy as a windows machine and ic an still say that till this day. however i do find that OS X is more stable where i can open up a whole bunch of programs but the computer will not operate sluggishly like my P4 desktop. one thing i have to note is that when i use my ibook on highest performance it makes a huge difference in speed compared to automatic and battery saver. so for those who have never adjusted their power settings, try it out especially when ur hooked up to a plug at home.
i like the ilife software that comes with my computer and it is an excellent package that symbolizes mac quality. i find the programs for mac are well designed and easy to use. a big plus for any user like me who likes simplicity.
i have been using my windows xp desktop and have to admit it would be hard for me to use windows now that i have used mac. i am not saying this as a mac fanatic but coming from a person who uses computers for word processing, internet and managing my digital files like jpegs and mp3s.
i will say that a mac is a good investment because i feel that i can use my laptop because the software does not get outdated as fast as windows software does. just look at all the people still using old mac machines compared to users using old windows machines.
verdict:
recommend it 100%
now i will admit that macs do cost significantly more than a windows machine. if all you do is word process and surf the web, heck you can use a very inexpensive pc and i wouldn't blame you if could not justify buying a mac. as a person like myself who can justify spending more because i do use a computer a lot, i will strongly state that both systems, windows or mac, do the job. it's a matter of preference. however, hopefully with intel chips coming into upcoming mac computers, prices may drop a bit more to make them more competitive.