I was thinking lately that my current Windows notebook is bastardly slow and horrid, I was thinking of getting an iBook G4 to introduce me into the Mac world (aww... how cute!) I have been dying to get a Mac, and I think the iBook is an affordable solution. See, I would like to run Tiger, maybe even Leopard! Ok... maybe not. But I have a few questions:
How well does Tiger run on an iBook G4?
Is it easy to upgrade an iBook G4?
How do you like your current iNook?
Does the 12" screen really hurt your eyes?
Would I be better off with an iMac G4?
and fianlly...
Is it worth it?
Thanks sooo much for your help and I hope to see you on a Mac soon!
If you are planing to use the ibook as a 'learning machine' and not as a primary computer, then its not a bad idea. However, as mentioned above,it does run off power pc architecture and will be considerably slower than any intel macbook.
From personal experience, ive been using the last generation ibook for the better part of the past 2 years and i've found it being a great machine but a bit on the slow end once you get several apps + widgets running.
If you want to take full advantage of OSX tiger, you'll need to get the last revision 14"(1.42ghz) or 12"(1.3ghz) ibook, these had the radion 9550 graphics processor which was the only one in the ibook line to take advantage of Core Image (all the fancy visual effects) in tiger.
To answer your questions,
1. I think i explained that a bit above,
2. Only upgradable parts are the ram, hdd and cd drive. The ram is easy but there is only one ram slot + onboard memory. It's located just under the keyboard. The HDD and CD Rom require fully dismantling your ibook. Guides can be found at
http://www.ifixit.com however, be careful, i ended up having to resolder my speaker wires directly onto the logic board after i pulled the top bezel a bit too much and it ripped the socket right off the board!
3. I still use it for msn, downloading and the odd surfing, or when i dont want to cart my mbp around, big difference in speed.
4. The 12" screen is gorgeous! However not as bright as the current models. Watch out if you're getting an iBook from a school or office environment, chances are its been left with teh screen on almost every day which will overall in time reduce the brightness of your display.
5. AFAIK the imac G4 lines did not support core image until the very end. In which case, you'd probably be paying more than for the ibook.
6. up to you! i'd recomend a CD macbook if you're going to use it as your primary computer, but for learning, and if you can get a good one cheap, go for it!
