Hi Floop,
To check the relative startup slowdowns on both my old iBook and my new PowerBook, all I did was perform a search for system.log on each (turn on invisible files), then scan the log to find RESTART and STARTUP COMPLETE. That period takes about 35 seconds on my PowerBook. I copied those two segments into an Excel spreadsheet (side by side), then scanned down the list to the time points when the same event occurred in each startup process. That's how I discovered the 9 second delay in the PowerBook's startup process, compared to the iBook. The pause occurred immediately after it loaded the HCIController stuff (which is the Bluetooth stuff shown in System Profiler).
My simple spin comparison is to simply count full wheel spins during startup on each Mac. What I discovered when I started them up side-by-side was that the wheel spins more rapidly on the new PowerBook compared to the iBook. I've been asking about numbers of wheel spins vice asking people to use a stopwatch because it's much easier, and requires no more effort than to watch the screen for 30 seconds. Clocking any process is too dependent on using the same starting/ending points (e.g., start at press of power button, end at login screen display).
This is a fine laptop so far. I never had a problem of any kind with my iBook, and don't expect to be disappointed with this laptop either. Don't get too caught up in price comparisons with Windows laptops. While some of them definitely use better/newer hardware technology than Apple does, the price is that you have to use Windows. I use a Mac for MacOS X and its user experience.
There have been some new rumors floating about that Apple may be moving to a 1900 x 1200 display (vice 1440 x 900) on their 17" laptops, but that machine is far too big for me to carry around. The 1280 X 854 on my 15" is fine for virtually everything I do, including watching movies and using multiple apps to do stuff. With Exposé screen clutter is not an issue.
To check the relative startup slowdowns on both my old iBook and my new PowerBook, all I did was perform a search for system.log on each (turn on invisible files), then scan the log to find RESTART and STARTUP COMPLETE. That period takes about 35 seconds on my PowerBook. I copied those two segments into an Excel spreadsheet (side by side), then scanned down the list to the time points when the same event occurred in each startup process. That's how I discovered the 9 second delay in the PowerBook's startup process, compared to the iBook. The pause occurred immediately after it loaded the HCIController stuff (which is the Bluetooth stuff shown in System Profiler).
My simple spin comparison is to simply count full wheel spins during startup on each Mac. What I discovered when I started them up side-by-side was that the wheel spins more rapidly on the new PowerBook compared to the iBook. I've been asking about numbers of wheel spins vice asking people to use a stopwatch because it's much easier, and requires no more effort than to watch the screen for 30 seconds. Clocking any process is too dependent on using the same starting/ending points (e.g., start at press of power button, end at login screen display).
This is a fine laptop so far. I never had a problem of any kind with my iBook, and don't expect to be disappointed with this laptop either. Don't get too caught up in price comparisons with Windows laptops. While some of them definitely use better/newer hardware technology than Apple does, the price is that you have to use Windows. I use a Mac for MacOS X and its user experience.
There have been some new rumors floating about that Apple may be moving to a 1900 x 1200 display (vice 1440 x 900) on their 17" laptops, but that machine is far too big for me to carry around. The 1280 X 854 on my 15" is fine for virtually everything I do, including watching movies and using multiple apps to do stuff. With Exposé screen clutter is not an issue.
