Hello. I made the switch about a week ago. As of June 4, 2005, I've been using Mac OS X 10.4.1 Tiger. I'm looking forward to the next update.
I've been looking lurking these boards for about 2 months before making
a purchasing decision. I'm thankful for you guys who posted your
buying experiences and decisions. It's been very helpful in my research.
To let everyone know, I come from a PC background. Started using
with Windows 3.1 back in the 90s. My last laptop was a Fujitsu Celsius
laptop. It lasted for two years before it had a serious issue with an Nvidia
display driver. In short, first the hard drive died, and then some overheating
issues with the display. I had the option of repairing it but it would've
cost over $550 at least plus shipping the laptop to Germany.
So, I went off researching something to replace my near death laptop.
I had considered the Sager 9880 17" WUXGA notebook but I heard it
had some serious heat issues because it's running almost the latest
Nvidia 6800 GT or ATI X800 card. Originally, I thought I should buy a PC
so I can play my online games which are Windows only. But, I didn't
want to pay for Windows XP again for one. Second, I've been wanting
to try Mac OS X for months and this was a good a reason as any.
Despite the talks between Apple and Intel, I chose not to wait for the G5 or
Intel based powerbooks, so I decided to get a stable and reliable revision D
12" powerbook. I wonder if this means that we're at the end of the
G4s. It's fine as long as Mac OS X development continues to be supported
for older G4 processors.
How did I decide between 12" or 15" or 17"? For the 12"? The ports are
all on the left. Secondly, if I needed desktop real estate, I would get
an external flat panel later. A lot of you guys talked about the Apple
Cinema displays and Dell flat panels. Money saved not buying the 15" or
17" will go toward the flat panel. For me, battery life was more important
than the quality of the display. Third, powerbook wasn't going to be for
games as we're going to see Xbox 360, Nintendo Revolution, and PlayStation
3 next year. Fourth, I wanted to use Mac OS X not Windows XP.
Windows XP had been stable for me. Everything runs fine but I did spend time always trying to organize my music collection and cleaning the computer after playing online games. Making sure things stay up-to-date such as critical updates and virus updates. Time consuming! Computer housekeeping time takes time away from actually listening to music or
playing games.
I've been very happy with my new powerbook so far. I still need to figure
out to connect to my other Windows PCs in the house and setup Airport
Extreme to work with my Belkin wireless router. I'm enjoying my cd collection all over again with iTunes + Clutter. The trackpad scrolling is often more useful than using my optical mouse. Superdrive works great which also
allows me to watch a region 2 DVD with VLC. I haven't tried it yet but
I believe it's suppose to work.
One thing I do like about Mac OS X from using it only a week is that it automatically does computer housekeeping for you or it makes it easier.
To get rid of an application -- just drag the
app's icon into the trash or apple delete to move it to trash. No registry
to deal with which usually leaves behind stuff in Windows. The simplicity
of installing apps is so straightfoward -- instead of multiple dialogue boxes
in Win XP -- click on the agreement and go ahead with the installation.
Exposè is brilliant with no Windows equivalent. And getting the latin e
in the word is easier than in Windows. Now you can actually say resumè
when you mean that rather than resume.
I forgot to mention that international font support is superb. My dad was
impressed with the Chinese character support for the iLife apps and surfing
the Web. There's a lot of older folks whose first language isn't English
and I think having that capability built-in is a big plus. Unlike Apple, Microsoft
requires you buy a Chinese version of Windows XP if you want full type support.
I did spend some time getting used to the keyboard shortcuts by reading
Switching to the Mac and Mac OS X the Missing Manual by David Pogue.
Gets you up to speed. Trying to learn QuickSilver. I used SlickRun and heard
others recommending AppRocket. SlickRun is good enough and is free
from Bayden Software. For people who still have to use PCs or have PCs
in their house like mine, SlickRun works well and you can use it to search
google or map to any folder on your hard drive. I'm sure QuickSilver will
do that and more once I learn it.
Any tips or advice would be great or just point me to the thread. I'm sure
they're around here on these forums. And that was just over a week.
I'm sure there are some speed tricks I have yet to learn so I'll rely less
and less on the trackpad over time.
The best advice I received on these forums:
Buy it if you need it now otherwise wait. Remember, hardware
will always get better. 3 years from now I imagine Apple will be getting
better powerbooks from Intel, AMD, or who-ever happens to making
the CPUs then. Same goes with the video cards Nvidia or ATI, they
will get better.
Aloha.
Long-time PC user from Hawaii
12" powerbook specifications
1.5 GHz PowerPC G4
1.25 GB DDR SDRAM (1 gb module from crucial.com;
highly recommended; shipped fast despite a shortage on the 1gb module)
80gb 5400 rpm hard drive
(and the rest you can look up at the Apple web site)
(no dead pixels from an online pixel test search via google)
I've been looking lurking these boards for about 2 months before making
a purchasing decision. I'm thankful for you guys who posted your
buying experiences and decisions. It's been very helpful in my research.
To let everyone know, I come from a PC background. Started using
with Windows 3.1 back in the 90s. My last laptop was a Fujitsu Celsius
laptop. It lasted for two years before it had a serious issue with an Nvidia
display driver. In short, first the hard drive died, and then some overheating
issues with the display. I had the option of repairing it but it would've
cost over $550 at least plus shipping the laptop to Germany.
So, I went off researching something to replace my near death laptop.
I had considered the Sager 9880 17" WUXGA notebook but I heard it
had some serious heat issues because it's running almost the latest
Nvidia 6800 GT or ATI X800 card. Originally, I thought I should buy a PC
so I can play my online games which are Windows only. But, I didn't
want to pay for Windows XP again for one. Second, I've been wanting
to try Mac OS X for months and this was a good a reason as any.
Despite the talks between Apple and Intel, I chose not to wait for the G5 or
Intel based powerbooks, so I decided to get a stable and reliable revision D
12" powerbook. I wonder if this means that we're at the end of the
G4s. It's fine as long as Mac OS X development continues to be supported
for older G4 processors.
How did I decide between 12" or 15" or 17"? For the 12"? The ports are
all on the left. Secondly, if I needed desktop real estate, I would get
an external flat panel later. A lot of you guys talked about the Apple
Cinema displays and Dell flat panels. Money saved not buying the 15" or
17" will go toward the flat panel. For me, battery life was more important
than the quality of the display. Third, powerbook wasn't going to be for
games as we're going to see Xbox 360, Nintendo Revolution, and PlayStation
3 next year. Fourth, I wanted to use Mac OS X not Windows XP.
Windows XP had been stable for me. Everything runs fine but I did spend time always trying to organize my music collection and cleaning the computer after playing online games. Making sure things stay up-to-date such as critical updates and virus updates. Time consuming! Computer housekeeping time takes time away from actually listening to music or
playing games.
I've been very happy with my new powerbook so far. I still need to figure
out to connect to my other Windows PCs in the house and setup Airport
Extreme to work with my Belkin wireless router. I'm enjoying my cd collection all over again with iTunes + Clutter. The trackpad scrolling is often more useful than using my optical mouse. Superdrive works great which also
allows me to watch a region 2 DVD with VLC. I haven't tried it yet but
I believe it's suppose to work.
One thing I do like about Mac OS X from using it only a week is that it automatically does computer housekeeping for you or it makes it easier.
To get rid of an application -- just drag the
app's icon into the trash or apple delete to move it to trash. No registry
to deal with which usually leaves behind stuff in Windows. The simplicity
of installing apps is so straightfoward -- instead of multiple dialogue boxes
in Win XP -- click on the agreement and go ahead with the installation.
Exposè is brilliant with no Windows equivalent. And getting the latin e
in the word is easier than in Windows. Now you can actually say resumè
when you mean that rather than resume.
I forgot to mention that international font support is superb. My dad was
impressed with the Chinese character support for the iLife apps and surfing
the Web. There's a lot of older folks whose first language isn't English
and I think having that capability built-in is a big plus. Unlike Apple, Microsoft
requires you buy a Chinese version of Windows XP if you want full type support.
I did spend some time getting used to the keyboard shortcuts by reading
Switching to the Mac and Mac OS X the Missing Manual by David Pogue.
Gets you up to speed. Trying to learn QuickSilver. I used SlickRun and heard
others recommending AppRocket. SlickRun is good enough and is free
from Bayden Software. For people who still have to use PCs or have PCs
in their house like mine, SlickRun works well and you can use it to search
google or map to any folder on your hard drive. I'm sure QuickSilver will
do that and more once I learn it.
Any tips or advice would be great or just point me to the thread. I'm sure
they're around here on these forums. And that was just over a week.
I'm sure there are some speed tricks I have yet to learn so I'll rely less
and less on the trackpad over time.
The best advice I received on these forums:
Buy it if you need it now otherwise wait. Remember, hardware
will always get better. 3 years from now I imagine Apple will be getting
better powerbooks from Intel, AMD, or who-ever happens to making
the CPUs then. Same goes with the video cards Nvidia or ATI, they
will get better.
Aloha.
Long-time PC user from Hawaii
12" powerbook specifications
1.5 GHz PowerPC G4
1.25 GB DDR SDRAM (1 gb module from crucial.com;
highly recommended; shipped fast despite a shortage on the 1gb module)
80gb 5400 rpm hard drive
(and the rest you can look up at the Apple web site)
(no dead pixels from an online pixel test search via google)
