Buying PowerBook In A Few Hours, Had A Few Questions Though???

mrgreen4242 · Mar 28, 2004

jumpman25 said:
I'll have to check those out. I'm a little short on cash right now after purchasing the PowerBook, so the free stuff would be nice. I should have enough money for Office after the 30 day trial is over, but I am going to give those a try.

If you find OOo suits your needs, you can always take that $150-$500 (depending on the version; student up to proffesional) and spend it on cool stuff for you new PB... external DVD-r comes to mind immediately... I'm sure you can think of others.

As far as some other free software, check out the Fink project here. There is a graphical frontend available for it, which should make finding, installing, configuring, and updating software packages pretty easy. From the Fink homepage:

"The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X ("port" it) and make it available for download as a coherent distribution ... The database was last updated at 16:38 GMT on Sunday, March 28 and currently lists 3524 packages in 22 sections."

So there's a whole lot out there! Good luck...

Rob

PS Can you confirm for me that your Superdrive-less Powerbook came with iDVD? Thanks

PPS in case you were having trouble finding it, here is the OpenOffice.org OSX download.

James_C · Mar 28, 2004

Jumpman,

Congratulations on your new purchase, I am sure you will not be disappointed. What do you plan to use it for, apart from word processing stuff? We may be able to give you some additional guidance on software.

kaylee · Mar 28, 2004

rstroud said:
Yes, Teacher and Student edition is good for the free upgrade offer.
Acquire the following Office v. X products
Office v. X Student and Teacher Edition English (731-00765)
and receive the following Office 2004 product
Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition
for this price*
Free

Plus shipping and handling.

Taken from this
pdf file.

from what i've heard though, student and teacher edition of Office will not be eligible for upgrades from Office 2004 onwards (ie when they put out a new version of Office, you will have to buy a full academic/student version instead of just getting an upgrade to your current version - although with student discount the full version may not be that expensive anyway).

kaylee · Mar 28, 2004

mrgreen4242 said:
PS Can you confirm for me that your Superdrive-less Powerbook came with iDVD? Thanks

a friend of mine got a 12in pb with just the combo drive when they were released last year, and it came with idvd.

josepho · Mar 28, 2004

kaylee said:
from what i've heard though, student and teacher edition of Office will not be eligible for upgrades from Office 2004 onwards (ie when they put out a new version of Office, you will have to buy a full academic/student version instead of just getting an upgrade to your current version - although with student discount the full version may not be that expensive anyway).

Well, the Apple UK educational site certainly says you can upgrade, only paying shipping and handling charge. I imagine, as was stated earlier, that this would also apply elsewhere in the world.

jumpman25 · Mar 28, 2004

James Craner said:
Jumpman,

Congratulations on your new purchase, I am sure you will not be disappointed. What do you plan to use it for, apart from word processing stuff? We may be able to give you some additional guidance on software.

Apart from word processing I plan on using it for music, watching DVD's, internet, a little gaming, chatting, and just messing around with software that looks cool. I'm pretty much open to any suggestions as I don't know all that much about what software is available. I'm thinking I might buy .mac when I get some more money as the iDisk looks like it would be very useful for accessing small files on other computers, given that the PB does not have a floppy. I think I might buy Sim City 4 so I have something to do on road trips or when I'm bored. Does anybody know how SC4 runs on the 12" PB? Any other suggestions for freeware or whatever would be appreciated.

p.s. I'll let you know if it comes with iDVD when I get it MrGreen.

jumpman25 · Mar 28, 2004

mrgreen4242 said:
If you find OOo suits your needs, you can always take that $150-$500 (depending on the version; student up to proffesional) and spend it on cool stuff for you new PB... external DVD-r comes to mind immediately... I'm sure you can think of others.

As far as some other free software, check out the Fink project here. There is a graphical frontend available for it, which should make finding, installing, configuring, and updating software packages pretty easy. From the Fink homepage:

"The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X ("port" it) and make it available for download as a coherent distribution ... The database was last updated at 16:38 GMT on Sunday, March 28 and currently lists 3524 packages in 22 sections."

So there's a whole lot out there! Good luck...

Rob

PS Can you confirm for me that your Superdrive-less Powerbook came with iDVD? Thanks

PPS in case you were having trouble finding it, here is the OpenOffice.org OSX download.

If I could save the money from office I do have a few things on my want list. I wouldn't mind the LaCie 8x DVD burner with toast. A 1GB stick of memory from crucial would be nice too.

)

QCassidy352 · Mar 28, 2004

I have a combo drive 12" PB and it came with iDVD.

A word of caution regarding the trial of office: I wouldn't count on using it heavily. I only used it a little bit before I installed the full version, but it seems very crippled. Not in terms of features, but by the fact that little windows pop up all the time, and (I'm not sure about this next part - it seems too absurd to be true, but it's what I remember) the fact that you can't save documents.

oingoboingo · Mar 28, 2004

jumpman25 said:
I'll have to check those out. I'm a little short on cash right now after purchasing the PowerBook, so the free stuff would be nice. I should have enough money for Office after the 30 day trial is over, but I am going to give those a try.

If you look in the right places on Usenet and Google, there are hacks which unlock the 30 day trial version of Office into the full thing.

ingenious · Mar 28, 2004

WAIT!!!!

jumpman25 said:
Thanks jsw, thats exactly what I was looking for. Don't know why I never thought to look on the apple website for the software??? Anyway, that 30 day office trial should hold me over until I get the cash to buy office X. I'm going to hit the apple site right now and make the purchase. I have been a long time PC user and just got sick of the same old thing. I also like the aqua interface.

you cannot print in the office x trial!!!! also, the albook will includle iLife '04, so you will get that, but not garageband i dont think cuz that a superdrive only thing. does mac os x support external dvd burners?

Coca-Cola · Mar 28, 2004

Best word processor for the mac is ....Mellel. http://www.redlers.com/. It is also the least expensive. Openoffice is free and a neat idea as well, but starts up so slowly. It drives me mad! Abiword doesn't print. Office is okay, but who wants M$ on there computer especially if you have to hand over money to do so. Another good word processor is http://www.nisus.com/Express/. But Mellel looks better and is cheaper. Appleworks could be very good. I thought it was the bomb back in the Mac OS 9 days, but really doesn't fit in with Mac os x very well. It could be so much better. Like Mellel. Oh so good. I am in love with Mellel.

Inspector Lee · Mar 28, 2004

Calebj14 said:
but not garageband i dont think cuz that a superdrive only thing. does mac os x support external dvd burners?

Not so fast my friend... iLife '04 ships on a dvd so you need only a dvd-rom to install it (read: combo drive) and not necessarily a superdrive.
You can use an external dvd burner with OS X but you will need a hack in order to use iDVD. See below:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/63869/

The alternative to iDVD is DVD Studio Pro.

Inspector Lee · Mar 28, 2004

QCassidy352 said:
and (I'm not sure about this next part - it seems too absurd to be true, but it's what I remember) the fact that you can't save documents.

You can definitely save documents but you cannot print them. Other restrictions are outlined when you install the trial - they currently escape me.

And I know the following horse has been beaten to death (and beaten severely) but isn't it time to upgrade Appleworks and garnish it with Keynote and maybe Filemaker? Put together something with a little more muscle and a little more moxie?

It makes me wonder if Jobs and Gates made a deal back in '97 in which Apple agreed to stay out of the Office realm for x number of years.

rstroud · Mar 28, 2004

kaylee said:
from what i've heard though, student and teacher edition of Office will not be eligible for upgrades from Office 2004 onwards (ie when they put out a new version of Office, you will have to buy a full academic/student version instead of just getting an upgrade to your current version - although with student discount the full version may not be that expensive anyway).

Speculation. No offense, but once they put out Office 2004, you wouldn't have to worry about upgrading for a few years. And btw...the full academic/student version costs 179-199 dollars (at least the PC version does) depending on where you buy it. So worrying people now with speculation isn't needed, but thanks for your two cents.

Inspector Lee · Mar 28, 2004

Purchase Office v. X for Mac Student and Teacher Edition anytime between now and June 30, 2004, you will be able to get Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition free.

I pulled this from Apple today. This wasn't the case when I purchased back in late January. I stand corrected.

ingenious · Mar 28, 2004

Inspector Lee said:
Not so fast my friend... iLife '04 ships on a dvd so you need only a dvd-rom to install it (read: combo drive) and not necessarily a superdrive.
You can use an external dvd burner with OS X but you will need a hack in order to use iDVD. See below:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/63869/

The alternative to iDVD is DVD Studio Pro.

doesnt it also ship on cd?

ingenious · Mar 28, 2004

Inspector Lee said:
...It makes me wonder if Jobs and Gates made a deal back in '97 in which Apple agreed to stay out of the Office realm for x number of years.

maybe the number of years that M$ has to stay out of the filemaker pro realm? and not come out with (barf) Access:Mac

Inspector Lee · Mar 28, 2004

Calebj14 said:
doesnt it also ship on cd?

I think it ships on dvd only but I may be wrong. Apple's site states it requires 4.3 GB of disk space. I don't own it but I am probably going to pick it up along with Panther in the next few weeks. I probably shouldn't be throwing out statements without owning the product, but I could swear you need a dvd-rom drive (internal or external).

seattlemaclover · May 31, 2004

oingoboingo said:
If you look in the right places on Usenet and Google, there are hacks which unlock the 30 day trial version of Office into the full thing.

Any hints on what to search for?, or maybe sites?

legion · May 31, 2004

oingoboingo said:
If you look in the right places on Usenet and Google, there are hacks which unlock the 30 day trial version of Office into the full thing.

Welcome to stealing! If you can't afford it, don't use it.

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