In that case buy an electronic typewriter.
Yes I am saying they were SLUGGISH back when they were NEW for regular tasks, i.e. word processing. They're not as well BUILT as the PowerBooks and in my experience have lots of ISSUES. I'd be HESITANT to buy a used laptop in GENERAL just BECUSE they have more ISSUES and you can pretty much GUARANTEE the battery WON'T work. If you WANT BATTERY life, you'll HAVE to DROP some $$ for THAT.
I think you're BETTER OFF getting an POWERBOOK G4 > iBook G4 > iBook G3. If you CAN afford a 15" PB G4, I would go with that SINCE you said your mom is nearly BLIND. The PowerBook G4's HAVE the BEST KEYBOARDS EVER made. There is the 14" iBook, but the RESOLUTION is the SAME as THE 12" WHICH is KIND of a WASTE IMO.
Congrats on acquiring a new computer for your mom. It's very nice and generous of you to do that for her. Personally I would have just taken all the money and spent it on one good computer, modern computer than shuffling around these older things.
It was actually a free computer. My Grandfather bought if at a garage sale this past summer for $15 because the person said it didnt have enought RAM and wouldnt take more. It can take 4GB RAM (it had 2GB and thanks to the dead PDS computer i had 4 more) Windows only sees 4GB but says only 3.25 is usable. It's a full PCIe ready system (minus the PCIe power plug on the PSU)
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This^^
I just finished installing Tiger and Office 2008 on my Clamshell-mostly as proof of concept.
Typing on it can be frustrating and laggy.
On the other hand, Word Perfect in OS 9 on the same hardware is great!
I think you're BETTER OFF getting an POWERBOOK G4 > iBook G4 > iBook G3. If you CAN afford a 15" PB G4, I would go with that SINCE you said your mom is nearly BLIND. The PowerBook G4's HAVE the BEST KEYBOARDS EVER made. There is the 14" iBook, but the RESOLUTION is the SAME as THE 12" WHICH is KIND of a WASTE IMO.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE}Agreed on the Powerbook G4 being a better choice. Subjectively, I find the Aluminum keyboards a little more pleasant to type on, although the Ti keyboards(which are actually fairly similar to the PB G3 and various iBook keyboards) are not bad.
I'm in agreement on the 14" iBook being a waste for
most people, however I suspect it would actually be somewhat better for someone with vision problems(as the OP has stated that his mom has). Yes, the resolution is the same as the 12", but what that means is that same document at the same magnification will be larger on the 14" than the 12". I think I can say that most folks with relatively normal vision would prefer to get more working area when moving up to a larger screen, but if vision is an issue the larger size is advantageous.
Our ordering/book keeping person in the front office at school is legally blind. He has a HUGE flatscreen monitor on his desk-I'm not sure of the exact size, but it's probably 36" or so. I don't know the exact resolution he runs it at, but I'd guess it's about normally about 640x480(he does zoom in and out while working). It hurts my eyes to look at his computer screen
, but he does a great job and it's what he needs to do to get his job done. I just avoid getting pulled into watching a Youtube video on his computer
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how much do the 17 in PBG4s go for? I have seen some but they seem so expensive!
