Is PowerBook a good choice or ...

[prelude]

Hi all.

I'm intending in buying a replacement laptop for my aging 3.5 year old IBM Thinkpad.
The 17" Powerbook looks gorgeous and I really love it. My problem is that I'm afraid that it may not be practical for my use.

I'm a consultant and perform software development using Java (with Jbuilder), Oracle (with Toad) as well as ASP.net.

Will the PowerBook allow me to perform these functions?

 

[iShater]

You got me interested so I did some research.

JBuilder is available as a native OSX app, so you won't have a problem there.

The Toad client app is only available as a Windows application.

ASP.net is an MS dev product, so of course it is only available as a Windows version.

The 17" PB might be too big to carry around for you, a 15" will be lighter and probably as fast.

You might be able to run toad and asp.net tools under VPC, however, since it is emulation it won't be as fast as a PC. So if your thinkoad is old and slow, you might not notice the speed difference emulating it

Maybe someone out there does similar stuff on the Mac and can tell us how fast those apps run, and how good JBuilder on the Mac is. Remember, that OSX has UNIX underneath, so for developers it rocks!

My 2.5 cents.

 

[prelude]

That's great. This info is much appreciated.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Maclicious]

not too big

Originally posted by iShater


The 17" PB might be too big to carry around for you, a 15" will be lighter and probably as fast.

I'm pretty sure it won't be too big if you are carrying it around from work space to work space, with the occaisonal actual lap-top use. Yes, its bigger than the 15, and certainly much bigger than what I'm used to now on my iBook, but, based on what I've measured out, still reasonable. If you need to use it a lot in tight spaces, like in Coach class on a jet, perhaps you'll be less happy.

I can't speak to the software requirements, but perhaps XP emulator will work, as iShater guesses.

 

[iShater]

Re: not too big

Originally posted by Maclicious


I'm pretty sure it won't be too big if you are carrying it around from work space to work space, with the occaisonal actual lap-top use. Yes, its bigger than the 15, and certainly much bigger than what I'm used to now on my iBook, but, based on what I've measured out, still reasonable. If you need to use it a lot in tight spaces, like in Coach class on a jet, perhaps you'll be less happy.

I can't speak to the software requirements, but perhaps XP emulator will work, as iShater guesses.

I am not sure the benefits of the 17" for a consultant are worth the premium price. I personally thing the 15" is the ideal laptop in terms of size and power. If he was into graphics and needed more screen realestate, then definitely the 17" offers an advantage there.

Now if they can just release those updated 15" PowerBooks!

 

[ibookin']

Beware JBuilder in OS X!!!

I use JBuilder for my classes (I am a CS student) and it performs terribly in OS X on my iBook 500Mhz. Not only does the application feel sluggish, but it takes forever to compile anything with a GUI (even stuff using the JOptionPane class only).

However, I haven't tried the app on a G4 yet. It may run alot better. I suggest downloading JBuilder 7 Personal Edition for Mac OS X (it's free) and running it on a PowerBook to see if it's fast enough for you. If it isn't, look into using an app like Project Builder (included in the Mac OS X Developer Tools, download them at developer.apple.com) to do your Java stuff.

Whatever you do, replace your Thinkpad with a Mac ASAP! Even if you HAVE to use JBuilder it is not so slow that it is completely unusable.