Need a bit of advice about iBooks

[xisforextreme]

I am a PC user who has become very very annoyed and disillusioned with Microsoft (after losing my entire coursework and all my documents three times due to system failures), I've already decided that the next computer I buy will be an Apple iBook. I was wondering whther or not to buy an iBook g4 or wait until the iBook g5 comes out. Does anyone know when the iBook g5 is expected to be released?
Any help is welcome
Thnx

 

[Jaz]

Don't hold your breath for an iBook G5, they are a long way off.

The iBook G4's are fantastic machines, especially for students. Grab the 14" and you are all set.

Bear in mind that Office for Mac OS X is ok, but not great. Depending on need you might want to try Nisus Writer or Appleworks if you need a spreadsheet app as well.

I just upgraded my PB in June and would not be fussed if a G5 PB were announced tomorrow. Reason is simple, never buy version 1 of anything, even Apple stuff.

The current iBooks are brilliant and highly recommended.

 

[dotnina]

I second that -- don't wait for the G5 iBook, unless you're willing to wait at least a year or more. It's likely that once Apple actually can get a G5 into a laptop, they'll put it in the Powerbook (the higher-end, silver-colored Apple laptops). After they've been in the Powerbook for a while, they'll start to make iBooks with the G5. This is what happened when the Powerbooks / iBooks went from a G3 --> G4.

The iBooks were just updated the other week, so now is an excellent time to buy. What do you plan to do with your laptop? For things like surfing the web, writing papers, e-mail, etc. -- an iBook will suit you perfectly well. As long as you don't plan on doing any intensive gaming or video editing, you'll be fine.

 

[munkle]

I'll join in with the get an iBook consensus. The iBook G5 is a long way off (unlike the PB G5 which is coming out next Tuesday!! - Yes I am joking, ha, ha ) but I would go for the 12" instead of the 14". Same screen resolution with less of the bulk.

 

[Solafaa]

Like what dotnina said, if you dontr plan on doing gaming/editing then the iBook is the best for you, its great for students and work releated stuff. If you want to go into gaming/editing then get a PowerBook.

Jaz said "Bear in mind that Office for Mac OS X is ok, but not great." I disagree with you here sir, i have been using office 2004 for OSX, its been the best office i have used ever. I dont work with office much but my friend who dose 90% of his work on office seems to like it as well(he has a mac to).

 

[atomiton]

People who say they don't like Office, typically don't know how to use its more advanced features.

It IS overkill for the typical user, but you can do some amazing stuff with it as a power user... especially Excel... if you know how to use pivot tables.

 

[cluthz]

The largest problems with MS office for mac is:
1. There are so few menu shortcuts (i have to add the myself!!!)
2. Not very CPU efficient, uses much even if its hidden/background

 

[QCassidy352]

I, too, would like to add that the current ibook G4s are great machines. Waiting for an ibook G5 could mean a very very long wait indeed!

As for Office, I find the mac version kind of slow, but other than that, it's a very good app.

 

[xisforextreme]

thanks

thanks for all your help, as I'll be using my computer for work in university i wont need that much multimedia power. Because I'll be needing a new computer in about 6 mnths ur comments that the g5 ibooks wont be out for about a year were really helpful. After going through the apple site I found a list with reasons to switch. It says that apples are compatible with windows networks, but i have heard a lot of horror stories from people who bought apples and found they are not compatible with windows networks. Because I need to use my iBook on the university intranet this is really an issue for me. Should I be worried or is this just a lot of hype?

 

[Jaz]

Jaz said "Bear in mind that Office for Mac OS X is ok, but not great." I disagree with you here sir, i have been using office 2004 for OSX, its been the best office i have used ever. I dont work with office much but my friend who dose 90% of his work on office seems to like it as well(he has a mac to).

A fair response from many who use it.

My comments are related to two issues that I think are bothersome enough to drive me away. One is performance, Excel is great, Word is slow even on my G5 2.5. It's buggy code that shold be compensated for by raw power but is not leading me to believe the app is just not responsive. I find that frustrating. Two is stability, rather the uncertain appearance thereof. Crashes happens often enough that you can tell when one is coming; you click save and things suddenly pause, the hdd starts to work overtime and then it all closes. I have used it on 10.2, 10.3 and on two different PB's and now my G5 so I am assuming it is not OS or hardware related.

Hopefully mine is the exception in terms of experience. Feature wise it is better than the Windows version, but performance wise I have found it lacking.

 

[Jaz]

thanks for all your help, as I'll be using my computer for work in university i wont need that much multimedia power. Because I'll be needing a new computer in about 6 mnths ur comments that the g5 ibooks wont be out for about a year were really helpful. After going through the apple site I found a list with reasons to switch. It says that apples are compatible with windows networks, but i have heard a lot of horror stories from people who bought apples and found they are not compatible with windows networks. Because I need to use my iBook on the university intranet this is really an issue for me. Should I be worried or is this just a lot of hype?

Hype. I use my powerbook on Windows networks all the time both for file sharing and running a terminal session on a servers. No problems.

Apple does routinely update Samba (the OSS protocol *nix machines use to connect to Windows shares) and overall the networking is improving but if you are not doing high bandwidth work then I would not be worried at all.

Apple are making a big play for Windows interactivity so even if your university uses a Windows Active Directory you can still connect as a native client using Open Directory.

 

[Mechcozmo]

iBook G5 at WWDC 2007. I called it first!

I connect my PowerBook to my school's intranet a lot. No problems so far.

The iBook will do everything you need. I use Office v.X and it is pretty nice. Definitely a must for interaction between Wintels and Macs. AppleWorks is kinda cruddy IMHO. A hassle to use compared to Office. But please don't flame me...