Powerbook G4

[victormeldrew]

Having had the screen fall off my Dell notebook for the second time I am in the market for a new one, and like the look of the new Powerbook G4, 17" variety.

Er, but its an Apple.

Eeek.

Anyone out there "switched" - is the Apple marketing hype just that, or can they really co-exist peacefully in the Wintel world? My co-directors are slightly worried that I might have lost by grip ... have I?

[plotloss]

I think somewhere there is some sort of bridge that will allow you to run Windows on a Mac...

Matt.

[yertis]

What are you going to use it for?

We find the files we need to share move across the platforms without any problems, although recently we did need to get some CAD files professionally converted. But all the usual stuff - easy.

[jon h]

Depends on what you are doing. We run 6 Macs doing design based jobs alongside about 30 PCs without much of a problem, but some applications are not really as cross platformable as they say on the tin!

All machines connect to the same NT & Linux servers quite happily, though there are some issues with Macs seeing servers over a WAN, but we are working on that....

Jon H

[Bacardi]

plotloss said: I think somewhere there is some sort of bridge that will allow you to run Windows on a Mac...

There is. It's called Virtual PC. The question is what apps do you use on your computer? If your main app is something like Office, no problem as it's available for mac. Also check out:

www.apple.com/switch/questions/

Just bought the 12" aluminium G4. I am very pleased with it. I was after compact otherwise it would have been the 17", just for the auto sensing back illuminated keyboard, way cool.

I am not a switcher though, have always been a mac user. Maybe someone else can point out some of the pitfalls.

[sparks]

I am a long time Mac user, but saddled with Windows at work.

I have an iBook, with VPC (which runs most things O.K, is a little slow sometimes). As Mac OSX is based on BSD Unix, conectivity etc is much better now than it used to be.

If you have any specific questions, ask away, either here or through the profile.

Us Mac die hards love converters.......

Sparks

P.S for further help and to purchase, see www.macassist.co.uk

[victormeldrew]

Thanks for the responses guys! OK, some more info.

For the most part I will be using Office. Outlook seems to be conspicuous by its absence from the Mac MS Office suite - is Entourage a worthy replacement? Project would be nice, Visio too - ok in VPC as long as the performance comes close to the 300MHz PII which I am currently using. Quicken for my accounts - thats handy!

Database wise I use Reality for NT, which again can run through VPC. I do pretty much the same thing in a Windoze environment as I run my Reality database in VMWare Workstation - VPC is not quite VMWare, but close. I develop web based apps so the GUI is easy!

Should the fact that Connectix has been swallowed by MS be of concern? I'm thinking long term support - I wouldn't for a moment imagine MS bought Connectix just to kill off VPC. Oh no.

I guess the main concern is if Office documents integrate seamlessly with Office XP - DOC, XLS and PPT - without compromises like having to configure everyones Office suite to save in '97 format.

Is it really true that a 1GHz G4 is equivalent to a 2GHz Pentium?

Wierd coincidence - I just noticed that there is a web browser for the Mac called Chimera!


>> Edited by victormeldrew on Tuesday 11th March 15:16

[sparks]

victormeldrew said .........

Should the fact that Connectix has been swallowed by MS be of concern? I'm thinking long term support - I wouldn't for a moment imagine MS bought Connectix just to kill off VPC. Oh no.

The current VPC is supposed to run most stuff, but stick to NT 4, and it should be easily as quick as a PII 300. You shouldn't need to upgrade, but it may be worth following the fate now M$ has control

I guess the main concern is if Office documents integrate seamlessly with Office XP - DOC, XLS and PPT - without compromises like having to configure everyones Office suite to save in '97 format.

You should have no problems, the formats are supposed to be seamless (I don't use Office, as I refuse to pay megabucks, when the free AppleWorks app does everything I need, and often better than M$). The latest AppleWorks usually reads most if not all M$ Office files (with the exception of ppt, but apple have just release a presentation prog ($$ ) which i'm sure will read ppt files). Outlook should be a free download, but there are lots of other alternatives, including OSX built in mail app

Is it really true that a 1GHz G4 is equivalent to a 2GHz Pentium?

maybe not 100% accurate, but the G4 is much quicker than any intel/amd/athlon at similar and often much greater speeds

Wierd coincidence - I just noticed that there is a web browser for the Mac called Chimera!

We like that sort of name.....

>> Edited by victormeldrew on Tuesday 11th March 15:16

[alunr]

You don't seem to NEED a mac at all so why not look at the Sony Laptops - quite nice to look at and do an excellent job. You'll also have loads of probs with your tech support when you tell them you are runnig VPC.

[Deester]

OSX it a pretty funky OS if your into the Linux thing.

[lx993]

I've got one, and also a dual 1 Ghz powermac, and a Cube with a load of upgrades. I'm not a original Mac user but rather a switcher - I bought a Mac as soon as they released Mac OS X.

Basically the only sticking point that would prevent you switching happily would be specific applications. As far as I am aware, Visio and Project aren't available for Mac. Omnigroup make a product called OmniGraffle that does a good job of replacing Visio, but if you need binary file compatibility you're stuck.

MS Office v.X works well (with the service pack) and is compatible with the versions of Office I use (2k on windows). Not sure about Office XP though.

OS X in general is a joy to use and refreshingly bullshit-free. You can use it like a friendly front-end OS, and equally can get all hacker-style with the Unix underpinnings. The majority of opensource unix apps (e.g. scientific / academic stuff) works fine. Both opensource (mysql, postgresql) and commercial (sybase, oracle) database servers work fine (there's a sybase server running right now on my Tibook)

Consumer apps like iTunes hit the spot - for all home-type use the Mac wipes the floor with Windows, purely on reliability, consistency and usability.

I carry my TiBook around on consultancy work and connect it to Windows-only networks. It is easy to set up the Mac to either connect to Windows network drives, or conversely to make the Mac hard disk available as a share to a Windows desktop.

Sorry for long post but I've been incredibly impressed by these machines. I've had Sony notebooks, properly well built Windows PCs, etc. The sheer quality of the Mac and the flexibility of the operating system did it for me.

Mail me offline if you need more info...

[agent006]

lx993 said: It is easy to set up the Mac to either connect to Windows network drives, or conversely to make the Mac hard disk available as a share to a Windows desktop.

Is that just an OSX thing, or can older MACs do this too. I've got a very old (os9?) mac sat in a cupboard at home, that i tried and failed to hook up to my test network.

[lx993]

OS X and the old OSes are fundamentally different - the old ones are similar in technology to windows 95 etc. i.e. shared memory, cooperative multitasking etc. I.e. they crash often and one bad app stuffs the whole system. The core of the old systems was Apple's own technology.

The core of OS X is an opensource unix, bit like FreeBSD, called Darwin. The connect-to-Windows technology is opensource standard stuff called Samba (the Linux types use this). Any windows connectivity software available on pre-OS X Macs will be completely different.

AFAIK, you can install OS X on pretty old Macs as long as you use a couple of hacks and make sure there's enough RAM.

[sparks]

Agent006,

I agree with lx993, if you are careful, OSX will run on some quite old Macs, just get some more RAM.

The original iMac will run OSX, but yoy *MUST* get a firmware update (or the screen gets screwed!), and the same may be true of the older PowerMac machines. I am planning to upgrade my iMac SE (400MHz) to OSX 10.2.4 in the near future.

Sparks

[mrsd]

agent006 said:I've got a very old (os9?) mac sat in a cupboard at home, that i tried and failed to hook up to my test network.

That's not an old mac ! I've got a Classic (system 7) that still works. Not much good for anything other than playing pacman though. Too technically illiterate to use it as an email box:
www.rtis.com/nat/user/toolbox/oldmacs/
wouldn't know how/where to connect a modem ?

[sparks]

mrsd said: ..........

wouldn't know how/where to connect a modem ?

Look here

www.jagshouse.com/

It's good for older macs.

Also any external modem should work with a classic. I have an LC and hooked that up once. I think I still have the cable (but not the modem). If you get a modem from somewhere, I'll let you have the cable.

Sparks

[mrsd]

So if I find the pinouts for the Mac port and the external modem I can connect the two with an appropriate cable ? And if I get the init string off the web and stick it into mac TCP/IP and point PPP at the right 'phone number the modem will work ? How do I know what to use for the DNS settings in TCP/IP ? Sorry for hijacking your thread victormeldrew-and didn't you say on another thread you've stopped giving free it advice

[sparks]

mrsd

I have mailed you via PH profile, to reduce the 'hijacking'

Sparks

[victormeldrew]

Alunr - I don't NEED a PowerBook, in the same way that I don't NEED my Chimaera 500, but I take your point! Actually my choice at the moment is down to Dell Inspiron 8200, the Sony Viao and the PowerBook. Kind of a Boxster vs S2000 vs Tuscan choice I think!

lx993 - no need to apologise, that is exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for. Sounds like you use your TiBook in much the way I use a notebook, and the fact that you have little trouble linking into Windows environments is good news. I am reassured, and I'm pretty sure I'm going for it. I just need to see one in the flesh now.

Thanks all for the input.

[agent006]

mrsd said:

agent006 said:I've got a very old (os9?) mac sat in a cupboard at home, that i tried and failed to hook up to my test network.

That's not an old mac ! I've got a Classic (system 7) that still works. Not much good for anything other than playing pacman though. Too technically illiterate to use it as an email box:
www.rtis.com/nat/user/toolbox/oldmacs/
wouldn't know how/where to connect a modem ?

That's the thing, i don't know what a old mac is. I bought it off a company i was working for, for £15. 'twas the old stock from the design department. I'll dig it out of the cupboard if i can find some space.