A Month with a Mac II: The Mobile Experience

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• Anonymous - Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - link

  I'm not saying "switch." Keep your Microsoft Windows box, but put a $499 Mini alongside it. The Mini is a low risk way to compare operating systems and to get your feet wet in the world of OS X and UNIX.
  
  I will glady if you donate a mini to me. Make no mistake OS X's use of BSD is commendable but lets be honest. It is not UNIX. Using the term UNIX to substantiate OS X is lame. Have you used a version of UNIX before? HP-UX? Solaris? I would think as an OS X fan you'd make every effort to separate your OS from UNIX.
  
  The user experience of UNIX is an entirely different world than the Mac OS and one I would not like to reference to. Apple does not gear OS X to companies in markets that rely specifically on UNIX. In fact, none of my UNIX contemporaries see OS X as a potential platform to replace their existing UNIX infrastructure.

• Anonymous - Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - link

  "In general, there's a feeling of camaraderie with Mac that I don't get with Windows. With Apple you have the sense that they are somehow "with you", whereas Microsoft is more like "we'll do it for you". Do you know what I mean? I get a much greater sense of big brother with MS. Maybe this is a false sense, but it's significant."
  
  No doubt, there is a lot of camaraderie in 2% market share. Thats because you want to hug the next person you find who uses a Mac. LOL! Apple is your only pusher for both the OS and hardware. Where else would you go? Linux? I hear that Yellow Dog Linux distro for the Mac is killer. ;P
  
  We don't know how Apple would respond as a company if they were as big as Microsoft. Considering their most recent success was with a consumer electronic product rather than their OS/Computer Hardware they need to devote resources to keep the real market share they do have. I must say that they're in the best position they've ever been to reach out to the pagans of the PC world and preach them the Mac Gospel. I hope it works.

• doggy - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link

  enjoyed the mac articles. like the mac itself, these articles are lively which reminded me of the first few years of anandtech (admittedly i stopped following AT when it felt like each article dropped out of the same template).
  
  as a PB owner, the best portability feature is how well the sleep mode works in OS X. close the cover and in 1-2 seconds it sleeps, and off you go. sit down, open the screen - everything up and continues within a couple seconds! works every time. hardly reboot my laptop.

• James - Sunday, January 30, 2005 - link

  Have you driven a Macintosh ... lately?
  
  That's what I say to colleagues who still think of the Macintosh in 1987 terms: the little one-bit/eight-inch screen, 20mb hard drive, 2mb of RAM. The Mac under OS X has come a LONG way. It's truly worth a look.
  
  I'm not saying "switch." Keep your Microsoft Windows box, but put a $499 Mini alongside it. The Mini is a low risk way to compare operating systems and to get your feet wet in the world of OS X and UNIX.

• Switcher - Saturday, January 29, 2005 - link

  "Basically did not want another XP system in the house. I spend too much time updating XP, zonealarm, adaware, spybot etc etc etc etc on the 3 existing PCs. Then checking no nasties have sneaked past. Simply did not want a forth system to hassle me.
  
  I did consider a cheap laptop with Linux but the windows tax put me off. Also from playing with employers laptops and linux I know that not everything works - like power management - without tinkering. I know how to fix that kind of thing but did not want to have to, if that makes sense.
  
  For my wife I wanted a simple appliance. Zero admin overhead. The iBook fitted the bill. All I can say is that it is fantastic. Its only the 12inch lowest spec (with a 60Gb drive.) Not even put extra memory in it yet. But its plenty fast enough for everyday use. Battery life is amazing. The iLife programs are a lot of fun. No registry. Whole apps are single files. Not files spewed all over the system. Mac OS has proper multi-user with fine user privilege controls. So no worries about the kids accidently resetting the wep key - even if they are using an admin account (it prompts to re-enter passwd.) Lots of interesting and useful features that are so easy to find. I felt at home with Mac OS immediately. I was pleasantly surprised to find there is no shortage of software out there - for example, I found a great DVD ripper within 5mins of looking. I love it. Now we fight over who gets to use the iBook! I did not expect to be even using it."

• Shakespeare - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link

  #30 Laptop Battery Life
  
  You are going to use an extra battery to get 5 hours out of a PC and you say the G4 doesn't cut it because one battery can't compare with two?
  
  Macs have had better battery life than PCs for years... recently Intel has improved things with the Mobile Pentiums... but Macs are still generally better than PCs despite being lighter & thinner than full spec desktop replacement PCs.
  
  Apple rates 12" iBook battery life at up to 6 hours on a single battery charge. You'd have to turn down the brightness and do nothing other than Word Processing to achieve that, however, I regularly get 4.5 hours - so that's 9 hours if you buy a second battery and compare like with like versus the 2 battery PCs.
  
  Now you may feel that the battery must be bolted onto the laptop to "qualify" but I don't understand why you would want to carry the weight all the time. The old G3 Powerbooks would accept a second battery in place of the optical drive... that is no longer an option on any Macs.

• Tom Durkin - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link

  Jimbo (#30), about how only Intel offers 5-hour battery life on a 12-inch notebook...
  
  I get almost 5 hours on my 12-inch Powerbook (current model, 1.33GHz G4 with 768MB). I turn the display brightness all the way down (Its still quite readable if you stay away from direct sunlight), turn off airport (wifi) except for the minutes when I actually need it, don't use the CD/DVD drive, and set the energy saver settings all the way. My understanding is that the 12-inch iBook has even better battery life.
  
  I hope this helps.
  

• XIII - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link

  Wow, just the type of article I was looking for as a potential switcher myself.
  Excellent coverage, I love the depth of the article(s).
  

• bshell - Thursday, January 27, 2005 - link

  In general, there's a feeling of camaraderie with Mac that I don't get with Windows. With Apple you have the sense that they are somehow "with you", whereas Microsoft is more like "we'll do it for you". Do you know what I mean? I get a much greater sense of big brother with MS. Maybe this is a false sense, but it's significant.
  

• Jimbo - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link

  I am really enjoying these articles on macs. I've been a pc user my whole life, and as of late I have been somewhat intrigued by apple (as I have an IPOD). At any rate I am really curious to find out if macs are as awesome as everyone says they are (in terms of ease of use etc etc etc). It has been INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT to find NON BIASED articles on the net. You have the PC guys who are like "Macs suck" and then the mac dudes who are like "Pcs suck". It's refreshing and extremely HELPFUL to find a real article with real comparison.
  
  At any rate one thing bothers me as of now. The fact that the G4 doesn't compare to a pentium M/the centrino platform. I want an 12 inch laptop when I graduate college (something with atleast 5 hours of battery life) and the only option for excessive battery life is a centrino based laptop. Granted I would have to get the extra battery attached to the back of the laptop for that. But yeah that is my primary concern - G4 is a weak processor, and doesnt get great battery life. 2-3 hours is not gonna cut it for me.