Thinking about buying a Mac.

Published on June 15, 2005 By Island Dog In Personal Computing

I'm just wondering how many of you actually use a mac, or if you are thinking about buying one. I have been thinking about buying one for quite a while now. I took a trip to the Apple store this past weekend to take a look around and play with what they have. I have been looking at iBooks and the Mac Mini. I played with both at the Apple store and it really didn't change my mind one way or the other. OSX seemed very nice, but it's hard to judge it while just using it for a short time.

I tried out the 1.25Ghz Mac Mini, the "slowest" of the two out. I have to say I was impressed with the speed. I opened all kind of programs and it didn't seem to have too hard of a time handling it. The appeal for a Mac Mini is that I just "add" to my current setup without much trouble.

I next moved to the 12" iBook. Very nice piece of hardware. I currently have a Dell laptop, but I just don't use it that much. It's big and heavy and just not too practical to take with me to work. I could sell it and that would give me enough for an iBook.

At my work and home I take care of websites, run a small eBay business, do several types of graphic work, and just general computer use. While trying to think about buying a Mac I also realized I would have to buy additional software besides iLife. I guess I would have to buy Photoshop, and any other software I would need.

I would like opinions on if I should make the switch, or your experiences with a Mac.

Comments (Page 2)

Ka806

on Jun 16, 2005

You can always upgrade your desktop for the x86 proc. So if portability isnt required, and you really want a mac, then get yourself a snazzy G5 desktop.
I doubt their first x86 models will out perform the PPC at the moment though. But if they do, and combatability turns out to be sucking, then u can always upgrade the mobo and proc...................wait can you. I really dont know now that I think about it..............ahh nevermind

mrbiotech

on Jun 17, 2005

You've still got until 2007 before their complete line is changed over to MacTel, too

SlimSpaceman

on Jun 18, 2005

I've got a 12" iBook and it's fantastic. The battery life is incredible - I get anywhere up to 6 hours, which is definitely better than just about anything out there for the same price.

Well, I have a 1.5ghz Centrino laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600) with 15.4 WSXGA (1680x1050) screen, 512mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 5200FX GO,... And with the screen brightnes on full, I can play UT2004 at medium settings and at 1280x800 for 3 hours. But when I use Word (on medium brightness), the battery also lasts 6 hours.

kona0197

on Jun 18, 2005

From all I've read Apple OS X will ONLY run on Apple hardware. Think about it. They would be shooting themselves in the foot if they let OS X become available to x86 machines.

Nothing is changing about Apple - just the CPU will say "Intel" instead of "IBM"

paxx

on Jun 18, 2005

Kona, with the difference that Mac computers will now be able to run Windows as well as OSX. You may not be able to OSX on a non-Mac PC but the othe way around will be possible. So, somebody wanting a dual-boot Windows/OSX will be able to do it with the next generation Mac computers.

kona0197

on Jun 18, 2005

I know Paxx. I was just trying to point out that a PC will not be able to run OS X.

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