Posted on 11/14/2008 5:48:59 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
I'm going to start a dinosaur computer company death watch for M$... The "real" world you speak of just bought over 10M iphones. Rated recently by JD Powers as the best phone - by far. iPhone just outsold Blackberry last quarter. In the Apple store I frequent 80% of computers are going to PC users that are seeing this same stuff from M$. You can run, but you can't hide from teh truth. More and more people are doing a simple measurement - How Much time do I have to spend on my computer fixing various issues versus doing the things I bought the computer for in the first place.
Fast, Powerful, Solid - NOTHING beats a Mac! (And yes, you can sully these beauties by running - Uggh! - Windoze on them it you need to...
Someone who’s using one right now and it’s doing just fine. Reread the budget number and then find an Intel based Mac for <$500. You can’t. Your suggestion is non-responsive to the specification.
Thanks for the great advice - exactly the kind I figured I would get
We are on the hunt this weekend for something. The tech guy at her school will be able to get her laptop to limp along for a little while, but a replacement is in the works.
My interest in Macs has to do with the reported durability. Is it really that good? or is it just the hype? It just doesn’t seem to be an honest business practice to sell a product that routinely causes problems, such as Windows/PC’s. Her laptop was a well-rated one and it has only lasted about 2 years and it isn’t even used that heavily.
So, with suggestions in hand, I will start my search.
Thanks again
Yeah, the TiBook styling was revolutionary. It looks great, and the aluminum ones build on it and look even a little better. I’m the high bidder at the moment on a super clean 1GHz TiBook on eBay. My max bid is $250 and the auction ends today but I doubt it’ll sell quite that cheaply. But if it does — wow, that’s a great little computer for a song. I’m also bidding on a clean 17” 1.67GHz AlBook, another great one.
I can’t wait to get a Mac!
:’)
You’re most welcome. $100 for the software, $100 for a 500 gb external (the one I have but haven’t opened yet is 500 gb, with USB 2.0, FW400, and eSATA ports on it), and (at most) $50 for an external case, and (perhaps using a spare machine), you should be able to recover your files. At least the software will tell you what it can do. And having a 500 gb around for offline storage and regular backups isn’t bad either. The terabyte drives are also coming down.
“Your suggestion is non-responsive to the specification.”
I’ve recommended an intel mac mini for that budget. If not the mac mini then any other Apple that has at a minimum an intel based machine for running the current and future Apple OS.
The current system is Leopard, OS X 10.5.5 and
it runs just fine on a G4 1Ghz powerbook & a G4 1 Ghz iMac.
Although there was no current mac mini at the Apple refurb store, I did find them easily on ebay for under $500. As an example:
Yes, I ran Leopard on a G4 1.25 Ghz 15” powerbook. But from what I’ve read, it will not make the grade with the new Apple OS that will be rolling out.
I had no problems with Leopard on the G4 1.25 powerbook. When I gave it to someone, I left the OS on it.
Again, what I’m saying is I wouldn’t suggest spending $500 NOW for even a used G4 machine as it won’t be able to move ahead as Apple updates its OS with consistent and regular updates.
Just before I got the 2.4Gz Penryn 15” Macbok Pro, I was using my backup Mac Mini Intel Core Solo and it was getting pretty sluggish just handling my iPhoto library. The size of it was slowing down actions in that program.
Now it’s just much better all around.
Still haven’t seen the new Apple notebooks in person. I was very interested and waiting for those to roll out. But in the end the last generation Penryn model was so close in performance and the refurb price so appealing I went that way.
Now I am watching this Nvidia closely but that’s another story entirely.
If Snow Leopard is 64 bit only,
there will many intel macs which will not be able to run it
in addition to G4s
OK, fair enough. It’s not clear but apparently the student wants to replace a laptop. If that’s the case then there is no spare monitor, keyboard or mouse. Most students these days take their notes on a laptop in class.
Well, these days the Mac is assembled using many of the same parts from the same vendors as a PC. BUT, the software seems to be less problematic. So by that definition it’s more “durable” or perhaps “trouble free”.
Understood but I can’t quantify the students taking notes on laptops. Would guess most don’t type that well anyway. But thanks for pointing out the practical points.
My wife is advisor to the local chapter of her sorority. She says that at every meeting, she’s the only one taking notes with pencil and paper. All the girls are typing away on a laptop. It’s a different world than when I was in school.
Will do, thanks for the heads up.
Sign up for an Apple student developer account for $100 and get a new $999 Macbook with $500 off.
A second thumbs up for NeoOffice. I use it daily on my mac at work and it integrates flawlessly with the Windows machines there.
A big quack for strats too - got three of them.
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