ftzsee
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join:2001-11-22
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| reply to 2kmaro
Re: [POLL] Student Laptop Choice
Make/Model: Apple Powerbook
Screen Size: 17"
Weight: 6.9LBs
CPU: 1.5GHz G4
Essential Extras: USB mouse, with two buttons and a scroll wheel.
Good Points: •Very thin.
•Beautiful screen, good resolution.
•Good battery life - about 4 hours for light desktop use.
•DVD burning.
•Powerful graphics.
•Perfect hardware/software integration.
•Best wireless system I've ever seen.
•OS X.
•Nice software pre-installed.
•Impressive array of features - backlit keyboard, firewire 800, gigabit ethernet, s-video/dvi out.
•MHz for MHz, this thing crunches RC5 faster than anything I've seen.
•It looks slick. Especially the Apple logo on the back.
BAD Points:
•OS X is difficult for me to use sometimes. Annoying "features" like the lack of an "up" button in Finder, Enter-to-rename; Apple-O to open, and other rather major usability issues preclude me from being as productive as I am with my Linux desktop.
•As Apple's flagship laptop, it's slow - for some things, not all - compared to some of the newer P-M stuff in the PC world.
•Lots of free software that I like won't compile under OS X. Their OS X equivalents cost money.
•Proprietary hardware prevents me from installing Linux on it and having it be fully functional.
•Nothing plugs into the back. Everything plugs into the sides.
•The lid doesn't close all the way, because for some stupid reason, it latches in the middle.
•The touchpad only has one button. This is a bad design decision and it has no good excuses. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Apple fanboys.
•It's very expensive. More expensive than what it is worth.
•Like the rest of Apple's products that don't sit on a desk all the time, it's not particularly robust.
•When the CPU is at 100% utilization for a little while, the fan comes on, and the fan is loud.
•Community composed almost entirely of hippies and idiots.
Why I picked it: Besides the good points, I was interested in it because of the Unix-ness of OS X. I knew I'd install Linux on any PC laptop I purchased, but the longer I looked, the more features I wanted, and the higher my budget grew. Then I looked at the Powerbooks and quit looking at PC stuff.
Bottom line: If you can afford it and you're comfortable with using OS X, then you probably already have one. Avoid the 17" - 15" is much more practical. |
