4/15    Is the new Powerbook G4 worthwhile compared to PC laptops?
        \_ After getting one free from work, couple comments:
           They get hotter. Wait for nVidia's GeForce2Go to get
           built in, the slot load can jam if you flex the case
           too much, and get 256MB of RAM for OS X, otherwise
           it can be pooky. Other than those minor quips, best
           laptop I've ever owned, and much much better than
           the Vaio it replaced.
        \_ Honestly, unless you need the OS X, the Powerbook G4 is,
           like the rest of Apple's performance line, overpriced. Now
           of course people will argue about that but the fact is
           Apple has nothing anywhere near the price/performance of
           this Toshiba "gaming" laptop for $2400:
        http://www.csd.toshiba.com/adp/satellite/adp_sat_gaming.html?KNCR=465
           That has a Geforce2go, integrated everything and p3-850.
           I mean it's the same story for all their hardware. People try
           to compare an overpriced Vaio and say "see it's not much more."
           And despite being thin and titanium it's not that light.
           oh yeah, check out the combo DVD/CDRW on that toshiba. still
           impressed with "slot loading (yay!)" on the Apple?
           \_ Okay I looked at this, but its $2400 while the apple is
              $2599. Now the display on this is only 1024x768 while
              apple does 1152x768. Also, there is not integrated Airport
              antenna, you need to get one of those ugly Lucent PCMCIA
              cards. The toshiba is heavier than the Ti as well. For
              $200 less you are getting a considerably crappier machine.
              I don't know about you, but I'd rather not cut corners
              when spending upwards of $2K. Now if the Toshiba cost
              1000-1500 I'd agree that the Ti was overpriced.
        \_ The new Titaniums are pretty nice.  There are two ways to
           look at it. You can look purely at the specs or you can
           just pick one up and try it yourself to get a feel of what
           it's really like.  Compared to a top Viao, it's marginally
           more expensive but you get a 15.1" display, a slot load DVD,
           and some other nifty features. I don't have one myself but
           I've played around with one myself. OS is another issue. You
           don't have much of a choice here. Windows is a pile of shit
           and Mac is in the middle of a transition between 9 and X. I'm
           not too fond of OS9 myself and OS X has some serious response
           time issues.  Plus it will make that DVD somewhat useless. I'd
           wait a while and see.
           \_ The biggest OSX issue is that they built on the wrong unix!
                 I'd agree if you said FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE or 5.0-CURRENT
                 or even Solaris.
        \_ The hardware is very nice (though i've heard of some people
           having problems) and stunningly beautiful.  I think it comes
           \_ It's got the "Power" and the "Sex". It's just 1 inch thick
              and 15 inches long and has a smooth surface that will make
              you drool.
              \_ Try to avoid drooling on your Ti, it might short the
                 battery/ac switching circuit (a $138 repair, don't ask).
           down to a question of OS -- if you want/need Windows, there's
           no point.  If you don't, it going to be a great machine.
           Despite performance complaints about OS X, i'm running it on
           a B&W G3 300Mhz with 192MB RAM and it's performing just fine
           for me.  I don't use Classic though (when I need classic apps,
           i just boot into OS 9).
           \_ That's what I thought too. If you're really intent on getting
              it running you will convince yourself that it's fast enough.
              It's like the placebo - you'll get over the cold if you believe
              that the sugar pill is really a drug. But then a coworker came
              into my office and noticed how much it lagged. That's when
              reality set in for me. I'd wait a while and stick with OS 9.
           L1NSUX, esp. on a Laptop. Oh yeah, did I mention it had a working
           Apple is has some events planned in the near future -- WWDC in
           May and MacWorld in July, if you can you *may* want to hold off
           to see what they come out with.  Notwithstanding, I'm *very*
           tempted to get a PB G4, and I have a PB G3!
        \_ Basically, OS X and it's applications "are not there" yet. I'd
           wait for at least six months before fully switching to it. So,
           if you can't live with OS 9, don't buy it now ..
        \_ I have a Pismo G3 and I love the machine, but everytime I see
           Ti G4, I can't help but think how many weeks of pay I'd need to
           save up in order to get it. The thing is unbelieveable. Builtin
           10/100 Eth, Airport ready, Firewire, USB, VGA/S-Video Out, DVD,
           15.1" wide-screen, 1" thick, etc.
           Only the sony's have a comparable form-factor, but they don't
           have all of the features built-in, you need one of those ugly port
           replicators. Even then, the ethernet is usually PCMCIA, which is
           limited by the 16bit bus and usually crappy 3com ethernet chips.
           The PB G3/G4 onboard ethernet can push bits out to the tune of 5000-
           7000 K/s, much faster than most PCs. Unlike PCs the Aiport card
           has an integrate antenna, so you don't have that ugly black thing
           sticking out the side of your laptop.
           AFAIK, the only PC laptop with a 15.1" screen is a Dell and my
           boss used to have it. It weighs like 8 lbs without the DVD and is
           something like 3" thick. Its a beast to lug around. The Ti and
           even the Pismo are far superior.
           The one weakness with the Ti and the Pismo is that they use the
           ATI Rage128 8 mb vram, which isn't all that great. I'm waiting
           for Apple to release a Ti with GeForce2Go, which is supposted to
           be *much* faster and will have 16mb vram. I know that 8 mb vram
           vs 16 mb vram is irrelevant when you are running a dispay at
           1024x768 (both will do 32bit color no problem), but I'd still
           like 16 mb vram.
           With regards to OS X, its a pretty good version of UNIX, with
           a reasonably stable and full featured kernel. The VM subsystem
           could be a little bit better (a la FreeBSD 5.0-Current) and it
           would be nice if the filesystem support was a bit better (only
           UFS and HFS+ at this point), but its still *much* better than
           Linux, esp. on a Laptop. Oh yeah, did I mention it had a working
           GUI environment not some shitty POC like GNOME or KDE and it has
           a plethora of working Browsers.
           Well, that's my $0.02. You should probably take this with a grain
           of salt, as I'm a big mac fan (got my first mac in 1987 and I've
           coded pascal, fortran, matlab, c and c++ for macs).
           \_ twohey, is that you?
                 \_ no. I'm not twohey.
              \_ Twohey - he's one of those kiss up brown nosers who asks
                 a million stupid questions in class that everyone already
                 knows the answer to just to make himself look smart. I
                 remember him asking pointless questions during Franklin's
                 162 lectures. I even heard that students in his discussion
                 section started attending other sections because he and
                 his kiss up group kept inundating the TA with moronic
                 questions that the TA couldn't get anything done during class.
                 \_ He isn't very bright, no.
        \_ the only thing I find lacking with the Apple Ti Laptop is lack
           of 112bit key WEP support.  Not that this in itself is actually
           going to keep anything wireless "secure" but because some of
           the various locations in which I would use wireless are setup
           to not talk to anything that doesnt do 112bit (aka EECS wireless)
           --jon
           \_ Yeah the lack of the "gold" card is annoying. Apple should
              hurry up and fix that. Rumors say that this change will roll
              out with the 802.11a update later this year.