OT - Care to share your opinion?

[Eric Dunbar]

> > On May 6, 2005, at 1:14 PM, Mark Guertin wrote:
> >> if it starts with "i" it's consumer ... iBook, iMac (except for e
> >> which is also consumer -- eMac).  Also the color gives it away... if
> >> it's white its a consumer machine (at least right now anyway).
> > [...]
> > For what its worth: I do all my development on my ibook. 800Mhz G3. I
> > love it. Years of work. dawn to dusk. great machine! No problems. Ever.
> 
> The most negative point I can make about the current iBooks is that,
> since they so closely resemble their four year old predecessors, they
> are a bit boring today.

... they're slower, have cheaper feeling keyboards, trackpads and
cases, and I can't stand the mouse button. But, if you can get over
that, I'm sure they're fine for a lot of people. I just have seen too
many people have less than satisfactory experiences that I advise
people to get the pro machines *if they can afford to*.

If the difference between $800 and $1000 is enough to break the bank
(for a high school student, or a *really* strapped university student
for e.g.) then the consumer machines are more than adequate. If you
have enough money to *waste* on a car (and that is a waste... & if you
have an SUV you have serious ethical problems to deal with (unless
you're transporting 4 full size police officers with gear all the
time... otherwise, a minivan is a much more environmentally & socially
responsible vehicle (though, no vehicle is a much more ethical
situation anyway) & money is the least of your problems ;-), then you
should definitely get the pro machine (or re-examine your ethical
compass).

I've recommended different things to different people over the years.
If someone's budget conscious I've suggested iCraps (ONLY with
AppleCare... they're too unreliable to trust without) & iBooks, for
another I suggested nothing other than a PowerBook (they were willing
to waste money buying a new car... sucker) & I also regularly
recommend that someone stay away from Mac. Virtual PC is good but it
ain't a great solution -- Mac gaming sucks & stats software on Mac is
fading and fading fast (those are the two main reasons I've
recommended against Mac).

Of course, I did once convince someone to do the sensible thing and
spend $200 on an awesome game machine (an XBox) and to buy an iBook
for their computer work. They're very happy now that their laptop
isn't utterly destroyed by heavy duty gaming on a machine that's a
pure waste of money for gaming (this person had replaced two laptops
already b/c of it).

Eric.