Anyone "in the know" about Apple computers?

[BudSooner]

Since the refund money is on the way, i've kinda been thinking about an Apple computer just for surfing the net and checking email....nothing too serious.
Anyhow...i've been looking at used puter prices and wouldn't mind one just to tinker around on.
Any ideas? A desktop would be nice but i'm leaning towards a notebook(Ibook?)to lug around when the kiddos are playing on the PC playing the Sims.

Any input would be helpful.;)

[Al Gore]

I know all the words to Beastie Boy's "Brass Monkey".......nothing on Apple computer...

[SicEmBaylor]

I had an Apple laptop for awhile. Just to tinker around with I think you might enjoy it. Kinda gives you something new to toy around with after dealing with Windows for so long.

[Mongo]

My wife has an ibook, but she would rather use my compaq. Probably to spy on me to see if I have been browsing the pr0n sites!..........again:D

[BudSooner]

I had an Apple laptop for awhile. Just to tinker around with I think you might enjoy it. Kinda gives you something new to toy around with after dealing with Windows for so long.

That was just it, there was this Apple store my wife and I went to...well the salesman saw me coming and pointed out the IMacs(17"monitor, DVD,airport card...yada yada yada)but it was only like.....a 466mhz machine.
My 2.4ghz 60gig 512meg ram PC does not run that damned good even though it is maintained almost every other day.
The interface takes a bit getting used to and it caught me off guard how pleasant the menus were to use...think it was using the Panther OS-pretty nice machine.
There was a Powerbook 500mhz that had the CDRW/DVD player built in but no airport card(he can sell me one for around $65 plugs into the USB port)so its basically a wash....for $399, I dunno how reliable the Apple laptops are.

[yermom]

i wouldn't get a USB Airport Card, there are internal ones, probably cheap as hell on eBay now, since they are old

a 500 MHz Powerbook is OLD... they have issues on the hinges that hold the screen on, i have now seen every one of that generation that i know of break off the hinges, so be careful of used ones. the new ones have a totally different hinge design, so i haven't seen them break

the 12" Powerbooks seem like they have gotten a lot cheaper since the MacBook Pros with the Intel chips came out

those new iMacs look really cool, but i haven't used one yet.

i love my 1.67 GHz 15" Powerbook, the last one with the PowerPC chip, it's great. only things it doesn't do are Partypoker and Outlook. if i'm not doing one of those things i prefer it over my Dell Lattitude by a lot

[Ike]

ya know, I don't know much about apple computers, but I wouldn't place a very high value on the listed processor speed, especially if you are used to the traditional windows machines. The reason is that until apple starts using the Intel processors, I'm pretty sure that their machines have a different archeticture than x86 machines. which means that comparing processor speeds between architectures will only have meaning when comparing to a system of similar architecture. What you really want to test is how well it handles loads that you typically put on your normal machine (like, how fast it loads firefox with an email client, MS Office, and solitare running in the background...things like that), because while the listed processor speed might be much slower than your old windows machine, it might still perform those tasks faster.

[slickdawg]

The PowerPC Vector Processor chip based Mac's basically run a Unix
like operating system. I like them a lot. Solid machines, easy to use.

No opinion on the Intel based Macs yet.

That said, the only knock is that there's much more software for windoze.

something to think about.

[handcrafted]

From a person that has used both extensively, the Mac GUI is just slicker. Stuff seems to run adequately fast on either, I just like the Mac OS so much better. It used to be that Windows was unstable and you had to constantly reboot it, but with XP they seem to have fixed that for the most part. But I still like UNIX-y systems better, they're easier to navigate and admin. The Windows "registry" is totally annoying.

[slickdawg]

From a person that has used both extensively, the Mac GUI is just slicker. Stuff seems to run adequately fast on either, I just like the Mac OS so much better. It used to be that Windows was unstable and you had to constantly reboot it, but with XP they seem to have fixed that for the most part. But I still like UNIX-y systems better, they're easier to navigate and admin. The Windows "registry" is totally annoying.


the "registry" thing SUCKS.

but I am a huge Solaris/UNICOS/AIX/Unix fan, so of course, I'm biased.

[yermom]

the "registry" thing SUCKS.

but I am a huge Solaris/UNICOS/AIX/Unix fan, so of course, I'm biased.

yeah, and built-in ssh and X11 is hella cool

[BudSooner]

This guy at work this morning had an Apple IBook, holy carp that thing was hella SaWEEEET!

Herein lies the kicker-he has $3000 worth of software on the thing(lots of graphics programs, assorted office programs)very nice GUI, looks easy to use.....i'm still looking.
So, one other question....when the pc is connected to a wireless g router, the Apple with the airport card is going to be able to recognize the signal....right? I'm a bit confused on that part, are they pretty easy to setup?

[yermom]

802.11 is the same, basically across platforms

i use PCs and Macs on the same network all the time

as long as the g router supports b, which i think the new ones usually do, then an old Airport card should work. the new Airport cards are g

[BudSooner]

Ok, I saw something that I have to ask, what is the yo yo charger?

A retractable charger cord?

[yermom]

http://i9.ebayimg.com/05/i/06/8b/b6/60_1.JPG

it's the old style AC adapter, the part that plugs into the laptop coils up inside the round part

[slickdawg]

yeah, and built-in ssh and X11 is hella cool

You ain't kiddin' bro!