Talk me out of geting a Powerbook G4

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kubisaw

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 23, 2001
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so school time is starting to roll around again and im thinking i might cash out for a laptop

the apple powerbook g4 has caught my attention with its small size and "just works" user ability and the incredible engineering, my only reservation is the lack of free software..if you know what i mean.....

now...ive checked out some regular laptops yet havent really found anything that is compact enough

so now i turn to you guys to help me out...thanks
 
long time PC user, first time powerbook buying, just got a 15 inch 1.5ghz with upgrade video card mem. and HD speed.....


first, let me dish it out on the go-l laptops....

they are too expensive, there has been a lot of speculation that go-l is a scam, and finally, go-l just uses sager (clevo) laptops which can be found cheaper elsewhere.

my powerbook is freakin' awesome. my friend has a 17 inch sager with a 3.2 ghz proc and a gig of memory and this thing kicks it's ass hardcore
it doesn't run as hot as his sager.
it looks better, but that is really subjective.....
and there is a lot of freeware for it that is totally compatible with your PC (like open office), finally, you shouldn't talk about 'free software' (quotes quotes quotes) that really isn't free.
 
fatbob...so what are u using this for? like what types of applications and such

i still cant believe im being pulled onto the apple bandwagon
 
Metallica_Band said:
Macintosh...'nuff said...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...


well if you say this...show me something the same size and better...



also...anyone know any good powerbook resources?
 
kubisaw said:
my only reservation is the lack of free software..if you know what i mean.....
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Actually, it's not that there's a lack of "free software"... You just have to look a little harder to find it :D

At any rate, in my eyes, when it comes to a general use laptop (basically everything except serous gaming) Apple is the only option. I've found that most PC laptops, in terms of overall build quality, are pretty crappy. As to Apple laptops running hot... Well, they don't run as hot as most P4-based PC laptops (come on, the new PPC 7457 chips consume less than 20w) and, besides, the Apple laptops are designed not to use their tiny internal fans unless they really have to.
 
Petra you speak the truth about the current pc laptops...nothing sleek and thin like the powerbooks are out there that are worth buying..

any good links for powerbook resources?
 
I've been using Macs for all my life, and from what I've seen on the PC side, you'll definitely want to invest in a Powerbook unless money is severely tight. If you just need to write papers and check email, get a cheap Gateway or Dell. If you want a real computer, get a Powerbook. :)

Of course, I have some bias. It's your call, but might I say that after experiencing one first hand, you will be the envy of the town.
 
everyone i know that has apple stuff has to send it in for one reason or another. 2 days ago my 3 month old ibook g4 started making a super loud buzzing noise out the right speaker and it will not stop for anything. i may be just a little bitter over my own experience, but i don't trust apple. furthermore, don't trust anything you don't build yourself if you want to be truly satisfied.
 
seasponge said:
everyone i know that has apple stuff has to send it in for one reason or another. 2 days ago my 3 month old ibook g4 started making a super loud buzzing noise out the right speaker and it will not stop for anything. i may be just a little bitter over my own experience, but i don't trust apple. furthermore, don't trust anything you don't build yourself if you want to be truly satisfied.
Click to expand...

Actually, I used to work as a tech for a company that specialized in Mac service and repair (quit last month) and most of the laptops that came in were suffering from user abuse rather than random hardware failure. You would not believe how many dropped PowerBooks and iBooks came through that place...and by 'dropped', I don't mean dropped 1 foot onto a table. I'm talking dropped hard enough/from a large enough distance to totally fuck up the plastic(iBook)/aluminum(PB)/titanium(PB) case (depending on model). People seem to aim for the corners or something... lol Anyway, (and this goes as a general rule for all laptops) as a word of caution, do not crack the LCD! It happens to be one of the most expensive parts of a laptop to replace.

As to hardware defects, lets face it, nobody's perfect and, as such, there will always be a few units which develop strange problems (this can be said about any computer manufacturer, really) and, on top of that, the actual manufacturing of a lot of the custom parts for Apple is done by other companies (i.e. CPU by Motorola/IBM, HDD by Seagate/Maxtor/WD/Hitachi, video card by nVidia/ATi but fabbed by TSMC, etc., etc.). Too many people involved to really blame one specific company for a hardware defect but Apple does a pretty good job of taking care of customers who are having problems with their computers (especially if you picked up that AppleCare warranty... If you ever have a hardware problem, it'll pretty much pay for itself the first time. Plus, with AppleCare, you can call Apple and bug them with inane questions as much as you want for 3 years instead of just the usual 90 days :rolleyes: )
 
Apple laptops get hot. yes they don't consume a lot of power and try to avoid running fans, but tell that to the countless powerbook users i've dealt with who have overheating systems.

The iBooks don't seem to be as bad.

The powerbooks are very flimsy. They're well built but the design is shoddy. It's easy to damage the display and they do not take knocks well, unlike some other laptops.

The iBook is also better here.

You're paying a lot of money for a "high end" laptop with a mediocre screen and slower processor. The Pentium M architecture is faster clock for clock and runs at higher clocks. If you do any processor intensive applications you'll notice this.

The iBook is a better value for the money.

If you don't get an iBook I'd suggest looking at an IBM T42p. More durable than the powerbooks, with the very nice Pentium M chips. They don't look at sexy maybe, although some people (including myself) like them better than the powerbooks (I like the iBook better too). It's a different look, they're very utilitarian, and well built. Some people on this forum don't understand how well IBMs actually do hold up, I can tell you I wish I had one because I have friends that do and they put up with a lot of abuse.
 
kubisaw said:
fatbob...so what are u using this for? like what types of applications and such

i still cant believe im being pulled onto the apple bandwagon
Click to expand...

school things, notes in class, a few games here and there.

as for a cheap way to get the apples, i managed to get mine for $2,300. Direct from apple it's about $700 more, but my school had a nice discount
 
I won't try to deter you, though I must link this. Its an option. Though if you want to get an Apple, thats your choice.
 
this is a very dificult choice..

as mentioned above...yes i will be geting the student pricing so atleast that helps with the cost

im still very torn on what to do...any more suggestions would be greatly appreatiated
 
im goin to give the powerbook a demo tomorrow and see how i like it


is it me or is the IBM t42p REALLY expensive
 
lol I can direct u in the software area, its just as easy as pc to find that is. ;)
 
kubisaw said:
im goin to give the powerbook a demo tomorrow and see how i like it


is it me or is the IBM t42p REALLY expensive
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not really any more than the powerbook unless you totally load the thing up. Also you might be able to get an educational discount.
 
emorphien said:
not really any more than the powerbook unless you totally load the thing up. Also you might be able to get an educational discount.
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And if you call IBM directly you can haggle them down even more...
 
pat said:
And if you call IBM directly you can haggle them down even more...
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I called in for academic pricing on a T42 and they actually quoted me higher that the web site, $100 more. When I asked about matching the price the sales person couldn't make any change. :confused:

I too was in between buying a Powerbook or a PC based notebook. When it came down to software and additional cost I decided upon the PC. The Powerbook was about $500 more than a IBM T42, not that big since it does include a DVD burner and extra software. My problem was buying two copies of the software. Even with an academic discount software would total about $700~1000.

Overall I think Powerbooks are awesome, looking into buying one next year or a G5 desktop. :)

Rob
 
kubisaw said:
...my only reservation is the lack of free software..if you know what i mean...
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trust me, youll be able to find free software. i have 3 macs at work and my company wont buy any mac versions of anything so i had to improvise.
 
When it comes to laptops w/ teh works go IBM.

They're not silver and or shiny or anything but frankly, that's because the money is spent on putting together a machine that's a lot more hardy than most of today's portable computers.
That and the fact that they look very professional and run everything from bluetooth to wireless G.

The flashy laptops tend to use less hardy materials to sustain the shine. They all get scratched....with a stationary desktop this is not so muh of a problem. But with a notebook....yeek.
 
There's just as much free software out there for OS X as there is for the varios flavours of linux. Remember, the kernel for the mac os is based on FreeBSD, and it has an implementation of X11 that's rather functional IMHO.
 
awsome stuff guys..unfortunatly i couldnt go demo it today..but i will try in the coming days..
thanks for the help
 
emorphien said:
iBook/IBM or bust
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Man u beat me to it! I cant agree more. but then again im getting a Sony Type-S soon ( have a great deal there )

If games are not concerned, Powerbook/iBook hands down, IMO its way better then PC base notebooks, talk about built quality, and OSX is now base on Unix, not freeBSD anymore, the entire OS been re-writtened. Yes mac could crash, but let say its still extremely stable in normal use (the only time it crash is when im dubbing some tracks off to a 002 and the firewire port unplugged by accident).

anyway, personal pref. really

one more thing, Macs value are ALWAYS there, unlike PCs after 6 months they are some old aged electronics..
 
My 2 cents, as I was in a similar situation:

Last October, I came to the decision of buying a new laptop and I had narrowed it down to two: the (then new) 12inch Powerbook 1gHz and a comparably equipped Thinkpad X31. I went with the Powerbook simply because it was cheaper than the X31 (this was back then, I don't know about the price situation now).

With any laptop, there's good and bad and the Powerbook is no exception. As far as software goes, the ONLY thing I really miss is a good Playstation emulator, but that's pretty much it. There's mac equivalents for pretty much any app you can think of and most of them are free. As far as the OS goes, I would trade XP for OSX any day, I can run the thing for months at a time with no reboots at all.

The unit itself is well built, although I have seen Powerbook latches get borked pretty easily (they look kinda flimsy imo). Other than that, the fit and finish is great.

Heat Issues: Yea it gets hot, if its not well ventilated it gets REALLY hot, but that hasnt really been an issue for me as i usually don't have it on my lap.

My main complaint about my PB is that when I'm running a shitload of apps, it feels sluggish; this may be because of the 4200RPM hd and 768 megs of ram (i'm considering upgrading to 1.2 gigs of RAM). Divx movies run like crap if you play them with a lot of apps running in the background.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my PB, if you've got any questions feel free to shoot em my way.
 
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