unraveled

Enter the iBook

Nathan Torkington wrote a wonderful little article about his first encounter with his new iBook over at O’Reilly Network. To summarize the article: it Just Worked.

I plugged in the digital video camera (editing be damned!) and it Just Worked. I built wget and it Just Worked. I downloaded VM and it Just Worked. I plugged in a three-button mouse and it Just Worked.

I came to realize something: I’d been with Microsoft for so long, who are complacent and hoard their customers, that I’d forgotten what it’s like to use an operating system built by people who want it to cooperate with the rest of the world. It’s good.

I’m waiting anxiously for the MWNY keynote to see if Apple is doing anything with their iBook line. Regardless of what Jobs announces, I’ll be buying one sometime in the next month or two.

Comments

  1. Come on over to the Apple side of the world the water is just fine and you won’t feel like your are drowning as many do in the rough and murky MS pond. The Mac actually lets you get work done.

    I completely agree with the issues you have had with the auto update from MS. Joy’s Win98 box the auto update has a bug and crashes her system. Trying to go around the auto part of the update process will just lock her system. These are features I really could do without.

    Thanks for this write-up.

    vanderwal on 16 Jul 02

  2. I received a 12.1 inch/Combo drive iBook for an early birthday present and it has barely let my side since then. Within days I had everything running exactly the way that I wanted and was using and abusing OS X’s built in support for PHP, MYSQL, and Perl. I have loved evry minute of it.

    In addition, I use the iBook as my primary computer and although the scren size may seem to small it is bright, and brilliant, and everything you could ask for. Very easy on the eyes.

    Charles Crabtree on 16 Jul 02

  3. I am also thinking of buying an iBook and waiting for MWNY Keynote. But I still doubt between an iBook and a windows laptop. Because of the following things:

    - The speed of the iBook, I am not sure it’s as fast as an windows laptop.
    - I have to work in a windows environment, I don’t know if the iBook fill work properly
    - I gonna use it as my primary machine, so I don’t know if the screen 12.1 would be enough (I don’t like the 14.1)

    If you know some answers to my doubts I would like to here them.

    Niels

    Niels Koekkoek on 16 Jul 02

  4. Yes, I was sad that Apple didn’t announce any iBook updates, however I’m still very interested in purchasing one. My only hesitation is the G3 processor. I’ve heard that a G4 is required to keep OS X running smoothly. Any thoughts on this?

    Joshua on 17 Jul 02

  5. Joshua, I installed OS X on my Blue and White 300 MhZ G3 and it was much slower than my 400 MhZ G4, which I use as my primary computer. I’ve seen speed comparisons before in MacWorld, testing G3’s versus G4’s at doing stuff like open Word documents, use Gaussian Blur in PhotoShop. G4’s definitely take advantage of the Velocity Engine with certain applications like Photoshop and it’s a difference I think you can feel in processing time after a while.

    michael on 17 Jul 02

  6. Charles,

    Congratulations with your new iBook. What kind of computer did you used before?

    Joshua,

    Too bad, no iBook update:-(

    Niels Koekkoek on 17 Jul 02

  7. Joshua,

    Here the same hesitations, the g3 processor. I am doubting about an iBook and a Windows laptop.
    I don’t know why but I have the feeling that a windows laptop is much quicker than an iBook g3.

    Niels Koekkoek on 18 Jul 02

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