iBook? TiBook?

I switched from my work-provided Toshiba to a self-provided iBook in February. I bought it from a nice place [Microcenter] that promised a full refund if I used it for 2 weeks and didn’t like it.

After two days, I was sold. The built-in applications, like iTunes, iPhoto, even Stickies, truly rocked. My existing optical Intellimouse worked. The iBook autodetected the wireless network, both for home and office. My email worked just fine. My MS Office documents imported cleanly. Everything “just worked.”

And when I did feel like getting my hands dirty, there was a whole world of UNIX apps I could download and work with, including a lot of my old Linux favorites, like xchat, wget, nmap, and vi.

Even better, I had a CD burner AND a DVD drive, which proved a big hit with coworkers.

Over the next few weeks I found that of all the apps I had used on my PC laptop, I found that there were either Mac versions, or Mac applications that had similar functionality. The one application that was Windows-only, a very specialized network circuit-testing app called REACT, ran quite well under a VirtualPC-emulated copy of Windows 98. [Although it was quite disturbing to hear the Win98 startup sound coming from my wonderful iBook].

I’ve since replaced my home workstation with an older 500Mhz G4 Server. That machine illustrates another interesting point about Macs: they retain their value. The server originally sold for about $5000 in 1999, and today would sell on ebay for about $1600. [Try selling similarly-priced 4 year old PC on ebay with hopes of reclaiming a third of its value.]

The main decision-making point for buying an iBook versus buying a TiBook is: what will you use the laptop for?

If you’re planning to do intensive graphic design work, such as large amounts of 3D modelling, Photoshop, or video editing, buy the TiBook.

If all you’re really going to do is browse the web, read email, play MP3s, burn CDs, watch DVDs, and do general office-suite paperwork, you should buy the iBook and spend the $2k you saved on an iPod and lots of carrots. If you like carrots, of course.

If you decide on the iBook, be sure to max out the RAM [buy it from Micron.com], and buy an Airport card. With a 6 hour battery life, the iBook makes wireless connectivity bliss.

Summary: Macs are good. TiBooks are good. iBooks are good and cheap.