Apple laptop people

edbert

Alright, so I want to buy a used Apple laptop. Budget is $500-600 max. I am thinking either a Powerbook G4 or one of the early Macbooks. For those that have or currently own one or the other or both, please chime in. No I don't want a PC laptop, already have one. The wife wants one to use around the house and when she heads out of town.

The only real question I had was can you dual boot XP Pro on a G4? My initial thought is no, but I just thought I would ask anyway.

Thanks!

Airplay355

I don't think so. I think the dual boot ability is a result of the same intel processor architecture being used in the newer macs and PCs. I think OSX had to be redesigned to run on the new intel chips, which is why older programs need to be translated so they can be run on a a newer mac.

I could be wrong, I've only had a laptop for a year and it's a macbook pro with the newer intel chip.

The cheapest you will find the newer laptops is $900 I think (with a $100 educational discount). I saved 200, got an ipod and a printer by using the educational discount. If you want a newer one to dual boot and you can find a kid so you can get the discount it would be worth it to just get a new one I think

bklynNupe

Think about a refurbished MAC from apple.com, they are a real steal. It is akin to buying a pre-owned dealer certified auto, or refurbs from Polk.
If you buying from an individual, I would not pay more than 500 bucks unless the machine is still under a Apple Care warrantee.
Overall they are pretty maintenance free machines if there are not hidden secrets like water damage.

Airplay355

Unfortunately the only refurb macs even a little close to his price range are $950...and at that point you might as well just buy a new one.

edbert

I know, I may just have to wait a while, save a little extra cash and just buy a new one. If I can find a steal on one of the older Macbooks, I might just jump on it, otherwise I will just have to wait and see. If anyone else has any tips feel free to throw them out there.

Thanks!

RutgersFTW

I would save and buy from Apple. I have a Macbook that's ~ a year and a half old and I've blazed through a hard drive and a power supply - both swiftly (less than 24 hours) repaired at no cost to me. My previous iBook G3 lasted 7 years without any problems, so unless I got a lemon I'm concerned that Apple's deal with the intel devil might cost us all in the longrun.

And FYI, the only machines that can run Windows are the intel ones. There was an emulation movement under the old Macs (Virtual PC and SheepShaver) but it was sooooooo slooooooow.

Sami

edbert wrote: »

If anyone else has any tips feel free to throw them out there.

Is there a specific application that is only available in OSX that she wants, or is she just tired of using Windows? If the reason why she wants a Max is that it "just works" (which isn't true BTW), then while you wait give one of the Linux LiveCD's a try on your Windows laptop. It might not be as "sexy" choice as OSX but it's as reliable, well actually in my experience even more reliable, as OSX.

edbert

Not necessarily any apps that she wants or needs because we have most everything like that on the desktop. It is more that she understands it and figured out how to do things on it really easily. She always thought she wanted one (at first because it was pretty) and after using her brothers this past weekend she really wants one because everything "makes sense." This is a huge plus because that means she won't be calling me five times a day wondering how to edit pictures, videos, etc. She even figured out how to change settings for the wireless if need be. I may try the linux LiveCD on the windows laptop anyway. It's an older Dell with a clean XP Pro install. It would be a fun machine to play with since I have wanted to try out Linux but just never had a spare machine to try it on. Any tips on good websites to reference this little side project?

Sami

It depends on whether you want to keep the Windows laptop as-is, or are willing to spare some drive space to Linux install? A LiveCD will run slower as it is running from the CD drive but it won't change anything on your system, just take the CD out and boot to Windows as you did before.

I found the Mac to be a pain to use, maybe that's because I am so used to doing things other way, but once I got to terminal screen everything changed. OSX definitely is a Unix based OS, the same underlying services are also in use on Linux. Samba, ssh, file system, you'll find them all there. What you don't find is the Apple GUI configuration and some proprietary applications but the base is the same. Whether the highly configurable environment is a downfall or a benefit depends on the end user.

There are plenty of distributions that contain all you need. If you want a distro that has all the latest available to it easily, Ubuntu probably is the way to go. If you want everything on one install without needing to do software installs (very easy now with automatic installs from predefined repositories), CentOS DVD download maybe but a lot of the latest and greatest software needs to be compiled for it from source code. Different end users, others value the cutting edge software, others value the knowledge their software is stable and established before it's put into the package.

edbert

I would probably just put it straight onto the hard drive. I just use it for web browsing and not much else. I still have the XP disk I can use if I need to put it back the way it was. I may be hitting you up on PM when I get back home and have some extra time to devote to this. Thanks for the info.

mantis

Sami wrote: »

Is there a specific application that is only available in OSX that she wants, or is she just tired of using Windows? If the reason why she wants a Max is that it "just works" (which isn't true BTW), then while you wait give one of the Linux LiveCD's a try on your Windows laptop. It might not be as "sexy" choice as OSX but it's as reliable, well actually in my experience even more reliable, as OSX.

I own 3 Mac computers and 2 Pc Windows machines. Both Windows machines have mad problem while ALL the Mac computers JUST WORK. I have never had a single hick up or anything. Imac 24 inch , Mac book Pro and a Mac mini.
All computer also run Windows xp on Bootcamp and it runs better then both Actual windows pc computers.

Mac owner for life.

Dan

Sami

The whole JUST WORKS is bogus, Mac's have their share of problems as well. For example trying to connect my friends Mac to a samba server, entered the wrong address and that put the laptop into a state where a reboot was the only option. Maybe it would have recovered by itself in a week or two but practically reboot was the only option. That's just an example, it's not the exception to a rule.

There is no such thing as an OS (for desktop) that JUST WORKS, and if there was, Linux or FreeBSD would be the closest things. If your benchmark is Windows, well, even then it does not make it true.

ZOOPDOOP22

If you can wait until AFTER macworld which I think is January 5th-8th.

It only makes sense to.

John30_30

edbert wrote: »

Alright, so I want to buy a used Apple laptop. Budget is $500-600 max. I am thinking either a Powerbook G4 or one of the early Macbooks. For those that have or currently own one or the other or both, please chime in. No I don't want a PC laptop, already have one. The wife wants one to use around the house and when she heads out of town.

The only real question I had was can you dual boot XP Pro on a G4? My initial thought is no, but I just thought I would ask anyway.

Thanks!

That would have been Craigslist the past month. Maybe some still, if you know what you're looking for. Otherwise, no. You can buy new, decent WinTel laptops for that, not Macs.
The ones made in the last 3 or so + years with Intel duallies on them run Windows also.

p.s. be careful of scammers with that sort of item. Best if in your area.

ZOOPDOOP22

There are various rumors of an apple netbook. Just rumors.. I had heard rumors of an aluminum macbook nearly 3 product cycles before it came out.

markmarc

Dual booting requires an Intel processor. If you can boost up your budget a couple of hundred you can get a nice refurb MacBook. That is what I'll be buying come summertime.

I live in both computer worlds, Wintel at work and Mac at home. In all honesty, I'm far more efficient time-wise on a Mac. However, when it comes to platform choice it truly depends on the software you use.

mantis

I think you should save more money and get the new Macbook . It's a fantastic machine and very powerful. It's new built in video card is awesome. I use it in my laptop most of the time(I have the macbook Pro and turn off my 2nd video card for better battery life).
It's worth the extra money to get the new one not to mention the ease of running Windows xp with bootcamp.

spwuinmk67

You could also run any windows programs you need in a program like vmfusion. it creates a virtual machine. you can run it as a program, fullscreen so you dont think your using the mac portion, or unity so you get the dock and start menu. Its a great program, i use it almost everyday. I vote for the new macbooks, or even the ones just before this gen, i think they still sell the white model through apple.

Sami

edbert wrote: »

I would probably just put it straight onto the hard drive. I just use it for web browsing and not much else. I still have the XP disk I can use if I need to put it back the way it was. I may be hitting you up on PM when I get back home and have some extra time to devote to this. Thanks for the info.

Just FYI...

I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my friends computer. During installation it asks a few questions (keyboard, language, hard drive partitioning etc.) just like Windows. After it was done, all the peripherals that were plugged in worked out of the box (printer, digital camera, USB hard drive). Only things that did not work were the memory card readers built-in. It's a Sony Vaio and Sony has not released driver source for them so nobody has been able to write Linux drivers for them.

She's not a computer person and asked me where she could find things. "Oh, that easy". OpenOffice (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) is installed by default. Ubuntu prompts you to update to new software versions, and there is a software add/remove application so you can easily add new applications that are in the repositories. That's one cool thing about Linux, is that most applications are found there so you don't really have to search stuff on the web. Windows does not have it, but I'm sure Apple has their own.

The GUI might require a little tinkering to suit personal taste but overall it is an easy install process. Linux distros have come to a point where installation is as easy as Windows. Both might have problems to find suitable driver (getting tinier all the time), Apple does not have that problem of course on the integrated hardware side but I think it's not a real advantage if you're considering buying new a computer. All have the same problem with peripherals.

edbert

Thanks for the tips everyone!