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Apple Businesses

Do Apple iBooks Make Good Geek Laptops? 151

Posted by Cliff from the slashdot-opinions-solicited dept.
Curious Geek asks: "I'm in the market for a good, cheap laptop. Primarily I'm looking for something that is relatively rugged, has a LONG batter life, and that is *nix friendly. I'd primarily use it for Perl, PHP and Java coding either on client sites, in front of the TV, or on the train. It would also be nice if I could run dummy websites from it and let it take care of customer invoicing (again, this is all going to be Perl/PHP/Apache stuff) At the moment, the best bet looks like an apple iBook, it has a 5 hour battery life, ships with OS X (although I could use mac linux or YDL) and is rugged enough that loads of spotty yoofs have been given them at school. It also has the ability to house an internal wireless LAN card, which is pretty groovy. Can anybody recommend anything better? My price range is limited ~$1400 USD. I know that for that price I could get an X86 laptop - but do any of these have a battery life as good as the iBook?"
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Do Apple iBooks Make Good Geek Laptops? More

Do Apple iBooks Make Good Geek Laptops?

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  • Kinda slow.. (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 )
    My friend has an iBook and I found it to be pretty slow. I didn't run any benchmarks or anything, but it definitely "felt" slower than my 400mhz celeron vaio in OSX, and that thing cost only $1200 three years ago!

    Also, ask around to see what the actual battery life of any laptop you buy is. The advertised times are sometimes measured under pretty unlikely circumstances..

    • Re:Kinda slow.. (Score:2, Informative)

      by joel8x ( 324102 )
      I have a 500 MHz iBook, and the thing zips - its all about how you set it up and care for it. If your a geek, you will tweak OS X to do your bidding, which with each update gets faster and faster (with a huge speed bump comming with Jaguar). Also, the current lineup has a faster bus and faster processors which really add to zippyness (the 600MHz/100bus models are up to 30% faster than the 500's). RAM is yet another issue - more = faster (duh).

      Overall I have had my iBook for a little more than a year and I forsee another 2-3 years of solid performance before I need to upgrade it. It was worth every penny!

  • Affirmative (Score:5, Insightful)

    by psyconaut ( 228947 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @07:49PM (#3774620)
    I bought a G4 TiBook a few months back for similar reasons. I'm a UNIX guy who occassionally does some stuff in Dreamweaver or Photoshop.

    A G4 and MacOS/X have served me well. I would suspect that an iBook will serve you equally well (the 12" version is heavily used by some road warrior journalists I use, they love the battery life, size and ease of use).

    Oh, and MacOS/X has Perl, PHP and Apache already installed...which is kinda nice (although many will install later versions themselves, I'm sure).

    Enjoy.

    -psyconaut

    P.S: Previously I had a Sony VAIO XG-19...which was rather expensive and elaborate at the time of purchase. I'd say I like the Powerbook more.

  • iBook2 running linux (Score:5, Informative)

    by ChadN ( 21033 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @07:57PM (#3774708)
    I use my iBook2 a lot, running Linux. I carry it around lots of places. It is lite, durable, QUIET! (no fan, and a quiet drive); in short a very good geek computer for a low budget.

    You could pick the older model up (say 500 Mhz, ATI Rage Pro; not Radeon) for a decent price, I bet. I bought a carry sleeve from Waterfield Designs (www.sfbags.com) that keeps it very safe in my backpack. I find it feels a bit more rugged than the HP or Compaqs in a similar price range (but less than the heavier Thinkpads, which I used to have)

    OSX, formatted with HFS+, I hear is pretty fast if you get the latest versions (online update). I use Debian Linux on it, and am not lacking any features (plus I get ext3, which is fast and I can just poweroff in a pinch)

    Battery is okay, but only if you turn down the screen brightness, and make some tunings to the drive spin down (under Linux, probably is better under OS X on batteries). I can get four hours out of it fairly easy.
    • What do you mean you "use Debian Linux" on it? Do you have it in a multiboot configuration?
      • I can tell you what he means - he is running the Operating System known as Debian GNU/Linux [debian.org].

        Fairly simple, eh?

        As for whether he's got it in a multiboot configuration (by that I assume you mean dual-boot)... why would that matter? Obviously I don't know, so you'll have to wait for him to reply...
        • Fairly simple, eh?

          Oh, go ahead and patronize me.

          The reason for my confusion was the fact that he made as many references to OS X as he did. The first one was talking about the speed with formatting the drive as HFS+. I assumed that he was advocating OS X as the primary operating system. Then later he talked about running Debian as the primary. Hence the confusion.

          I assume you mean dual-boot

          No, I actually meant multi-boot. No reason to restrict him to only two OSes. Especially considering that OS X and OS 9 can be booted separately on most machines.
          • Fine then. You've made your point. I didn't realize you could dual-boot more than one MacOS at once (I thought only OS X could run OS 9 in "Classic" mode, rather than boot them separately). Considering that, it's probably a multi-boot setup.
          • Okay, I'll clear that up. The version I have has a 15 gig drive (small, but enough for now). I have it split in half; one half being a Debian partition, the other a MacOS X partition. Basically, when I got it, I wasn't sure which I'd use more, so I can boot into either. I do NOT have OS 9 installed (and thus I opted for the UFS file system for Mac OS X, which I've learned is slower than the HFS+ filesystem, at least as implemented)

            I personally use Debian about 100% of the time; I just have it all set up the way I like things, and haven't had time to get into OS X. The original poster was asking about OS X, so that is why I talked about it more. But I'd suggest that people just use what they like; OS X seems to have a lot of potential.
            • Oh, one more thing. I use an external USB mouse with my iBook, which has three buttons and a wheel. It works fine under both MacOS X (where the extra buttons give context specific menus, etc.) and Debian. I find this much nicer than the trackpad/single button that comes built in; but I've never really liked any other pointing device than a mouse with at least two buttons. :)
            • Thanks for the details...

  • iBook = so-so (Score:2, Informative)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 )
    The iBook has a few nice features, but lacks a little oomph. I wouldn't consider them as useful as an X86 laptop of the same price.

    However, the Powerbooks are really quite nice. They are fast enough to run most useful programs, have good styling, are rugged, get good battery life, and generally are a seamless computer solution. An out-of-box Powerbook is a computer that you can use and not worry too much about whether it will work when you push the power button. I've found that Powerbooks are pretty bug-free on hibernate and suspend, something I haven't found in an X86 yet. It's nice to be able to close the computer, pick it up, and go. Open it again, and no bluescreen.

    If you are going for cheap, I think you'd get more bang for your buck out of an X86. If you are willing to spend extra, the Powerbook's extra features are well worth it.
    • You may THINK the powerbooks are rugged...but I can tell you straight out that they are by far the most delicate laptops I've ever used. My powerbook G4 550 has had its LCD replaced TWICE (under warranty) due to the poor/weak hinges...and it's only seven months old. I'm somewhat hard on it, but I take good care of it. It stays in a padded hard shell (tom bihn) within an sfbags padded sleeve within a laptop-specific backpack.

      Just because it has a titanium shell does NOT make it durable...much of it is made of cheap plastic that cracks and chips very easily.

      FWIW, I absolutely love my powerbook, but there's no denying the build quality is quite poor. In addition to those points, the internal 802.11b reception is appalling, and the keys touch the LCD when the lid is closed...inevitably scratching the display if you don't have a "screen protector". I'm not the only one with these complaints, just check powerpage.org and Apple's own support forums. I hear the iBooks are far more durable, so I'd stick with that.

      In any case, I'd recommend waiting a couple of weeks until Macworld Expo NY to see what Apple is gonna bring us next. If anything, you might find new pricing on the iBooks...
      • This has apparently been fixed in newer versions of the PowerBook. The problem doesn't appear if you use a case with some breathing room in it (that doesn't hug the PowerBook tightly). I thought the problem was nonsense until I decided to buy a chic new case for my PowerBook; the problem came up immediately and I switched back to my old, ugly case without further trouble.

        I've found that simply raising my AirPort base station as high as I can get it (in my case, on top of my PowerMac G4, which sits on top of my desk) helped reception enormously.

        I love my PowerBook G4/400, although I periodically think about replacing it with a newer model. I would certainly not replace it with an iBook since I love the higer resolution screen.

        Note that you can get reconditioned TiBooks for about the price of a new iBook, and that might be worth thinking about for many people.

        D
        • I'm curious...which problem do you claim is due to a tight case? The hinge cracking? How would a tight case relate to hinge problems? For example, the last time the hinge broke, the right hinge actually seized, causing the contact point with the LCD to break off part of the LCD casing when I was closing it with both hands. I believe this was caused by the hinge being too tight, and the lubrication eventually wearing out. I came to this realization after stuying it for a while. I noticed that the hinge had been turning yellow, but I just thought it was cheap paint. Turns out, it was the hinge grease. At a certain point, the friction became too much for the flimsy contact to maintain structural integrity. I did notice that the hinge seemed to get a little tighter with usage, but it wasn't THAT noticeable...it's not like I had to fight it to close it.

          My current case it actually pretty tight. I assumed that was a GOOD thing since it will a) keep the lid from jostling while latched (the filmsy latch releases easily and doesn't keep the lid tightly sealed), and b) keep the paint from rubbing off since it can't move around within the bag. The Tom Bihn shell is suspended, so the unit never gets banged on an edge.

    • Re:iBook = so-so (Score:3, Informative)

      by g4dget ( 579145 )
      I own a Ti PowerBook and have used iBooks. I think the polycarbonate on the iBook is actually more rugged than the thin titanium casing on the PowerBook.
      • I wouldn't know, I've never used a titanium Powerbook.

        For the Anonymous Coward above, by "seamless" I meant "worrying about practically nothing." Since Apple make the OS and hardware, it's more of a single piece of equipment. As much as I like PC's, the architecture sometimes shows stitches like Frankenstein's monster.
  • I'm an admitted Mac OS X freak, but I'd say the response should depend on what you need to do. If you need a few commercial-gui apps that're available for OS X and the rest is Unix-stuff, then an iBook with OS X will be just fine.
    Then again, if all you're doing is Unixy stuff, Linux still is appreciably faster than Darwin on the same machine.
    Either way, the iBook is a serious machine; it will do the job pretty well.

  • Powerbooks and Ibooks are great but.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Zorton ( 2520 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @08:32PM (#3775008)
    They tend to be troublesome with support. I came from the x86 world and jumped into a wallstreet g3 powerbook. After installing various forms of linux and bsd onto it I discovered the openfirmware version so old I would not be able to use some of the nicer booters. Add into that a host of other hardware problems and i've found myself serverly dischanted.

    What enchanted me was the support services that apple has avaiable if you can get to them. My case and point: The holly service manaul

    What a great thing! This little manaual not only told me of the two little release buttons that gave access to most everything one would have to upgrade or replace (modem, memeory, hd, even the CPU). But also told me how to dig even deeper while making sure I didn't make obvious mistakes (don't press here you will break a tab).

    The trouble with the service manauls is the access. Apple seems to only want service centers to have access, so you end up having to dig around for a long time on their ftp sites in order to get them. Perhaps the idea is if you can't find the service manaul on a resonably oganized ftp site then perhaps you shouldn't be ripping into a laptop anytime soon.

    The rest of apple support kinda stinks (IMHO) however. Hardware problems such as mine where difficult to pin point. The people I talked to for support spent a large amount of time working with me to find if the problem was software or hardware related. And when we did discover hardware related troubles they where reluctant to alow me to preform the work myself asking me to send in my machine to a service center.

    Bottom line: the little machines are some of the best laptops out there. With great aftermarket support and fairly good apple service I would feel fine dumping 2 grand into a new one if I had it. In a perfect world I would ask for more nerd support, but hey if your gearing your company towards other things perhaps you don't have time to listen to a nerd.

    z.

    service manual depo: http://home.wanadoo.nl/manual.man/manuals.html

  • Laptop with 3 mouse buttons? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @08:37PM (#3775051) Homepage Journal
    Personally, I'm addicted to using three mouse buttons. The middle button opens links in new windows, pastes the copy buffer, and so forth.

    Do any laptops come with three mouse buttons?

    Are the Apple laptops stuck with only one button like their desktop mice?
    • get an usb mouse (a logitech works fine and so does MS's) and shut up. Or learn the short-cuts keys.

      Also when you use XFree86 on Mac OS X it already knows about the other mouse buttons (and the scroller). In fact most programs already know how to handle the scroll mouse button.
      • Shortcut keys are not proper buttons, and this is a laptop so for much of the time an external mouse is not an option. This is a real and valid concern, and telling someone to "shut up" doesn't adress it in anyway. There are distinct advantages to productivity from using more buttons.

        So yes it is a valid concern and yes you will almost certainly be clicking on the right side of the single mousebutton as long as you still use other systems. It is however liveable, at least in apps designed with one mouse button in mind.
    • Apple computers come with a one-button mouse, but you can always buy another mouse or trackball or whatever. I've purchased several PCs in my time, and I've never used the mouse that they've come with, so why should it be any different with a Mac?
      • The difference is that with a laptop, you don't want to have to take extra accessories with you. I have no problem replacing the mouse on a desktop, but it's rather tricky to swap out the built-in mouse on a laptop.

        At least if you have two buttons, you can emulate 3 buttons and click both buttons to get the middle button. That's not optimal, and you have problems with misclicks when doing that, but you can't even do that with only one button.
    • this is one of the biggest geek drawback for apple laptops if you intend to be using X11 apps. to find out how annoying it is, map all of your current mouse buttons to button_1 and see how well you survive.

      i sure wish apple would put 2 or 3 button pads on their laptops, they could leave them configured to all act as the same button for dummies by default.
      • Or if Apple wants to be really clever, they could install three buttons, but have single piece of plastic over them. People like us could then replace the big button with three separate buttons and adjust the driver to distinguish between them.

        I've never seen a three-button mouse on an x86 laptop. If someone made one, be it Apple, IBM, or Dell, they would find a burst of popularity from the Unix crowd.
        • Many IBM Stinkpads have three buttons -- high end and low end models. You get two red buttons and a big blue button under them.

          • I'm typing this on a IBM T20 laptop with 3 buttons and a point stick.
            The third button is mapped as , well, a third button, but when you click and drag vertically with it, it acts like a mouse wheel.
            My Tadpole Sparkbook has one of those IBM keyboards with 3 buttons and a point stick as well.
      • this is one of the biggest geek drawback for apple laptops if you intend to be using X11 apps

        Forget X11 -- MacOS has been a two button OS for years now, since contextual menus came out in, what was it, 8.0? I need to plug in a mouse to use Word or Excel comfortably. I don't understand how users live with the standard mice.

        That said, I loooove my TiBook. OS X or Yellow Dog, it's the best Unix laptop I could have bought.

        Girlfriend: Sometimes I think you love that computer more than me.
        Dilbert: I do not love you more than this computer.
        Dilbert thinks: Please don't ask me about the laptop.
        Girlfriend: This computer...?

    • Sony (Score:2)

      by Matts ( 1628 )
      All Sony's new laptops have three buttons - well actually two and the scroll wheel which you can press in (acts as middle button).
    • My powerbook only has one mouse button. Not a problem though, there are lots of extra modifier keys next to the sapcebar on the right, and I've mapped two of those as mouse buttons. It's actually quite useable. I think that's a better location for the extra buttons anyway, because I only have one thumb.

      Also, I tend to use an external mouse when I'm at a desk, because I really dislike trackpads when doing delicate work. There are lots of great 3 button USB mice out there.
    • Thanks to the wonder of USB, you can use any USB mouse around (well, I've tried three or four) on an Apple. I have a Logitech optical, which I love for the wheel (yes, most OS X applications handle the wheel) and the good tracking. However, I think the LED sucks down the juice so I don't use an external mouse when I'm on batteries. When you're not using the external mouse, there are lots of modifier keys on the keyboard.

      As for the original question, I am doing development for my hobby application (Postgres, perl and apache) and for my work (java and Postgres) on the laptop. It's great to be able to move around the house and sit where I want to instead of at the computer desk all the time. When I'm hooked up to the network, I can even NFS mount my Linux home directory on the laptop and work on it directly instead of sshing files back and forth.

  • I just got a new sager laptop from powernotebooks.com and have been very impressed. One of the principle things that I was shopping for is a 5 hour battery life -- I got it. This thing runs for well over five hours, and its got integral support for the second monitor (dual/head esque, mirroring, or display on one or the other.) I quite like it.

    You can also grab the powernotebook computers without paying the Microsoft Tax. (They sell them clean.)

    -Brian
    • Which one did you get? Did you get the Radeon working at high-res under Linux? What sort of built-in Ethernet do they use? Can you talk to the DVD-RW under Linux?
      • I got the S4250-D It has a CD/DVD-RW (And I haven't tested the linux part out (Unfortunatly, I reserve linux for server use [where debian just rules]). Its got a REALTek 8139 "Fast Ethernet." It seems to play nicly with others, so I can't complain. (I don't like talking about Radeons...)
  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to get a PowerBook to get a (single) PCMCIA slot?
    • Thats right, but why would you want a PCMCIA slot? Everything I ever used in one--ethernet, modem,firewire card--is built-in to the iBook. I can see there being other things but I gather the people concerned with such obscure items aren't the ones the iBook is designed for.
      • I have an (old) digital camera that uses CompactFlash cards. It's pretty painless to pop out the CF card, throw it into a tiny little PC Card adapter, and shove it into the side of my notebook. Sure, I could buy a USB CF reader in a pinch (which I might want to do eventually anyway, since I don't use my ancient notebook as much as I once did).

        I guess mac users were never fans of upgradability anyway.

        • I guess mac users were never fans of upgradability anyway.
          Wrong. Nothing about my Mac has every kept me from upgrading it.

          Nice troll, though.

          Is plugging in a PC card really considered "upgrading"?

          • Is plugging in a PC card really considered "upgrading"?

            If it didn't come with the computer, it's an upgrade.

            Personally, I don't think the lack of PCMCIA slots is a big deal on the iBook. The single mouse button is what keeps me away.

            • I use Linux on my iBook. With no external mouse. Yet, I get along fine. What is my secret? I have the right Command key mapped to the middle button, and the enter key by the arrow d-pad mapped to be the right mouse button. No problem there.

              You can always use an external mouse too. I have a decent three button (no scroll-wheel, thank god) Sun mouse, but haven't bothered to figure out how to get it working in X. Haven't felt the need to find out.

      • The lack of DB9 serial port kills the iBook for me, and you can't add one with the non-exsistant PCMCIA. I'm sure there's a USB dongle to DB9 serial that would work fine, but I'm too lazy to dink around.

        Otherwise, a fine and well made laptop.

    • So that I can use reasonably secure (i.e., LEAP-enabled) 802.11b with a Cisco Aironet card, rather than Apple's ass-open Airport stuff, heh.

  • Definitely recommended... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ZxCv ( 6138 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @08:51PM (#3775156) Homepage
    I've got the iBook 600 (384/20G/12.1/DVD-CDRW/Airport), and I would definitely recommended one of these for what you want. When I initially bought mine, I got it for mainly the same reasons: small and light, rugged, plenty of features. I was also interested in OS X, but not ready to commit--the fact that I could use Debian was the only thing that cinched the purchase for me. When I received it, I reformatted, installing Debian alongside OS 9 and OS X. For the first couple months or so, I used Linux quite a bit, but recently, I reformatted and went all OS X. This is because OS X is fast and stable enough now, and any software I ever used on Linux could be used, all in a much nicer GUI than Linux ever saw. Obviously, the iBook isn't for everyone, but your needs sound rather similar to mine, and I have been nothing but happy with my iBook in the 4 months or so that I've owned it.
  • Itronix GoBook Max [itronix.com]

    Field Pack [dolch.com]

    Both of these claim to have extreme battery life times and since they are marketed more towards military applications, they are pretty rugged. I mean, come on, check out Itronix's quote:
    We have teamed with select systems integrators to enable you to deploy a solution right now for border security, first responder teams, bio-terrorism response teams, and network infrastructure.
    . . .if that doesn't just scream gimmegimmegimme, I don't know what does. Your nation might *need* you while you are on that train. You could be ready.
    The FieldPac looks pretty tough, too. . . think about it, you are on that train and some thug demands your money and you can reach down, pat the case and say "Don't make me use this . . ."

    Seriously though, the app type stuff you mentioned could probably be done on most any semi-recent laptop (P2-233 would probably suffice) and most of the consumer laptops are going to have fluff (like *sound* who needs *that*?) that could dimish your battery run time (somewhat). If you really want long battery life, hunt around in the gear aimed towards outdoors work (again though, they are probably outside the 1400 buck price range).
  • As for web development, I find OSX to be the perfect OS.

    I can edit the source files in my perferred text editor (most *nix editors have been ported), then save it, and view it in Mozilla which invokes Apache, PHP, and MySQL (PostgreSQL also works) to serve the page.

    I use a 400mhz G4 tower, which should be about as fast as the new iBooks. I find the speed more then adaquate. Photoshop even runs with all that server software running in the background.

    If only the thing had 2 mouse buttons!!
    • If only the thing had 2 mouse buttons!!

      Umm, just buy one - MacAlly mice work quite well in OS X and you'll be surprised that the right button is very functional as soon as you plug it in.

  • They rock! (Score:5, Informative)

    by nebbian ( 564148 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @09:11PM (#3775321) Homepage Journal
    I've got a 600 MHz iBook, and put simply it's the best system for me that exists now. I get 4 hours battery life, and it's fast, stable, and easy to use.

    I also have a toshiba notebook running linux, and with the iBook on my lap sitting on the couch I can hear the toshiba's cooling fan start up from 4 metres away. The iBook is quiet as a mouse.

    It's funny, when I got the toshiba/Redhat system I used it all the time, but now there's simply no point anymore. I use it for the parallel port and that's it.

    OK, compare the following features:
    • Instant sleep and wake up, by opening/closing the lid: You might poo-poo this, but it really does make a difference. No 'hibernate', no 'restoring from HD', nothing. Open the lid, and go. Close the lid when you're done. My last uptime was for a month, and it only stopped because I updated the OS!
    • Emacs key bindings in just about every application. Ctrl-k kills the current line in Mail, Omniweb, BBedit, Emacs, everything.
    • Global preferences that actually affect the thing they're supposed to affect: Put it this way, I still haven't been able to figure out how to change the time in linux, and get the laptop to remember it. It shouldn't have to be that hard.

    There are a bajillion other little things that make the iBook better than anything else on the market (except perhaps the TiBook), and they all add up. Honestly, once you've started using OS X everything else feels like it's stuck in the 80's, including the winNT/98/2k machines I have to work on 8 hours a day.

    Hope this helps!
    • Setting the date on Linux (or any other pltform that uses a GNU-like date (1) command) isn't hard. As root, just do:

      date -s "string"

      Where string is a date in the same format as date outputs by default (you can use different formats, but that's the most straightforward).
      • This counts on your operating system to update the hardware clock from the system clock as you bring your machine down. Debian has a hwclock --systohc (and you have to mind whether your hwclock is in utc) in the shutdown scripts, I don't know if all others would.

  • Eye the Book. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Big Sean O ( 317186 ) on Wednesday June 26, 2002 @09:19PM (#3775377)
    We have two iBooks in the "Casa de Officemonkey" and we've been very happy with them.

    Hardware

    Mrs. Officemonkey runs an older clamshell tangerine iBook running Mac OS 9.2. Her battery is good for ~4 hours per charge.

    I have a newish iBook (tail end of 2001) in the snowcase. Sadly my battery is good for only 3.5 hours. It runs Mac OS X and does most of what you're asking about.

    We both use Airport to connect to a base station that is hooked up to our DSL modem. The chargers for the iBooks are "Yo-Yo's", so the cords wrap up pretty neatly. I'm told the new chargers are even more compact.

    I have big ham fingers, but I like the keyboard on my iBook. My keyboard features an inverted-T cursor pad on the right-hand side which also maps to pgup, pgdn, home, and end.

    My iBook is smaller, slimmer, and lighter compared to my 2-year old Compaq Armada laptop, but the iBook doesn't have a floppy drive, infrared port, or card slots. It also gets pretty durned hot.

    The one-button trackpad has my vote for the lamest Apple feature holdout. I'd also like a bigger screen, but I was cheap (I bought the system on clearance for $999).

    All in all, I like the new iBook's hardware as much, or better than any laptop I've ever used. It reminds me of my Palm V.

    Software

    If you're interested in web development, Mac OS X is a good platform, but there are a few caveats...

    Mark Liyanage [entropy.ch] packages PHP and MySQL, and Fink [sf.net] does a really good job of making a whole lot of *nix-y things available in Debian-like packages. Between these two sites you should be able to equip your iBook with the necessary tools.

    Also, Mac OS X has some unusual directory conventions and the Apache configuration file is a little non-standard. The usual caveats about mucking with the configuration file apply, but if you're a novice with Apache, you'll have a steeper learning curve.

    I think BBEdit [bbedit.com] is the best text editor for the mac. I use it to write HTML and Python scripts. It checks and colorizes syntax and you can use regular expressions for search and replace. I'm usually quite cheap about commercial software, but BBEdit is worth buying.

    Mail.app does a good job with e-mail and if you're on a low-Microsoft diet, you can dump Internet Explorer and download Mozilla or OmniWeb. Appleworks (which comes with the iBook) is a 'good enough' office suite and my experience with the demo of Microsoft Office is that it is very very good (but not necessary for my home machine thanks to having a Wintel machine at work).

    Don't worry about file formats between platforms. Virtually all software that runs on both Mac OS and Windows will use the same file format. The only notable exception is the line-endings on text files (I eliminated the problem by changing the default options in BBEdit).

    Mac OS X application development is taking off and you can run most of the command-line tools you're used to. You can also install the X Windows System and run the Gimp, Xemacs, or whatever.

    The Verdict

    Even if you get a low-end iBook, you'll get the second-most happening *nix on the planet, solid hardware, and good battery life. Everything works right out of the box and, feature for feature, the iBook is comparable in price to other major manufactuers.
  • All the places you listed should have outlets to plug in: trains, client sites, living room. What's the need for a long battery life.
  • small, light, amazing battery life, awesome screen (1280x768), includes a cd-rw/dvd combo drive. check their website. slightly over your price range starting at around $1449 but worth it for a machine that'll you'll enjoy for several years.
  • What sold me was using one at Macworld NY last year - I ordered one as soon as I got home. Go to your nearest Apple store if you live near one and give it a test ride (don't go to CompUSA - their display is locked down and usually destroyed somehow - you won't get the total feel for it). Its like a significant other - if its right for you you'll know right away.

  • Can anyone tell me what the effects of running a darwin system on the iBook would be? (dual-booting)

    I would expect that avoiding the GUI would improve your battery life.
    Does darwin have proper power management?
    Does apple's JDK run under darwin?

    I'm thinking about getting an iBook, and most of what I need it for could be done entirely in on a command line. Is darwin useful enough, and does it give better battery life?

    • You don't really need to dual boot to use Darwin. Since it is the foundation of OS X, you can just boot into single-user mode (no GUI), and you'll effectively have Darwin (and save battery life).

      The Java stuff will work just fine under command-line only OS X (=Darwin), and I guess the power management features will work too..

      I have an iBook, but I'm always on the GUI. I just boot into single-user mode for the periodic 'fsck'
      • Thanks for the info.

        I haven't been a MacOS user in about 3 years (since the attack on the clones), but it might be time I returned to the fold.

      • just boot into single-user mode (no GUI)

        True, but as any good Unix person knows, it's very bad to run your normal stuff as root. You can type ">console" at the Aqua login screen to get a text mode login prompt if you need it.

  • Mac laptops are portable UNIX workstations. That is the ultimate in geek laptops!! You could put UNIX or LINUX on a PC laptop, but you'll still be dragging around that outrgeously complicated piece of legacy crap, the X86 command set. It's so 20th century. Power PC Rocks!
  • http://www.fujitsupc.com

    The fujitsu 2040 series has a base battery life of 5ish hours with the six cell main battery. If you take out the dvd drive and stick in the secondary battery, the time goes up to like 12 hours. I've got the 2046, and I'm completely satisfied with it. The 800mhz crusoe cpu doesn't feel slow in the least. I've seen the 2040 on sale at Fry's for USD$1399
  • This article [slashdot.org] from about two months ago, entitled "Comparative Laptop Reviews", may be of some help, although it's mainly focused on x86.
  • I bought an iBook about a month ago, have been using it extensively. I recommend it highly. Let me throw out two points which I haven't seen mentioned yet. First off, the battery not only lasts longer, it's just great. I used to have a sony picturebook. The small included battery lasted about 90 minutes; the double sized batteries lasted 180 or so. Since I often need rather long battery life, I would carry one small battery and two large ones with me. I can't count the number of times that I would realize my small battery was running out, reach into my bag for a large one, and realize... I have no idea which of the two identical batteries in there is charged, and which is flat. Apple fixed this; they just put a little button on the bottom of the battery. If you press it (when the computer is on, when the computer is off, when the battery is out of the computer... it doesn't matter), from zero to four green LED's light up, telling you the battery percentage. I now carry three batteries with me, which I have found is truly enough for 18 hours straight use, or almost a week at the level I use it... and telling how charged each of them is just works. Secondly, suspend works on the ibooks. Now, my picturebook of course had suspend, both to disk and to memory. But suspend to memory took noticeable time, and sometimes never revived properly (I think it had something to do with the phase of the moon). The iBook just works. As soon as the case is closed, it goes into memory suspend. You can tell immediately, if you're nervous, because the screen backlight (which you can see through the glowing apple) goes off. And the heartbeat white led starts blinking. When you wake it up, you do need to give it a signal... it doesn't detect case opening. But simply brushing the surface of the touchpad works. Also, if you hook up a usb keyboard or mouse, touching the mouse or using the keyboard will wake up the ibook while it's still closed, without turning on the backlight, so switching to an external monitor when you get home doesn't even require you to open the thing up. All that said, I do have two points of concern to point out. First off, the screen. It's beautiful. It's bright, colors are sharp, etc. Viewing angle is somewhat limitted, but no more than any other laptop I've seen. On the two iBooks I've bought in the past month (my mother got one, too), there has been exactly one bad pixel; a dead (black) pixel towards the bottom center of the screen. Clearly not a statistical sample, and of course single bad pixels are always possible, and there's no promise otherwise. But if this is something which tends to drive you mad ("No! It's not perfect!"), I highly recommend trying out any laptop in a store before you buy it. Try out the exact one you'll end up with. If the kind salesfolk won't let you open a box that you're almost certainly going to pay $1300 for, go somewhere else... As a side note, of the two iBooks I bought, the one from compUSA had the bad pixel, the one direct from apple was perfect. No idea if they give inferior ones to distributors and keep the best for themselves, but it's certainly not impossible. Again, insufficient data for a meaningful answer. Lastly, the iBook isn't fast. I got the lowest end model, 600MHz/128MB. 128MB isn't enough. Don't kid yourself. I upgraded to 640MB, and memory is no longer an issue, but it's still not a speedy machine. Some things are fast; scrolling, switching applications, rendering images. Some things are slow; menu access, opening applications, de-minimizing windows. And OSX is still not 100% flawless, either. I've had to relaunch the finder (equivalent to restarting the X server) twice now, and reboot the whole machine once. Keep in mind that I never restart the machine otherwise, since I just use suspend... but still, it clearly needs a bit more work. Will OS X 10.2 be it? I don't doubt it will help, but there's no denying that this is a young OS, especially compared to MacOS 9. Overall, then, I really think this is a great machine, especially at the price. It's not perfect, but all laptops have quirks. I find the quirks on this machine more pleasant than those on any other laptop I've ever owned.
    • When you wake it up, you do need to give it a signal... it doesn't detect case opening.

      Weird. What model do you have? On mine, when it is sleeping with the lid closed, all I have to do is open the lid and it wakes up. If it's sleeping with the lid open, then, yah, I have to hit the space bar or something, but thats only if the lid was already open. (I've got the 600/12.1 model)

  • My iBook Experience (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron AT hotmail DOT com> on Thursday June 27, 2002 @12:00AM (#3776458) Homepage
    A year ago, I sold my PowerMac G4/400 Tower to buy an iBook 500.

    I love it. I can safely say that this is the most satisfying computer purchase I've ever made. Not that my other computers sucked, but it just rules.

    Up until a month ago, I ran Mac OS X full-time. More and more, I've been using Squeak as my operating system rather than Mac OS X proper, with the exception of web-browsing which I do in OS X. I switched back to Linux so I could work on some aspects of Squeak more easily, and tie Squeak into my environment, long story. ;P

    I'm a veteran Linux user, dumping it a couple years back to switch to Mac OS X. I've switched back, and am doing fine. Linux still sucks in many of the ways I remembered, especially in the area of GUI consistency compared to OS X. But then again, I spend a lot of my time in Squeak, not with regular X apps so it doesn't bother me much.

    I installed Debian GNU/Linux 2.2r6 on this puppy and the install went as smoothly as any x86 Linux install I've ever done (and I've done more than my fair share). I was surprised to find that out. A while back, I tried to install NetBSD, and it was a pain in the rump, so I was expecting something similar for Debian. Piece of cake. Upgraded to Woody without any problems.

    I can even close the lid and have the 'book go to sleep, just like in OS 9 and X. It doesn't wake up as lightning fast as OS X does, but eh, I expected worse!

    This machine is fast and durable. Incidentally, that's what I wanted from a computer. I'm sure you can get faster iBooks and PowerBooks and maybe even a faster PC notebook, but this does what I need and them some.

    Sound still doesn't work, to my knowledge. This is a bummer, but not a huge deal.

    I have my right command and enter keys mapped to do the job of my other mouse buttons. No, it's not a pain in the ass. Quite natural. I have a USB mouse, but haven't felt any need to figure out how to get it working in X11 yet. XFree runs fast enough, some room for graphics speed up though.

    Don't see the big deal aobut a PCMCIA slot. This baby has everything I need on board, which IMO is a helluva lot better than to have to futz with PC cards. USB to serial adaptor works like a charm with the Newton.

    Aaron
    • Sounds does work. Use a benh kernel [penguinppc.org] and compile the 'soundcore', 'dmasound_core' and 'dmasound_pmac' modules. Even the brightness buttons will work with this kernel!
      Only problem left for me is the 56k modem (any hints on that?) and FireWire - though that might work, I just don't have any peripheral to test it with.
      • Awesome! I'll give that a whirl when I get home.

        I've almost no use for the modem, but I assumed it worked. No idea though. No FireWire devices here, if I come across a simple one like a hard-drive, I'll try it for you. :)
  • OSX runs like a snail on an iBook.

    It's not fast, but usable on a TiBook, but i was shocked to see how poor performance was on a 600Mhz iBook.

    Don't buy it unless you enjoy watching paint dry.

    • Do you mean OS X runs like a snail, or Aqua does? I've got a new 700Mhz iBook (with the 16Mb Radeon) and it's about as clippy as I could ask it to be. I really think much of the impression of sluggishness that OS X imparts comes from its handling of the interface... I have a 450 MHz G4 desktop with lame graphics cards and it just pokes along.
      • I think they mean "OS X runs like a snail when it has too little RAM." It runs VERY nicely on my iBook with 640M. If you're doing any kind of dev work, you want more than 256M.

        I got my extra RAM from a 3rd party vendor so as to avoid the apple-tax.
  • i could say if you have to ask.. you will never know... or shouldnt know.
  • I'm a slightly dissatisfied Powerbook G4 customer. While the Powerbook+OSX = an incredible development platform, and proves to be an incredibly-slick and versatile machine [uiuc.edu], I am concerned about its durability compared to the iBook.

    I've owned my Powerbook G4 667MHz since November 2001. In March 2002, the paint on the unit began to bubble and flake-off [uiuc.edu].....like Herpes vesicles. The machine also began to generate a lot more heat than it did upon purchase. The battery life dwindled from a typical 3 hours down to 1.25 hours on a full-charge. The Powerbook's fan was always on. This was unacceptable for a $3200 laptop.

    It took me a month of arguing with Apple and documenting my problem with photos before they would replace my defective unit. They denied any knowledge of widespread paint/durability problems, despite the existence of companies like TiPaint.com [tipaint.com] that sell touch-up paint for the Tibook. Touch-up paint for a laptop?!? That's absurd. Anyhow, my unit went in for a massive overhaul. They essentially gutted my machine and placed it in a new case, replaced the battery, fan and logic board. It took several weeks, since the critical parts were back-ordered (signs of a more widespread problem). I really wanted a replacement because my unit was a lemon. Instead, they "repair" it.... and create more problems. The paint is beginning to flake again, and I have reason to believe that the processor is not attached to the heatsink (constant fan, paint falling off, poor heat dissipation).

    Problem is, us Mac users are SO dependent upon our machines for our respective livelihoods, that being without our computer for another repair of indefinite-length is killer. Having to fight with Apple to even get to the repair stage is a big enough deterrent for most users, reducing us to using crippled machines out of desperation.... If y'all haven't seen the infamous TiBook paint photos, hit up:

    http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/p/photo.php?dir=Defectiv e_Powerbook [uiuc.edu]

  • I was using FreeBSD up until last year. When the time came for a new laptop, I decided to run MacOS X on an iBook. I bought the low-end (400mhz) 2001 dual-USB iBook, which retailed for exactly $1200. I got a 256MB upgrade for free when I bought it, which I feel is necessary to bring OS X performance up to a reasonable level. The software is everything I expected: a slick NeXT-based interface and development environment on top of a slightly devolved (but advancing quickly!) FreeBSD variant.

    It's very easy to find software for the new OS, whether it's Carbon (converted from OS9), Cocoa (native OpenStep program) or some unix/xfree86 app. Occasionally I'll start up GNOME on my iBook to launch the GIMP or use XMMS. I've found that I don't use XFree86 as often as I expected to, but it's always there when I need it.

    It sounds like you have a pretty clear idea of your expectations, and being in the same boat you were, I made this decision and have been very happy with it.

    Regards,

    -zack
  • I have been using an Ibook (500MHZ, 572MB Ram) since July 2001 [lowendmac.com] and have been using it as my main machine since then (I don't have a fixed abode and need to travel light). I recently started to use it to ssh into my OpenBSD box and run XFree86 on it. Connected to my 10Gb Ibook which also serves as a backup for my crucial files I wouldn't like to be without it.

    Dirk

  • Quite frankly, the only thing keeping me from replacing my Sony Z505 with either a TiBook or (more likely) an iBook is the nagging question:
    Can I remap CTRL to the Caps Lock key (in OS-X, Linux or both)?
    Swapping the two (as I do on my Linux machines that don't have Happy Hacking Keyboards) would be even better. I read somewhere that some, and possibly all, Mac keyboards do the Caps Lock toggle in hardware or firmware, making it useless as a CTRL key. When/if I get a Mac desktop it is a non-issue, as I will just buy a HHKL-II in USB for it. On the notebook that isn't a reasonable solution, though.
  • I would highly recommend waiting until sometime after July 17th (the Mac Expo) to make your purchase.

    You should expect to see an increase in processor speed with the iBooks (rumor has it that the top of the line iBook will be running @ 1 ghz). Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see the iBook upgraded to a G4 processor until sometime next year.

  • If it's battery life you want, you can always double up on the batteries or get a nicer battery. My Remanufactured Gateway 9550 gets 4hrs (tested) and I've installed (and currently run) RedHat without problems. If you have time to spare (to wait for the right computer at the right price), then just hit the gateway remanufactured site every so often and see what they got. I've always been pleased with Apple hardware, just tossing out other options.

    The laptop itself was $1100 a month and a half ago, 933 p3, 15" screen 1024x768 native, 256MB RAM, 30Gb HDD, DVD, ethernet. You can get a pair of wireless cards and another battery and still be under $1400.

  • I'm currently using a 500Mhz PowerBook G3 (Pismo, bronze translucent keyboard) with 320 MB RAM. The CD-ROM I almost never use and have substituted a second battery for an 8-10 hour battery life! If battery life is the main priority, one of these used could be what you're looking for.

    Notes: If you use any Classic (MacOS 9) apps in it or Photoshop, get more than 320 MB RAM. You'll probably also want to get a newer hard drive than what came with them... something with a 2MB cache. It's large and heavy compared with the small iBook.

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