March 31, 2005
Return of the Mac
Posted by ryan at 10:06 AM in apple . | 5 Comments
All the best hackers I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the mid 1990s. They're about as hardcore OS hackers as you can get.
The reason, of course, is OS X. Powerbooks are beautifully designed and run FreeBSD. What more do you need to know?
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Let me ask a question out of total ignorance. My fiancee (hehehe) is thinking about getting a Mac laptop (are they all powerbooks? See? I don't know anything). Would you recommend Macs for the activities of lay people (word processing, internet surfing, spider solitaire), or is there another laptop you'd recommend? I didn't have good luck with Macs, but maybe my experience was unusual somehow. Suggestions? Posted by: Emily at March 31, 2005 1:48 PM |
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Congrats on the engagement! I am assuming this was a faily recent event as you have been giddy about it. ; ) No, not all Mac laptops are Powerbooks. You have Powerbooks and you have iBooks. Powerbooks are a little more high end, a bit thinner, etc. If you are just looking for an all around general machine, I'd suggest the iBook. They start at about $999 and it should do everything you want. They make Microsoft Office for the Mac, so you are set there. As for web browsing you can use Firefox on the Mac, or it comes with Apple's browser Safari. Microsoft also made Internet Explorer for the Mac, but it sucks (of course, I think Internet Explorer for the PC sucks too...). Another great thing about Mac laptops is the battery life. I have a Sony laptop and I am lucky to squeeze 2 hours of life from it... oh, and I'm on my second battery because I burnt the first one out already. Tracy has an iBook which is a few years old now, and it still gets a good 5 hours on a single charge! If you decide to buy a Mac, you might want to check out macmall.com instead of buying direct from Apple. Generally Macmall will hook you up with extra features like more RAM for the same price as Apple offers without those features. Posted by: ryan at March 31, 2005 2:01 PM |
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Thanks :) We've been engaged a week this past Tuesday. I am totally giddy. I'm kind of making myself sick with my perpetual good mood, but I'm really excited. Thanks for the adivce - we'll check out macmall. Posted by: Emily at March 31, 2005 3:47 PM |
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I think half the people in my office have Apple laptops now. It's one of the choices we are allowed. And we are all also about as HARDCORE OS HACKERS as you get. But I guess when MIT does it it's news. Posted by: agent1073 at March 31, 2005 11:17 PM |
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Dude, my Uncle has a Mac. Posted by: ryan at March 31, 2005 11:22 PM |