thinking about buying a MAC...
 

I admit it, I am a windows bigot, been one every since, well for a long time. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I should experience the MAC side.

I travel every week, so I am looking for something that is very light, but has the power to do what I need, evern though I don't know what it is yet.

Will still have to carry my corporate machine (windows), so don't need a replacement for that.

any suggestions? i'm kind of in uncharted waters here... :)

thanks!

i hope others will correct me

but i've not seen a really "light" Mac/Apple notebook/laptop..

i'd define a light notebook to be no more than 1.5 kg..

I'm one who carries both windows and mac laptops on my travels, and find that my 12" PowerBook suits my needs well.

What do you need the Mac to do for you?

Well, Apple's website lists the following weights for their current line of notebooks.

12" iBook - 4.9 lbs
14.1" iBook - 5.9 lbs
12" Powerbook - 4.6 lbs
15" Powerbook - 5.6 lbs
17" Powerbook - 6.9 lbs

If you are looking for just light, try the Dell Lattitude X1 at 2.5 lbs. What do you want to do on the laptop? Once we know that we can try and help you find the lightest possible system that will let you do what you want to do on the laptop.

already have a windows machine, actually two (dell x300 and 700m). i want to try out a MAC.

hmm, i don't know yet and that's my problem. I don't know what they WILL do, outside of what a standard windows machine does. :)

guess i will have to do some research before I make a decision. I still don't know what I don't know about the Mac.

you'll find it quite different to the wintel notebooks you've been using but not worse!! =)

as its already been pointed out, def. not the lightest portable computer to be lugging around if weight is an issue to you

Well, a Mac can do almost everything a Windows system can (without going into the gaming side, but I'm sure your laptop won't be for gaming), so I don't think you have to be too worried about it not being able to function for you. If you've been a PC user all your life though, it might take a little time to get used to the new OS.

As for the weight issue, I've used the 12" iBook before and found the weight pretty bearable for a portable machine.

Maybe you can go into a Apple store if you have one in your area, and just give some of systems a try. A good way to see if it's right for you is probably to get some hands-on experience with it.

I would strongly recommend you wait. Some say new upgraded Apple laptops are comming as soon as tomorrow. In any case upgrades are long overdue. Since I have a Verizon Broadband KPC650 PC card I settled for a Sony T250 laptop, since Apple has no laptop offerrings 12" or under with a PC slot. Otherwise I would have gotten a Powerbook/iBook. But after a year the Sony proved to be extremely mobile. I carry it everywhere and get on the net anywhere in the Miami /Ft Lauderdale area without routers or base stations. I also have a 17" Powerbook, but I leave it home for video editing and other heavy stuff. The T250 is my mobile fun machine, very quiet and small.

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum38.html

While I can't really help you in the laptop department, I will vouch for the OSX operating system. I switched from Windows to OSX back in January when the Mac Mini desktop system came out (that's a pretty cheap option if you want to try a mac and don't want to invest in the laptop). I've found that it does all my internet/office stuff just fine and I have more time to use actual productive apps, because I don't have to spend time fighting with the OS or getting rid of viruses/spyware. I definately feel the Mac has made me more productive and has also made using the computer more enjoyable.

If you just want to play with the OS, just find a copy of OS X for Intel and install it on a spare partition of your Intel notebook. I have it running just fine. Though once you've made a couple of passes and seen how everything works, you'll likely realize that it doesn't really do anything new or different and go back to Windows.

All things being equal, it's true as previously posted that you can find lighter Wintel systems. The reason is Business 101: since they all run the same software, they have to compete on something else. Since most Macs are sold for their software (OS, apps, whatever) Apple doesn't have to push the envelope as much in the hardware department, as long as they're in the ballpark.

That said, as a Mac user with friends of all religions (I even know a few folks who run Linux) I think Macs are easier overall, more secure for reasons discussed elsewhere, better integrated, do most kinds of networking better, etc., etc., but not enough of any of these to offset the fact that you already know Windows. The missionary in me would love to see another convert, but I don't see a compelling reason here - and believe me I'd find one if I could!

If you want to try it and see if you like it, I'd get a one- or two-year-old model on eBay. They haven't changed much in that time (I got my PB in May 2004 and have been watching) and there are rumors that big changes are coming soon. This is probably a bad time to spring for a new one.

Apple will be offering a very light refresh of their PowerBook line, most likely this week.

Slightly faster G4 CPU, DD2 RAM, maybe PCI-X, higher-resolution LCDs, and some better connectivity.

Apple seems to be waiting until the new Cedar Hill Pentium M units are ready before they do a serious refresh of the PowerBook line, so that will be 6-12 months away.

I just bought a 12" iBook. I think it's a good deal for a portable Apple Macintosh.

I think I am safe regarding the annoucments tomorrow. I think they will focus only on Pro products. Anyway, I have a G4 iMac and really wanted a portable Mac. Sure, I have a Thinkpad from work and I use that for work, but for everything else, I really started to prefer the Mac.

Yeah, I think the 12" iBook is a tad heavy and a tad thick for it's size. But it's not too bad.

Here are some areas where I think the Mac/Apple stands out (in no particular order):

Editing digital video
Creating DVDs
Managing your photo library
Text/Audio/Video Chat/Conferencing
Managing your music library
Creating music
Creating presentations
Connecting to/managing/detecting wireless networks
Sharing music (legally)
Automation
Handling documents (organizing them, finding them, printing to PDF, etc)
Integration with other devices (iPod, iSight, third party peripherals, playing music to the stereo with the Airport Express)
Security (-Zero- known viruses in circulation attacking OS X)
Seamless, native access to a full Unix environment, including command line functions and pretty much all native Unix apps (emacs, VI, etc)
Ranked #1 in support 6 years consecutively by Consumer Reports, each year the lead has grown
Ranked #1 in quality by Consumer Reports 6 years consecutively, with fewer repairs needed as reported by owners than any other brand
Most drivers are already built-in
Easy, automatic updates to the OS and all Apple software
More built-in, default features: WiFi, Bluetooth, gigabit ethernet, DVI support, USB2, FireWire, SVideo, Motion-sensing technology in laptops to protect the hard drives, automatic illuminated keyboards, auto-dimming display when the room gets dark
Dependable, instant wake from sleep
X11
XCode
cool stuff like Dashboard, the easy on the eyes UI, exposé, Bonjour (aka rendezvous, aka zero conf)
Consistent UI (i.e. what works one way in one app works the same way in another app, including keyboard shortcuts, menu structures, window behavior, etc)