I know that for Mac worshipers you can say nothing bad about anything
with an Apple on it... but!
I have used Macs for a long time. Back when they were American machines
and as robust as a rock. My G5 power PC tower is great and I still use
it... except none of the new software works on it. It's been left behind
in the dust.
I run a school with a 40-computer inventory of Chinese-made Macs...
iMacs, Macbooks etc. We have 25 iMacs in the lab and there are always at
least 4 in the shop getting stuff fixed. Drives that die... chips that
overheat, displays that pop up green or don't come up at all, filing
systems that get corrupted... It's a nightmare! I have never had so much
student work lost.
They are troublesome, unreliable and have forced me to think seriously
about changing to windows for the first time in 15 years.
But hey... they sure look good and are incredibly trendy and well branded.
Herschel
Emily L. Ferguson wrote:
>> My son ... grew up in our Mac household, but his
best friend is a Windows bigot. My son has a dual G5 tower at home
with me
and an aging "mirrored doors" G4 dual processor machine at his
mom's house.
Any/all opinions welcome, either on or off-list.
Jim Robertson
Have him use his educational discount and get the white Macbook.
I've had mine just over a month and love it. I've kept my
three-year-old black Macbook for backup and I have a 20 inch iMac, but
I'm spending most of my time (including now) on the MacBook.
I ordered it online from Apple and upped it to 4 gig RAM and 320
gig HD and that still came to just over $1000. It is fast, very
fast, and I love the new multi-touch trackpad. I rarely take my
bluetooth mouse with me when I use it.
The battery life is long and I usually don't take the power
adapter with me if I'm going to use it in some coffee house or
bookstore as I don't need it.
The screen in very bright, even dimmed four steps to conserve
battery life and tests by Macworld indicate it is as fast or faster
than the lowest priced MacBook Pro.
The graphics chip is also much better than in my prior Macbook.
Editing in iMovie, for example, is very fast and efficient and I don't
hear the fans blazing the way they did on any graphics-intensive work
on the old Macbook.
It's also very light weight and does not - contrary to some early
reports - seem prone to scratches.
It would also allow your son to install - if he had to - Windows
and be able to outperform his "Windows bigot" best friend's computer.
Gary
