Having used both a G4 desktop and a bunch of PC desktops/laptops, I can honestly say I haven't been Mac'ified yet. I probably never will be due to the mere fact that the PC for me does the work I need it to do, does the play I need it to do - it just does everything I need it to do. The Mac is equally good for me in terms of surfing, email, and whatnot, but I can't do my work on it, I can't find the wide range of software choices on it, I can't find equivalent freeware/shareware on it, etc. In your case either will probably do. The biggest concern is if you ever need to do anything application-specific or need to share files that are application-specific.
I can understand the gaming issue, but that doesn't represent the vast majority of computer users. I NEVER play games on my machine. That's what my PS2 is for. Oh, and I love my 5-button mouse. It works great on my Mac.
First let me congratulate you on good choices in hardware. Hardware-wise, both a Powerbook and a Thinkpad are at the top of their class. Whether you go Mac or PC really depends on what kind of work you do, and how you feel about the current state of Windows. If you find yourself being constantly attacked by spyware, viruses, worms, etc. and are having to constantly rebuild your computer, YOU WILL LOVE YOUR MAC! If you have a partner or children that constantly seem to break the computer or get easily get confused, a Mac will be a blessing. If you're a UNIX nerd like me, you'll love your Mac. If you do any sort of video or photo work, you'll love your Mac. So, it all comes down to whether are not you are ready to divorce Windows and return to a time when using a computer is fun again. That's how I felt when I got my mac. It was fun to play on the computer again. If you don't yearn for something better, buy the Thinkpad. It'll probably make you happy. Don't worry about games, few laptops are really good at that anyway, especially Thinkpads. Worry about the tools you use, and if you can do those things on a Mac. If you live off of your Outlook calendar and your work uses Exchange, you probably won't want a Mac. But if you just surf the web, email, chat, and word process, Macs absolutely rule!
True Jeff, video editing, music production both use Macs more than Windows...BUT in movie creation (other than editing and music) for special effects etc....most use PCs or SGIs. As for gamers being a small percentage of the marketplace...HOGWASH !!! There are far more gamers than musicians, video editors and simple surfers... You sir are guilty of blashphemy !! EP
I'm just curious, but how would one create a movie on their laptop and then burn it to dvd? I would need to get a video camera that is compatible w/ Mac and then download the footage to the laptop? Please help out a complete computer illiterate!
Speaking of who uses PCs and who used Mac. One of my professors said that they went to one of Sony's movie editing studios, and lo and behond, the company that produces the Vaio had Macs all over the place.
Get a DV video camera (I believe with the appropriate cable these are all compatible with a Mac), import the video into the free application iMovie, and off you go.
I'm not talking about gamers compared to musicians. I'm talking about gamers compared to the general public. When you read surveys done of computer users, something like 70 percent of computer users use their home computer primarily for surfing the net, checking email and word processing. The reality is that most people do not buy their computers for gaming.
For the movie itself yeah, but there's other reasons to have computers there. Like for sound editing and other stuff.
Great...so now i gotta start another thread to find out what the best DV camera is to get But let me ask, would a 1Ghz chip and 512MB ram be sufficient power to use this iMovie feature?
mini Dv camcorders... a whole new thread is needed indeed. But nowadays they have Mini DVD camcorders, so you might look into that too. 512 mb may not be enough to utilize imovie. I used it with 128, and 256, it worked but 1 gig would do wonders...
When you buy your Mac get the LOWEST amount of RAM that it will ship with and then get aftermarket RAM. Why? Apple RAM has a one year warranty and is very expensive. Most 3rd party RAM comes with a lifetime warranty and is much cheaper.
I got aftermarket ram for mine, the extra 128... took me a while to find it, but I got it at CompUsa...
The way it's pricing out on the Apple website is $100 extra for 256MB more, $200 extra for 512MB more, and a whopping $600 extra for 1GB more.....this pattern does not make sense to me! Anyways, so you're saying i can get all this cheaper at a place like CompUSA?
make sure you get the ibook with a superdrive if you want to burn DVD's. After reading the thread I think a mac would work great for you and you will probably have fewer problems and less of a learning curve to get things to work, ie video camera, printer, mp3 player, etc. My new 20" G5 iMac just came in today. I have to wait until I get home to open it so my wife and kids can enjoy the experience. Go Mac and most likely you will never go back.
I don't know about compusa's prices but you can get it cheaper at crucial.com or 18004memory.com That's what I always do.
