[thelist] iBooks, OS X, Macs, Web Development, Laptops, Etc, Etc

[Chris George]

On 6/11/02 1:27 PM, "Jonathan_A_McPherson at rl.gov"
<Jonathan_A_McPherson at rl.gov> wrote:

> All,
> How do you folks feel about doing Web work on [portable] Apples?

Hi Jonathan,

I had the opportunity to convert to to the Apple platform about 2 years ago
and haven't looked back since. I put a requisition in for a PowerBook G3-400
and a G4-450 for another Web Designer and upon delivery we were up and
running on our NT network in under an hour (at the time we knew we needed
Dave, but that was no big deal).  Up until about two months ago the
PowerBook was my desktop replacement.  It's been across most of Europe,
North America and I took it home daily.  Nothing had ever failed on it, and
only OS/software upgrades were ever invested into it.

Now, under OS X I find the G3-400 to be just slow enough to slightly
irritate me.  Once the apps are loaded it's actually not too bad, but
routinely 15-20 'bounces' on the dock is the norm for launching most apps.

With OS X I've pretty much duplicated our server environment to the point
that nothing needs tweaking before I upload it to the production server.

Some key points to note in your quest for a perfect development/design
platform that really do matter:
A) Weight.  At the time the nearest Dell (spec-for-spec) was 4.5 lbs HEAVIER
than the PowerBook.  We ended up ditching the Inspirons for Vaios where
possible, and even those were decommissioned as most of the ports just
stopped working.
B) Battery life.  I could be unplugged for almost an entire work day so long
as I wasn't watching DVD's (what... What do YOU do at work? :-)

If you're interested to see what other people have to say, Apple has just
launched a new advertising campaign aimed at PeeCee-oriented folk:
http://www.apple.com/switch/

Now that I'm on a desktop (incidentally, the G4-450 we bought for the other
Designer), I long for a portable again, but I have my eye on the new G4
PowerBook.  While I think you'll find the G3-700 more than adequate
(especially because they've increased the bus speed and cache size), there
is definitely a speed difference between that and the G4.  The other point
of contention I have with the iBook is that it currently only does video
mirroring; there is no support for an extended desktop on dual monitors (all
PowerBooks do have this feature though).  Which was a bonus for me: Come to
work, plug into a Syncmaster 19", slap all my palettes, e-mail and chat apps
on the LCD, and keep the CRT display for all the important stuff.

Incidentally, most companies offer cross-platform upgrade pricing as well
(just ask), if you have any existing software packages on the Wintel
platform.

I hope this helps a bit!

Chris.