Ibook or Inspiron 6000

Raggamuffin

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/irl.woa/90911/wo/bn1qJSCJJCRZ2hiYfMoBTqSG1cd/0.0.15.1.0.6.23.1.1.1.0.0.0.1.0
14" ibook

Saw this on the apple site not sure whether it's available cheaper elsewhere.

Was just wondering which is the better option and what exactly i'd want to be think about using the mac for as a long term investment.

The superdrive facility looks nice and also the battery life is impressive plus the whole reliabilitity aspect is a plus.

The thing is will it work with my pc at home. I have amd3000+ with windows 2000 professional and really all i'm worried about is whether the ibook will access the wireless network both at home and in college?

anyway help and redirection woud be appreciated.

pclancy

Yes you will be able to access your home and college networks with the Ibook. Its a fantastic machine, only had a chance to play around with a clients one once but the whole quality of macs is second to none. You wont be bothered with viruses or spyware, massive updates and blue screens, you should just have a nice clean computing experiance that a lot of windows users dont have. Excellent music, productivity and internet software comes with osX.

Only downer i see to macs are price and software but its only really games that dont come out much on macs, mainstream office and music programs do have mac versions for the most part. If you can afford it id say go for it, you wont look back.

Theres also probably people in mac crying and stabbing themselves for hearing their company compared to dell! Its like comparing the ritz to a travelodge

Few user groups for you to visit for more mac nfo:
http://www.clubmac.ie/
http://www.apple.com/uk/usergroups/

Raggamuffin

I was'nt really comparing them to Dell as such since i generaly build my own computers through komplett it's just i noticed alot of mentions throughout the threads of Dell so i thought they would be a good benchmark for comparing their laptops to the Ibook.

I'm slowly swaying towards the mac simply as a solid investment both for college and eventually film editing and music production.

the software does seem expensive but i think a friend of mine has some mac software which i'm sure he'd loan me.

As for games... i've a pc at home for games and i kind of like that environment for games..

yeah so the ibook... i mean i can't REALLY afford it but the parents said they'd pitch i as part of christmas present.

ah money and the woes of spending it/.-

pclancy

sure feck it man you get what you pay for! didnt realise you were doing music with it thats even better! Cubase and pro-tools never crash on macs!

maidhc

If you are going to be using a PC at home as well, maybe it is easier to stay with another PC latop, be it a Dell or otherwise. If you are switching between them alot it may be easier to keep the same software and configurations.

Apples are expensive, and I dont believe a word of them being super reliable. IBM's may have been super reliable, but apple just seem to treat their customers as fools (ipod battery, ibook logic board), as beta testers (ipod nano), or with contempt (cube cracking problems). I'm not saying they are the worst (HP under Carly deserve that title, I reckon), but they are not to be a company to be lauded.

Dells are good, from my own experience. I have a Latitude x300 which has had a technician out on 3 seperate occasions, but the service has been absolutely first class. I also have a scattering of desktops and an Inspiron latptop which are ultra reliable.

I think will meet problems with any make or model of computer you buy. Just make sure you dont get carred away by Steve Jobs' reality distortion field...

rsynnott

If you're a student your college may have a special deal with apple to get a bit of money off. Find out before you buy.

munzab

true. but ibooks, im sorry to say, have a horrible life span.

my uni dishes them out to new students every year. 30% make it to year 3.

And if u do get it, buy the 3 year protection plan. my friend's one spent more time being repaired than being used by him.

dub45

Also in my experience Tiger is an unmitigated disaster - if Microsoft had ever released such a system that was patently not ready for release we would never have heard the end of it!!!!

From thinksecret

Earlier this week Apple seeded developers with build 8F31 of Mac OS X 10.4.3. The new build includes more than 20 additional fixes on top of the 500-plus the 100MB update is already planned to deliver

520 fixes for a supposedly wonder system? :rolleyes:

I agree with the poster above who talked about Apple treating their customers as fools in my experience the customer service from Apple has been lamentable :eek:

rsynnott

dub45 wrote:

520 fixes for a supposedly wonder system? :rolleyes:

When Windows XP was released, much was made of the fact that it had in excess of 20,000 known issues.

Today, many of those, and some others, have been patched.

dub45

rsynnott wrote:

When Windows XP was released, much was made of the fact that it had in excess of 20,000 known issues.

Today, many of those, and some others, have been patched.

Doesnt take from the fact that Tiger is a mess and definitely not reliable in my experience anyways!

su_dios

you sound like you're a pc user reading a few stats you found on the net!

I own an ibook for the last year and a half and its great! Best purchase ever made! Most of my friends who bought computers around the same time are almost ready to be replaced, and mine is running as strong as ever! Once you go mac you'll never go back

Ibook's are very very reliable! Has only crashed on me twice in a year and a half! Also wireless connection is better than that of my dad's dell even when placed side to side. My brother's powerbook is amazing too! If you can afford a powerbook..get one! remember that the 14" ibook still runs the same resolution as the 12" ..

dub45

su_dios wrote:

you sound like you're a pc user reading a few stats you found on the net!

I own an ibook for the last year and a half and its great! Best purchase ever made! Most of my friends who bought computers around the same time are almost ready to be replaced, and mine is running as strong as ever! Once you go mac you'll never go back

Ibook's are very very reliable! Has only crashed on me twice in a year and a half! Also wireless connection is better than that of my dad's dell even when placed side to side. My brother's powerbook is amazing too! If you can afford a powerbook..get one! remember that the 14" ibook still runs the same resolution as the 12" ..

Dont jump to conclusions. I have an imac and a powerbook.

Panther is fine Tiger is a disaster as far as I am concerned. :eek:

su_dios

I think Tiger is much better. Only complaints would be Safari running slower and Dashboard isnt as good as Konfabulator

dub45

su_dios wrote:

I think Tiger is much better. Only complaints would be Safari running slower and Dashboard isnt as good as Konfabulator

I wish it was better!!! But in my experience when it is not in a 'kernel panic' it is much slower. And I have reinstalled it several times on a totally wiped disc.