Hi Everyone,
I don't really know if this is relevant for a new thread so please remove if it is out of line.
I have used Macs in the past (such as the old Mac SEs to more recently a friend's dual G5 PowerMac -- which I really love but cannot afford). I am currently removing myself from Microsoft OS products at the home (I will still happily support myself maintaining Microsoft products but will not tolerate anymore Ad-Aware, SpyBot, anti-virus scans along with the fine tuning of third-party firewall protection, weekly defrags, and the paranoid atmosphere this all creates, etc., etc., etc.)...
I am thinking of purchasing a new 12" G4 IBook/1.2Ghz/30GB Hard Drive. I would expand the memory to at least 1 GB RAM, and have a Firewire Hard Drive (at least 90 GB) for backup and to try other stuff with... I would purchase this with 3 year product protection.
My concern is will it be enough of a machine for me to do the following:
-further my knowlege of OS X
-extensively use Microsoft Office For Mac (mainly large word documents); I am trying out NeoOffice on friend's machine but am more comfortable with Microsoft Office (I have many word documents and don't like to convert files)
-lightly use Photoshop CS to manipulate some graphics
-hook up to HP Scanner to scan documents every now and then (the scanner is OS X compliant, everything I have been purchasing recently has to be Mac compatible)
-be able to use wireless internet at the local coffeeshop without having to buy any new card
-every now and then, run Virtual PC to run Microsoft Access (it would open a small database); I would not expect this to run fast
-hook up to 17" monitor and run StarCraft in OS 9 for fun every now and then
-also on 17" monitor play DVDs every now and then
-read large PDF manuals (I know about the screen size, another friend of mine has a 12" Powerbook -- the screen size of his machine is perfect for viewing what I need to view)
-connect a USB microphone for some language CDs in OS 9.
I also would like to know if it is still possible to install the Mac OS X on an external firewall HD device.
Any comments, thoughts, advice would be appreciated.
Regards,
Michael
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