[Phoenix]

My girlfriend has finally decided to switch to the wonderful world of mac. That's the good news. The bad news is she has a very low budget. She currently has about $550 australian and probably can't go very much higher. I realise this is very low, but she only needs it for internet use, word, excel, and to look at pictures and organise her music. We found this

http://www.ittools.com.au/catalog/pr...roducts_id=361

and was wondering if that would be ok? She loves the look of these old iBooks and is really keen to get it pretty soon. Also we can find the airport card pretty cheap elsewhere, but wanted to know if it's hard putting it in. Also the same with memory. And what is the limit on the memory, 512mb?

If you think this is a silly purchase please let us know. And also if you think there would be a better option let me know too. Thanks a bunch

T

[staph]

You could almost certainly knock $100 off the price by resorting to eBay, and you might be lucky enough to find a machine to which someone has added memory.

I'm sure you realise that if she wants to run OS X well, you'll need a bit more memory; you're looking at at least $75 worth to add to the price.

In terms of machines currently on eBay, this, this, and this might be worth a look.

[Brad]

Yikes. Nuh-uh.

That machine would barely run modern apps at all, let alone provide a tolerable experience. It doesn't even have Mac OS X; so, you'd have a hard time running a decent web browser on it or finding any current software. The version of Internet Explorer that ran on OS 9 is essentially five years old and will break under many web sites. There's a special build of Mozilla 1.3.1 that is a little more modern and will run on OS 9, but it's pretty slow and it too is showing age.

Also keep in mind that OS 9 cannot run the iLife apps (such as iPhoto) and the last version of iTunes for OS 9 was iTunes 2 with no support for AAC, the iTunes store, podcasts, or connectivity to any of the newer iPods.

You could bump the RAM to 288 or 320 MB depending on the config, and that'll be just enough to run Mac OS X. To install and use Mac OS X, 256 MB is the suggested minimum from Apple.

In other bad news, the screen is 800x600, which is bordering unusable for web surfing, and the hard drive only has 10 GB, which would very quickly fill up with just the system and installed applications.

I'd second staph's suggestion. Look around eBay for some better deals. The links to iBooks that staph provided are much better than what IT Tools is offering.

[psmith2.0]

Would you guys be able to perhaps do the payment thing with Apple? That combined with a nice-priced refurb could be the way to go.

With Tiger (even Jaguar and Panther) being as robust as they are, I'd be reluctant to get into the Mac on a G3-based iBook, especially one with such a small hard drive capacity, old graphics, etc.

As Brad said, you'll have a tough time of it all, and if you decide to "lessen the load" by staying with OS 9 (don't!), you're gonna miss out on the cool iLife and OS X stuff, which is half the reason anyone should be using a Mac these days!

OS 9 isn't much nicer than Windows, after being on X for 3-4 years now.

And you won't have the latest iTunes, iPhoto, etc.

Everything Brad says above is true and I totally agree...I don't think you'd enjoy it much (the 800x600 thing alone would drive me up the wall).



Those very first iBook G4s that came out in October 2003...even at 800 or 933MHz, you'd be a lot better off IMO. But if there's anyway you guys could swing an iBook from the past 12 months (used, refurb, auction, etc.), that would be a much nicer intro to the Mac side I believe.

Good luck!

[Phoenix]

Alright, thanks to both of you. I'm not sure the missus will be happy to hear that, because she loves the clamshell design. But she'll have to deal with it. I'll have her have a look at those other ones though and see what she thinks. Thanks again Staph and Brad.

And thanks to you pscates. I'll suggest some other things to her tonight and see if she wants to go a different way now. I'm just really trying to get her clear of the windows crap that she is being told to get by other people. I really don't want my first convert to go back so quickly.

T

[johnq]

Set a computer display to 800x600 and show her how tight everything is. No space to do anything, constant need to scroll left and right.

And then remind her that it'll be even smaller on a 12" display (assuming you aren't demo'ing her the 800x600 on a 12" screen already).

[Brad]

Originally Posted by trav I'm just really trying to get her clear of the windows crap that she is being told to get by other people. I really don't want my first convert to go back so quickly.

Yeah, if you exposed her to Mac OS 9, she'd very quickly go crying for her Windows machine. OS 9 is about on par with Windows 95. They both use a similar desktop metaphor. Neither has protected memory. Both can crash the whole system if an application dies.

If you want to make any decent first impression with her, the clamshell iBooks are totally out of the question. pscates has a good idea, too. Look into some financing options and see if it would be possible to get something that's only a year or two old (as opposed to over five years old!).

[Phoenix]

Ok, i just got finished talking to her. I think i've convinced her to get a new one. A small loan is looking like the way to go. Then she has it for a few years and doesn't have to worry about it. Now i just have to convince her to hold off until they update...... damn.

[staph]

Really, I wouldn't bother. Just buy the bloody thing. If she was tempted to buy a 6 year old machine, I doubt anything a new machine will offer will make much difference to her… but forcing her to wait is just asking for trouble.

[Phoenix]

Sorry that was my attempt to be funny. Didn't work. I won't be getting her to wait. Not for what she wants to do with it.

[BarracksSi]

That iBook will run OSX.

You'll have to find a copy of 10.2 or 10.3 at best, and throw in a 512 MB stick of RAM (don't know if it'll support a gig), but it'll run the OS serviceably well.

My blueberry RevA iBook does well despite the low resolution. I've had 10.2 on it so far, and I'm about to try 10.3 -- I've heard quite a few reports saying that it works even better. It squeaked around trying to run more than two apps when it had 160 MB, but with 544 MB, it does better than I expected.

The worst thing about the 800x600 screen size is that some panels and interfaces barely fit on the screen. But, you don't have to worry about trying to fit the 128x128 icons, because the only time that anybody sees them is in Column View.

For basic internet & document writing, it'll do just fine.

The risk is that she'll enjoy it quite a bit and want to upgrade to the latest iBook soon.

[psmith2.0]

trav, if you got her over the hump of considering a new(er) model, then that's great. I think it'll be something she'll really enjoy. If she wanted to truly go new, then I think that entry model 12" iBook (it's $999 here in the U.S.) is it.

1.2GHz, roomy enough hard drive for the things you mention, respectable graphics, built-in AirPort card, nice slot-loading Combo Drive, good battery life, rugged and attractive case, etc.

And it comes with 256MB built-in, with a free open slot. Add a 512MB chip to it (for a total of 768MB) and I think she'd be quite happy for a long time! A great machine for surfing, writing, e-mail, chat, iLife, etc., in a small, light and rugged package and for a good price.

I just wouldn't feel good making someone's entry into the Mac world be on a G3-based machine with 800x600 resolution. Those are two significant factors that would play quite heavily into her initial impressions and ultimate enjoyment.

I have an old jellybean iMac too, but it's not doing anything other than being a jukebox and kitchen/guest e-mail and surfing station. If that was my sole Mac, I'd be pulling my hair out, doing whatever I could to get something in the OS X/iLife-friendlier "G4 @ 1GHz (or more)" range.

[Phoenix]

Yeah she's not really concerned about the latest and greatest machine. Just one that will do what she needs. And that really isn't much. That's why i asked about the clamshell one. She just wanted one cheap enough to get her work done effectively. But if we get a new iBook i guess that will run very nice and last a long time for her. We are sitting down going through it all tonight. Hopefully she says yes to a new iBook. Then it's off to the bank and then i get to order another machine.

That will be my first switcher influence. Hopefully not my last.

I'm sure she will enjoy it.

[staph]

Originally Posted by trav Sorry that was my attempt to be funny. Didn't work. I won't be getting her to wait. Not for what she wants to do with it.

Don't mind my lack of a sense of humour — this is the intarweb after all, and I'm from Canberra!

Sounds like it's all sorted. Have fun.

[Phoenix]

well i thought i would everyone know about the outcome of all this. I finally convinced my girlfriend to get a brand new iBook. So we went to the bank and got a loan for it. It got approved yesterday. Fantastic timing. So tonight we ordered a brand spanking new 12" iBook, 768mb RAM, and a 60gb hard drive. 7 - 10 days shipping. She is very excited about it. So am i to be honest. I can't wait. Thanks everyone for the help. This household is almost completely a pc free house now. And my parents and two work-mates are very close to buying as well. Great.