re: laptops

[stephan mathieu <sssst@xxxxxxxxxx>]

hi phil

> What would be the difference between an iBook and a Powerbook if they
> both have the same specs? Does the difference in designation actually
> mean anything concrete, is it just a matter of aesthetics, or...?

the main apple idea of a difference is ibooks being consumer models while the other powerbooks are meant to be pro.
so the ibook is lacking features like a PCMCIA slot and (officially) doesnt support monitor spanning.
also the boards architecture is different with the titanium/aluminium powerbooks having faster internal busses.
then the titanium/aluminium powerbooks are equipped with g4 processors which are faster (clockspeed and entire architecture, altivec unit) than the ibooks g3 processors but also the g4 becomes significantly hotter than the g3 which results in a (imo) unacceptable fan activity/noise. the g3 processor was originally developed as a cpu for mobile computers. i never heard the fan in my machine (800mhz g3), even not while watching the whole lord of the rings pt1 special edition (4 dvds/7+hrs) last night. (even my belly didnt get burned*)
the saying of recent tests goes that the 800mhz g3 ibook outperformed the new 867mhz g4/12" model in several tests so - dont become a beta tester for this fresh-as-a-morningdew baby. it will certainly be a great machine after a couple of revisions.
if you dont need the fastest thing in the (apple) universe i'd go for the ibook, really a lovely machine.

its true that the new line of powermacs wont boot in os9, not too much of a clever move i think, although i really dont like booting in 9 for those 3 remaining apps since i got used to os10. it suddenly feels like a trip to crash land (and i always loved the pre-X os). os10 is very nice (i.e. the memory management) although its still far away from being a grown up OS. nevertheless its well worth to get familiar with.

hope this helps
 - stephan

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