|
|
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Windows user changes religions, April 27, 2004
They are few, but express their happiness, their deep satisfaction, so well. They proselytize sometimes, not often, and it is with clear conviction. They often give off the aura of knowing something you don't know but could discover, if only you were brave enough to follow their narrower path.I have been listening to them off and on since I left the fold twenty years ago. I made a common choice, a change, when I felt abandoned, or rather shut out, from the fold. Recently, however, after years of aggravation along the path I'd been following, their words started to hit home. I started to long for their satisfaction, their joy, the ease with which they got things done. Lately I've been talking to them about their choice, asking questions, opening up about my fears and doubts, and, for the first time since leaving, began to think about joining once more. Yesterday, I visited, talked much more with them, and decided: yes, it was right to change religions, and I did it right there, right then. I bought a Mac, a 14-inch 1.25GHz G4 iBook. Here is what "changing religions" means for this once-upon-a-time Apple II user who has been working in the PC world since 1983 (I remember CP/M!). It's been less than 24 hours since I first opened the box, and in that interval, I've set up the iBook for Internet access, both for dialup and for a new wireless network, as I'd bought an AirPort Extreme Base, too, did laundry, surfed, retrieved and answered email, slept, made my 100-mile Monday commute, and worked a full day. And I'm typing this review in a word processing package I saw for the first time just minutes ago. Apple has done an excellent job of making it easy for someone to set up this computer, even someone who has spent 20+ years working with and on PCs of a different flavor. I woke up my 10-year-old son this morning by handing him the iBook, already on and connected through AirPort, with a cheery "Would you like to surf the Web in bed while I get my shower?" The iBook comes with a start-up guide which is clear, well-written, and easy to follow. All the information I needed to get to this point was within the first half of this very slim volume. I pulled the iBook and the start-up guide out of the box, and within literally 30 minutes, the iBook was set up and connected to the Web. It would have been faster, but I had to wait for the Dell laptop I use to boot up so I could get the phone number of my ISP. (Dinosaur that I am, yes, I do use dialup.) The keyboard is fullsize but not large; those with big hands and fingers might find the PowerBook a bit easier to use. That said, I've had no problem whatsoever typing on the keyboard, except to try to remember it's not Ctrl-C to cut and Ctrl-V to paste and that the delete key functions as a backspace and does not delete the letter to the right of the cursor. Tactile feedback is good and the keys are comfortable. Typed text is not as clear as on the Dell Inspiron 8100 I have been using (which has a brilliantly clear screen), but I suspect there is a setting I can adjust which will make the text sharper. It's perfectly legible even to my failing eyes, but not as clear as I would like. Icons and graphics are sharp and the screen is nice and bright. Adjustments for brightness are clearly marked on the keyboard. The software interface is outstanding. It's familiar enough to this Windows user to not cause disorientation, but looks fresher and cleaner. The Dock, a bar of applications icons, comes up along the bottom of the screen after first setting up the iBook, and has nearly everything on it you will first use and want to explore. The iBook comes with AppleWorks 6 (about which I know nothing, but which has a word processor that is obviously easy enough to use to type this review.... and play around with formatting, word count, text attributes, and so on; I expect the presentation and spreadsheet software are just as easy to use), a suite of tools for the "rest of your life" called iLife (which includes iChat, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iCal[endar] and Garage Band, a music sequencer that will likely take up the rest of my evening), and Safari, which is Apple's browser. And a host of other software, including an encyclopedia, games, and Quicken. I had compared this iBook with the next model down, the 14" 1 GHz iBook which falls in the middle of the three iBook offerings from Apple. I was all set to get the middle model, to which I would have added a 60 Gb drive (instead of the 40 Gb it came with), another 256 Mb SDRAM (to boost it to 512), and an AirPort Extreme card (so I could use wireless networking). But...with the price difference between the two models only $200 and the 1.2 GHz iBook already having the AirPort Extreme card and a 60 Gb hard drive, it didn't make financial sense to stay with the middle model. I still need to boost the memory -- 256 Mb is standard, with that on one chip which leaves the other slot open for another chip (unlike the middle model, which has two 128 Mb chips, requiring you to discard one to boost the memory, unless you buy the computer online rather than from an Apple store). I cannot abandon the Windows world, as I work in it, but to change computer religions and have Apple make it so easy to do so makes this former Apple II user happy indeed.
|