New Laptop

[snadge]

I'm soon to be in the market for a new laptop and although I've only used windows PC/ laptop I've been looking at the apple macbook pro but have a few novice questions?

this version of OSX runs on intel based hardware, could I run OSX on my AMD powered desktop? How about my existing laptop, a 2.2ghz Pentium 4?

Would standard OSX applications ie photoshop, cubase etc run on this platform?


any tips would be appreciated, I'm interested in the macbook pro but feel I should wait a generation, installing OSX on my existing laptop would be interesting to me.

 

[lobster]

You should be able to run the current OSX and its applications on both computers, maybe a bit of hacking to get some of the hardware working as the current OSX does not have native support for x86 architecture.

computers change all the time, waiting for x generation of computers will arrive and move onto another generation, it all boils down to your budget.

 

[jæd]

this version of OSX runs on intel based hardware, could I run OSX on my AMD powered desktop? How about my existing laptop, a 2.2ghz Pentium 4?

In theory it could. But don't expect to be a reliable or continue to work. Apple won't give a shit if you have probs. They do if you have a real Mac.

Would standard OSX applications ie photoshop, cubase etc run on this platform?

Old OS X applications run through a thing called Rosetta. This will slow the apps down slightly but the MacBook is the fastest Apple laptop yet. I'm guessing it will turn out to be about 2 to 3 x a Powerbook.

If you want to get a MacBook then get it now. Yes, you could wait a bit but Apple releases new stuff every few months. So you'd be waiting forever.

Btw, don't be confused by the Pro name. The MacBook is a transition machine. I would reckon lacks ommph to be a Pro machine, so if you need a Powerbook for "pro" work you might be better off with a high-spec PowerBook.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Btw, don't be confused by the Pro name. The MacBook is a transition machine. I would reckon lacks ommph to be a Pro machine, so if you need a Powerbook for "pro" work you might be better off with a high-spec PowerBook.

It's using the most powerful (by a long way) mobile CPU there is at the moment, the G4 was a great CPU when it was released, but it's very, very old now in computing terms.

Powerbook = bad idea imo

 

[snadge]

It's using the most powerful (by a long way) mobile CPU there is at the moment, the G4 was a great CPU when it was released, but it's very, very old now in computing terms.

Powerbook = bad idea imo

the thing that is holding me back is the transitional release of the macbook pro

no high speed firewire ( my audio card is a motu 828 and when I daisy chain a firewire hard drive I get bottlenecks)

resolution, I use 1600*1200 on my dell laptop on BOTH monitors, I would love to see apple use better screens on their laptops


I feel this is a sales ploy so as not to dent sales of powerbooks, that is why I would prefer to wait a generation.

I still would love this so much though, I want to try OSX, so is there any way I can download a trial version or have just gotta pay and see.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

No trial version.

Right now OSX is only PPC compliant, it's being recoded to run on x86 architecture. Intel/AMD chips are unable to run OSX at the moment.

Why is this transitional exactly?

 

[snadge]

Why is this transitional exactly?

high speed fire wire...no

high resolution screen....no

8* dual layer dvd writing capabilities...no

but the powerbook has those options

 

[Bernie Gunther]

I've got a powerbook and I'm very happy to be free of the many hassles of Windows, but it creaks a bit doing anything involving serious calculation, e.g. batch image processing etc. The desktop macs have one or more G5 chips (with big cooling fans), can actually use them, and deliver very decent performance.

 

[jæd]

high speed fire wire...no

high resolution screen....no

8* dual layer dvd writing capabilities...no

but the powerbook has those options

The Powerbook is also going to be running thing nativly. The MacBook won't be doing that for at least six months to a year. Oh, and version 1.0 Apple stuff usually comes with a catch. In this case, it could be the battery life. Its not stated anywhere.

I'd hold off until you can see a review of one from an independent source.

If you need something now, get a high-spec Powerbook. Or wait at least a few weeks to find out you'll be getting...

 

[snadge]

well my thoughts at this moment is to wait, my existing windows laptop works to a degree but I think the graphics card is on the way out , every now and then the display corrupts into a mass of corruption at first I thought it was software based but it's definitely hardware.

I will probably wait for the 2cnd generation macbook pro, let them iron out the bugs and sort out the firewire/resolution/dvd thingies, my next laptop is definitely going to be an apple although I will probably stick to a windows box in the house.