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Entries tagged with "computer"

My little sister called me up just now. She's trying to figure out which computer to buy for school — or, rather, my parents should buy — and has to decide between an iBook and a Dell 6000. Just great... call your COMPLETELY unbiased brother who has both a Dell and a Powerbook. Smart thinking right? That's why she's going to college my friends.

So she calls me up and asks "What's better?" and it got me thinking. The usual things first came to mind: processor speed, memory, price. All are even she says. Now it boils down to her years and years on a Windows box verses her complete naivety to a Mac. Can she deal with it?

Now my little sister isn't super computer savvy. She can work her way around a Windows machine quite easily. She's been using since almost the time she could walk. Knowing all this, I took the time to think, "Could she easily make the transition to OSX easily?" I may have over analyzed this a bit but here's what I came up with as the biggest factors in her transition (Let preface this by saying this is mainly for her ONLY. I thought about it from a soon-to-be college freshman and very light user that is going into pre-law):

Using the dock - A simple enough thing to use and probably the most intuitive aspect of the OSX. Makes life easier all around. So she'd have no problem there.

Safari v IE - Let's face it, anyone who has ever designed and coded a site knows the advantages here. Much cleaner interface, better rendering, quicker. The list could go on but I won't. I will say when I was back for her graduation party, she was installing Firefox on her Dell so I think she may've already realized the pitfall of IE on her own (2 brownie points).

Keyboard - As basic as this sounds, iBook keypads just feel different when you're using them. They seem much less sensitive to me at least. It's not a bad thing at all as I have had to press my PC's keys twice for them to register.

Tech Support - This could be a MAJOR problem but she is going to Michigan State so I would imagine they have an IT help desk of some sort for help with her computer. Of course, it'll take them just a bit longer than the school she decided against (every chance I get to poke fun at MSU I take... sorry. Comes with my degree I guess.)

iChat - Let's face it. I made it through a whole summer without a cell phone in college but could've never done it without instant messaging. In college, it's your voicemail, notepad, telephone all wrapped up into one. It's important.

All the Free Time - I mean, let's face it productivity increases on OSX. It's prettier, more intuitive, and just works quicker. More study time means better grades. Better grades means happier parents. Happier parents means more things for Addam. So Steve Jobs, I thank you.

I've done my part. One convert to Apple with the rest of the family to come. Then more beyond that. I'm doing my part...


Bloggers everywhere are chiming in on this Apple switching to Intel chips thing. So why don't I pile on and join the fun?

Personally, it doesn't affect me. As long as my PowerBook runs at current Apple standards, I'm perfectly ok with it. Maybe it may even bring prices down some, which would be thrilling, seeing as Apple will now be running similar chips to PCs. If that happens, maybe Apple's market share will grow.

Todd Dominey writes is more elegantly than I so I'd say check out his review.


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