Is anyone else sick and tired of the "Laptop Hunter" campaign? It's
obviously a lame attempt to combat Apple's hilarious "I'm a Mac" ads. Microsoft's
latest feeble attempts have college students looking for a notebook
computer, promising them the computer free if they find one under a
particular price point (in one example, under $1,000). It's obviously
scripted, and the student seems to always "choose" a PC and point out
the higher price of a Mac.
What they failed to mention, as usual - and what the Apple ads have
to always point out - is the fact that Macs just work, have a better
OS, are packed with features, and don't have the plague of viruses that
typically affect Windows PCs. In the end, it just boils down to the old
saying: "You get what you pay for."
Where is this leading?
The Snow Leopard Advantage
Today marks the release of Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard",
an operating system truly built for the future that will start taking
full advantage of 64-bit computing today without the user
needing any awareness of it. Those who own hardware that supports all
of Snow Leopard's features* are in for a treat! Snow Leopard will seem
like nothing new on the surface - until you start seeing certain
computations running up to 50%
faster!
None of this is news to those of us in the Apple community, but mark
my word, Snow Leopard is going to hunt down its prey with a mighty roar
when it pounces the market today. The PC market has no clue what's
about to hit it!
Why Would Anyone Want a Windows PC?
After thinking about Snow Leopard, why on earth would you even want
a 17" Windows PC notebook that's not nearly as capable and is certainly
not as enticing? Why would you want something that is much more prone
to malware and virus attacks? I wonder how much you'll be enjoying that
brand new 17" display when you receive a Trojan email that your virus
protection doesn't catch.
Maybe they'll get it right with Windows 7. There's a lot of
uncertainty there, and that's the reality for a Windows PC.
Mac users just don't have to worry: "It just works."
Alternatives in the $1,000 Range
All broken Windows aside - If I were a student, and I happened to
have my mind set on a 17" notebook, I would seriously ask myself if I
needed that much screen real estate on a portable. A MacBook White combined with
a nice dorm room sized 22" flat panel high-def LCD display would be
just fine.
You get all the absolute necessities with a MacBook right out of the
box that you can't have with a PC: ultra portability, excellent
graphics and processing power for the price, along with the extreme
engineering of Mac OS X and iLife '09. Buy it today, and it comes
with Snow Leopard - putting you on the cutting edge, making you ready
for the future of 64-bit computing free of any extra charge!
If my budget were $1,000 and I had to choose a notebook, it would be
a brand new MacBook White - or perhaps a refurbished 13" MacBook Pro, both
priced at just $999. You could even watch the refurbished list and wait
for a $749 or $849 refurbished WhiteBook and add that nice 22" high-def
monitor - and still be right at or just a hair under $1,000.
On the other hand, if you absolutely need to have a 17" portable for
under $1,000 and you were a student just doing basic stuff, a gently
used 17" PowerBook G4
1.67 GHz hi-res would be more than sufficient with it's gorgeous
1680 x 1050 screen. It's not blazing fast compared to the latest
MacBook Pro or recent 17" Windows machines, but it's sleek, reliable,
and should be enough for the average user who needs a large canvas.
If you must have Intel, an early 17" MacBook Pro can
easily be found for under $1,000, and it's even faster and more capable
than the fastest G4 PowerBooks, albeit a bit less sexy (the word
PowerBook just does it for me).
A Long Term Solution
In any case, either machine should last just fine all the way
through college. Seeing that both models are three to four years old, a
fresh battery may be in order (unless you get lucky), and a fresh PRAM
battery is inevitable within the next few years, but these investments
are minimal.
Consider this: Five years from now, your 8-to-9-year-old MacBook Pro
or PowerBook G4 should still work fine, provided that you take care
with it, and it should still have a bit of usefulness and value left
too. A new MacBook or MacBook Pro purchased today will have plenty of
life left in five years and should still be holding value, provided it
was well taken care of.
The gold standard for Macs is revealing itself: Macs are proving
reliable for a decade - and possibly beyond. Ask anyone today who owns
a Pismo PowerBook
(manufactured in 2000).
Now do you still really want that 17" notebook PC?
Dan Bashur lives in central Ohio with his wife and children. He uses various PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Tiger and Leopard. Besides finding new uses for Macs and other tech, Dan enjoys writing (fantasy novel series in the works), is an avid gamer, and a member of Sony's Gamer Advisor Panel. You can read more of Dan Bashur's work on ProjectGamers.com, where he contributes regular articles about the PSP, classic gaming, and ways you can use Sony gaming hardware with your Mac.
