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Time for a new Mac Laptop

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  Time for a new Mac Laptop briang@panix.com (Brian Gordon) - 2011-11-03 23:50 -0400
    Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2011-11-04 10:10 -0500
    Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop Fred Moore <fmoore@gcfn.org> - 2011-11-04 11:57 -0400
      Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop Dan Becker <NoUCE@address.invalid> - 2011-11-04 18:14 -0400
        Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop Bill C <mousepoop.com@gmail.com> - 2011-11-27 13:13 -0800
          Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) - 2011-11-28 14:39 +1300
            Re: Time for a new Mac Laptop "M. John Matlaw" <mjlaw@invalid.invalid> - 2011-11-28 11:30 -0500

#277 — Time for a new Mac Laptop

My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can replace it.
I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more stuff can't run there.

I mainly do e-mail and web browsing.  If I want something laptop and fast,
what should I look at?  Ideally, it would be $2K or under ...  I don't have an
Apple Store in the area, and don't trust the "Apple untrained" sales folks at
any nearby store that just happens to carry some Macs.

-- 
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Brian Gordon     -->briang@panix.com<--     brian dot gordon at cox dot net |
+ brianggordon@hotmail.com   Bass: Lexington "Main Street Harmonizers" chorus +
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

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#278

In article <j8vne2$hbf$1@panix2.panix.com>,
 briang@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:

> My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can replace it.
> I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more stuff can't run there.
> 
> I mainly do e-mail and web browsing.  If I want something laptop and fast,
> what should I look at?  Ideally, it would be $2K or under ...  I don't have an
> Apple Store in the area, and don't trust the "Apple untrained" sales folks at
> any nearby store that just happens to carry some Macs.

If I were you, I'd order my new Mac from Apple's web site:

<http://store.apple.com>

For basic light use like email, web browsing, and so on, the MacBook Air 
seems like it would be a great balance of speed and portability. I've 
been considering one myself for this type of light use:

<http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_air>

Of course, the beefier MacBook Pro models are also under $2k:

<http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro>

-- 
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

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#281

In article <j8vne2$hbf$1@panix2.panix.com>,
 briang@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:

> My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can replace it.
> I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more stuff can't run there.
> 
> I mainly do e-mail and web browsing.  If I want something laptop and fast,
> what should I look at?  Ideally, it would be $2K or under ...  I don't have an
> Apple Store in the area, and don't trust the "Apple untrained" sales folks at
> any nearby store that just happens to carry some Macs.

For $2K you should be able to get a good machine. However, you need to 
specify a few other variables:

- What size screen?

- How much storage?

- Do you need more than the default 4MB of RAM?

Here are links for the MacBook Pro (there's no non-Pro anymore)
<http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro>

and the MacBook Air
<http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_air/select
>.

The Air's SSD storage makes it very fast, but 13" is the largest screen. 
It's also very light. However, no CD/DVD drive.

The Pro has up to a 17" screen, a faster processor, and much more, but 
slower storage. SSD is available at extra cost.

Especially since you're going to be buying a laptop, I'd budget for 
AppleCare in your total. Also, do you have an external harddrive for 
backups? What new software are you going to need?

I own neither of these, but many here do; so I'm sure they can chime in 
with their experiences.

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#283

In article <fmoore-DD95C6.11572104112011@news.eternal-september.org>,
Fred Moore <fmoore@gcfn.org> wrote:

> In article <j8vne2$hbf$1@panix2.panix.com>,
>  briang@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:
> 
> > My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can replace it.
> > I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more stuff can't run there.
> > 
> 
> For $2K you should be able to get a good machine. However, you need to 
> specify a few other variables:

In addition to Fred's good points, none of the software you have will
run on the new laptop. It will be using an Intel processor and Lion OS
10.7. None of the Power PC software will run on it. So you need to
budget for software too.

Dan

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#290

On Friday, November 4, 2011 3:14:25 PM UTC-7, Dan Becker wrote:
> In article <fmoore-DD95C6....@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Fred Moore <fmo...@gcfn.org> wrote:
> 
> > In article <j8vne2$hbf$1...@panix2.panix.com>,
> >  bri...@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:
> > 
> > > My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can replace it.
> > > I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more stuff can't run there.
> > > 
> > 
> > For $2K you should be able to get a good machine. However, you need to 
> > specify a few other variables:
> 
> In addition to Fred's good points, none of the software you have will
> run on the new laptop. It will be using an Intel processor and Lion OS
> 10.7. None of the Power PC software will run on it. So you need to
> budget for software too.
> 
> Dan

Can he dual boot Snow Leopard?

Better yet, has anyone figured out how to run Rosetta on Lion?

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#293

Bill C <mousepoop.com@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday, November 4, 2011 3:14:25 PM UTC-7, Dan Becker wrote:
> > In article <fmoore-DD95C6....@news.eternal-september.org>,
> > Fred Moore <fmo...@gcfn.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > In article <j8vne2$hbf$1...@panix2.panix.com>,
> > >  bri...@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:
> > > 
> > > > My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can
> > > > replace it. I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more
> > > > stuff can't run there.
> > > 
> > > For $2K you should be able to get a good machine. However, you need to
> > > specify a few other variables:
> > 
> > In addition to Fred's good points, none of the software you have will
> > run on the new laptop. It will be using an Intel processor and Lion OS
> > 10.7. None of the Power PC software will run on it. So you need to
> > budget for software too.
> 
> Can he dual boot Snow Leopard?

Current MacBook Pro models can still boot into Snow Leopard, but
installing it from the retail DVD will require help from an older Intel
Mac, since Snow Leopard needs to be installed and updated to 10.6.8
before it will work on a 2011 MacBook Pro.

The mid 2011 MacBook Air cannot run Snow Leopard. (No compatibile video
drivers, from what I've read.)

> Better yet, has anyone figured out how to run Rosetta on Lion?

Can't be done. Rosetta won't work on Lion unless Apple supplies PowerPC
code in all the system libraries and frameworks which can be used by
PowerPC applications.

The next best option is to run an older version of Mac OS X in a virtual
machine, and use Rosetta there. Apple only permits virtualization of Mac
OS X Server 10.5 and Mac OS X Server 10.6, not the cheaper non-server
versions, and not at all for 10.4.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

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#295

David Empson wrote:
> Bill C <mousepoop.com@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Friday, November 4, 2011 3:14:25 PM UTC-7, Dan Becker wrote:
>>
>>>In article <fmoore-DD95C6....@news.eternal-september.org>,
>>>Fred Moore <fmo...@gcfn.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>In article <j8vne2$hbf$1...@panix2.panix.com>,
>>>> bri...@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>My vintage 2000 PowerBook looks slower every day, so MAYBE I can
>>>>>replace it. I can't run any OS beyond 10.4.11, and more and more
>>>>>stuff can't run there.
>>>>
>>>>For $2K you should be able to get a good machine. However, you need to
>>>>specify a few other variables:
>>>
>>>In addition to Fred's good points, none of the software you have will
>>>run on the new laptop. It will be using an Intel processor and Lion OS
>>>10.7. None of the Power PC software will run on it. So you need to
>>>budget for software too.
>>
>>Can he dual boot Snow Leopard?
> 
> 
> Current MacBook Pro models can still boot into Snow Leopard, but
> installing it from the retail DVD will require help from an older Intel
> Mac, since Snow Leopard needs to be installed and updated to 10.6.8
> before it will work on a 2011 MacBook Pro.
> 
> The mid 2011 MacBook Air cannot run Snow Leopard. (No compatibile video
> drivers, from what I've read.)
> 
> 
>>Better yet, has anyone figured out how to run Rosetta on Lion?
> 
> 
> Can't be done. Rosetta won't work on Lion unless Apple supplies PowerPC
> code in all the system libraries and frameworks which can be used by
> PowerPC applications.
> 
> The next best option is to run an older version of Mac OS X in a virtual
> machine, and use Rosetta there. Apple only permits virtualization of Mac
> OS X Server 10.5 and Mac OS X Server 10.6, not the cheaper non-server
> versions, and not at all for 10.4.
> 
I don't think this contradicts anything that you've said but I think an 
Apple guy at the Apple store told me that one could not partition the 
internal drive of the new MacBook Pro and run Snow Leopard and Lion off 
it.  It's possible I got it wrong and perhaps he was referring to the 
MacBook Air.  Though I think he said the issue was going to be resolved 
in a future release.  Do you know if that limitation on the ability to 
dual boot from a partitioned internal MacBook Pro drive exists?

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