A PC using friend dropped by the house a few weeks ago to spend some
hands on time with my Macintosh systems in preparation for a Christmas
purchase. He spent a great deal of time using my new 17" iMac and my iBook 500.
His initial thought and budget was geared toward one of the new
1 GHz PowerBooks.
His major concern with that course was moving to a laptop as his
primary machine. Although he loves the capability of the current
PowerBook, he does like the upgrade options of a tower machine. As we
discussed his uses, I realized that he could easily compromise.
The portability of a laptop is important as he travels about 40% of
his work time. During his travel, he uses his laptop for basic office
work, including presentations using PowerPoint. The remainder of his
computer work takes place from his home office. His budget had been set
at $3,000 plus change for the new machine.
Over the course of a few hours, I recommended the following plan.
Don't settle on a laptop or a tower - buy both. We spent some time
confirming that he liked the form and function of the iBook 500. I
mentioned that for the best balance of rugged build and portability,
the iBook was the best choice.
We then headed to the local CompUSA to allow him to get some hands
on time with the new 800
MHz iBook. We noted that OS X performance was much improved
over my older model. The faster processor and updated video subsystem
made OS X a joy to use.
The next trial was a new dual processor Power Mac. We
worked with the 867 MHz and 1 GHz systems, and he made the
determination that the 867 would be a good fit for his usage and his
budget. Once we had validated this machine, we headed to the Internet
to find the best deals.
I directed him to Small
Dog and a few other well-known online dealers and said good-bye
for the weekend. I received a call on Wednesday with an invitation to
come over for a new machine setup party.
In the technology realm, I find nothing more fun than setting up a
new Macintosh box. Setting up two was to good to pass up, and I did
feel a sense of responsibility to making sure his initial setup went
smoothly.
Over the course of a few hours, we had set up the Power Mac in his
office and were completing a repartitioning of the default hard drive.
After the drives were set, we began the software installs on the Power
Mac adding Office:X and about 5 GB of additional applications. We
then moved his important office documents and presentations to the new
machine.
He was having so much fun, he almost forgot about the iBook. I took
a turn driving the Power Mac while he spent some quality time with the
new iBook. During the installation process, he asked about buying a
switch to allow him to use one monitor with both the Power Mac and
iBook. I asked him how often would he want to use the iBook at his desk
with a Power Mac already in place. Assuming where my question was
leading, he answered that it would probably be cheaper to simply
exchange the files over the network and use the Power Mac.
At this point, I grabbed a FireWire cable from my bag to show him my
favorite (and most underutilized) Macintosh feature. I asked him to
turn the iBook off and restart holding down the "T" key during startup.
This caused the iBook to boot into FireWire Target Disk Mode, changing
the machine into one large FireWire drive.
I showed him that he could simply mount the iBook as a drive on the
Power Mac and then use all of the peripherals connected to the Power
Mac to run the 'Books applications and access its data. In this manner,
he could effectively think of his iBook as a traveling hard drive.
I explained that I knew of users who plug a Mac laptop into a
desktop while in the office, and then carry the work, apps, and files
home in their laptop. This eliminates the difficulties in managing
work/office information and provides a simple way to back up data at
the end of each day.
I left him after a long day of setup and asked him to call if he had
any questions. I heard nothing from him and dropped a follow up call a
week later. He was absolutely smitten with his new Macintosh computers
and was proudly using his iBook as his primary office machine.
No machine has the balance of cost, features, portability of the
current iBook line. He mentioned that he uses the iBook the majority of
the time based on the ability to walk around the house with a wireless
connection.
After we left, I thought of a few of the main topics we discussed
which would be a value to all switchers.
The top 5 list of interesting facts you need to know when switching
to a Macintosh (focus on portables):
- FireWire Target Disk Mode. Your laptop acts as a hard drive (this
also works with desktop Macs).
- iPod as a hard drive. You can store applications, documents, even
an operating system on your iPod.
- Never turn off the machine. The sleep mode is great and allows for
fast access to the machine.
- AppleWorks will read and write .doc files.
- Run at least two partitions. It is much easier to troubleshoot a
machine with multiple partitions.
