For some time now I've been salivating for a Mac laptop. The PowerBooks are really nice, but quite expensive as well, and the iBooks are also nice, but had a much smaller screen, difficult on my aging eyeballs. So, when Apple announced its new 14" version of the iBook, I immediately took notice.

This is a sweet machine. It's really nice to be sitting here on my sofa connected via AirPort to my DSL network upstairs, with complete access to everything. I can easily print to my networked Epson C80 printer, access my Windows 2000 share server, access any of my various Mac shares around the house, and of course, access the Internet at full speed.

I did have some reservations before my purchase, however, so I'll place them on the table right now and address them. First off, this is a G3 Mac, and it's pretty obvious that Apple is rapidly moving everything to the G4, so obsolescence is virtually guaranteed within the next few months to a year, depending on Apple's marketing plans for the upcoming school year. Also, with the G3 there was a concern that it would be sluggish with MacOS X. And, of course, it still uses the old ATI Rage 128 graphics chip, again being rapidly replaced by Apple.

So, how does it all hold together? Fine, just fine. My new iBook has 384MB of RAM, the 30GB hard drive, and the AirPort card. I partitioned the drive into three volumes, one my MacOS X Startup, one my Classic Startup, and one for Data (which also has a MacOS 9 startup system for utility repairs). With this configuration, I can run virtually everything I want to. I've installed Microsoft Office v.X, Graphic Converter, Transmit, iPhoto, and AppleWorks in the MacOS X volume, in addition to all Apple's standard software. In my MacOS 9 volume, I've installed my old FileMaker Pro and HTML Editor software, since I don't have MacOS X versions of those applications. I've also installed my copy of Norton SystemWorks on both my OS 9 volumes, so I can boot up in either to perform routine system maintenance without the CD (the Norton CD will NOT boot the iBook).

Speed is great. I've noticed virtually no sluggishness. In fact, the 600Mhz iBook is indistinguishable from my 450Mhz G4 Tower in responsiveness. DVD movies play smoothly with the DVD/CD-RW drive. I can't address games on the iBook yet, since I haven't installed any, but I'm sure I will notice a hit with the aging ATI Rage 128 graphics chip, vice the Radeon I'm using on the G4 Tower. And, the new lithium-ion battery works great. I've seen the battery display in the menu report up to five and a half hours, although typically it reports around four hours with the screen brightness to full, as it is right now.

Of course, with MacOS X, I virtually never shutdown the G4 Tower anymore, just putting it to sleep when I'm not using it. I now do exactly the same thing with the iBook, only now I only have to close the laptop to put it immediately to sleep. A little soft white light pulses slowly on the front of the iBook to let you know it's sleeping. Opening the laptop starts up everything in less than a second, leaving you exactly where you left off. It even reconnects to the AirPort router automatically, restoring my access to everything on the network.

So, if you're looking for an affordable mobile Mac solution, the new 14" iBook really fills the bill. When I finish drafting this in my HTML Editor running under Classic, I'll save it to my Data volume, start up my FTP application Transmit in MacOS X (which will automatically connect to the SAUG Internet web server at Inreach), and copy the file online, all without leaving the sofa. Of course, I could as easily have done all this from a lawn chair in my backyard, but it's raining out there right now. ;-)

- Dave Marsh

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