Proud iBook owner

As recently chronicled, my Powerbook is no longer viable as a portable notebook computer. This makes me sad. :'(

The obvious silver lining, of course, is that it provided an opportunity for a new purchase. So I umm-ed and ahh-ed about the new MacBook Pro, but it was pretty hard to justify the four or five grand it would cost me. And everyone warns you off getting the first release of a new generation of Apple hardware.

Also, as much as I love the 15" wide screen, the idea of the 12" form factor was very attractive–most of the non-desk places I’m likely to use a laptop lend themselves to small and light.

So it came down to either a 12" PowerBook or iBook. I finally settled on the iBook. While it’s even slower than my old Powerbook, the price factor was too good to ignore. Essentially, it would have cost me about $1,000 more for the 20% speed boost and marginally smaller size/weight of the PowerBook. I can save that money now and upgrade to a high-end Intel model sooner rather than later.

And perhaps more to the point, the iBook is less “precious”… I’ll feel more comfortable throwing it in my bag and whacking it out on the table of the local coffee shop, not having to worry about sullying its lovely finish.

I’ll be keeping it away from open milk cartons though…