Home > Consumer Reviews > APPLE IBOOK G4-1.33G 512MB 40GB COMBO (DVD/CDRW) Optical Drive Airport Xtreme BlueTooth 56K

Having realised that all I ever really use on my PC laptop is email/Internet/MS Office, the thought of getting an iBook took shape in my mind. I asked a few Mac users about the whole 'how compatible with my old PC files?' questions and found positive responses. Now I have just bought one and I'm transferring everything from my Windows XP machine without any trouble at all. This machine is very small, light, though fast and with a superb battery life. I have found it an excellent step into the world of Apple products - especially as I have not used a Mac since 1990! I'd recommend any PC user looking at new laptops to compare them to the iBook - once you get over the Apple v Windows issue then this machine does compare well. As well as great performance, it also looks fantastic!

I am (still) a power PC user (and before that a mainframe and Fortran user - but that is a story for another place and time). I have used quite a number of versions of Windows on quite a variety of desktop and portables both at work and at home (I used to build my own home systems), and I still use Windows on a PC in the office. When faced with upgrading my home system I decided to try a Mac for three reasons. Firstly, my wife would probably be able to better understand and manage a Mac. Secondly, I wanted to do more with my music and photo collections, and the Mac looked like a better option. Thirdly, I felt that Mac offered a more robust and secure platform, and I liked the approach to WiFi. So I started by buying an iBook G4 for my wife. Within 2 months I had bought a PowerBook G4 for myself. The Mac is an impressive machine, and very easy to set up and connect to the Internet (using WiFi). On the other hand, being a typical Windows-man it took me quite a while to adapt to the way OS X works and all the features, etc. Using a Mac means thinking about things in a different way, this is more than just changing the odd menu, it is more a different way of imagining how to do things and how the machine should work. It also took me a while to get all the software together and Office is quite an expensive package what ever option you take. So I use my PowerBook and my wife has her iBook. She has a technical background and has adopted the Mac without any difficulties, even if she is not a demanding user. What is important is that OS X is a very robust system. My wife has had no problems at all with her iBook and both of us wholeheartedly recommended both the machine and the "Mac experience".

This laptop is well worth the money.

So, it's now a windows operating system, but you can buy windows for the mac and lots of downloads and programs run on the mac. The only problem you might have is if you use specific software at work that you need to work on at home, that only works with windows.

It seems to get better and better as you discover new functions and capabilities.