Now that the powerbook is here...(weigh in your opinion)

AdmiralAK

AdmiralAK

Simply Daemonic
Well here we are... powerbook is in the box..well I took it out and put it back so that I can open the box again ;)

Now I have an crossover ethernet cable to connect my G3 and my powerbook (I have done this a million times in the past). This way I can just drag and drop my personal documents to my laptop. I have a few questions for people to weigh in.

(1) To partition or not to partition? On my desktop I have 3 partitions. (a) Operating System (b) Applications (c) Documents/images/music/VPC images. I am not really in a "format your brand-spanking new hard-drive, parition and reinstall everything that is already installed". Is there any benefit to going through the trouble of all of the above to have three partitions?

(2) What is a painless way to get my iCal calendars and contacts onto the powerbook? Obviously I can export stuff, but is this the best way? There is a free 60 day trial of .Mac that I could use if I were to use .Mac. What do you guys think?

(3) I bought a laptop bag for it, but it will be here in one week (next tuesday). Should I refrain from taking the laptop with me until I get something secure (i.e. the bag)?

(4) Region-Free-ing --> My G3 is region free, I had patched the firmware 3-4 years ago. Has anyone done this on their 15" powerbook? I will try it but not right away - I am looking for some feedback.

(5) iSight --> do people use it? what do you think? worthwhile to get?


My usage for the laptop (which might help you answer the above questions)

1) School (papers, spreadsheets, surfing, email, FTP)
2) Work (Database, email, spreadsheets, photoshop, dreamweaver)
3) Personal (Virtual PC with several VPC images)
4) Entertainment (Video Gaming, DVD, VCD, Audio CD, MP3)



Admiral
 
1) keep one big partition. The only benefit you'll really get from having multiple, it's easier to have multiple copies of OS X installed, say you can do a CarbonCopyClone from one partition to another, and upgrade that copy, if the upgrade fails, you just boot to the original.
2) Copy them :) For iCal find the .ics files in ~/Library/Calendars. For Address Book all the files are in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook.
3) I'd wait for your bag :)
5) depends, some people have one and use it,some have one and don't. do you like videoconferencing? if so, sure, get it :)

Brian
 
1) I have 2 partitions, one for OS and one for files. Panther, however, seems to not like that too much, and it's actually more of a hassle than it is a benefit.
3) If you have a backpack, toss it in there. If you're worried about scratches, didn't a sleeve come with the laptop?

Congrats on your new purchase, may you never need send it to repair.
 
Thanks :)
Also does anyone know how to apply for or what steps to take for teh apple up-to-date program? I want to get a copy of iLife '04 (which I read on here that I can get for free...well with a $20 shipping charge) since I bought my powerbook last week (after january 6th). What is the process for this? what do I need?


Admiral
 
A sleeve did come with the laptop, as a matter of fact it is still in the sleeve :p
(I opened the box touched the laptop as if it were a brick of gold, and hid it again in it's box LOL -- I will open it though tonight so that I can play with it :p)
 
Having multiple partitions can have some benefits, but aren't necessary or for everyone.

I myself have setup my drive on both my laptop and desktop as follows: MacOSX (system partition), Users (takes the place of the users folder), and Applications (takes place of the applications folder). Then on my laptop I have another partition for misc. storage, and my desktop I have another drive for misc. storage.

One of the nice things about this type of setup is that it makes installing future upgrades (full upgrades) of OS X easier. For example all my user account data and installed applications remained on their separate partitions. Then when I went to install 10.3 I did a clean install on the main (system partition), then moved all the "updated" 10.3 applications to my applications partition, plus I didn't have to mess around with all my user data and preferences.

Now like I said earlier, this type of setup isn't for everyone as it requires you to make some modifications to a file called fstab via the command line. Making these modifications tells the OS that those two partitions are actually the default folders for both Users and Applications.

The benefit to this, is that any software installs/updates are put in the right place, if the default install location is the Applications folder.

If you would like any further information, please let me know and I'll post it here on how to set it up.
 
voice- said:
Congrats on your new purchase, may you never need send it to repair.
Click to expand...

a little off-topic perhaps, but your comment prompts me to chime in and you'll see the relevance:

After 1.5 years of pretty heavy (and mobile) use, my G4 TiBook 800 (DVI) started showing some age: cracked top case at front left corner, lotsa paint chips on top case from those little rubber nubbies wearing out (not the feet, although one of those was missing, but the tiny rubber bumps that stop the display from hitting the top case when closing), and the combo drive suddenly could do everything EXCEPT serve as boot.

Only because of the combo drive problem, I called Apple (I bought 3-year AppleCare, this was my first usage of it). They said send it in they'll check it out, and did I want any other cosmetic fixes. I said "unless you can replace those tiny nubbies, I don't think so" because the crack was my fault etc.

They returned it in three days (!) with a new top case (all new top plastics), a new combo drive, rubber feet, and a spankin new (and wiped) 60 GB hard drive! Looks and almost feels like a brand new machine :) .

So the moral and relevance to this thread: consider purchasing extended AppleCare, unless you know you'll buy a new 'book in 18 months anyway. My machine is still quite capable and with these fixes should go a long ways yet.
 
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