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When Is There a Good Time to "Switch" to Apple?

Posted by Cliff on from the best-time-to-hop-on-the-bandwagon dept.

AllNines asks: "With all the hype of MacWorld and the compelling keynote given by Steve Jobs about the upcoming Tiger and Spotlight, I am thinking about 'switching' (Linux user since '97) but I am not sure the time is right. It seems like the PowerBooks are getting very long in the tooth and the iPods are due for a major rev. When is the right time to jump on the Apple ship? Am I going to get burned by a sluggish overpriced laptop that is updated next month?"

2 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. At the workplace, when Apple introduce Mac "Metro" by NZheretic · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I have been looking at a friend's Mac Mini, and if it has 512 Meg of memory installed, it is a suitable replacement for Win9x/NT/Win2K and XP for a business desktop for the next five to seven year hardware upgrade cycle. However, IT management wise, there is no real signifcant advantage to deploying Mac Mini as networked desktops in bulk, incomparison to switching most the existing hardware over to a combination of diskless thin and slim ( running most programs on the client ) systems running Linux.

    If Apple were to introduce a Mini like diskless slim client, it would probably blow both Windows and Linux away. The diskless Mac "Metro" clients would connect via Gigabit ethernet to a Mac "Metro" Station, the latter performing the role of a raided iSCSI/Fileserver with an inbuilt network switch to directly connect each client.

    Sample Mac "Metro" client specs:
    Using the Mac Mini as a starting point
    Ditch the DVD and Hard drives,
    Make one to two Gigabtyes memory as standard,
    Upgrade the 100/10 Mib network to 1Gig,
    Boot using PXE,
    Run all programs on the client in ram, using iSCSI read only access for a common system partition, and dedicated zones server side for each client for swap and read write disk space,
    Cheap price, these diskless systems should be well under $100 US

    Mac "Metro" "Station" specs:
    Combination fileserver and high speed network switch,
    Sell four, eight to forty eight ( plus one/two uplink ) port variants, each can support the same number of Metro clients that connect to their own dedicated port,
    Raid array as standard, scaled to the number of clients supported,
    Filesystem versioning ( Revision tracking and control ) as standard for all document directories and intergrity checking for all filesystems,
    A DVD R/W ( or better ) drive for upgrade nd backups.

    At a low/suitable per client price, such a system could blow Microsoft out of the business desktop market.

  2. Just switched - very impressed by technogogo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I just got a bottom of the range iBook. It was for my wife who wanted a cheap laptop for email and surfing. We already had 3 PC's in the house - main one and kids have one each. I built these PCs myself. I also run Linux and have 15yrs IT experience (unix sys admin.)

    Basically did not want another XP system in the house. I spend too much time updating XP, zonealarm, adaware, spybot etc etc etc etc on the 3 existing PCs. Then checking no nasties have sneaked past. Simply did not want a forth system to hassle me.

    I did consider a cheap laptop with Linux but the windows tax put me off. Also from playing with employers laptops and linux I know that not everything works - like power management - without tinkering. I know how to fix that kind of thing but did not want to have to, if that makes sense.

    For my wife I wanted a simple appliance. Zero admin overhead. The iBook fitted the bill. All I can say is that it is fantastic. Its only the 12inch lowest spec (with a 60Gb drive.) Not even put extra memory in it yet. But its plenty fast enough for everyday use. Battery life is amazing. The iLife programs are a lot of fun. No registry. Whole apps are single files. Not files spewed all over the system. Mac OS has proper multi-user with fine user privilege controls. So no worries about the kids accidently resetting the wep key - even if they are using an admin account (it prompts to re-enter passwd.) Lots of interesting and useful features that are so easy to find. I felt at home with Mac OS immediately. I was pleasantly surprised to find there is no shortage of software out there - for example, I found a great DVD ripper within 5mins of looking. I love it. Now we fight over who gets to use the iBook! I did not expect to be even using it.