iBook - Good Idea? Bad Idea?

I've been thinking about purchasing a 12" iBook and I was curious if anyone here has had any experience with the iBooks? Are they good? Are they bad? Should they be avoided like the plague or embraced like the Stanley Cup?

I have a friend who has an iBook....it was a great laptop, the only thing with his was that he had only 128 MB but if you get a new one it should be more than that so it won't be a problem.

I was actually thinking of getting one myself but I got sucked into a Toshiba. I'd say go for it. :thumbu:

ibooks are CRAP! Don't get one. Get a Toshiba. I've had one for a year and no problems yet (except that the AC adapter got broken because my brother damaged the wire by walking by, damn clutz).

iBooks are fine, like most Macs as long you have plenty of RAM and don't play a lot of games. For your typical office and multimedia apps, Macs are fine. Only problem with Macs, is that you pay a premium over most PC's.

iBooks are fine, like most Macs as long you have plenty of RAM and don't play a lot of games. For your typical office and multimedia apps, Macs are fine. Only problem with Macs, is that you pay a premium over most PC's.

My iBook cost me a lot less than my Toshiba laptop, and any performance difference is negligible for the kind of things I do with my laptop (web browsing, ssh, Office docs). Besides, if you want a good gaming laptop then you're definitely going to end up paying more than you would for an iBook.

When it comes to desktops I go for PCs over Macs, but for a laptop the iBook (especially the 12") is a great value. A few of my PC-oriented friends also got away from PC laptops when the current iBooks came along. Definitely pay the few extra bucks for wireless and extra RAM though.

Download OpenOffice (and X11) and you've got nearly full compatibility with MS office at zero cost.

Considering the relative lack of upgradeability (and thus short lifespan) of most laptops, it seems silly to me to pay more than you need to for one. And on a bang for buck basis, at this point the iBook beats the snot out of any PC laptop.

Of course, an even better bang for the buck option might be to grab an older laptop on the cheap and install linux on it.

Thanks for the input. I'm definitely putting in a load more RAM (aka 768MB). I have no problem with not being able to play games, and from what I've been told it'll be powerful enough to handle most of my lower-end music apps.

Powerbooks are sexier. :)

Powerbooks are sexier. :)

But not better performing enough to justify the price difference.

Plus I've heard about the metal cases on those machines warping because of the heat.