Apple the big purchase question

At the moment I'm in a bind. I'm a graphic designer with a pc and a mac mini, but due to work, I need a laptop. The question is this, should I get a macbook pro, the top of the line powerbook, or a pc laptop.

here are my pros and cons:

macbook:
+ new core duo chipset much faster than other models
- no universal binary versions of adobe products till probably next year
- price, 2000$+

powerbook:
+ have all the software i need to work with no problem
- will soon be outdated possibly phased out by fall
- fear companies will only produce ub versions of software

pc laptop:
+ have all software i need to work with no problem
+ also has core duo systems
- working in mac heavy enviroment
- not fond of windows at all and vista doesn't impress me that much

this might seem stupid to some but i'm sure i'm not the only one that has come across this issue. right now pc laptop imo is my better option until the end of the year when all this ibook, macbook, universal binaries mess is finally sorted out. any suggestions or thought are helpful. thanks

 

Powerbooks won't be phased out for a while most likely...

next step for dual cores is most likely to be the iBooks... powerbooks are liable to be phased out completely (once universal softwar suites are available..)


also, need will dictate what to get... as of right now, macbooks and the new dual core imacs are 3-4 week backordered

 

yea, i've heard that they are on back order, but i didn't think that long. looking better for pc laptop

 

That means the software will be compatible with the powerbook as well as new intel systems, therefore thats a +

 

currently apple retail stores, as well as the apple online store estimate a 3-4 week ship time due to backorders...

you might be able to find a top end macbook from a compusa/bet buy locally at the standard rates or a bit higher (sometimes they mark up a small amount)

else, get a nice powerbook and enjoy the support of all of your current software... although a lot of the software all ready works on the new intel macbooks... some of it (such as virtual pc) does not... though I expect a lot of the major software suites (adobe etc) all ready work properly (ms office 2004 does thats for sure)

 

thats the main pain in the arse. i need illustrator and photoshop, but not if they are gonna run twice as slow. on top of that i forgot that by ousting my desktop pc i'd have nothing to play games on

 

See what Apple release tomorrow, perhaps? It is a tricky one. As much as it pains me to say it, I probably wouldn't get a Powerbook now. Although I love my PB 12" I'm typing on now, it doesn't seem to compare with the MBP (I hate that full name - MacBook Pro) in the benchmarks. However, in Rosetta (I.e. Photoshop), the PB is faster. And my Powerbook is nowhere near as powerful as a decent PC for photoshop. If I used nothing but photoshop all the time, I would probably have a PC lappy, IMO the PPCs can't compare in terms of raw power.

As much as I love OS X - I don't see why it is that all graphic designers seem to like Macs so much. I don't really understand the difference - Photoshop on the Mac is exactly the same as on the PC, the shortcuts are the same, the file types are the same, the filters are the same. I'm not really sure how Macs help the creative process. In that respect, just get a PC if all you do is photochopping.

I think I would probably wait for now and get a 2nd generation MBP when the bugs are ironed out and more programs are available as universal binaries.

 

macs have optimized the graphics interfacing so colors are more accurate and they've optimized the os to get it to interface with the software etc...

it's actually quite interesting how it's done with Aqua and all

 

My apple obsessed friend said to go with the PC.

 

and the voice in my head told me you're making stuff up.

the macbooks run photoshop under rosetta at about the speed of a G4 - some things are faster, some things are slower, but the general experience is comparable. the fact a UB isn't available for it yet is a bitch, yeah. perhaps the best solution would be to buy a ******, cheapo wintel machine now, ebay it and buy a macbook when adobe products are available in UB form, or at least we can boot windows on them?

 

in all likeliness, you'll be seeing UB products by June or July, and WinE for the macbooks in august or sept

 

Yeah, I really can't believe Adobe will take the quoted 18 months to release an x86 version of Photoshop (CS2) for Mac. Especially as they obviously have the x86 PC version up and running just fine. They're shooting their main customers (Mainly mac users, for reasons I STILL don't really understand) in the foot.

 

do you do most of your work on a mac or a pc? ie which one are you most comfortable using?
if its pc then get the best pc laptop you can
if its mac then i say wait and get the next revision of the macbook pro when the kinks have been worked out and most of the stuff is running properly on it

 

well intel core duo laptops are out on a pc. But also i woudl recommend getting a mac book pro then installing windows on it - best of both worlds? OR do it vice versa get a new intel core duo laptop and install a os-x onto it (hacked version obviously)

Phil

 

Well no-one has (as yet) managed to get Windows onto an Intel Mac as far as I'm aware. I imagine it'll come at some point (even if that point is with Vista).

I had a quick foray into running OS X on a PC when my iBook got nicked and I was missing OS X. But it just didn't really work. It was buggy as hell and slow also (Athlon 64 3200+). Plus there were very few programs that actually ran properly. So I would never recommend that.

 

as for which OS i'm more comfortable width, the answer is both. i can use either with no issues. and with no real announcement worth a damn i guess i'm gonna go with the pc laptop until around the fall. by then all the models should be out and all the UB versions of programs out or have a release date set in stone.

 

It's because it's coming with CS3 along with Windows in the usual upgrade cycle. I wish they'd just get their act together and both Adobe and Apple's sales would increase.

 

what ever happened to "load your code up in Xcode, check PowerPC, check Intel, hit compile."

i didnt think it was that hard...
anyways, have you though about macbook pro and maybe gimp for a while?

 

Are you suggesting that he recompile Photoshop and other large graphic design programs? If so, where do you suggest he gets the source for it...

Also, you're a complete idiot if you consider The GIMP to be a powerful photo editing program. It's better than MS Paint, and maybe better than an option such as Paint Shop Pro or something along those lines, but definitely nowhere up to par with Photoshop...

Anyway, I would say go with the PC laptop. Having a G4 iBook and tons of PCs, I can comfortably say that going back and forth between the two is no hassle at all as far as compatibility goes, and you'll be much better off in the end with a PC laptop, both in terms of program compatibility and actual power.

 

I think he was suggesting that's all Adobe would need to do to create a Photoshop CS2 universal binary