Switch Back, Forth, Back, Forth

Whilst I tend to use my computers until they’re in the ground, I do seem to have a periodic refresh, and not just to the same platform.

Mostly I have switched between Apple and Windows but threw Linux into that mix for a couple of years. For the time being I am not using Linux on my computers, work demand is such that I need to run a lot of Windows applications at the moment, most notably SQL Server 2005. On the laptop front, that is more my personal computer than my desktop is, which is  really just a workhorse.

I have been using Macs on and off since 1994, and Windows PCs for the same time. I sold my PowerBook in late 2006 due to financial reasons, and then got a Power Macintosh G4 which I upgraded massively, but then had to sell that when things got tight. Eventually I ended up with a Dell PC, and my current ThinkPad T40 (which I have had now for about 3 years.)

I have had a bit of a clear out and up until last week I only had my new desktop PC (the only new desktop computer I have ever owned) which runs Vista (which is just fine thanks), an old iMac G3 which gets used as a DVD and CD player as well as basic MS Office machine and the ThinkPad. I sold my eMac as it wasn’t getting used, a second Dell which was going to be a network attached storage device was sold. And now the ThinkPad wil be sold too.

Why?

I got my Apple notebook back this week. Partly because a job I’m doing which needs a Mac but because since December 2006 I was gutted having to sell my pride a joy PowerBook 12″ which I saved long and hard for. I haven’t bought a PowerBook, nor a new Mac notebook - they’re too expensive for what they are (no really they are, sorry Apple die-hards but you can get a much better Windows laptop for much less, and as nice as OS X is, it isn’t worth an additional £400-600 on top of a similar specification Windows laptop for a MacBook (white or new aluminium one.)

However, selling a ThinkPad for £140 and buying an iBook 12″ from mid-2005 (I used to sell this exact model when I worked for Apple) with 1.33ghz processor for £250 seemed very decent value overall.

I know Apple has very speedly moved away from its PowerPC platform and in some respects is now discontinuing support for some applications and the next version of OS X is probably going to be Intel only — that’s just a fact of owning an Apple machine.

But the iBook is still a very nice laptop.