The short version: Work laptop had a hard drive crash, completely shot without warning. Happily, almost all files and data are backed up to a network. I'm clunking along on a replacement laptop waiting for it to be fixed, but am thinking I should really have a separate laptop for lugging around.

So we have an iBook at home sitting next to a printer. Its job these days is to print greeting cards. That's it. It seemed like a good idea at the time to purchase it for my wife, but it was a disaster. Hardware failures, trips to Apple Store, shipped to factory twice. It seems to work OK now, but the cheap replacement laptop (a lightweight Toshiba Satellite) I purchased for the month it was gone is such a great machine that my wife won't use the Apple for anything except greeting cards (which it does very well).

So, the question: is it worth the trouble to upgrade the OSX from 10.29 to something higher so that I can run a Windows emulator to run the various Windows applications I use? Or should I buy another cheap laptop? Right now it has 512 in memory, but I think it can go up to 1 GB (but try to find that info on Apple's website!!).

Software I use include Adobe Acrobat Pro, MS Office, E-Sword, Noteworthy Composer, Dragon Speaking, and a bunch of propriatary legal-oriented software. I never thought of myself as a power user, but I routinely have 3 or 4 applications running at the same time and I use them all.

One other thing, the Safari browser on the iBook just plain stinks. Many sites don't support it (including the official State of Washington website--heh!). It is unstable and crashes a lot. You can't upgrade the browser without upgrading the OS. Netscape came with it and it crashes too.

Heh. The more I type the better that Office Depot sale on Windows machines looks. Tell me if the iBook is worth salvaging.

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Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

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It sounds like that particular MacBook is a lemon - you might try another if you're into Mac. Otherwise you're in for another learning-period about why your wife only uses it for greeting-cards!

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

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Is it the white G3 model?

I have upgraded my Ibook G3 to 10.4, but it is pretty slow. I wouldn't recommend you try to run a windows emulator on the G3. It would be really slow. I mainly use mine to surf and run a few ports in the terminal.

If you let me know what model it is. I can send you a list of the ram you can use in it.

With the price of laptops today, you are better off buying new and something you can use without an emulator than trying to get an older Ibook to work for you.

__________________
Josh Taylor
Verde Valley Reformed Chapel, OPC
Cottonwood, AZ

I use a Toshiba Satellite (very small) and like it just fine.

__________________
Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Sorry, I should have said G4. It is white with the 12" screen. I can't remember any other details except the 1.2 MHz processor. They quit making them about a year after we bought it.

I think you are right about getting a laptop that doesn't need emulators. It just seemed such a waste to let that cute li'l icon of Apple greatness to just sit around.

On your Ibook you have 256 MB of ram built in on the logic board.
1 slot that supports PC-2100 200-pin SO-DIMM (PC-2700 is supported, but will only run at 266 MHZ)

Max ram is 1.25 GB (1 gig stick in slot and 256 MB on board)

you could run firefox as an alternative browser or an older version of IE.