My IBook is 3yrs old. Do I feel like spending $2k+ for a (lower-end) Power Book?

• how about if it's ultra-portable and $1500?

  • Dec27: ooh looks like will be out sooner than I expected.

  • hmm, I wonder if a machine that cheap will be any faster than what I have?

  • hmm, what if I have a lite LapTop, but a MacMini for a Home Server?

  • they'll supposedly announce a 3G IPhone for 3Q2008 delivery, but most people wouldn't be able to take advantage of that anyway...

  • Jan update: it's the Mac Book Air: super-thin

Or maybe do I try one of these low-end [Cheap Laptop]-s that have hit the marketplace ($300-500)? I don't call these Super Cheap Laptop-s for arbitrary reasons.

If it's going to be a lower-end machine, will I be happier going with LinuxOS instead of Ms Windows? Or will hardware issues drive me nuts?

Or do I try to run MacOsX on an InTel machine?

And will the weight drive me nuts? I expect to be carrying this thing around more than I have been lately.

(Heh, maybe I won't do anything until my OLPC shows up.:)

Ugh, more complexity: JiHi may be home for months between gigs, so is thinking she wants a machine. But her ongoing requirements may include Ms Exchange integration, which slides toward getting an Ms Windows machine. But maybe that would stay a cheap/crummy machine, and if she has "real" stuff to get done then switch over to Mac? (Or spend more for higher-end Mac that will run Ms Windows on Parallels?)

• ugh, running Ms Entourage against Ms Exchange sounds like a nightmare. (At least in that version. Maybe the new version is better, though it seems to come only as part of the $400 Ms Office bundle which is semi pointless.)

Next steps

• try GMail on the OLPC: works fine

• try Ms Outlook WebMail interface on the OLPC.

  • actually, that's not worth worrying about, since when she's between gigs she won't need Ms Exchange integration

• research current realistic state of Ms Exchange integration with MacOsX.

• get PHP/MAMP running on my IBook to see whether it's usable

Outcome: bought MacBook (not Pro) for me, [IMac] (plus $400 for Ms Office-Mac-2008, which supposedly include Ms Exchange support) for her.

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