[Pythonmac-SIG] the iBook's irresistible charms

[Alex Martelli]

Paul Sargent writes:

>>> to the Mac, having just bought my very first ever for Christmas (12" 
>>> iBook
>>> G4 -- I think I've installed all current SW and upgrades, incl. OSX 
>>> 10.3.2,
>>
>> That must be a virus - I did just the same (not "Christmas" but 
>> "end-of-yearly-budget spending frenzy", but the result is the same). 
>> Welcome to the club ;-)
>>
>> I find the iBook positively addictive. I got one because of the nice 
>> combination of size, weight, and autonomy, but I find myself prefer 
>> it to my desktop machine more and more because the iBook is so 
>> silent.

Oh yes!  And, in my case, preferring it to other laptops because the 
screen is crystal-sharp, the low weight makes it comfortable on my lap 
as I curl up in my favourite armchair, the battery's long life and the 
Airport Extreme together free me from cables, the sleep functionality 
works flawlessly (which it doesn't on my Linux laptops, natch), etc etc 
(starting to sound like an Apple testimonial, I realize!-).  With X 
working so well, too, I'm more and more ssh -X'ing into my other 
machines and staying right here in my nice armchair rather than walking 
over to my study...!-)  [[now what I _really_ need is a good port of 
OO.o 1.1, with PyUNO scripting and all... 1.0.3 just doesn't cut it, 
and I sure ain't gonna splurge on MS Office X...]]


> I've gone and done the same thing. Bought myself the G4 iBook a couple 
> of months back.
> First Mac... just joined the list. Good to know I'm in not alone in my 
> madness.

Anything BUT alone, I'd say -- the iBook's price/functionality ratio is 
really irresistible these days.  I had a confirmation of that just 
yesterday while reading an Italian magazine, "Portatile e Wireless" -- 
of all the excellent-quality laptops they recommend in their 
buying-suggestions, the iBook, at EUR 1199 entry price VAT included, is 
the *cheapest* one!  Actually, I think it's a clever "loss leader" kind 
of move from Apple (not that I imagine they're making an actual LOSS on 
it, just not the same kinds of gross profit margins they have elsewhere 
on their product line) to attract new-to-the-Mac buyers... together 
with Mac OS X's allure to Unix-savvy buyers, etc, etc, it sure seems to 
be working... e.g., while until a few days ago my sights for "a future 
64-bit-CPU machine" were firmly fixed on AMD-64 boxes, right now a 
Powermac G5 _is_ starting to look very alluring (even though _its_ 
price/performance ratio vs cheap AMD-64 boxes isn't really all that 
good...)!

Of course, such things are also contagious -- the many brand-new Mac 
laptops I saw in use at various conferences and pypy sprints in 2003 
(WAY more than I saw in 2002) was definitely part of what prompted me 
to start looking; and right now I'm looking for SOME excuse to write 
about how wonderfully well Python runs on the Mac (and what a great 
machine the Mac is:-), which in turn may help their sales 
further...:-).

> And Alex. Thanks for "Python in a Nutshell". It's my python bible. :-)

Why, thanks for the kudos!


Alex