Last week, after a humorous post describing a perfectly logical link of the
failure of Adobe on Windows 2000 in allowing the selection of a printer, to an
underlying defect in the Mac, Alfredo posted a response which got me thinking
about available hardware and the relationship with the OS.

Here is my notebook as I described it in the original post.
"...on my 500 MHz Pentium III laptop with 256 MB of RAM and 384MB of virtual on
a 60% free 18GB disk drive..."

Now Alfredo responded in part, with this:

"...Switching into Denys-emulation mode: Well, my 500 MHz Mac PowerBook with
512 MB of RAM and 30 GB disk drive running Mac OS 9.0.4 *and* Mac OS X, with
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 (soon to become 6.0) and a zillion other applications
allows me to choose among a plethora of printers via common TCP/IP
protocols..."

I went surfing to the Apple web site because I wanted to see the specs on
Alfredo's system.  I came to find out, to no great surprise, that he has the
very best, top of the line Apple laptop/notebook/PowerBook.  It is really not a
bad machine, but in the final quarter of the 20th century, it is by no mean,
state of the art.

Processors:  The current Mobile Pentium III runs at 850 MHz on the system bus
at 100 MHz.  AMD will soon be releasing similar mobile processors and giving
Intel a run for their money.  For the PowerBook, 500MHz is the current maximum.
 You might have heard that Apple with its slower clock speeds still runs faster
than Intel at a higher clock speed.  These claims were dispelled last year.
 Interestingly enough the L2 cache on the Mac is a full megabyte (1MB) as
compared to 256KB on the Pentium III.  However the Mac's L2 cache is off-chip
and runs at half speed, whereas the Pentium III's cache is on-chip and runs at
the speed of the processor.

Memory: The Armada can have up to 576MB of RAM.  This is made up of 64MB on the
motherboard and two 256MB chips.  I do not believe there is currently a
notebook out there that can have more.  The majority of notebooks, from IBM,
Dell, Toshiba and others have a maximum of 512MB or less.  The Apple PowerBook
is also "limited" to 512MB.

Disk space:  This is one of the more ephemeral components.  Disk capacity keeps
expanding at a rapid rate.  Apple does not make disk drives, it buys them from
other manufacturers.  Actually, of the notebook manufacturers only IBM, Fujitsu
and Toshiba make disk drives.  The IBM Stinkpad ships with a drive up to 32 GB.
 The Toshibas top out at 20GB.  What is important here is the ease of upgrading
the disk drive.  The Armada makes it very simple, as does the PowerBook and
many others.  My prior Armada came with a 2.5GB drive.  Three years later when
I passed it on to a co-worker, it had an 8GB drive (3X increase.)  I suspect
that this Armada will have a much bigger drive in the future (60GB, 100GB?).
 So initial disk drive size is not an issue.

Screen or LCD panel:  The Apple PowerBook has a good size screen at 14.1 inch,
but this is by no means the biggest available.  The Armada has a 15 inch screen
and the Dell Inspiron boasts a 15.4 inch screen.  I suspect we are reaching the
upper limits on the screen size, with 16 inch probably the biggest available,
though it is definitely possible to have larger ones.  (I am hoping for an
unfolding screen else can you imagine a notebook with a 21 inch screen?  Try
using that puppy in coach.)  The Dell Inspiron 7500 has a 15.4 inch screen
running at 1280X1024 and with 16MB of video RAM compared to the PowerBook's
(and some other notebooks including the Armada) 8MB.

Expandability:  Here is where things start to get really confusing.  On the one
hand the PowerBook has a  built-in 56K modem and a 10/100 Ethernet card, though
they are not Mini PCI devices.  It also has capability for the Airport which is
neat and it has two Firewire (AKA IEEE 1394 but I prefer Apple's name,
"Firewire") connections which is great if you want to edit digital video or
have another device that has a Firewire connection.  The PowerBook has two USB
port and an IrDA connection.  (It only has 1 PC-Card slot but given all the
other connections, this should not be much of an issue.  Most other notebooks
will have 2 PC-Card slots and virtually everything that the PowerBook has,
except for the Firewire connections and the Airport capability.  Now, I do not
edit digital video, nor do I even intend on getting into digital video in the
foreseeable future.  I have my hands full with digital photography,  Firewire
would be lost on me.)

On the other hand there is something known as a multibay or power bay or
expansion bay.  This is a large slot whereby various devices can be inserted
into the notebook.  Devices such as CD-ROMs and floppy drives or more exotic
devices such as DVD-ROMs, LS-120 drives, Zip drives, CD-RW drives, extra
batteries, other hard drives or nothing at all to save weight.  The PowerBook
has a single expansion bay.  This means you can only have one of the above
mentioned devices installed at a time.  Some notebooks, for example the Armada
and the Dell Inspiron, can have 2 devices.  I have grown spoiled with having
both a CD-RW and an LS-120 installed in the notebook, or I can pull out the
devices and put in a DVD-ROM and an extra battery and watch movies on the
plane.  (The best would be a DVD-ROM/CR-RW device, but these do not yet exist.)

The final aspect of expandability is a docking station.  This is a device which
sits on your desk and into which you place your notebook when you are in the
office.  The docking station allows for instant access to the devices and
network available in that environment.  For example, my docking station has an
old (12+ years) Northgate keyboard and a 21 inch monitor with a USB hub to
which a printer and a mouse are connected.  It also has an Ethernet card and
shortly, an extra 3.5 inch disk drive.  As soon has the notebook is inserted
into the docking station, all these devices and the network are available to
it.  Many other notebooks have similar devices, but not the PowerBook!  With
that puppy, you must connect the various devices and connectors each and every
time you are back in town.

Finally, the Apple warranty is only one year whereas most business notebooks
carry a 3 year warranty.

All this to say that whilst the top of the line PowerBook is a nice device, it
definitely is not the state of the art.  However, if you are a Mac user, that
is the best you can get until Apple decides to release newer models.  Meanwhile
the other notebooks have left Apple in the dust and are racing further ahead.
 There are many alternatives and for your money you can do much better that a
PowerBook or an iBook.  But not if you are a Mac user.

When one uses a fiercely proprietary OS, one is also tied to a much smaller
subset of available technology.  (Where have I seen this before?)

However, as with any piece of equipment or indeed any tool, if it is not proper
to the task at hand, its worth is diminished.  You could have the very best and
greatest tool, but if it does not suit your needs, it may be just an expensive
door stop (hey, another goo use for a Mac.)  Conversely, in the hands of a
knowledgeable user, even a basic tool can work wonders.

Speaking for myself, my needs are for an expandable "desktop replacement"
notebook.  Yes it is heavy, but as long as the little wheeled case in which it
travels does not leave ruts that are too deep on the tarmac on my way to the
plane, that is ok.  To be honest, it is not really the notebook that is heavy,
but rather all the other junk that I carry with it.

When I leave the office, I press the button to eject the notebook from the
docking station, it pops out and I place it in the case.  When I get to where I
am going, I power up the notebook and do my work, which more often then not is
to give presentations and demos.  I can also connect to a network and simply
instruct Windows 2000 to get an address or give it one directly, without ever
rebooting.  When I am in the hotel, I can connect to the Internet over the
phone, play computer games, do work or watch a movie on DVD.

On the plane, I usually leave the notebook in its case in the overhead
compartment.  I have had too many close calls with flight attendants throwing
coffee around or the bozo in front of me abruptly reclining his seat at high
speed and with his full body weight!  I may bring it out on overseas flights,
especially if I have a bulkhead in front of me or if I am in first class.

All my work is in my notebook, which is also why it gets backed up to the DLT
library on the HP 3000 every night when it is in the docking station.  (Being a
backup software vendor does have advantages.)  On the road, I backup to the
CD-RW or the LS-120.

I suspect that Alfredo uses his PowerBook in somewhat the same fashion with
variations to suit his needs and the capabilities, or lack thereof, of his
machine.  He also probably thinks that his PowerBook is everything he ever
needed in such a tool and would never consider anything else.

But what about the challenge I mentioned in the subject line?  It is not
keyboards at 10 paces, not it is much more complex.  I noticed that Alfredo and
I will be at the same place, at the same time in November.  We are both
speaking at the Greater Houston Regional Users Group meeting on 9 November.
 Alfredo is giving the keynote address and I am giving two talks.  The first
one is on backups, but the second one is "Windows 2000 On The Road."  Here is
my proposal and challenge.  I am going to change the title to "Windows 2000 VS
MacOS On The Road," and I will ask Alfredo if he wants to join me in this talk.

Here is the format, we each get 15 minutes to present whatever we want as the
good points (and bad points) of our chosen OS with respect to work, travel and
how it meets our needs.  We could talk about how we have adapted either our
work habits or our tool to this environment.  At the end of both presentations,
we will entertain questions from the audience and perhaps from each other.

I believe Mr. Ron Seybold might be in attendance and we might want to press him
into service as "judge" but mainly as scribe for the event.  I have
communicated with GHRUG management and they are fine with this.  Perhaps we
might even see Bruce Toback and Wirt Atmar, they do not live that far from
here.  Now wouldn't that be something?

Shall I ask GHRUG to make the change?

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com