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From The Road Warrior Archive - My Three ‘Books Revisited

In April, 2003, I posted a The Road Warrior column entitled "My Three 'Books," in which I profiled the three Apple laptops I had doing production work at the time - a Pismo PowerBook G3, a 700 MHz iBook G3, and an old (even then) PowerBook 1400/117.

Interestingly, five years later, the Pismo, now upgraded with a 550 MHz G4 processor, a 40 GB 5400 RPM HD, more RAM, and a DVD-burning 8x SuperDrive, and running Mac OS 10.4.11, is still doing yeoman service as one of my three current production machines, along with another hotrodded Pismo I use as my road machine and my 17" PowerBook workstation. The iBook is still going strong as well as my wife's computer, and we still have the 1400 too, although it hasn't been used for work for several years since my wife graduated from it to the WallStreet I mention in the article (which I revived with a scrounged processor card transplant), and then the iBook.

One observation I would revise is the relative quality of the Pismo and iBook keyboards. With more hands-on use (in the early days I had used them mostly with external keyboards) I've come to appreciate the Pismo's as being one of the best KBs I've ever used (although not quite as good as the WallStreet's or perhaps the 1400's 'boards), and to dislike the iBook's keyboard.

One assessment I wouldn't change is picking the Pismo the best-ever Apple laptop. The machine that was 2 1/2 years old at the time I originally posted the column is now going on eight years old and still hasn't given a lick of trouble. In some ways it's just gotten better and better over the years, with OS X 10.3 Panther and Tiger improving performance over the OS 10.2 Jaguar I was using in early '03, and of course the hardware upgrades giving it a new lease on life.

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From The Archive

My Three 'Books - Something Old; Something New, And Maybe The Best 'Book Of All [Originally Published April 20, 2003]

Picking one's favorite computer is always shooting at a moving target. As performance increases and features are added (or, alas, removed) one's perspective is bound to change.

I was very fond of my PowerBook 5300 during the nearly three years I used it as my production workhorse, but for the first year of that tenure, I had no Internet access. Once I was online, the little 9.5" 640 x 480 passive matrix gray scale screen, which I had been reasonably satisfied with up until then, became woefully inadequate overnight, and the 5300's speed shortcomings were accentuated by Web work. Still, I continue to have great affection for the 5300, which has soldiered on as my daughter's computer for another five years, and is still running fine.

The WallStreet G3 Series PowerBook that I replaced the 5300 with was in almost every way a better computer, much, much faster, and with a very nice 12.1" 800 x 600 TFT monitor. I loved that WallStreet right up until the day last summer when it suddenly died, after having given not a moment's trouble in three and one-half years. I still think WallStreets are great computers, but the failure with no warning at what I consider a fairly early age has tempered my enthusiasm somewhat.

Currently I have three working laptops in my fleet, a 700 MHz iBook, my trusty 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook, and a slightly battered old 117 MHz PowerBook 1400 that was purchased last year to supplement the 5300 for my daughter's freshman year at college. It did just that through the first semester, but I "inherited" it when she was given a nicer, faster 1400 by a kind benefactor.

I haven't really formed a strong general opinion on the iBook yet. It takes a while for me. It's the fastest Mac I've ever owned, and it runs OS X very nicely with Quartz Extreme graphics acceleration supported by its RADEON 7500 card and 16 MB of video RAM. I have the system RAM maxed out at 640 MB, and so far it's been a reliable and trouble-free computer.

I like the 12" 1024 x 768 display, which is extremely sharp and bright, and seems to be as easy on the eyes as the 14.1" 1024 x 768 screen in the Pismo.

To my eyes, the iBook is very attractive aesthetically in its "Opaque White" livery, and I like the ports being located on the side rather than at the back as has been the case all of y PowerBooks. The little, white, pulsing sleep light it is a very cool touch as well.

On the other hand, I haven't really developed a real affection for the iBook as yet. It's a competent and speedy computer, and based on my experience with it so far I would have no reason not to recommend it highly, but it will take awhile for my opinion of it to really gel.

I haven't used the iBook as much as I thought I would. I do almost all of my dictation work on it now that I've switched to OS X for production, since it runs both ViaVoice and iListen very nicely, while I haven't gotten ViaVoice working again on the Pismo, and iListen runs very slowly on that machine in OS X, although it is quick enough in OS 9. I'm still using OS 10.2.1 on the iBook, since reports of battery damage and modem problems on iBooks after installing the OS 10.2.4 upgrade have me spooked, and the jury is still out on 0S 10.2.5.

Meanwhile, OS 10.2.4 has been running like a train on the Pismo, the best OS X build I've used on that machine yet. Consequently, the Pismo is still serving as my main axe, and doing a pretty good job at it, with a few qualifications, mainly related to its modest speed in OS X and its lack of video muscle to support Quartz Extreme.

However, if I had to vote today for my choice of the best-ever Apple laptop, I would be inclined to choose the Pismo. My particular example was a year old when I got it, and is now 2 1/2 years old. It has so far been as dependable as an anvil - no problems or issues whatsoever. The 14.1 in. screen is very nice, and I think that that the Pismo (along with the spitting image Lombard) is the best looking of the G3 series machines.

I love the Pismo's versatility, with its removable module expansion bay. I have three expansion bay devices -- the standard DVD-ROM drive, a VST Zip Drive, and a VST Superdisk drive whose support of floppy disks has come in very handy for swapping files back and forth with the 1400 (more on that in a moment). There is also a PC Card slot, which the iBook doesn't have come although by have not used it for anything thus far on this machine. It's nice to know it's there nevertheless. One feature I do miss on the iBook is the Pismo's analog sound-in port for PlainTalk microphones. The iBook is limited to USB audio input, and the Andrea microphone headset that shipped with ViaVoice X works OK, but I would prefer to have the option of using an analog microphone as well with iListen, which happily supports a variety of mics.

The Pismo also runs cool, averaging between 105° and 120° F when checked with GuagePro in OS 9 over the past winter. GuagePro doesn't support the 750fx G3 chip in the iBook, but that machine certainly feels hotter than the Pismo. I figure that heat may have contributed to the WallStreet's premature demise -- it used to run in the 140° heat-150° range, so I'm reassured by the Pismo's cool running characteristics.

Under OS 9, there is really nothing to complain about speed-wise with the Pismo. The IBook is no doubt a bit faster, but you don't notice the difference that much between the two machines running the Classic OS, the way you do in OS X. I would be very interested to see what relative performance would be like in the Pismo souped up with a 500 MHz G4 or an 800 MHz G3 processor upgrade. There would still be no Quartz Extreme support, since the RAGE 128 graphics card and 8 MB of video RAM are not upgradeable, but the extra processing power would doubtless improve OS X performance.

Another performance-enhancer would be a faster hard drive with a buffer cache. The stock 20 GB drive in the Pismo is a mediocre performer even compared with the 10 gigabyte drive I had in The WallStreet, which did have a modest, 1 GB cache. One really cool thing about Pismos (and the other G3 Series PowerBooks) compared with the iBook is the ease of swapping hard drives. Just pop the keyboard, remove the processor heat sink plate, and undo the four Torx screws that hold the hard drive in its bracket, and voila! About a 10-20 minute job. (the process is slightly different with the WallStreet and Lombard, but no more difficult). Not so with the iBook, for which hard drive upgrades by the user are not recommended.

I would rate the Pismo and iBook keyboards as being about equal. They're not bad, but the WallStreet keyboard was better. I like the bigger trackpad and softer trackpad button action on the iBook.

At this point in time, I would rate the Pismo as the best Mac I've ever owned,. If it continues to serve as reliably as it has, it may retain that status for a long time to come.

Using the old PowerBook 1400, which I have been doing quite a lot lately, has actually been a pleasure. I'm using OS 8.6, and mostly working in Tex Edit Plus 4.1.3 on the 1400, moving work-in-progress files back and forth from the Pismo via the old "sneakernet" medium of floppy disks, which I'm finding the most convenient of several possible file transfer methods, or by email.

As a text editing platform, the PowerBook 1400 is still a very satisfactory machine. It has a nice keyboard. The trackpad works OK with a comfortable action on the trackpad button, and I've never found passive matrix screens (this 1400 is a cs) problematical.

I don't really know much of the history of this 1400, but it shows evidence of having been used hard and a lot. Nevertheless, everything still works great. One hopes that my current G3 machines will prove to be as tough and long-lasting, which my WallStreet unfortunately wasn't.


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cmoore@macopinion.com

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