<p>Wow. I didn't really read the original post too closely. As soon as Liquid Paper mentioned "external drive", I dove right in, thinking we were talking about hard drives, and not cd/dvd drives. My mistake, and I apologize (but still get an external drive for the cool reasons I stated above, macs don't initially come with a lot of space for your music, photos, and movies, so an external one is great because of the space and because you can use it on any computer, not just your own).</p>
<p>I would probably do the whole super drive thing, if you want it to be portable. It makes things easier. It's really expensive to buy a super drive at a later date, so it would probably be a better deal to purchase with your new Ibook.</p>
<p>Those are gorgeous! I'm just worried that if I sent my ipod to them, that it would somehow ruin the wheel, or get in between the interface and the backing. Do they have some kind of insurance, or something? Ah, well, I'll try and read to find that out. Oh yeah, which is better: Appleworks or Microsoft Office for Macs?</p>
<p>AppleWorks is pathetic. iWork is quite limited. Microsoft Office is still the reference office suite for the Mac platform as it is with the Windows platform.</p>
<p>you can upgrade it yourself very very easily, there are even little animated guides online.</p>
<p>As to the 12 vs 15 (assuming you are talking about the powerbooks), the 12 has some problems cramming everything into that little space so it ends up being slower and thicker than the 15. The 15 is a DREAM to work with and is definately apples best portable offering (the 17 is too big).</p>
<p>yeah, my family has a 12 inch ibook and I used it quite a bit until i got a 15" for college a few months ago. The 12" now seems like a tiny toy compared to my new computer. It's much nicer having a 15 inch screen...a lot better for watching movies and even just for general use. i would definitely go for a 15.</p>
<p>my only issue would be the portability difference... do you find the the 15 significantly less portable, or is it really not a big difference? assuming money were not an issue (at least the difference between a 12 and 15 base w/ combo) is the 15 definitely the better buy?</p>
<p>Making the switch (finally!) but I'd like to install some good, useful softwares. If money isn't a problem at all, what would you recommend? I just don't know what I'll miss about Windows!</p>
<p>Right now it's just Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat and MSN messenger I have on my list since I'm not much of a gamer. Would love to hear more about your fave photo-editing software or anything that'll do a good job at photo-stitching... no freeware though.</p>
<p>What can you NOT do without on your comp? I'm open to trying new stuff too! </p>
<p>Photoshop if you can afford it, office suite AND iWork (i like pages better than word) for the most part itll come with most of the software you'd want, the ilife suite has some good basic software for everything, and if you find youre really great at video editing or something you could always splurge and get final cut express or something.</p>
<p>Haha we'll see. As it is they are already installing any software I want free of charge, so saving a bucket from Photoshop and all that jazz is already a steal.</p>