On Friday I sat down in front of two iBooks, with the purpose of testing whether the problems I had with mine were due to a buggy item or not.
I was given a week to test everything out.
The first thing I did was turn on the new iBook and use the operating system to copy everything from the old one to the new, by using a firewire cable.
Everybody says this feature is "fantastic", you just turn both computers on, hit the T key in the origin laptop... that's pretty much it...
To everybody who says those amazing things about this feature I ask:
Have you ever tried it?
Have you ever tried it with just about 1G left in the old iBook?
So after I told the computer I wanted to copy *everything*, it told me there was not enough space, claiming it would need an extra 2G.
I checked and double checked, and the hardrives had exactly the same size. I was not trying to copy things that were already on the new iBook, such as the OS, so it should work...
I decided to copy just the most important things, and excluded the Applications folder (~5G)... more on this later...
It started by telling me it would take 48 hours and that I couldn't do *anything* until the process had completed...
It only took about an hour or so, but the process they have to estimate the time left seemed to have been copied straight out from Microsoft.
In the end, the space left available was enough to copy the Applications folder anyway, as there still about 6G left.
So after I had the new iBook working I gave it a try.
OK, everything seemed to work... I no longer have the battery problem (now I can actually charge the laptop while it's sleeping) and the airport works!
I had work to do so I couldn't play more with it for the day, so I just copied the Applications I needed and I took the iBook with me for the weekend...
Saturday morning.
I try to fire up iTunes. It crashes.
I try to change the screensaver. It crashes.
I try to play Quake. The keys seem to freeze for no apparent reason after a minute of game play.
I try using mplayer and quickly realize that the copying utility hasn't copied things I installed myself, so I also check for the perl version.
I'm back to v5.8.1 and I've lost all the modules installed.
I have a copy of CPAN on disk, so I try to install a few (needed for my ~bin stuff). Surprise, surprise, I can't get root access!!
Why isn't my password working???
I know it well!! I'm typing it slowly!! I'm doing it on both laptops, why is it only working with one of them??
I have things to do during the day, so I give up and put the iBook aside.
It is now Monday morning. I'm writing this from my buggy iBook and I'm installing the OS on the other (78% complete...)
I hope it all turns out OK.
At least I've come to the conclusion that the iBook I have really has problems, so I'm not keeping it, it'll have to go back to where it came from, I guess.
I'm confident that I'll solve the problems with the new one, as I won't be letting it copy anything by itself. I will take matters in my own hands.
Apple has still not convinced me...
