iBook/VNC
Posted by: sn00p
iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 11:32
Anybody here use an iBook with VNC to a PC?
After using my desktop G4 yesterday (for the first time in a while) I'm really tempted to get a iBook. You forget how amazing OS X actually is when you don't use it for a while!
I need to get a laptop, but I don't particularly want a PC. My problem is that the only piece of PC software that I really need to run developer studio (big problem!).
My solution would be to VNC to my desktop PC and do the development work from that, problem solved.
Does anybody do anything like this, if so, what is the performance like? That's my only real concern. I've done PC to PC VNC and the speed was fine, I'm just wondering if there's anything to be wary of with regards to the iBooks processing power.
Thanks.
Adrian
Posted by: andy
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 11:37
VNC is ok, but if you can use it instead the Microsoft Remote Desktop is faster over a LAN. There is a Remote Desktop client available for MacOSX, which seems to work well.
One thing to look out for though it that classic ASP debugging can be a problem using Remote Desktop (VNC shouldn't have the same problem).
Posted by: andy
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 11:39
I've just started using PC VNC - Mac VNC, which is working ok, though it does seem a little slower than PC-PC.
As an aside, if Apple and Microsoft do start moving lots of UI work to the GPU it is going to make life more difficult for things like VNC.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 12:48
Quote:
VNC is ok, but if you can use it instead the Microsoft Remote Desktop is faster over a LAN. There is a Remote Desktop client available for MacOSX, which seems to work well.
One thing to look out for though it that classic ASP debugging can be a problem using Remote Desktop (VNC shouldn't have the same problem).
Cool. Thanks for the info! I occasionally take home the source for our product and do stuff in my spare time if I've got nothing better to do!
Our application is a straight 'C' Win32 api application spread over hundreds of C files, so I'm still using visual studio 6 as Microsoft took out the "wizard bar" from "visual studio .net".
It's incredibly hard to find functions in a piece of software which contains well over half a million lines of code without the wizard bar!
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:10
I just had a play with remote desktop with my desktop G4 and it was fine for my needs, thanks for the tip! Didn't even cross my mind that windows would have what I needed built it, and that Microsoft would write a mac client for it!
Now, where's my credit card?......
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:13
I use VNC all the time with my iBook and my *nix boxen. Perfectly quick enough over my 802.11g link. Not much experience with Windows other than the decrepit windows laptop my iBook replaced.
Posted by: tonyc
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:14
If you do ever need to use straight VNC (to connect to a non-Windows system or whatever) Chicken of the VNC is the best available VNC client for OS X.
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:18
Quote:
Chicken of the VNC
Yup, that's the one I use, very happy with it.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:35
Quote:
Quote:
Chicken of the VNC
Yup, that's the one I use, very happy with it.
Yeah, I tried that yesterday. I think they should win an award for the most bizarre software name, unless there's something I'm not getting?!
Argh. I've just realised that the screen on the iBook is 1024x768 and I dont think I could manage with that, I might have to look into a powerbook.
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 16:57
Isn't it something like Chicken of the Sea like tuna or something?
I've got a Dell Latitude with a WUXGA screen and the iBook. I find I can get plenty enough on the iBook screen. I doubt a powerbook would be much bigger, certainly not as big as the Dell's even if you splurged for the 17inch.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 17:27
Quote:
I've got a Dell Latitude with a WUXGA screen and the iBook. I find I can get plenty enough on the iBook screen. I doubt a powerbook would be much bigger, certainly not as big as the Dell's even if you splurged for the 17inch.
I guess. I think my problem is that I run dual head 1600x1200 at work and running developer studio at home in 1152x864 seems claustraphobic!
A friend showed me his work hp laptop the other day which has got a WUXGA screen, he doesn't actually like it. The pixels are too small, I had a play with it and I had to agree with him, nice as it looked, the pixels were too darn small. I guess it's a case of your mileage may vary according to your taste.
Oh well, I think I just need to brace myself before parting with the cash on the apple store tonight!
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 18:09
Yeah the pixels are rather small, but the control panels we write have to run on 1280x1024 screens so it's nice to have the whole panel on screen plus some space for debug screens and device driver info. Very useful, especially when you're stuck at the bottom of a bay in a basement with nothing but your laptop.
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 18:12
So what are you going to get? I really like my iBook but I think I'd probably get a 12inch powerbook now. I like the small form factor.
Posted by: Dylan
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 18:51
Quote:
Our application is a straight 'C' Win32 api application spread over hundreds of C files, so I'm still using visual studio 6 as Microsoft took out the "wizard bar" from "visual studio .net".
It's incredibly hard to find functions in a piece of software which contains well over half a million lines of code without the wizard bar!
Try Visual Assist from www.wholetomato.com . I couldn't live without it. I get all flustered when I use a coworker's PC who doesn't have it installed.
Personally, I couldn't do development over VNC or Remote Desktop. It's fine for light work but the latency drives me crazy when I'm coding and in the zone.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 19:09
Quote:
Try Visual Assist from www.wholetomato.com . I couldn't live without it. I get all flustered when I use a coworker's PC who doesn't have it installed.
Personally, I couldn't do development over VNC or Remote Desktop. It's fine for light work but the latency drives me crazy when I'm coding and in the zone.
I've seen that advertised on codeproject. I think it only supports VS .NET, but I could be wrong, I'll have to take another look! It did look rather intriguing last time I had a quick look at it though.
Actually theres another issue with VS .NET in that I've got 3 assembler files that are assembled using TASM. Tasm generates these in some strange object format that developer studio moans about and then converts to it's own format.
It's a bug in VS .NET which means that you can only have one of these files to autoconvert, otherwise it doesn't convert any of them and bombs out of linking! The workaround is to use the microsoft command line library tool and insert the object files into a library and then extract them straight back out (in converted format)!
This bug doesn't exist in VS6.
Oh and there's also something in the headers that .NET uses that defines some COM object, it's a bit unfortunate that I've got a function in the software with the same name (that appears tens of thousands of times!) and I had to mess about with the headers to get it to compile.
I like the VS .NET interface, infact I wrote a whidbey style docking windows framework for our app which is rather nice. Took rather a lot of effort to do, but all the frameworks that I've seen that implement this are all for MFC, not SDK.
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 19:11
You could also consider using VirtualPC.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 21/03/2005 19:35
Quote:
So what are you going to get? I really like my iBook but I think I'd probably get a 12inch powerbook now. I like the small form factor.
15" powerbook.
Except that the apple store wont accept my credit card. This happened last time I bought my desktop mac. Natwest really P**s me off....I'll get a phone call off them tomorrow saying "we declined a charge to the card, did you make it?".
"Yes I did". Oh try again then.
I'd use my switch debit card, except I'd rather have the extra insurance with doing it on the credit card.
grrr.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 06:19
Cool. Just phoned natwest and they did indeed block the transaction because it was "high risk" because it was for computer equipment.
They've unblocked it now and my order went through!
I so hope it arrives before the bank holiday weekend!
Thanks for all the help/information guys, this forum rocks!
Posted by: bonzi
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 13:06
Quote:
I guess it's a case of your mileage may vary according to your taste.
... and your eyes 
Posted by: andym
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 18:53
Have you ordered any extras? Because that will delay delivery. I got bluetooth as an extra and the delivery date shot up from 3 days to 5. Bear in mind I was told that the date they give is the time to ship, not including the actual delivery itself. My iBook came from the far east so it took a while. About 2 weeks in total.
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 19:56
Quote:
Have you ordered any extras? Because that will delay delivery. I got bluetooth as an extra and the delivery date shot up from 3 days to 5. Bear in mind I was told that the date they give is the time to ship, not including the actual delivery itself. My iBook came from the far east so it took a while. About 2 weeks in total.
Yeek!
No, I didn't bother with any extras. The powerbook comes with bluetooth as standard. There wasn't much in the way of extras, the RAM upgrade to 1GB was £100, the same amount of ram can be had from crucial for £55 so I didn't bother! Likewise I wasn't bothered about writing DVD's so I didn't upgrade the drive to the superdrive.
It says on the apple site that dispatch within 3 days, and that ties in with the "estimated" dispatch date on my confirmation email, but that's going to mean that it'll be dispatched next tuesday at the earliest because of the bank holidays. 
(Unless it'sdispatched from the far east)
I think i'm going to be getting very impatient! They ship by TNT and they show an example of the order tracking on the online store, so maybe I'll be able to track it's progress across continents!
Posted by: matthew_k
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 20:02
If you didn't BTO(Build to Order) then your laptop should probably ship from somewhere fairly local to you and be there soon. If you get a BTO one, it gets assembled in china or taiwan and shippped directly to you. It's exciting to watch your laptop travel halfway around the globe to arrive at your doorstep. Much confusion is always caused when the US destined ones arrive in Alaska "before" they leave china.
Enjoy your powerbook!
Matthew
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 22/03/2005 20:11
Quote:
If you didn't BTO(Build to Order) then your laptop should probably ship from somewhere fairly local to you and be there soon.....
Enjoy your powerbook!
Cool!
Yeah, looking forward to it. Been using my desktop G4 for the last couple of days (for various reasons I've been using my PC instead, I know it's wrong, but....) and I'd forgotton how cool OS X actually is!
Looking forward even more to spending my £100 for Tiger when it's released! I probably should have waited a few weeks until apple announced the tiger release and then I'd probably have got it for free, but I couldn't wait that long!
On an aside, whenever I hear the word BTO I immediately think of homer in that episode of the simpsons!
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 23/03/2005 19:45
Even cooler, It's been shipped (and it was shipped from the UK) and is winding its way to the delivery depot, there's hope that it'll be delivered tomorrow! (Not counting any chickens though!)
Posted by: sn00p
Re: iBook/VNC - 24/03/2005 18:24
Not that anybodies interested, but it did arrive today and I can only really say wow!
What a fantastic computer. It's apples attention to little details that really make them stand out. It's also considerably faster than my desktop G4, so I'm one happy bunny! Loving the two finger scrolling too!
Oh well, next stop Xcode.....