Edward M. Corrado on Tue, 27 May 2003 20:44:13 -0400 |
On Sun, 25 May 2003, Chris Hedemark wrote: > > Apple iBook. Great value! OS X is BSD flavored, or you can run BSD on > it directly (OpenBSD is known to work, unsure about the others). I got > my Apple (a higher end Powerbook) with the idea that I'd probably put a > different OS on it but I've been very happy with OS X on it. X11 > support in OS X is finally pretty good so I think it's a very safe bet. I agree with everything Chris said above - and you can even get your iBook (at no extra charge) preinstalled with Yellow Dog Linux if you by it through them (www.terrasoftsolutions.com). A 12" 800Mhz w/ 256 Mb RAM goes for $1049 before you add options like an airport wireless card. I have one of the 700 Mhz iBooks and I love it and would not consider trading it for an x86 laptop (and I never owned a Mac before in my life before I bought this iBook). > The only problem based on your requirements is the screen size; For > $1000 you're only going to get a 12" screen. For $1500 you get the 14" > screen (and a lot more other stuff above the $1000 model). > > The things are infectious. At my old LUG it seemed like one guy would > get an iBook, and then another, and before you knew it there were more > people showing up with Apple hardware at meetings than all other > manufacturers *combined*. They are like a virus. A while back we did an iBook Linux installfest at LUG/IP. One of the reasons why we did this was the previous months meeting we had something like 7 or 8 people at the meeting with either an iBook or a Powerbook, and I think only 2 people with x86's (and one of the two also had his iBook with him!). I have to admit though, I do run OS X a lot more then Yellow Dog Linux even though my computer is set to dual boot between the two (and I think YDL does a good job with their distro). It seems kind of odd when you think about Linux geeks using Apples! I'm of the opinion that if someone is in the market for a portable computer that (unless there is some reason you need x86 architecture), you are doing yourself an injustice if you don't at least take a look at the iBooks (or Powerbooks if you are looking for something more powerful). Ed C. _________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug
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