4/14    iBook w/OS X vs. laptop w/Linux
        Which one to get?  {Adv,Dis}advantages to each?
        \_ My $0.2: Printer drivers do not seem to be as well or as broadly
        \_ http://www4.macnn.com/macnn/articles/unixad.jpg
        \_ My $0.02: Printer drivers do not seem to be as well or as broadly
           supported by HP for Macs as they are for PCs. If your job involves
           needing to use a wide variety of HP plotters and such (as mine does)
           \_ FYI, it's "my two cents" ($.02), not 20 cents ($0.2)
                \_ maybe he was giving us 10X the usual advice.
           no Mac is worth the last-minute stress from finding you can't
           plot your stuff.  -- ulysses
        \_ iBook and OS X:
           + superior industrial and usability design
           + things that just work out of the box:
             power management, printing, DVD, CD-RW, 801.11b, BlueTooth, ...
           + Apple's integration ability between hardware and software:
             iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto
           + 5-6 hours of real-world battery life
           - not a speed demon for 3D games (get a video game console)
           - open source stops at the Darwin (kernel and BSD system) level
           - iBook has VGA out, but limited to video-mirroring the LCD only
                -- jwang
        \_ 95% of all your favorite windows apps (Quicktime, office, explorer,
           etc) are or will be available on OS X. On the other hand, one
           annoying thing about OS X is that it still feels noticeably slower
           compared to Linux or Windows.
           \_ Yeah it feels slower, but what I've noticed is that I can
              get more coding done while using a OS X system than a linux
              system. I don't waste time compiling this that or the other
              thing to get my system working. Everything is already there
              and preconfigured properly.
        \_ The iBook's design is orders of magnitude ahead of anything in
           the PC world.  But bang for buck, it can't compare.  Depends
           what your needs are.  If you get one, I'd go for the 12" rather
           than the 14" screen--the 14" screen is bulkier and has the same
           max resolution as the 12".  -tom
           \_ The design?  How so?  All laptops from all makers are simply
              squishing as much hardware into as small a space as possible
              with weight and battery life a secondary issue these days.  They
              all look like computer "bricks" to me in the store.
              \_ Have you looked at an iBook?  The port layout, the hinge
                 mechanism, the little touches like the battery power
                 indicator lights and the lighted power plug, all point
                 to real thought being put into design, unlike the rest of
                 the bricks out there.  Dell's idea of "design" is "molded
                 plastic" and "not quite entirely black!"  -tom
                 \_ It's a brick with a different logo on it.  I don't pay
                    extra for logos.
                    \_ I disagree.  I think quality is important for
                       notebooks since parts are not easily replaced.
                       That's why people go for Thinkpads instead of say
                       Twinhead.
              \_ There are 4 pound bricks and there are 7 pound bricks.
                 ibook is actually cheap for its weight class.
                 For example, compare it to the thinkpad X series.
           \_ This is what I hate about Mac OS/X.  By using Darwin/whatever
              instead of X it manages to remove much appeal of a *nix OS
              (speed, open source, and lost free software with GUI).  Right
              now it is at the same time the worst Mac OS and the worst *nix
              ever.  Bill Gates must be glad.
              \_ Exactly how stupid are you?  You can run X on Mac OS X if you
                 care about it.  The vast majority of Macintosh owners--that
                 is, the customer base--has no interest in running gmines,
                 or whatever it is you think the killer X app is.  -tom
                 \_ no, that implementation is inferior.
                    \_ XonX is inferior? To what? It is XFree86 4.2. If
                       XonX is inferior, then X on Linux must be inferior
                       as well.
                       \_ of course. RTFM.
              \_ I think it's funny to read all the /. kids saying how much X11
                 sucks and never had a reason for being and replacing it should
                 be the open source community's highest priority.  --love X11
                \_ iBook's video hardware is rather slow on OS X. I'd
                   wait for something with an nVidia chipset instead of
                   the archaic ATI Rage.
                   \_ Doesn't the iBook have Radeon Mobility?
           \_ But, if you need battery life, the 14.1 inch iBook has it.
        \_ iBook runs Debian GNU/Linux.  Nicely at that.  Check out
           <DEAD>www.oreilly.com's<DEAD> Apple section for an article with links to step
           by step "How to run Debian on an iBook".  Get the iBook, run OS X.
           If it doesn't suit your needs, wipe the disk and run linux. -dans
           \_ LinuxPPC is a awful. Its is slow, cumbersome, and poorly
              supported. Most linux open source pgms won't compile and run
              properly, and good luck trying to find a Kernel that will
              work reliably. The only decent browser is a broken Netscape
              4.7.x, so forget web browsing without MOL (MacOnLinux).
              Stick to OS X. It is a decent OS that you can use to actually
              accomplish some work. - former Linux (x86 and PPC) user