[vox] Laptop recommendations

[Ken Bloom]

On 8/24/05, Trevor M. Lango <tmlango at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> --- Ken Bloom <kbloom at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I'm looking to buy a laptop, and I would like to
> > know whether anybody
> > has recommendations. I'm looking for linux
> > compatibility, in the $1000
> > range, with WiFi, 512MB ram (minimum), CDRW+DVD, and
> > light enough to
> > easily be portable.
> >
> > I found one interesting deal on a 1.33GHz 12" iBook,
> > based on the
> > PowerPC chip, and I was curious whether anyone has
> > any recommendations
> > about the current and future prognosis for buying a
> > PowerPC-based
> > Macintosh.
> 
> 
> Are you talking about the free iPod with purchase of
> Apple computer deal?  I'm thinking about getting one
> for my wife - $999 for a laptop and 4gb mp3 player -
> hard deal to pass up...

Exactly

> Mac OS 10.3 (or later) supports linux binaries with
> XCode Tools 1.2 (or later).  What type of linux
> compatibility are you looking for:
> 
> "linux compatible" i.e. bootable linux os?
> (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.xml)

Yeah. I was curious about the extent of the hardware support. I know
that Debian PPC can boot on PowerPC. The question is what comes next?
is the video card fully supported? the modem? the AirPort card?


What's the future look like for this platform? is the processor likely
to remain well supported by Apple over the next 4 or 5 years? is the
processor likely to remain as well supported by Linux when Apple's not
still writing updates to Darwin for us to look at?

Is MacPPC generally a good investment now, or should I stick with
intel/amd chips?

> or
> 
> "linux compatible" i.e. ability to run linux binaries?
> (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/macos-guide.xml)

Cool thanks for the info about that.