[vox] Laptop recommendations

[Ken Bloom]

Don Werve wrote:
> Check the details; the bottom-of-the-line iBooks aren't eligible for the
> iPod 'Student Union' deal.  I know, because *almost* bought a new
> PowerBook 12" last weekend, but may have reconsidered in favor of an IBM
> X40, and did the research on the iPod deal.  Also, you have to buy them
> both (the iPod and the computer) at the same time.

The salesperson assured me that it did apply, but she may have been
wrong. I didn't point out the sign right next to me which said that it
didn't apply. Whatever - if I buy apple, I'm going to do it in person
at the apple store on the Magnificent Mile, so I'll surely get any
pricing shenanigens worked out before I leave the store.

On 8/24/05, Trevor M. Lango <tmlango at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> --- Ken Bloom <kbloom at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > 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?
> 
> 
> Poke around here and see what success others have had
> with various hardware:
> 
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum-f-24.html

It seems that AirPort cards aren't supported except with a serious
hack that may not be possible anymore anyway. These don't seem to have
PCMCIA card slots, so that might not be so easy to work around.

> > 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?
> 
> 
> Hmm, since when is a computer a 4 or 5 year
> investment? Its obsolete a few months after you buy
> it! ;-)

My current computer is a 1GHz PIII. I bought it in June 2001. I
upgraded the 3D card a year and a half ago (to one that worked for 3D
acceleration), and I upgraded the RAM recently, but otherwise the
system is still running strong, and still does what I want
(programming, internet, and other basic office stuff, as well as
letting me experiment with just about anything that's apt-gettable).
I'm not replacing it -- it's a desktop, and I'm supplementing it with
something portable.

It's hard to say that computers go obsolete these days. That's why I'm
asking about the Mac: becuase I'm worried that that with apple's move
to intel, it might go obsolete.

--Ken Bloom