[vox] Laptop recommendations

[Michael Wenk]

On Wednesday 24 August 2005 14:24, Ken Bloom wrote:
> 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

I too keep my computers for awhile... My Linux gateway is 4.5 years old, and 
my other PC is 2 years old(the one before that was broken, had several 
components bad on it. )  

One question, does the iBook in question run OSX?  If so, I wouldn't care 
terribly much about Linux support for it, other than maybe nostalgia...

As for support, I can't see apple discontinuing support for PPC based systems 
for a number of years.  I would figure they would keep support for at least 
10 years from now(possibly longer..)  It will take them a good amount of time 
to get most of their customers to move.  

  
-- 
wenk at praxis.homedns.org
Mike Wenk