[aklug] Mac laptops and reliability

For those who attend the LUG at Anchorage, I am the one cursing Toshiba and
anything Ubuntu on it.
Well my misery is over, may the horrible atrocity known as my Toshiba laptop
rest in peace ... or I should say piece. :-)~

My wife has a malfunctioning Toshiba as well that is a very expensive gaming
laptop that works well as long as you do not run games??

I am applying for the masters in computer science with the University of
Alaska Fairbanks. I will need a new machine if I get in and my wife is very
cynical to the idea of wasting money again on yet another laptop or desktop.
I am thinking of getting a Mac. A true Unix OS that has well supported
hardware and great visual editing tools if I want to start my web business.
How reliable are powerbooks? Are they worth 2x the cost? Should I just buy a
desktop like an iMac?

How is Linux support in bootcamp? Yes they can boot Linux but can Linux
support the EFI features such as temperature control fans and CPU throttling
that are mac specific?

I also have to repurchase MacOffice and a $200 OEM version of Windows 7 if
its required and that makes it very expensive.

What is everyone's opinion? How long do they last? Since they cost 2x as
much I am looking at +4 years of life minimum to justify the cost. Do they
last that long?

Thanks

Tim Gibney

---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Mon Aug 16 14:00:25 2010