[aklug] Re: Mac laptops and reliability

I don't use a Mac but I know people who do. They love it. If you have
never used a Mac you have no idea what your talking about.

People see the price and walk away. However, I think it's good stuff.
Much more reliable then windows. You also don't have to worry about
viruses as much. But it still gets them.

The business world is all windows. So if you plan on doing any
business stuff you need it.

That's my 2 cents.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2010, at 5:43 PM, Tim Gibney <timgibney76@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am thinking of Adobe Dreamweaver for website creation mixed with
> PostgreSQL and a few free Javascript debuggers. Most of the jobs in
> Anchorage require experience in it or Microsoft's Sharepoint thingie. I
> chose Java as my electives in my undergraduate years so starting with .NET
> will be a burden.
> How is MacOSX not a Unix or a Linux? My intention was to replace Linux with
> a well integrated OS with the hardware and still have the benefits. Linux is
> a cool toy to play with but I just want to play World of Warcraft and run
> Office and a few tools. Windows might be a requirement for some classes.
>
> I am just curious on the Apple brand from people who have switched.
>
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Bruce Hill <bruce@slackwarebox.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 02:00:17PM -0800, Tim Gibney wrote:
>>> 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??
>>
>> Having repaired countless laptops over the years, Toshiba is one of those
>> names that gives me cold sweats at night. We also had one, which was given
>> to us when it was 3 months old by the owner who could not get support to
>> prevent the constant lockups and crashes. The first thing I did was write
>> zeroes to the drive, then install Slackware. That solved the problems. To
>> have a dual boot I reinstalled with a WinXP Home CD, not the Toshiba
>> recovery CD, which installs a lot of useless Toshiba apps. The laptop ran
>> okay for what it was, a Toshiba hunk a junk. ;)
>>
>>> 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?
>>
>> Your wife is gun shy because of the poor Toshiba products. Wait until you
>> pay extravagant fees for the Mac, then buy Windows and it's apps in
>> addition, then install Linux ... curse the sleepless nights! ;)
>>
>> Seems that compatibility issues might be the big 'gotcha' for running Mac
>> software, and it's not a true Unix OS, either. (Has the Vim vs. Emacs
>> thread run it's course so we can start a Unix clone vs. Linux vs. Unix
>> one?)
>>
>> And yes, why pay 2x the cost plus more to get the thing to do what a PC
>> would do in the first place? If you want a laptop, but a ThinkPad. They
>> have a long track record of being very reliable, their Linux support is
>> great, and you'll get the obligatory Windows OS that your school chums and
>> profs will require you to use anyway. You get a good, reliable, well
>> supported and well built ThinkPad and shrink the Win7 (don't buy another
>> Win OS) partition, install Linux, and be done with it. Mac has icons and
>> graphics that are more eye appealing, but the base software that you use
>> to do your work is what's important, not eye candy.
>>
>> Tools? Software is written for all platforms ... web pages can be written
>> in Vim, or even notepad if you want no syntax highlighting. In the area of
>> tools (meaning apps) maybe consider the cross-platform compatibility.
>> Every guy I know personally who has a Mac installs Windows and Linux.
>> Linux for something worthwhile to do work with, Windows for lack of
>> compatibility with Mac software. The programmers I know who have Macs only
>> add Linux, not Windoze.
>>
>>> 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?
>>
>> Check out some HCL lists, TuxMobile, and <Linux> Google for the specific
>> model you're considering.
>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Tim Gibney
>>
>> Just my 2c, but the business practices of Apple are as wicked as those of
>> Microsoft ... the only product of either company we've bought in this
>> decade came pre-installed (Windoze), except for the iPhone.
>>
>> The problem for us is always the same ... we require some apps which are
>> of such superior quality to anything open source that we must have one of
>> the proprietary systems they're written for to use them.
>>
>> Bruce Hill
>> --
>> May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!
>>
>> "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
>> lesson afterward. But properly learned, the lesson forever changes
>> the man."
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Received on Mon Aug 16 18:14:27 2010