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Re: gEDA-user: OT: Recommendations for laptop?
On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Ken Lauffenburger <kenl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> One more recommendation for MacBook Pro. I bought this unit (17"
> version maxed out) a year ago and I love it. No hardware or software
> problems so far and screaming fast. I use VMware Fusion to run Gentoo
> Linux on it and I am in that context at least 90% of the time. So far
> I have developed 5 PCBs using gEDA on Linux/VMware on this unit.
> Originally I had planned on installing Linux natively on the MacBook
> using a separate partition (I have heard it works great) but I have
> found that I like the ability to switch between OSX and Linux quickly
> without a reboot.
> --ken
I'll add my two cents on this since I use a MacBook Pro for all of my
desktop stuff. (For compute-intensive apps, I have a server at home
running Linux.) Apple's hardware is very good (although be careful
with first production runs of brand new models). You can find
similar-spec'd machines from other manufacturers for less, but they
often skimp on something hard to find in the catalog description (FSB
speed, memory speed, SATA speed), so similar specs doesn't mean the
same performance. You get what you pay for. I don't know of anyone
with a cheapo $600 notebook that's really happy with it.
AppleCare is excellent. For things that you can DIY, they'll cross
ship you a replacement that usually arrives the next day (although
they'll tell you it should take three, it always just takes one). I
did have a problem with my wireless that required shipping it back:
The day after I called, the empty box arrived. I shipped it out that
day. It arrived at apple the next day, they fixed it and shipped it
out that same day, returning to my house the next. I was without my
computer for roughly 48 hours. Also, if you're reasonably technical
and have done due diligence to isolate a problem, Apple won't argue
with you. I had some instability issues that turned out to be caused
by the memories overheating. When I was able to isolate that, they
promptly shipped me replacements, no questions asked. My friends with
Dells and Toshibas report much less satisfactory customer service
experiences, although I have heard good things about HP. Speaking of
overheating, my 65nm Core2 Duo gets really hot when running
compute-intensive apps (which is why I built the Linux server). I was
running some seriously SSE-heavy neural net code on both cores at the
same time, and the CPU die approached 90 degrees C (which people on
Apple forums said is safe!). I hear the newer models with the 45nm
CPUs don't get so hot.
As for software, Leopard had some growing pains early on, but it's
very stable now. There are still some bugs here and there in 10.5.6.
For instance, there's some bug in the handling of collating and
duplexing in the Print dialog that they still haven't fixed. But for
the most part, hardware just works, most peripherals are just
recognized, settings are graphical and intuitive. They do have the
usual drawbacks of running a non-Free operating system; for instance,
you never know if someone looked at your bug report, and it takes
months to get a fix, not to mention that you have no ability to fix
problems yourself. Oh, and there's the fact that they keep adding
various kinds of DRM support to their hardware and software (I buy all
of my music from Amazon or on CD, never from iTunes). Their GUI
system, Cocoa, is very nice, but it's kinda goofy in how it basically
forces you to use Objective-C if you want to write fully-featured
native apps. MacOS isn't quite as 'computer knows best' as is often
suggested. The graphical setup gives you 95% of what anyone would
need, and when that's enough, just google for how to do stuff for
FreeBSD to find out how to hack it "under the hood." Also, there's
tons of Free Software for MacOS. Plenty native, and using something
like Fink, you can have access to all the UNIX/Linux tools you want
(mostly using X11 for graphics).
You can get one of the white MacBooks for $999. Contrary to what
Apple claims, the white MacBook will handle 3GB just fine. Only go to
a MacBook Pro if you really need 4GB of RAM, a larger internal hard
drive (I have multiple firewire externals here, actually), or graphics
with dedicated memory. For compute-intensive stuff, the white MacBook
is pretty darn fast, although the MBP is noticeably faster. If you
get one of the newer MBPs and run compute-intensive apps for long
periods, let me know how it goes with the heat. Otherwise, just get a
white MacBook. Don't be tempted to get the highest-end model just
because it's "cooler." You'll end up spending a lot of extra money on
something you won't fully utilize. In fact, I think probably the
biggest reason for getting the MBP is the higher display resolution.
Finally, if you decide you hate MacOS X, you can install Windows on it
using Boot Camp. If you can't stand to use a proprietary OS, you can
install Linux or *BSD on it, and it will work fine, although you may
have some challenges with the wireless.
--
Timothy Normand Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti
Open Graphics Project
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