[plug] SME PC hardware linux supplier?

[Michael Hunt]

On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 21:11, skribe wrote:

> On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 20:16, Brock Woolf wrote:
> 
> > 1. (What I did) Buy an Apple iBook/iMac. The hardware is really fast and
> > linux runs on the PPC RISC architecture.
> 
> Is there a logical reason why any sane person would choose to do this?

Sure. I consider myself sane and I did this :-) 

> What I mean by that is fork out the fat wad of cash

Well it is not really 'a fat wad of cash'. One of the main reason's for
going for an iBook was actually the issue of price. $1585 for a new
iBook (education discount) was actually the cheapest notebook I could
find. I'd expect to pay somewhere between $1700 to $2000 for a similar
Intel notebook. 

> for Apple's hardware and then ditch its OS to run linux.  I mean, I like linux 
> but it's not really worth buying hardware at double the price unless you're a 
> serious gearhead - and we all know that serious gearheads are on the wrong 
> side of the sanity line (and more power to them).  I guess what I'm asking is 
> there any benefit, other than bragging rights and a warm feeling of 
> satisfaction, from running linux on Apple hardware?

Well since Linux is my primary OS (Debian Woody for my server, Sarge for
Desktop, IP-Cop for firewall) it was pretty obvious that I was going to
try and run Linux on the iBook. Not that I have anything against Mac OS
X (I actually have it dual booting) I was/am more comfortable in a Linux
environment.

Actually there is a lot of good things to be said about the iBook
hardware wise. Considering I was wanting it for everyday portability the
following things also came into play :-

* Size and weight. A lot less than the desk-note replacements that were
in the same price class. Sure the screen size is smaller (12 inch as
opposed to 14 and 15 inch common on Intel) but I need to take this to
college everyday.
* Compact with no port covers that can break off.
* Battery life. 6 hours under OS X. (I am trying to get it tweaked under
Linux at the moment to get longer but usually get ~4hrs).
* Sexy looking robust hardware (okay this is debatable, but you should
see the looks on people's face when they see the iBook and say 'Oh,
you're a Mac user' and I swivel my iBook around and say 'No. I'm a Linux
user' [1] 
* Good Linux hardware support (okay not everything and perfectly, but a
lot better than some of the Intel stuff out there)

Some other things that also swayed me.

* No Microsoft Tax or OS that I wasn't going to want/use.
* A different OS and way of thinking to explore and play with. (Mac OS X
and Apple that is).
* A different hardware platform to play with. (I have worked with sparc
and alpha in the past, but never a unix on PPC).

And finally the big one ... (pure geek factor)

Because I could !!!!

Has everything been perfect? No. Some of the hardware support has a way
to go and Airport Express looks like it's never going to happen. (Mainly
due to the proprietary broadcom chipset. Currently I do wireless by a
dwl-122 usb stick). But I have been quite happy with it and find more
good things about it everyday. Maybe not the solution for everyone but
one which I have enjoyed.

> skribe

Michael Hunt

[1] In my pre pubescent days and before I got married I would have said
'No. I am a GNU Linux user' which would have sent the girls weak at the
knees begging me for a date. Pity that time was before Holy Penguin Pee,
Debian, i-anything and when men installed Linux from floppy disk.