[plug] SME PC hardware linux supplier?

[Michael Hunt]

On Tue, 2004-11-09 at 23:10, skribe wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 22:18, Michael Hunt wrote:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Always best to compare like with like.  How much for the ibook sans the 
> discount?

$1695. Close to the same price as your cheap Intel stuff.

> > * No Microsoft Tax or OS that I wasn't going to want/use.
> 
> I presume there was still an Apple tax.

Sure. But you've labelled me 'geek master of the universe' so I'm not
going to budge on choosing an iBook to avoid paying a M$ tax. :-)

I also hope that I made it clear that I do use Mac OS X (not as much as
Linux but far more than M$) so paying for it is not a problem. I haven't
'ditched it' in favour of Linux. Sure it is part proprietary but it is
also part open source and while not ideal, it does hold to certain
'ideals' that I align myself with.

> > * 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 !!!!
> 
> I think all the reasons you gave fall into the geek master of the universe 
> realm, Michael.  I was looking for a more practical reason that us 
> demi-mortals might find appealing.

Well there were some other 'practical' reasons why I choose Apple
hardware over Intel that I listed but you appear to have snipped them
from your response :-) [1]

You did originally ask why someone would want to run Linux on Apple
hardware and for me geek factor did have a part to play. But how is
installing Linux on Apple hardware (like an iBook) any different from
installing Linux on Intel hardware (like a Toshiba)? For me the Debian
install were almost identical and apart from a few applications that I
don't need to run on the iBook the day to day usage is also very
similar.

> Chris' comment that he felt that the hardware was less likely to break is 
> probably the best reason I've seen so far. 

Probably one I didn't throw in, but did consider. I thought that if
Apple sell this stuff to schools for teenagers to use (and it survives)
then hopefully I won't have any problems with it.

Another one is that the small form factor Intel stuff that was most
comparable to the iBook was almost double the price. Try getting a 12
inch Intel notebook and they Start around $3000.

> skribe

Michael Hunt

[1] Not flame-bait, just good natured fun skribe :-)