[plug] Linux on Laptops

[Cameron Patrick]

Craig Ringer wrote:

> The iBooks are on par with x86 laptops in price. If I had to use a mac,
> I'd probably go for one of those.

That's not true.  The 12" iBooks cost at least $1000 _less_ than a
comparable x86 laptop, assuming that by "comparable" you include
features like '12" screen' and 'not incredibly heavy' and 'useful
battery life'.  My laptop cost me about as much as a Powerbook
(perhaps a little more taking into account the extra RAM and 80GB
5400rpm drive which I bought - the latter of which wouldn't have been
an option at all on a Powerbook at the time, though), has a marginally
faster CPU (more than enough for my needs though neither machine is
exactly be speed demon), marginally shorter battery life and weighs
quite a bit less.

I still bought the x86 since I knew that everything would be supported
perfectly under Linux.  It has Intel graphics (3-D acceleration good
enough to play every game that I've thrown at it [1] with Free
drivers), Intel network adaptors (supported with Free drivers written
by Intel, to be included in the mainline kernel any day now), and a
low-power CPU which does a heck of a lot better than a Pentium 4 clock
for clock.  Hardware suspend is still a bit hit-and-miss but with some
fiddling it can be made to work on most machines.

Mac OS X is pretty, but I still prefer to use something that gives me
a warm fuzzy "free software" feeling.  I'm also pretty much addicted to
the Debian packaging system ;-)  Apple's onboard wireless "Airport
Extreme" isn't supported by Linux and probably never will be, which
was a bit off-putting for me.

As well as the Apple, I looked at similar laptops from IBM (Thinkpad
X40/X41 - _very_ nice but a bit pricey), Toshiba (Portege series -
were insanely expensive for what you got when I looked, but seem to
have come down lately) and Asus (S5N/M5N/W5N series - similar price to
the base model IBMs but with much speccier hardware inside).

I ended up going with the Asus.  Despite the slightly off brand, it's
actually pretty well made - it's survived my mistreating it for a year
or so, several falls onto concrete from a small height, clumsy people
(erm, me) tripping over the cord to the charger when it was plugged in
and knocking it off tables, countless journeys being squashed up in a
backpack and so on.

Ramble concludes :-)

Cheers,

Cameron.

[1] Tetrinet, Quake III and Frozen Bubble. ;-P