[olug] Linux Laptop v/s. Apple Powermac

[Daniel Pfile]

I don't know if anybody else uses a powerbook here, so I'll see if I can
help. I've never owned a pc laptop, so I'm not much help there.

> 1.  Does Apple's "AirPort" wireless solution play well with non-Apple
> base stations?

Yup, my base station is a linux box with a linksys pci card.

> 2.  I realize that MHz is not a true indication of processing power and
> that Apple technology tends to be higher quality but how do the various
> Apple processors compare to Intel/AMD processors?

If you're doing normal stuff, they're just a bit faster mhz per mhz, but if
you're into photos/movies/rendering/etc, the altivec stuff will speed up
things a lot. They also use a lot less power, my 667 goes for almost 4.5
hours of normal usage with the airport on.

> 3.  Having never used any of the BSD's, what is their application
> packaging system and how does it compare to the various packaging
> systems out there?  If you've got Debian experience, how does it
> compare to Debian?

You can install fink for unix stuff. It's almost just like debian (in fact
it's mostly a port). fink.sourceforge.net

I don't think you'll have much trouble, pick up mac os x for unix geeks at a
book store. O'reilly is publishing a lot of articles in their mac dev center
as well.

> GENERAL QUESTIONS
>
> 1.  What should I be looking at/for?  More importantly:  what should I
>    avoid?
>
>    This laptop will likely become my main computer.  I'm not a computer
> game player (I've got a PlayStation 2 for that) but I am a Java/J2EE
> Developer so I'll likely be running web and application server software
> to support my developement efforts.

You're good there, allthough JRE 1.4 isn't out yet, it should be soon.
Apple's done a really good job with java. You can get the beta from a free
apple developer account. Everything you'd expect to need for j2ee works
fine, including all the major IDEs and swing tools for deploying/configing
your app server.

I'd go with a 1ghz powerbook g4 with a 15" screen. That should last you a
while. They hold their value pretty good, so in a few years you can sell it
for more than chump change. My 667 is plenty fast for anything I've needed
to do (I'm not a gamer), the only thing that's a bit sluggish is mozilla
(suprise!) but the latest beta of safari (based on kde's khtml) is fast, and
does tabs.

Get the airport extreme and use it with whatever 802.11b/g base station you
want. The range is kinda weak (antenna is in the screen, and the back is
covered in titanium), mine seems to go about 100 feet through 3 plaster
walls ok though.

Don't buy ram from apple, the powerbook has 2 sodimm slots under the
keyboard (it's easy) pick up ram cheap someplace else. I maxed mine out at a
gig when I got it.

Get the extra 3 years of apple care warenty. Notebooks are expensive picky
creatures, and things do break. This generation of titanium powerbooks are
pretty good though (better paint, lower titanium content in the hinges so
they're less brittle/break prone, etc) You may want to look into extra
homeowners insurance on your laptop. I pay $50/year to cover it from pretty
much anything short of a nuclear blast.

I wouldn't buy it used from ebay, but there are places online that are ok.
http://www.macprices.com/g4tracker.shtml

Hope that helps.

-- Daniel