[olug] Re: OLUG digest, Vol 1 #292 - 5 msgs

[William Haisch]

I hope this isn't too incoherent... after all, it is 1:10 AM.... 
Without further adieu, let's answer some questions!

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

You bet!  If the access point is Wi-Fi 802.11b, then it will work with 
Apple hardware without special configuration or drivers.  Of course, 
some APs (access points) will have more features than others such as 
MAC filtering, firewalls, port forwarding, etc... and some will not.  I 
currently use a NetGear MR-314 802.11b wireless access point and 4 port 
switch router.  It has wireless MAC filtering and routes AppleTalk 
packets so my old PowerMacs and laser printers are still useful to my 
new PowerBook G4.  Caveat: not all APs will route AppleTalk.  Selecting 
a wireless connection is easy, just pull down the Airport menu item and 
select the AP you want to connect to, or you can set it up to connect 
to the AP with the best signal.  Adding an XP laptop to an AP is an 
exercise in futility, what a hunk of crap, one has to use a utility and 
type the name of the network and it just plain sucks.  Period.

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?

I don't feel any difference in responsiveness or render times on 
equally configured systems with different architectures.  I place value 
in the software, not just the architecture.  Apple has high quality 
software that I need to get my job done.

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?

Fink is a development of adding packages, the Debian way!  
http://fink.sourceforge.net/
http://www.osxgnu.org/ has good poop, too.  I believe the Installer 
program does its own package management.  All "applications" are 
actually folders that house the components needed for execution, so 
there aren't any overwritten libraries and DLL hell.  Slick.

In your need list is a 15" screen.  I would wait for the next round of 
updates (probably first half of April) where Apple will probably update 
the 15 PB to DDR RAM, Airport Extreme, and other stuff.

Why did I choose a new Apple?  Built-in wireless 802.11g wireless, 
CD-RW/DVD-R SuperDrive burner, compact size, DDR RAM, nice keyboard, 
line in jack, no legacy crap, OS X Jaguar, open standards (defined 
outside of Apple and M$).  It runs OpenOffice and AppleWorks so I can 
open any M$ file.  Everything just works!  I can get my work done 
instead of having to futz around with the computer.

No M$ tax, eh?  What about a *nix tax?  If SCO/Caldera/UnitedLinux has 
their way in court with IBM, we may be all in for a little 
"intellectual property" tax, no matter what *nix we are running....

And that is all I have to say about that....

-Wm.
----------
William Haisch
bill at whaisch.com