[ale] New Topic

Sat Jan 1 12:09:10 EST 2005

Third the motion.

I hope one day to be able to afford the Apple hardware.

I have HP's identical Intel analog to the 17" powerbook, and get a few "oohs
and ahhs" myself.  I run a few different flavors of Linux and a small
windows partition for SimCity.  (hey...at least I'm honest).

I bought this laptop for 2100.  The comparable MAC was 3100-3500 at the
time.  I just couldn't justify the extra $1000.  Is the Mac a better
machine?  Youbetcha.  Is the Mac a better OS?  Well....  Comparable to
Linux.  (sorry....  I have a G4 and still prefer Linux to OSX today)

My question is (and always has been) when will the hardware costs come down
to a point where buying the Mac laptops is as justifiable as buying the
Intel ones?  I just don't think the hardware +OSX warrants *SUCH* a huge
markup.  But, since Apple views themselves as "a hardware company", that's
where they believe their markup has to be to be successful.

I think Apple's key to success is releasing OSX on the Intel platform.  It
would be another heyday of development and a stronger viable alternative to
Windows in the market.  

(and my HP laptop is still for sale @ $1650 if anyone is interested...the
model is zd7020US)

Jerald M. Sheets jr.
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator
McKesson, Inc.
(404) 293-8762
**********
>su -
Password:
# cat /dev/flood > /dev/earth
# rdev noah+beasts
# dd if=noah+beasts of=/dev/earth

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Mark
Wright
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 12:04 AM
To: Jonathan Rickman; Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] New Topic

I second the the nomination for babbling, incoherent, washed up PC promoter,
( I like using extreme language anyway ;-)

I learned a lot from Dvorak's Hardware Bible back in the eighties and when I
discovered Macs I was disappointed by his attitude toward them.

The new press on Apple is right on.   I have been using a Ti Powerbook,  
(1 ghz G4 for non Macophiles) for over a year as my main ride.  I have seven
Linux desktops at home (and no windows) but Apple goes to work with me.  I
really think OSX is the best *nix OS I have ever used.  I used to use
Virtual PC about six years ago to help my old Macs keep up albeit slowly but
I don't need it anymore.

I can truly run any Linux app on my powerbook plus all the Apple stuff.  
  I use a python script to run rsync to back up to an external firewire
disk.  I edit photos with the Gimp and edit .docs with Abiword.  When I need
NT authentication for my browser I use Firefox not IE.  I prefer nmap to the
few mac network exploration programs I use Kermit to do  
serial communications to oddball hardware I have to fix sometimes.   
(through USB!)

People still look at my "obsolete" Powerbook (new model out last year), and
ooh and aah when I take it out.  It is exactly what I wish my Linux boxes
were.

Mark

On Dec 31, 2004, at 9:31 AM, Jonathan Rickman wrote:

> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:01:22 -0500, Christopher Fowler 
> <cfowler at outpostsentinel.com> wrote:
>> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1745930,00.asp
>>
>> Read above article and discuss.  I've always wanted an iMac ever 
>> since Jobs went to a UNIX platform.  I want a laptop that is created 
>> to run UNIX not  UNIX that is massaged to run on a laptop.  My 
>> problem with PC's is that there is always a piece of hardware not 
>> supported and sometimes running Linux on them can cause issues.  But 
>> I just can not get myself to spend that much on a laptop when I can 
>> buy a PC based laptop that is extremely fast and has many benefits.
>
> Dvorak is a babbling, incoherent, washed up PC promoter who has been 
> helping to perpetuate the idea that "no, this time it is really 
> over...the mac is dying" for the last decade. Meanwhile Apple 
> continues to sell more units every year. Now we have this idea that 
> since their market share dropped a bit this year that it means fewer 
> macs sold. Fraid not, Apple is selling more macs than ever. Now the 
> scary part is that with the introduction of Tiger (OS 10.4) and Oracle 
> 10g for OS X, the macs will become a serious contender in the 
> enterprise market as soon as we start to see IBM (yes, IBM!) start 
> offering support for them. The truth of the matter is that Apple, and 
> the lowly Mac, are positioned to become a driving force in the 
> computing industry again. It takes a while to draw all the lines that 
> connect the dots, but the signs point to Apple becoming a serious 
> player at home, work, and anywhere else silicon is used to process 
> information. I'm not a big mac guy, but I've been playing with the 
> Tiger beta for a few weeks now and I have been more impressed by this 
> OS than I have ever been by anything done in lintel/wintel 
> country...Solaris 10 included. How well it scales remains to be seen, 
> but I suspect that somewhere deep inside an IBM facility there is a 
> big pSeries machine running OS X (or at least Darwin) to investigate 
> that very thing. Apple has the reputation for being overpriced, but 
> before you convince yourself of that you should probably read this:
>
> http://osopinion.com/modules.php? 
> op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3095&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
>
> and this:
>
> http://osopinion.com/modules.php? 
> op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3133&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
>
> Now go on over to the Apple web site and price out 2 XServe G5 boxes 
> maxed out on RAM and CPU with an XServe RAID box maxed out at 5.6 TB.
> Compare that to the best you can get from Dell. Hint: One will be 5 
> figures, and the other 6. :)
>
> Apple has certainly got my attention, despite what Dvorak may say.
>
> --
> Jonathan
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

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