OT - Care to share your opinion?

[Clinton MacDonald]

Mr. Page:

Matthew Page wrote:
> This is not flame-bait.

Darn! ;-)

> I am soon going to be going to graduate school to get myself
> a little more edumacated. I plan on following a parallel
> programming/data visualization track. (Just as background
> information for my question.)

I am not a programmer (though "data visualization" seems cool), so my 
opinion might be worthless. That will not stop me from having an 
opinion, however!

> I plan on running Linux on a laptop, so my question to you
> is this... Is there a compelling reason to buy a Powerbook
> and put Linux on it instead of ordering a fat-bob x86 laptop
> and putting Linux on it?
> 
> I have about $3000 in the budget [...]

The answer is, as always, "That depends...." What do you plan to do with 
the laptop? What programs are required in your course of study? What are 
the other students in the program using? What are the faculty in the 
department using? You may even have to use Microsoft (spit) development 
tools. It is possible that this decision will be made for you.

Meanwhile, many "command-line gurus" have been migrating to the 
PowerBooks because it is Unix on a laptop done right. In Mac OS X, the 
command-line is there, the compilation tools are there, the languages 
are there. Battery management is there. Sleep *works* (not a trivial 
thing on a Linux-based laptop).

Other advantages of a PowerBook or iBook include: good value for the 
price (especially the iBook), light weight, convenient form, relatively 
sturdy design, *excellent* support for graphics, including external 
monitors or projectors (for presentations), native versions of Microsoft 
(spit) Office tools, generally high quality of software, including 
shareware, freeware, and Open Source (look at the Fink project). And, 
all of this is *before* you install Yellow Dog Linux or another 
distribution.

The downsides of a PowerBook or iBook include: inability to purchase a 
stripped down/low cost version, incomplete support for Linux (YDL or 
otherwise), *no* Open Source driver support for 802.11g wireless 
networking, fewer available ports of Open Source/Linux software, and so on.

> and the laptop should be able to last me through a PHD
> without having to be replaced.  (If possible...  I'm
> not talking about theft here...)

If you need a laptop primarily for note taking, word processing, 
presentations, productivity, with less emphasis on Linux-specific tools 
or x86-specific development, then get the PowerBook (or iBook), install 
YDL on a partition, and dual boot. You may find that you can spend most 
of your productive hours in Mac OS X, with an occasional foray into YDL.

If, however, Linux will be your primary, if not sole operating system, 
then get a decent x86 laptop (possibly a Thinkpad, though I have little 
experience), and install Fedora, Mandrake, Debian, Ubuntu, or your 
favorite distro. Linux development greatly favors the x86 architecture, 
and you will struggle less if you accept this. Don't expect to get sleep 
or hibernation working in Linux without a struggle, however.

However, if you really have $3000 to spend, consider this option: 
purchase a tricked out iBook (US$1000-1200 at the Apple Store for 
Education), and spend the rest on a mid-range desktop PC onto which you 
can load Fedora or Debian. The best of both worlds. And, you can throw 
Microsoft (spit) Windows out -- well -- a window!

Good luck!

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>