On 18 Aug 2001 22:18:01 -0700, Andrew Sharp wrote: > I can't resist wading into this silly discussion. If you care about > MacOS or Windows, my opinions are worthless, just hit delete now. > > The thing is, x86 laptop prices capabilities are far in excess of > apple's meager offerings. I just went to dell.com and configured an > inspiron 4000 with: > > * 1GHz P3 > * 512MB memory > * 59Whour battery > * 30GB hard drive > * 1400x1050 14.1" screen (sorry tibook) > * aty128 w/8MB memory (agp4x I think) > * combo dvd/cdrw drive > * modem and ethernet 10/100 built in > * free lexmark32 printer, or palm m100, or umax 3400 USB scanner > $2926.00USD, $2876.00 after $50 mail in rebate. > Yikes. > > I went to store.apple.com and configured a tibook with the memory > and disk, and this is what I got: > > * pretty much the same as above except a much slower processor,
Though dont compare the clock frequencies directly, ppc is different so a P5 500MHz is not the same as a G4 500MHz. > * dell is 66% bigger display (exact same video cntr, btw) > * only one pcmcia/cardbus slot. bummer. If you need wavelan, it fits in its own slot, and costs a lot less than the lucent card. So you still have the PCMCIA slot free for other stuff. Of course this is a real limitation if one happens to need two other PCMCIA cards, but most people I know are using the pcmcia for networking. The tibook and ibook have built in ethernet ports also, which work on linux if I remember correctly. > * built in firewire; not working yet under linux Works under linux as far as I know, one needs a 2.4 kernel though. At least the firewire mass storage stuff should work, with some kernels and patching though.. The stuff is in the works anyway. > I think people don't consider enough the coolness factor of the > iBook2. It is plenty fast enough, except for compiling +large+ > chunks of software. If you are building a kernel once or twice a > week, no big deal at all. Take a deep breath, get some coffee, > write that long notebook comparo email, whatever, it's not bad. As > for regular apps, its more than adequate, in fact, I'd say it's even > snappy. Plenty fast enough for the normal work apps or playing > mp3s, surfing, etc. And the coolness factor can't be beat: you've > got a very small, cool looking notebook with XGA resolution (not > huge, but enough to keep you sane) that does everything, and doesn't > look like every freakin' notebook on the planet. This counts for > 200-300 MHz at least, trust me. If you do happen to come across > someone else with one, chances are VERY slim they'll be running > Linux, and, if you did it right, ~:^), your desktop will look WAY > more beautiful than the MockOS one. Yeah, my thoughts as well. Speed is really not that big of an issue, unless you are a developer, who compiles a LOT of stuff daily, or if you do some other CPU intensive work. I can say that the Pismo, which pretty much matches the ibook2, is perfectly fine for all my graphics work for example. It is a *laptop* anyway, I do have a big-screen desktop machine with a lot of ram for digital photo and other huge graphics, but this works perfectly fine for most things. Actually, I just moved and didnt setup the other machines yet, so I am doing all my work with this laptop. I can do everything I need with this, so I could survive with just this one machine. It is not that the CPU grunt is the bottleneck on how fast I can create icons and other artwork.. :-) Luckily icons are small, so even a 1024x768 screen is fine. > is amazing. Dell sells a laptop with a 16x12 screen if you can > believe it. I was fairly underwhelmed by the tibook I looked at it Yea, those screens are incredible. Just like the VAIO screens are, the pixel density is around the same, VAIO screen is just about 1/4th of the Pismo screen with the same 1024x768.. Talk about small xterm sizes.. :) On the other hand, with unix/X11 we have the virtual desktops, which makes it a LOT more fun to run multiple applications even on a small resolution. Tuomas -- :: :: Tuomas Kuosmanen :: Art Director, Ximian :: :: :: :: [EMAIL PROTECTED] :: www.ximian.com :: ::
