[ale] My iBook

[James Sumners]

The only machine I have Windows on is the machine I use for video
games. The machine doesn't to anything else. Me and Windows just don't
work well together.

I am not willing to spend money on a laptop preloaded with Linux
because it is either going to come with an RPM based distribution,
which I dislike almost as much as Windows, or a funky version of
Debian that is geared toward people who are used to using Windows. I
would end up doing the same thing as I did with this laptop -- loading
Debian on it. I would more than likely then be in the exact same
situation and have wasted money.

I have only used OS X a couple of times. Everything I have read about
it though gives me the idea that it can work for anyone; the
non-techie and the techie alike. It will take some learning but I
would like to learn another system just to round out my knowledge.
Read "A Month With Mac" parts one and two at
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/ for more information along these lines.
Those two articles are what made me decide to finally give Apple a
chance.

What would I recommend as a solution? The vendor supporting all three
platforms. I don't care if they use .NET/Mono, wxPython, or their own
custom solution to do it. Whatever it takes for them to do it, the
only solution, in my opinion, is platform agnostic support. I want to
be able to choose my platform. And, ultimately, I would like to be
able to purchase ONE copy of the product and have it work on whatever
platform I choose. Games are starting to do just that and I think they
stand a good chance of driving the rest of the market to do it.


On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 15:08:21 -0500, Geoffrey <esoteric at 3times25.net> wrote:
> Okay, so we have your definition.  Other than the issue of 'publicly
> accepted' it sounds valid.  Personally, I don't care what's 'publicly
> accepted' because I generally know as much or more about computers as a
> whole the the folks I'm in meetings with.  Further I am more productive
> on Linux then I would be on a Windows computer.  OSX, I don't know, I've
> not used it.  I have a feeling I'd like it better than Windows, but less
> than Linux.  The thing I like about Linux is, if I can't get it to work
> like I want it to, I can lift the hood and make it work.
> 
> I also feel much more comfortable sitting down to work with a Linux
> based laptop then Windows.  It just plain works and I have a whole lot
> fewer problems than my windows counterparts.
> 
> Well, if you're willing to spend the money you can get a laptop
> preinstalled, with support and all.  I did that with my Sony, picked it
> up from Emperor Linux (http://www.emperorlinux.com/).  It has a prism54
> based wireless card, which I purchased at a later date from them.
> Completely supported in their kernel.  It just works.  I've even
> installed two different distros on it, and Emperor Linux provides a
> kernel rpm that you can use with those distros.  I recently upgraded my
> SuSE 9.2 to the 2.6 kernel provided by Emperor Linux.
> 
> What would you suggest as a good solution?  Other than the vendor
> porting to Linux.
> 
> --
> Until later, Geoffrey

-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59