Darkelve Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Hi all, I'm still thinking about getting an Apple iBook. About a year ago, I thought of it and decided I didn't really need a laptop, but a lot of things have changed since then. Of course I want to be as informed as possible before buying such an 'expensive' purchase. I'm doubting between the iBook and Powerbook line, but I think the iBook should be sufficient for me. Plus I'm budget-conscious. I picked the smallest (and 'cheapest') model, the 12'' model. While I'm not sure how big the screen actually is, I won't be needing a huge screen for anything (I've got my home PC for these things). Don't need a lot of hard disk also, since I will probably be using 'external storage' (or my home PC) for that. Here's the configuration of the one I want to buy: • 768 MB DDR266 SDRAM (256 MB built-in and 512 MB SO-DIMM-slot) • 30 GB Ultra ATA-schijf • DVD/CD-RW • Bluetooth-module • AirPort Extreme-card • Keyboard & Mac OS • 1-GHz PowerPC G4 • 12,1-inch TFT-screen • 2 USB-ports • FireWire-port • Light Net adapter (translated, dunno if this is correct English) • Battery Price: € 1 312,22 +BTW: € 275,57 =Subtotal: € 1.587,79 Seems like good enough value for a laptop of this spec, but I got some Linux-related question also: - What Linux distro can I install of it? I only know of Yellow Dog and Mandrake PPC at this moment. I heard Panther is a fantastic OS, but I was thinking about a dual-boot. - Is there any 'problematic' hardware in this config? - Is it true that the PPC-versions of distro's lag behind the Intel versions? What about the available applications, etc. - Anything I should pay special attention to? I'd appreciate your comments, especially from existing Apple/Linux-users. Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 Yes, the PPC versions do usually lag behind the Intel versions. However, you may find it a good idea to go with Gentoo in this case (believe me, I'd only recommend gentoo when I think it the best solution!). Why? Because you don't have to wait for the distribution to give you a PPC package, you can just user emerge to download the source and compile it for ppc. there are some other PPC distro's out there, but I can't remember any at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 yellow dog ?? Anyway they are BEAUTIFUL MACHINES anyway.....drool drool.... Even without linux you can still download source for apps and then compile them so long as you have the libraries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 (edited) yellow dog ?? yup, Yellow Dog Linux it actually looks kind of good... heck, you can buy Mac's with it [apple]=1]pre-installed for about the same price. Except, of course, for students like myself, who get a nice $100-$200 discount Edited April 22, 2004 by tyme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted April 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 (edited) yellow dog ?? yup, Yellow Dog Linux it actually looks kind of good... It looks like Red Hat on Apple hardware, with Anaconda, Bluecurve and a Yellow Dog on the wallpaper... My previous experience with Red Hat wasn't too good. True, it was probably me for a big part, but I still don't like the smaller part (and the experience where my mouse went totally crazy). The iBook still seems nice though ;) I hear people claim its expensive, but I wonder if it would be so easy to find an Intel architecture laptop with these specs and similar price!? Edited April 22, 2004 by Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 netbsd Debian Gentoo Yellow Dog Slackintosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 I knew you'd chime in eventually, cybrjackle :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 23, 2004 Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 I knew you'd chime in eventually, cybrjackle :) Yeah, i'm a whore aint I. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezroller Posted April 23, 2004 Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 buy it. without question. I bought a 12" powerbook almost a year ago, and it has been the best computer I have ever owned. I have never been happier with a sales team, customer support team, or the product itself. I use OSX exclusively on it, as it comes with X11 installed by default, so every program I ran in linux, I can run in OSX. check it: super sized screenie: http://www.hostdub.com/albums/ezroller/screenie.jpg Thats OSX, GAIM, Konqueror, Fluxbox, iTunes(OSX), Eterm, and Konfabulator(OSX) I did run Gentoo 2004.0 on it for a while, but I missed OSX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 Show off :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 24, 2004 Report Share Posted April 24, 2004 DictccPPCKnoppix Say that 5x fast :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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