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Crowd Sourcing: Mac Replacement
My computer is dieing right now. Not quickly, but I need to shop for a replacement in the coming months. The dilemma I face is whether to get a new Mac or go PC with Ubuntu Linux. I like Ubuntu a lot, it's Linux distro that's pretty much ready for prime time. However, I cannot run a great many commercial applicatio...ns directly on it. I'd have to install a Virtual Machine with Window and then install stuff like Adobe's Creative Suite on that. Meanwhile, I directly install what I want on the Mac. The issue here is price. System76 has a line of powerful laptops for half the comparable Mac. What d'yall think? Since this laptop is likely to become my primary professional machine, I'll do a lot of development on it, and that argues for Linux and VMWare on its own.
My current machine is one of the last pre-ban Hemis. Actually it's an genuine PowerPC based PowerBook that I bought for grad school just before the great chip switchover. The hard drive's probably iffy and the DVD drive now jams a bit. I already had to open 'er up and change the keyboard. I will never do that DIY repair again! I will, however, keep the thing and install ginormous SSD drive and a replacement dvd drive. This gives me a backup system and an experimental platform for deviant OS installs. I can achieve geek fame by porting BeOS to PowerPC architecture. Wonder if the OS2 Warp codebase is in the public domain. The fun I can have with a spare system...
The finalists for my replacement candidates are:
System76 Pangolin:
VS
Macbook Pro
So far, the only compatibility issue I can think of is I-Tunes. Still it exists for windows and I have VMWare or Wine to handle that.
My current machine is one of the last pre-ban Hemis. Actually it's an genuine PowerPC based PowerBook that I bought for grad school just before the great chip switchover. The hard drive's probably iffy and the DVD drive now jams a bit. I already had to open 'er up and change the keyboard. I will never do that DIY repair again! I will, however, keep the thing and install ginormous SSD drive and a replacement dvd drive. This gives me a backup system and an experimental platform for deviant OS installs. I can achieve geek fame by porting BeOS to PowerPC architecture. Wonder if the OS2 Warp codebase is in the public domain. The fun I can have with a spare system...
The finalists for my replacement candidates are:
System76 Pangolin:
- Core i7-640M Processor ( 32nm, 4MB L3 Cache, 2.80GHz / 3.46GHz Turbo Mode )
- 15.6" HD+ LED (1600 x 900) display
- GB - DDR3 1333 MHz - 2 DIMMs
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 Graphics with 512MB GDDR2 Memory
- 160 GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive
- CD-RW / DVD-RW
- Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
VS
Macbook Pro
- Intel Core i5 2.53 Ghz processor
- 1440-by-900-pixel LED-backlit glossy display
- 15.6 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
- 256GB Solid State Drive
- Mac standard wireless etc...
So far, the only compatibility issue I can think of is I-Tunes. Still it exists for windows and I have VMWare or Wine to handle that.