Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:08:26 +0100 From: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> To: Andi Scharfstein <mail@synchron.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Powerbook Setup Message-ID: <20041018220826.GG42527@iconoplex.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <16710656779.20041018233408@synchron.org> References: <16710656779.20041018233408@synchron.org>
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On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 11:34:08PM +0200, Andi Scharfstein wrote: > I was wondering if there was any advice you'd want to give an Apple > newbie. Yes, of course. My advice is that you sell your over-priced fashion-victim toy with it's Fisher Price Unix installed, and use the money instead to buy yourself a top of the range Thinkpad. It will outperform it, run FreeBSD, not look out of fashion next season, has been built by a company that is truly committed to the open source movement and whose execs don't patronise you by assuming you travel to work on a skateboard in cargo pants or worse, pander to your girlfriend's idea of what a computer should be. In addition, you'll be able to easily and cheaply upgrade parts of your laptop, built as it is on commodity hardware with 3rd-party suppliers being plentiful. You'll find either the manufacturer's support much better than Apple's, alternatively you won't have to travel 300 miles to find your "local" dealer as pretty much any computer store in the country will be able to carry out any repairs you need. Spares will be cheaper, labour will be cheaper, and you will not be without your laptop for 3 months whilst a replacement TFT screen sits on a boat from Korea slowly plodding it's way to you, thanks to a ridiculous spares and repairs policy. In addition, you won't be contributing to the "brain drain" that Apple has caused on the Open Source movement, will understand more about how your computer works as a result, and won't spend half your working day fighting bouncing icons, "helpful" software that constantly tries to break into every WAP point within range and a user interface that was specifically designed to be helpful to 5-year olds and your technophobic mother. You'll instead get to use an OS and an interface designed for somebody who understands computers, not have to put up with one that assumes you are a 6th-grader with learning difficulties. Plus, brilliantly, people won't point at you and laugh when you get your laptop out on a plane or in a cybercafe for spending thousands of dollars on a laptop that isn't as powerful as Intel-based competitors just because you think it "looks neat". You will be considered by your peers to be a man instead of a boy, a leader instead of a follower, and you won't get any more snide e-mails like this when you post to a FreeBSD list for help with your hardware. Hope that helps. Sorry it was you that suffered my rant on Apple kit, but you are, to my knowledge, the first in a while. I will now don the fireproof suit. -- Paul Robinson
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