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Date:      Mon, 05 Mar 2001 15:33:00 +1100
From:      Tony Landells <ahl@austclear.com.au>
To:        David Kelly <dkelly@grumpy.dyndns.org>
Cc:        MisteraSturno@worldnet.att.net, questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   OT: MacOS X (was Re: Can you recommend... )
Message-ID:  <200103050433.PAA18084@tungsten.austclear.com.au>
In-Reply-To: Message from David Kelly <dkelly@grumpy.dyndns.org>  of "Sun, 04 Mar 2001 20:53:23 MDT." <200103050253.f252rNe51281@grumpy.dyndns.org> 

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David Kelly writes:
> Gan Starling writes:
> > I wish to first buy a supported laptop and then install FreeBSD on it.
> > 
> > I have the list of supported devices, but I don't trust the sales staff
> > of any store...for good and sufficient reason based upon sad past
> > experience.

I must say this is one of my biggest problems in the whole UNIX-on-PC
deal--actually having enough knowledge of the PC hardware to know what
will work and what won't.  With twenty-something years of UNIX experience
the software doesn't really scare me, but knowing whether one motherboard
rev is sufficiently similar to another...

> Faced with a similar desire I ordered an Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 
> and have preordered MacOS X. All after a brief couple of hours with 
> MacOS X Public Beta convincing myself "This really is Unix."
> 
> Am expecting all the advantages of Unix plus all the advantages of a 
> commercially supported consumer OS.
> 
> My new Powerbook is really nice. http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

I'm impressed by your faith.  Much as I love the Macs, and this is
a combo I'm considering, I'm not committing until I've seen the real
MacOS X in action (particularly as something has killed my Public
Beta in the last few days and I haven't been able to fix it yet).

The G4 chip is awesome, and the new powerbooks pack a full G4 and
are still thin, thin, thin.  Great hardware, but it does cost.

I've found it hard to work out where to find some things in the
Public Beta, and I don't think I'm a big fan of NetInfo (the
database system used for passwd/shadow/hosts/... kind of like
NIS/YP).

The other thing where MacOS X loses at the moment is that it
doesn't have something like BIOS passwords and boot orders, so
I can't stop people from rebooting from a CD, for example, to
get access to my (unencrypted but still important) files.

Cheers,
Tony
-- 
Tony Landells					<ahl@austclear.com.au>
Senior Network Engineer				Ph:  +61 3 9677 9319
Australian Clearing Services Pty Ltd		Fax: +61 3 9677 9355
Level 4, Rialto North Tower
525 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia



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