This Year I Dropped Apple and Chose Lenovo and Ubuntu
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Apple is promoting "free" iPods with a Macbook purchase, an enticing offer for those students heading off to college. Last year, I took advantage of the offer, but not this year.
My son is in the sculpture school at VCU, and a Macbook Pro was the defacto standard. As a new student he qualified for a discount on the Macbook Pro as well as a free iPod. However, the "freeness" of the offer is contingent on a reimbursement. I had to first pay for the iPod 80G, then fill out on-line forms, and mail in the package UPC and some other paper work.
After 30 days, I notified the Apple authorities that my reimbursement didn't show up. I was informed that because of demand, Apple was behind schedule in getting out the updates. The next time I checked, I was informed that I had waited too long, and the offer was expired.
I'm not mad, because I'm no longer a customer.
This year, when my daughter got to choose any laptop she wanted (up to the expense of a Mac Macbook Pro), she selected a Lenovo Thinkpad T61. She had been using Ubuntu for her senior year, so a Linux install did not intimidate her.
While she could have had the Macbook Pro, the Lenovo made a very compelling package. First of all the T61 is not a slacky (you can find the reviews for it, all over the net). By selecting the SuSE install, you can save around a $100 off the price (and save your family from suffering with Vista). Lenovo provides the SuSE option for corporate, consumer, and educational customers. So, not only did my daughter get an education discount, it was cheaper, again, because of the SuSE choice. Neat.
We accessorized it with a docking station, fingerscanner, extra 17" monitor, bluetooth , DVD/RW, and a Canon Pixma MP520. The OS was wiped (after cloning it) andupgraded replaced with Ubuntu 8.04. The fingerscanner works great (thanks to thinkfinger), the separate monitor is configured for twin-head mode (thanks to urandr) and Canon actually has Linux drivers for printing and scanning.
It's very cool and my "digital native" is all set up.
Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Apple, Thinkpad
Apple is promoting "free" iPods with a Macbook purchase, an enticing offer for those students heading off to college. Last year, I took advantage of the offer, but not this year.
My son is in the sculpture school at VCU, and a Macbook Pro was the defacto standard. As a new student he qualified for a discount on the Macbook Pro as well as a free iPod. However, the "freeness" of the offer is contingent on a reimbursement. I had to first pay for the iPod 80G, then fill out on-line forms, and mail in the package UPC and some other paper work.
After 30 days, I notified the Apple authorities that my reimbursement didn't show up. I was informed that because of demand, Apple was behind schedule in getting out the updates. The next time I checked, I was informed that I had waited too long, and the offer was expired.
I'm not mad, because I'm no longer a customer.
This year, when my daughter got to choose any laptop she wanted (up to the expense of a Mac Macbook Pro), she selected a Lenovo Thinkpad T61. She had been using Ubuntu for her senior year, so a Linux install did not intimidate her.
While she could have had the Macbook Pro, the Lenovo made a very compelling package. First of all the T61 is not a slacky (you can find the reviews for it, all over the net). By selecting the SuSE install, you can save around a $100 off the price (and save your family from suffering with Vista). Lenovo provides the SuSE option for corporate, consumer, and educational customers. So, not only did my daughter get an education discount, it was cheaper, again, because of the SuSE choice. Neat.
We accessorized it with a docking station, fingerscanner, extra 17" monitor, bluetooth , DVD/RW, and a Canon Pixma MP520. The OS was wiped (after cloning it) and
It's very cool and my "digital native" is all set up.
Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Apple, Thinkpad
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Comments
- Powerbook ? What era am I in ? I corrected those references.
- Is the Macbook Pro a superior product of OS and hardware integration ? Absolutely. I think that the Macbook Pro is fairly valued for what it delivers. I also think well of Ferrari's and the new Tesla Roadster. The Macbook Pro is a premium product.
- I made it sound simple to configure the system with a twin-head monitor (and add a 2nd sound system). And, you found me out--like everything in the land of Linux Tweaking--it's only obvious after reading all the documentation and obscure web pages. I think this is a temporary state, so I don't mind the fuss. Because it's so easy to create a bare-metal backup (clonezilla), I'm guessing that within 12 to 18 months we'll start to see Linux repositories of hardware-specific images.
When I buy a new laptop, they all come with a standard, two-partition hard drive. It doesn't matter if the OS is XP, Vista or SuSE. The 1st partition is hidden, and contains the re-install image of the OS which is run off of the 2nd partition. If the user completely goofs their laptop, then they back up the data and run the re-install.
So, how long before we get images of a fully installed, say, Dell D630, Acer, or Lenovo T61 ?
Posted by jack dausman At 01:26:55 AM On 07/16/2008 | - Website - |
Apple's hardware runs Ubuntu too, of course.'
(maybe they were confused and thought you had not submitted the info in time?)
Posted by Pecos Bill At 08:38:31 PM On 07/15/2008 | - Website - |
When it comes to any other OS and OS X, it is your description in the last paragraph that turns me off. You'd actually have to look for the drivers and install them and configure them. Of course, you can't get features like what you mentioned on a Mac today (actually, I'm not sure - can you?), but if it were available on a Mac, you can bet it would work out of the box. No twiddling required. I've been using PCs, probably not as long as you have, but long enough. I don't have the patience to mess with it like that anymore. I discovered the iMac last december and have never looked back since.
Cheers!
Posted by Nik At 08:25:05 PM On 07/15/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Daniel At 11:11:34 AM On 07/15/2008 | - Website - |
Ubuntu is a great OS, no question - but for my part, there is no comparison between it and Mac OS X.
And one correction - Apple does not make a "Powerbook Pro". No doubt you were referring to the MacBook Pro series of laptops.
M
Posted by Marek Sumara At 11:07:02 AM On 07/15/2008 | - Website - |