Well everybody, I bought myself a new computer, and it is a Mac Powerbook Titanium G4. This thing is sweet. Here are the specs:

1Ghz G4 processor
1 GB DDR Ram (yes, a 1024 MB)
60 GB hard disk
64 MB ATI Radeon graphics card (supports two displays)
2 USB and 1 Firewire port
and a built-in Superdrive (reads and writes DVD's and CD's)

I was able to buy this with 6 months no interest / no payments. At that point, I have a 1 year derffered student loan I was approved for, so I will use that to pay off the Macs balance, and have yet another year to pay.

This thing is really nice. Right now it is running OS X, which is not bad.. better than Windows in most respects... but it still limits you in power than what Linux will let you do. Of course, Macs are for consumers and users, so in retrospect I guess it really wouldnt matter for them, but definately not good for the poweruser in all of us.

None-the-less, Linux MDK PPC version will be going on shortly. After that, I will use Mac-on-Linux so I can run OS X and its cool multimedia apps at native speed. Within that, I will run Virtual PC so I can have Windows when I need it... like connecting to my companies Novel network with ease.

I still have my box at home and will keep it, but lets face it... a real Linux geek needs to be able to use their files and compile software while on the go. Plus, my friend likes to make movies, and now he can make them, edit them, and burn them anywhere! I will use its multimedia abilities to transfer all of my archived tapes to DVD, finally eliminating my aging VCR.

So, what is everyone opinion? Or does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for me?

All I have to say is.. I am jealous and envy you right now. So how's the weather down in Arizona right now, what about the market for jobs.. I could use a change, move and come over and play with your new toy if you let me..

Hey, you can't buy the machines of my dreams. What will I dream of now?

Hm... Found it. I change to Zaurus. (ok, it's not the same, but...)

Oh, won't it be much cooler to install Linux in VirtualPC (don't know if that works) and run wine in it (for your win apps?

To Tricky:

Arizona weather is real nice now. It is nice and cool, but not to cool. As far as jobs go... nothing right now. I have been looking for a while, and still there is simply nothing techie related up for grabs.

And you want to play with my toy? Oh man, I really am a bad girl.... so many sexual innuendos can be made... to many perverse thoughts running through mind.... must be good.... make up to Satan later!


To Azrael:

Your idea is a good one, with the exception that Linux is going to be the PRIMARY operating system, with MacOS X running virtually and Windows within that. I have no need to run Linux from a virtual machine since it will be what everything else is running on.

Thats right... Linux can run great on a Mac!

I knew that would generate something more than what I meant by toy.. hehe..

I've heard that apple makes exceptional hardware, but I haven't had the chance to use it since the old apple 2c days back in grade school, you know:

10 PRINT "I rule"
20 GOTO 10

Hey, you know those apple commercials where everybody talks about how they switched to macs, we should have a fund drive and buy some tv advertising time for Linux . . .just a thought

Stephanie,

This is a bit of a tecchie question. To change the locale in Linux you can just do

export LC_ALL=ja_JP.euc.jp
export LANG=ja_JP.euc.jp

in a user's .bash_profile as long as the programs have i18n support. What with OSX using the BASH shell (?) can you do the same in OSX?

PS. I'll come round and polish your G4 screen whenever you want ...

Bert

Bert, you know how to get my attention

In regards to your question, I simply dont know. Mac OS does not come default with the BASH, but with tcsh. I installed and replaced it with BASH. I will find out for you as soon as I can.

I was tempted to buy a Mac recently, the Apple Store here was selling off tons of furbies at insane little deals when I attended the Jaguar release midnight sale. Okay, I wasn't there on purpose okay, I went with a pal of mine who I'm involved in an open source project with... yeah, er, yeah.

Steph, you do realize that even though you're running Linux full time, you have still entered the realm of the fluffy grape computer users. Steve is on your desktop, in your lifestyle. Be careful, this is the dark lord's domain.

Or maybe I just have hardware envy. I just went to a pair of matched 19-inch monitors and a Matrox G550 dual head card... I'm going to have to start paying property tax on screen real estate here soon.

Bert, we've got about 20 Macs at work, I'll take a look at that tonight if Steph doesn't beat me to it.

Word,

Finegan

I may be in Stevies realm, but at least there areno Digital Rights Managment Software in mine

BTW Bert- Sorry, but I tinkered to much with my toy and now have to reload the OS. If Fini does not beat me, I can let you know tonight or tomorrow.

uhh... the art teacher at my high school recently installed Mac OS X 10.2 on his system, he's been letting me fiddle with it. (apparently I'm more qualified than the computer teacher at out school hehe) Only problem we've had is that he needs the new all-in-one driver for his HP printer becuase the one it shipped with doesn't work right. It says I have to uninstall the old one... but I'll be damned if it tells me how to do it. lol ummm... anyone know?

(yes, I'm only an 18 year old kid)
(eventually wants his own Mac, if only just to play with it)

Whoa Steph i'm jelous, i only get to use those things at school (apple supported school) those are nice pieces of hardware trust me...

I get a discount at the local Apple centre cause i'm a student from Emmaus (the apple supported school) but i still can't aford it, anyone wanna lend me around AU$5000? lol

#Garry