Powerbook Setup

[John Baldwin]

On Monday 18 October 2004 06:08 pm, Paul Robinson wrote:
> 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.

<snipping flamebait>

FWIW, I'm reading and replying to this e-mail via kmail running over an X11 
ssh tunnel on my powerbook.  My Dell laptop just about falls apart in my 
hands now due to cheaper construction and cannot be safely used as a mobile 
machine anymore.  This powerbook, OTOH, seems to be the best constructed 
notebook I've ever used.  (My newer PC laptop from Alienware is also starting 
to show some physical stress fractures and what not and it's the same age as 
the powerbook.)  The powerbook is also much lighter than my "luggables" while 
mostly giving me what I want most out of my "luggables": screen real estate.  
The only downside is that the built-in 802.11b antennae are noticeably 
shielded by the frame.

As far as OS X goes, it's handling of multiple displays (like TV out or VGA 
out plus LCD) is phenomenal and very intuitive.  The power management is also 
quite good and actually works.  (The BIOSen on both of my PC laptops is 
busted such that they report capacity but don't properly report the usage and 
charge rates so I never get remaining battery time in FreeBSD.)  Also, 
suspend/resume just works.

As far as the "brain drain" claim:  I'd be very careful what you say about 
that.  One of the biggest "drains" has probably been Mike Smith.  However, he 
still participates in side conversations every once in a while and still 
shows up for the occasional conference in which he still provides excellent 
input. Also, FWIW, if it weren't for Mike (and a few others) talking me into 
coming out to California to give WC/BSDi a try, I would probably have spent 
the last few years working on industrial monitoring embedded systems instead 
of the FreeBSD kernel.  Granted, if I weren't around the work would still 
have gotten done, but I think its a fair statement that my (and others') 
current contributions are due at least in part to Mike, Jordan, and others.

Also, Apple has given back to the BSDs.  Their modifications to existing BSD 
code have been released under the BSD license resulting in bug fixes to 
msdosfs and smbfs for example being merged back into FreeBSD.  There is lots 
more in Darwin for enterprising individuals to merge back if they wish as 
well.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb at FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/