On Fri, Nov 05, 2004 at 09:30:44AM +0000, Richard Lewis wrote:
I'll second that! The Apple iBook is probably the best portable computer arround. The 12'' model is very cheap and the battery *actually* lasts for up to six hours (and it has a slot loading CDRW drive which is so cool). See http://seb.france.free.fr/linux/ibookG4/iBookG4-howto.html.
I did consider one before I ended up with a Dell, the main thing that put me off was that the internal wireless lan cards are not compatible with running Linux on the thing and it also doesn't have any PCMCIA card slot. Everyone can talk about how great OS X is until they are blue in the face, but I still wanted the option of having a fully functioning Linux install on it (ok I would have probably dual booted OS X and Linux).
As it stands I was happy as the Dell outlet sold me a mobile workstation for about 950 quid (yeah, it included WinXP) instead of the "current" price of 1900 quid, all the hardware works in Linux with the exception of ACPI not working correctly (which is a right pain in the bum as pushing the lid button locks the machine up, although it does suspend ok) and needing the non-free Nvidia drivers to drive the display.
Adam