The Switch (Kind Of)

I’ve been a Mac user since the late-eighties. Yet, today I bought my first PC (sort of).

The Mac OS and Apple computers is still my platform of choice, but I am an all-around computer enthusiast. I don’t mess with M$ Windoze (an inferior product mixed with a corporation’s questionable business practices keep me far away from M$ products). I have also played with several distributions of Unix, Linux, and BSD. Of the three, Linux has always, even in the early days of the late-nineties, seemed the most accessible to me. I’ve used Solaris, Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, OpenBSD, and lately Ubuntu.

While I still consider the refined (and mostly proprietary) Mac OS to be the best operating system for my needs, I am a proponent of the open-source philosophy and the free software movement. I think the basics of the Internet should be as accessible as possible — particularly email and the web — and we should have our choice of software to access them. I generally have no trouble with proprietary software clients, but when companies begin messing with these basics of networked communication, there’s a problem. Information should be accessible, especially one’s own communications.

My MacBook Pro recently bit the dust. By that I mean, the keyboard and trackpad no longer work. It had been having trouble for a while, so I had been thinking about how to replace it. We decided to get a new 27″ quad-core iMac for the house. This machine will be brilliant for running Aperture, Photoshop, and Final Cut — not to mention everything else. We haven’t ordered this machine, yet, but it’ll be just a matter of time. This takes care of the house, and my major requirements for a computer. However, I still need something portable, and Apple has yet to announce their tablet.

So, in the mean time, I’ve been researching inexpensive alternatives. I recently installed Ubuntu 9.10 on an old computer I built, and I was so impressed with this polished Linux distribution, that I thought I could use it everyday for an actual work platform. When I say “work,” I’m really talking about that basic Internet communication: email, web browsing, blogging, tweeting, chatting, Facebooking — my basic daily connected routine. I thought about a netbook, but pretty quickly dismissed that idea: it would be too limiting. Maybe a modern laptop? Well, it seems that a quality 13″ laptop is approaching MacBook prices, and I’d get a entry-level MacBook way before anything else. What I needed was something in-between, like maybe a good used Dell XPS m1330. My other criterion: it had to boot Ubuntu 9.10 pretty much out-of-the-box. This meant working Wi-Fi, sound, and LCD.

I installed a Ubuntu on a USB flash drive to take to the store with me. Macon has a dearth of everything, but I knew I’d be able to find a few laptops to test from the usual suspects: Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot. I called some actual local computer stores (we have two in town), but neither seemed too keen on letting me boot Linux on their machines. Weird. I really wasn’t prepared to pay more than, say $400, so I wasn’t having much luck, but I decided I’d try Office Depot on my way home. I was in luck. They were closing out an Acer AS4810T-8480 notebook for $379 — a darn good price for its specs. I put the USB drive in and not only did it boot Ubuntu, but the sound, video, and wireless all worked out-of-the-box. My local quest had paid off.

Within an hour, I had a working install of Ubuntu 9.10 on my new laptop. Super sweet.

Now, I have to say, this computer is no MacBook Pro. Yet, for under a quarter of the price, it’ll do nicely (I hope). I feel a bit perfidious for my “switch,” but hopefully I’ll get over it. I’ll post some more impressions as I play.