[Ubuntu Chicago] ubuntu-mac

[Max Luebbe]

Main workmachine is a Macbook Pro!

Because I'm a hired-gun type developer -
What OS I use depends entirely on what I'm doing.

If my client needs work done in C#, ASP or any other Microsoft nonsense, I
boot up in XP
For doing Web Dev, I boot in OS X because I can test in safari and firefox,
and code using eclipse.

If I'm working on some personal software dev (usually on stuff dealing with
robots) I use my Ubuntu machine

I like Gnome a lot, and I like the freedom that comes with the free
development environments, but I feel that Linux is currently a really poor
choice for Laptops. From my experience, laptops generally run into more
hardware compatibility difficulties than regular PCs/users running Linux do.
For example, a ton of the hardware on my Vaio isn't supported out of the
box, lcd brightness adjustment being a great example.  But more importantly,
battery performance is flat out terrible. Where windows can keep the laptop
going for 4 hrs+ on the go, Linux gives me between 45min - 1 hr. The point
of a laptop is to be mobile, and if I'm constantly tethered to an electrical
socket - much of this advantage is mitigated.

That reason is probably the #1 reason I adore OS X on my macbook which knows
how to squeeze every last joule out of that battery using every advantage
given by the core2duo cpu. I've gotten 6+ hrs battery life in OS X and
nowhere near that on XP on the same machine.

If Ubuntu wants to take some ground in the laptop market, power efficiency
needs to vastly improve. I'm familiar with why this is difficult, but the
fact remains that somebody is going to have to figure it out if Ubuntu is
ever going to be a real enterprise grade solution for laptops.

My .02
-Max

On 5/4/07, Eric O'Neal <fyedernoggersnodden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 5/4/07, John Arbash Meinel <john at arbash-meinel.com> wrote:
>
> > I bought a Mac Powerbook a couple of years ago because I wanted to try
> > the OS
>
>
> Same reason I got mine :-).
>
> The last gathering I went to (Canonical All-hands in California last
> > Nov), I saw a fairly large portion of developers with Mac laptops. A lot
> > of which were using a USB WiFi connection. I couldn't tell you exactly
> > how many, maybe 5-10 out of 70 people there.
>
>
> At least 1/3 laptop-owning students at my university have Macs.  Maybe
> even more.  They're no more unusual then PC's here, even if most of the
> campus-run labs are Windows ('cept in the photography/graphics buildings,
> which of course are Mac by tradition).
>
> SigmaX
>
>
> --
> My home page:  http://www.SigmaX.org
>
> "ttocs laeno cire oshkosh b'gosh fyedernoggersnodden nicht stein bon
> probiscus"
>
> "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned
> in school"
>               -- Albert Einstein
> --
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>
>
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