Is it crazy to buy a MacBook?

[David B Teague]

Magnus Runesson wrote:
> I am thinking about buying a notebook/laptop and only run Ubuntu on it.
> One of my choices is a MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo.
> (http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html )
>
> I read Matt Galvins blogg today
> (http://www.simplifiedcomplexity.com/people/mgalvin/?p=11 ) and was
> positively surprised.
>
> Would I be crazy if I buy a MacBook or is it a good idea?
>
> The Macbook is not more expensive than comparable clean PC-laptops.
> One of the PC-laptops I have looked at is MSI S271
> http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/notebook/nb/pro_nb_selling.php?UID=622
>
>   
Apple is a religion, and in that religion, I am an atheist.  (I 
recognize I may be "cutting my nose off to spite my face" as my mother 
used to call it. I hate Apple Computer. )

I spent $3000 in 1981 dollars for an Apple II+. They came out with the 
IIe in 1982. Had I bought the IIe,  I could have continued to use of 
about 1/3 of the hardware (Disk II floppy drives and monitor) and they 
added salt to the wound by making ALL software they released after the 
IIe run ONLY on the IIe and IIc.  I found a 3rd party 80 column video 
board and upper/lower case keyboard. I went out of my way to find hacks 
for the software to use it  on my II+ and I have not bought anything 
from Apple since.

Of course that is the industry standard for doing things now, but at the 
time I literally impoverished myself to get that machine, and I was and 
am offended.

Apple charges too much for a machine that is over rated and over priced.

That said, there are programs that run only on the Macintosh that are 
not available for other platforms, and they do things that some folk need.

Is it still hell to send files from Word for Mac to Word for PC? I have 
had a lot of trouble with a coauthor due to that situaion.

David Teague