Is lack of support on Macbook Pros enough to go with a Dell?

violagirl23 · 2008-05-12 04:18:53

I posted here about a month ago about what kind of Dell laptop to get, actually, whether the Dell Ubuntu laptops were sturdy. I came to the conclusion that probably the best Dell would be the business model Latitude D630.
However, my conscience has been aching at me. I really hate Microsoft and Vista and just the THOUGHT of supporting them makes me cringe. I know many others don't care as much as I do, I just DON'T wanna contribute towards that terrible product. No, I won't use it, but that doesn't change the fact that I am buying it and thus supporting it. And with the Dell Latitude D630 you have to get it with Windows.
So I started looking into Macbook Pros. I have always liked Mac OSX and genuinely wouldn't mind dual-booting Arch and Leopard.
HOWEVER, I am concerned. Not only do Macbooks cost so much in general, google and searching at your forum has shown that perhaps support for Mac hardware on Linux still isn't the best. I wouldn't want to buy a computer only to find that it is not really usable with Linux. ;-; Seeing as Linux IS my primary OS.
Well, for starters here is a spec comparison between the two with the specific modifications I would be making:

D630:
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.50GHz) 6M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core
Video Card: 128MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 135M™
Wireless Card: Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-Band Mini Card

MBP:
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB
Wireless Card: ??
And it has something called a Double-layer SuperDrive? Okay, I have no idea what that is. XD

So it seems like everything would pretty much run native on the Dell one, while on the Macbook it would be harder?
Would I get better performance out of the Dell and thus be wasting my money on the Macbook? From google I can see a lot of people have trouble with sound. x_X Would sound just not work and/or be bad quality? That woudn't be good. And with bad performance on the graphics card, skipping, etc. Okay, why? Isn't that all just Nvidia drivers? So the fact it's on a mac shouldn't matter, right? Will the Nvidia on the Dell perform better on Linux than the Nvidia on a Macbook Pro because of this? That just... makes no sense to me.
And the wireless? So is the wireless for the Dell native and the macbook not (for Linux) so the Dell's will perform better? Am I just gonna have a lot of problems trying to run Linux on a Macbook that I can't solve?
I mean, I've googled, but for those who have tried, what are some other problems I haven't mentioned I may have missed?
:? I'm just nervous. I hate Windows so much, but if I spend money on a machine that costs 500 dollars more only to find it performs significantly worse than the cheaper one would have, it would be x_X I'm just worried of possible huge problems. And don't understand precisely why they occur. If all else fails, I can get the Dell. My conscience will just feel REALLY guilty about it.
XD

Last edited by violagirl23 (2008-05-12 04:21:24)

jbromley · 2008-05-12 04:29:42

If you're thinking about throwing down the dough for a Macbook Pro, I would recommend getting yourself a Lenovo T61. There's even one that comes with openSUSE and no Windows. You will also be able to get a machine with comparable specifications for less money.

I've been on pretty much the same arc as you. I'm looking at purchasing my next machine. I looked at the Dell XPS 1530 and the Latitudes. The Macbook Pro presentation is pretty nice, but when I thought about it, it seemed silly to pay all that money for an OS I wouldn't really use and what was basically commodity laptop hardware. Then I thought I'd look at the ThinkPads. I've got an older T43 that I got as a gift and it is great, but I thought that Thinkpads were much more costly than they really are. To my surprise their prices are very competitive with Dell's prices and they are much lower than Apple's prices. The T61 also looks pretty good, has very good construction quality and generally good Linux support to boot.

Anyway, just my $0.02, I know it's a bit off topic, but you might see something you like.
Regards,
j

violagirl23 · 2008-05-12 04:36:17

That is a good point as well. The only issue is when you run into things that Linux just can't do. Like some things with Flash. Of course, that is entirely Adobe's fault, not Linux's, but it doesn't change the situation. I still have many things with Flash, like Hi-DEF, totally crash my Firefox so brutally. If there was something I really wanted to watch, I'd wait till later and boot into the other OS. If it was Windows, I would tolerate it for that short time to do what I HAD to do. If it was OSX I wouldn't mind too much, OSX ain't terrible. But eventually I am sure it would need to be done for something. With a Linux-only computer that is not an option (though I will still certainly look into it). One day when software like Flash works well enough and everything is supported-enough, this will NEVER be necessary. WOO! But until then, on those rare occasions... I might be screwed without an alternative.

jbromley · 2008-05-12 17:51:43

I did not take that into account. If you've got to run software that does not work well with Linux, then I could see using another OS. In fact, one of the my reasons for looking into Apple was being able to (hopefully) easily do some video creation/editing (simple stuff like family movies.) After a little research, I saw I could do everything I need to with Linux. The GUIs might not be as pretty and there might be a little more work involved, but not enough to justify spending another several hundred dollars on a MacBook Pro.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-12 04:18:53

Is lack of support on Macbook Pros enough to go with a Dell?

#2 2008-05-12 04:29:42

Re: Is lack of support on Macbook Pros enough to go with a Dell?

#3 2008-05-12 04:36:17

Re: Is lack of support on Macbook Pros enough to go with a Dell?

#4 2008-05-12 17:51:43

Re: Is lack of support on Macbook Pros enough to go with a Dell?

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