[CS-FSLUG] Notebook computers

[Timothy R. Butler]

Hi Nathan,
> Most of what's available here ranges between CAD $1200 - $2000, once 
> in a

	Have you checked out Dell? I a few weeks ago they had a laptop going 
for $699 USD.

> while they have Mac's and I've noticed the 12" iBook to be the ideal 
> size.

	It is a very nice little laptop. Check out Apple's educational 
discount if you decide to go that route. They shave a few hundred bucks 
off most of their systems (other than, IIRC, the CD-ROM only iBook) if 
you buy it that way. Also, you might check their Sale/Clearance section 
on Apple.com. They have a 12" PowerBook 1 GHz (new, not refurb) going 
for $1299 USD... just about $200 more than a combo-drive iBook -- 
perhaps out of your budget, but worth contemplating.

	You could also get a iBook G3, which will run you about $699 USD, if 
you find a retailer that still has one (such as MacMall). It will be a 
lot slower though, since it doesn't have AltiVec. But, it should still 
be usable for many things, just not stuff like serious movie editing, 
etc. My iMac G3 is only a 400 MHz and does pretty well -- I think the 
$699 iBook is a 800 or 900 MHz G3 (however, don't let the MHz's confuse 
you, the 800 MHz G4 is faster than the 900 MHz G3).

> I've also got the option of ordering something with Linux preinstalled 
> and
> since the iBook seems rather expensive I might do that as I also need 
> to set
> some money aside for my post secondary education and future versions 
> of SUSE
> Linux.

	Good option as well. Dell makes pretty GNU/Linux friendly notebooks. 
Just make sure to research the sound card, power management, etc. first 
so you don't find out it doesn't work with GNU/Linux after buying it. 
Notebooks are a bit more persnickety than desktops with GNU/Linux.

> I'm looking for input on what would be convenient and affordable (not 
> going
> over $1500 CAD) it shouldn't be expensive to maintain and it should be 
> able
> to run SUSE Linux (or maybe MacOS X assuming I decide to go with a 
> Mac), also
> it absolutely must have a free C++ compiler and a Free copy of Qt 
> available
> (that counts out Windows, not sure about MacOS X).
>
> Right now I'm not even sure I'll get a job this summer but I'm 
> hopefull.
>
>
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>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
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Presently on "Albert" (DP PPC 970 "G5" running at 2.0 GHz)