Questions from a Linux user considering a Macbook

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 12:06:29PM -0700, Marc Lanctot wrote:
> I'm considering buying one of the new one-piece Macbooks. I apologize in  
> advance; I know nothing about these or their OS. I'm looking for answers  
> from people who've had experience in doing what I am considering doing  
> and can shed some light on there experience.
>
> Can you comment on:
>
> - general compatibility of X-based apps and the leading X server. Would  
> I be able to compile and run, eg. gvim, without an X-server? Would  
> running gvim be slow because I have to run and X server just to use it?

Well it has an x server.  Vim may already support mac os x, just like
it supports os/2, windows, and some other systems.

> - fink; its compatibility and package support. Is it a sufficient  
> analogue of APT? In particular, for example can I use fink to install  
> boost/boost-dev, gvim, and/or GLPK? Does it work like apt and resolves  
> dependencies & downloads binaries (no compilation required)? Is  
> installing free / open-source stuff as easy and painless as it is on say  
> Debian and Ubuntu?

Fink works very well.  I believe they have binaries, but it certainly
can work from source too.  It is quite painless (or at least was when
I played with it 6 years ago).

> - suppose I download the source of a random non-X open source project  
> intended to compile+run on a Linux machine. How likely is it that it  
> will build on MacOS X? Will pretty much any piece of source code that  
> has Linux system calls fail to compile in MacOS X? I assume the worst  
> but maybe you can be the bringer of good news!

Well underneath the fancy GUI, is a BSD system, and it does come with
an X server you can run.  Most things should build and run quite easily,
and there are even prebuilt things you can install using something like
'fink' which is a debian dpkg/apt based system for mac os x.

> - do the mac books come (only) with Intel chips now? Are they 64-bit  
> processors?

Yes and yes as far as I know.  I believe they have all been Core 2
Duo processors.

> - in the worst case if MacOS X will slow me down then maybe I'll  
> dual-boot the thing. Do you know of anybody who has a Mac/Linux  
> dual-boot? Have you done it? In general, is this hard to setup or  
> cumbersome to maintain?

Lots of people have dual boot mac os X and linux.  Some even tripple
boot with windows as well.

> - As a Linux user is there any reason you would recommend against buying  
> a Macbook (other than the "proprietary is evil" argument)?

They are lovely machines, although priced rather high for what you get.
There have been some serious quality issues with some models and the
response from apple has apparently not been great in some cases.

I have never owned one so I don't know about that myself.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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