Cecil wrote:
On Saturday 12 June 2004 08:33 pm, dircha wrote:
>
But how does OS X perform for the following things: Coding(various languages and sorts of apps) Can I run linux apps on it?I will be mainly coding on this little thing, email, and the usual things(research, research papers, etc) Does anyone code on this? Am I wasting my time thinking about using this as my code machine for the next 4-5 years?
Well, I guess I didn't know what type of user you were. That you say you will be doing a lot of coding, I assume, from what you said above, that you are entering a Computer Science or Engineering program.
Absolutely it is fine as a development machine. I've never owned an ibook, but even a Pentium (as in "586") is fine as a development machine. Performance isn't an issue here for what you will be doing. You just need to run vi, or maybe vim or emacs (if you want to really go all out). For the type of applications you will be writing for classes, compile performance isn't an issue either, and when it is, you will have access to more powerful remote machines.
But since this is a major purchase, I wouldn't want you to end up disappointed, or at least not have unrealistic expectations.
If you run Debian/Linux as your primary OS, the odds are that you will get no support from your school's IT support services. On your own you will have to figure out how to print on their (probably) Windows network to their Windows printer shares, and probably access file shares on a Windows network. If your school has a local Linux Users Group, perhaps you can go there for help with issues specific to your school's network resources.
Also, you may have to turn in electronic documents that will render/format correctly as .doc documents in MS Word. There are little issues that come up with things like bulleted lists, outlines, and footnotes.
But if you're prepared to deal with these issues as they come up, and willing to spend the time on them, I can't think of a platform more amenable to education than one for which you can change and see for yourself how it works and how it is coded right down to the bare metal. Linux/Unix familiarity or expertise have value in the workplace, too, and may qualify you for positions or opportunities that your classmates do not.
I'll leave any advice on Mac OSX performance to someone else, as I'm not a mac person.
dircha