My new laptop

2007.09

Okay, it's been a good thirty days for the toy collection. ;-)  At the start of September I saw a sale on a floor-model MacBook at Computer Depot.  The deal was as follows:

  • MacBook1,1 2GHz Core Duo
  • 512MB RAM
  • 60GB HD
  • SuperDrive (DVDRW)
  • $850CDN
The equivalent system from Apple is a Core2 Duo with 1GB RAM for $1200ish, so I leapt at the chance, despite the availability of decent, cheaper laptops.  I've had it for a week or two now and overall am quite happy, though I miss a few things about the PowerBook.  I've already had a chance to test out a MacBook, so there weren't many surprises.  Being a floor-model, it technically counts as new, so I bought AppleCare.  I'm glad I did, as this MacBook has a mushy trackpad and a flickering screen.  I love Apple laptops but I wouldn't own a new one without AppleCare.  I don't care what other people say, I've found that Apple laptops (er, portable personal computers) have a higher failure rate than anything else I've used.

Anyway, this is supposed to be an Ubuntu-related section of my site, so here goes:  I haven't installed Ubuntu on it yet, but am planning on buying a 250GB drive and triple-booting it.  The last time I could triple-boot a machine it was Mac OS9/OSX and Linux on the G3 iBook.  I'm looking forward to OSX/Ubuntu/Windows but have to say that the MacBook with 2GB RAM and VMWare Fusion has really taken the pressure off setting up the triple-boot. 

I have smallish VMWare images from VMWare Workstation, so already can boot both Feisty and Windows XP on the MacBook.  VMWare Fusion's UI really puts the Linux and Windows interfaces to shame.  OSX with VMWare makes quite an amazing combo so far, and the VT extensions of the Core Duo make running VMs very fast.  Once again, I find VMWare to be an amazing value for the money.  Heck, I picked up VMWare Fusion for $40 when it was pre-release.  It's worth every penny and more.