Profligacy

[oneplusme]

It having been several years since my last such adventure, I'm getting to the point where I feel like upgrading my computing kit. Seeing as I have a large and opinionated geek contingent on my friends list, I figure trawling for recommendations might be worth a try

Comments

[weds]

Oh, get the MacBook. If OSX ends up driving you bugfuck (and, past the initial adjustment period, I don't see why it would -- if you can cope with BSD and a little pretentious hipsterism, you should be fine) you can put Windows on for the stuff Linux won't do.

The only thing I might suggest is hopping up a notch to a 15" MacBook Pro. Some people have problems with the glossy screens on the plain MB, as well as the keyboards. Also, the shared VRAM thing can be a problem if you do need to do anything too intensive.

As for the "too big to carry" thing, I have a 17" Core Duo (refurb, bought just before the Core 2 Duo rollout ^^;) MBPro and it really hasn't been a problem.

[oneplusme]

The reason I'm thinking sub-15" is that my current (soon to be ex-) work laptop is a 15" one, and that's a bit larger and heavier than I like to carry around.

Ordinarily I'd run away screaming from Intel's embedded graphics, but since all I'm really after from it is "displays at decent resolutions" and "plays videos", I suspect it's not worth worrying overmuch.

Any idea if Apple's mini-DVI-to-SVideo adaptors are suitable for playing video on? I'd imagine that Apple would get that kind of thing right if anyone would, but having discovered how nasty my present VGA-to-SVideo adaptor makes things look, I'm somewhat wary.

[weds]

To the best of my knowledge, they are perfectly adequate. (I checked with Eric and he concurs.) IIRC, there's a fair few people using them with the current Mac mini with no issues at all.

[oneplusme]

Ah. That's a big help - thank you. (And happy rather-belated-birthday, too. The cake was, erm, eaten by terrorists. Big, glowing green terrorists. Sorry.)

[weds]

Thanks, and no worries. The Korean BBQ filled in admirably for cake. :)

[oneplusme]

See this? This is my jealous face. Grr.

(Hmm. I should find a way to harass you via skype or somesuch. That way I can sound posh and effeminate over the Internet...)

[weds]

Skype works real nice on a Mac. :)

[oneplusme]

It seems to work on Linux quite happily too. It even understands the modern sound API properly, which it never used to. Evidence suggests I can actually talk to people. (Well, as much as I ever can, in any case.)

[weds]

Ah! The MacBooks use the graphics same chipset as the Mac mini, and one of the best uses for a mini is Spitting Out Video To The Television Over The Apple Display Adaptor. Granted, I think minis want full DVI adaptors, but the resulting s-video should work out about the same.

[weds]

..."graphics same chipset"...

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