Pricing - Windows vs Linux vs Apple
A very nice page about Windows vs. Ubuntu on the new Dell configurations can be found at http://www.cs.uml.edu/~ntuck/dellbuntu/ - however the systems are pretty much the minimum usable configurations so it does not quite make sense to compare that 650 US$ notebook to the 2000 US$ MacBook Pro :)
However if you go a little on the higher end for a notebook that is basically as good as the minimal high-end Apple correctly configured, the Dell 1505 with Ubuntu preinstalled will take you to about 1700 US$ - with Core 2 Duo T7200, 2 GB DDR2 667, 160 GB SATA, DVD writer, 256 MB video card, modem and 3 years warranty (and the Vista Home Premium configuration is also in the same price range).
The 'bad Apple' of the race (pun intended) is the MacBook Pro - by the time you add the same configuration / functionality as the above you get to ... almost 2700 US$ ! But of course OSX 10.4 is obviously so worth the extra 1000 US$ - who cares that in 6 months (at most) it will be obsolete (and you will need another 150 US$ to upgrade), and who wants an operating system that is really free (Linux) or one that looks better (Vista) or which supports pretty much all of the existing games (XP, and many Apple fans will install at least that one anyway). Oh, and I forgot - the Dell will have all the keys that you will normally use (unlike the Mac) and a two-button touchpad :)
And a small update on Linux + suspend/resume - it seems that things are not 100% there yet :(
However if you go a little on the higher end for a notebook that is basically as good as the minimal high-end Apple correctly configured, the Dell 1505 with Ubuntu preinstalled will take you to about 1700 US$ - with Core 2 Duo T7200, 2 GB DDR2 667, 160 GB SATA, DVD writer, 256 MB video card, modem and 3 years warranty (and the Vista Home Premium configuration is also in the same price range).
The 'bad Apple' of the race (pun intended) is the MacBook Pro - by the time you add the same configuration / functionality as the above you get to ... almost 2700 US$ ! But of course OSX 10.4 is obviously so worth the extra 1000 US$ - who cares that in 6 months (at most) it will be obsolete (and you will need another 150 US$ to upgrade), and who wants an operating system that is really free (Linux) or one that looks better (Vista) or which supports pretty much all of the existing games (XP, and many Apple fans will install at least that one anyway). Oh, and I forgot - the Dell will have all the keys that you will normally use (unlike the Mac) and a two-button touchpad :)
And a small update on Linux + suspend/resume - it seems that things are not 100% there yet :(