cheap Macs?

[cellio]

Dear LJ brain trust,

I'd like to get an inexpensive laptop. It won't be my main machine; it's for travel and other situations where portability is useful. So it doesn't need to be studly; it just needs to be reliable and support basic tools like Firefox, emacs, SSH, FTP, and that sort of thing.

This would be a prime opportunity to explore the Macintosh, which some of my friends rave about, except for one little thing: I can get a (new) Dell laptop for around $400, but Macs start at $1100. Is there some less-expensive option I'm missing?

Comments

ubuntu

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

I'll echo the ubuntu (actually, I prefer xubuntu) recommendation, with one big caveat: Like many commercial OSs, they really try to squeeze your setup into "wizards" and GUI tools. That's fine when it works (which, truthfully, is most of the time), but it can be much more difficult when it doesn't. In the past, I've had to give up on Ubuntu because the GUI couldn't make the change I wanted and they'd eliminated the non-GUI tools from the distribution.

As for Apple laptops, there's an important rule: never pay retail. The employee and academic discounts can be substantial. You know plenty of people who can get you one or the other.

Re: ubuntu

[goljerp]

About apple machines, you said:
The employee and academic discounts can be substantial.

While this was true historically, in recent years the academic discounts have gotten a lot smaller. I think now they're on the order of 10%. While it's not nothing, it's not like the academic discounts back in the day...