cheap Macs?
Oct. 15th, 2006 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioDear 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?
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?
Re: A note of caution about used Macs...
Date: 2006-10-20 03:41 pm (UTC)I have purchased the following computers from Apple:
1. Mac SE - ran up through system 6.x
2. Quadra 610 (could run nearly everything the SE could) (ran up through System 7.5?)
3. iMac G3 rev B (could run nearly everything the Quadra could) (ran up through Mac OS 9)
4. iMac G4 (half dome) (Mac OS X 10.2 on it; could, I think, be upgraded to 10.4, but I haven't bothered. Can also boot into Mac OS 9, and through emulation ("classic mode") runs almost[1] everything the older iMac can.
5. iBook G4 (about a year old). Runs Mac OS X10.4; through classic mode could run the stuff the iMac could (but I haven't bothered)
Now, admittedly the intel change will eventually lead to developers writing intel-only programs. At the moment, though, it looks like they're writing "universal" code, which can run on the large existing base of PowerPC G4s running OS X as well as on the intel machines. Also note that the new intel machines have emulation which will run older PPC-complied programs, although not the "classic" (OS 9) apps.