Agreed, the Macbook is a good price (plus I overlooked the Core2Duo
processor - thanks) but I was thinking of getting something with more
screen real estate after being spoiled looking at cinema displays all
day. For some reason the Pro just seems poorly priced when you compare
it on features (it must be the unibody design). I 'm going to dig out
my old G3 and remind myself that smaller screens are fine.
James Stroud wrote:
You don't need a MacBook Pro. The bottom of the line MacBook will work
fine for crystallography ($999).
On the other hand, my experience with Ubuntu is that it is also fine
for crystallography software. The only real issues are hardware
drivers (especially video, sound, & wireless). But if you buy from a
vendor that supports Linux, then your laptop will probably come with
these drivers already working.
Note that the bottom of the line "Gazelle Ultra" from System76 is a
CoreDuo. Speaking from experience, you will notice the speed bump
moving to the Core2Duo. Also note that Bluetooth is extra.
I don't think that Macs are a bad value when you stack up features and
do a fair comparison. I've been using them almost exclusively for
crystallography for many years now.
James
On Feb 19, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Stephen Weeks wrote:
Dear BBers,
I would like to treat myself to a new laptop which will be my
primary use machine (i.e I want to run all the usual crystallography
packages, hopefully write a few papers, watch Lost online and pay the
bills when needs be). Although I am an ardent Apple fan I find it
difficult to justify forking out $2000 plus for a MacBook Pro so as
an alternative I've been looking into buying a machine running Linux.
During my comparison shopping studies I came across the small company
System76 (http://system76.com) that sell reasonably priced machines
that come with Ubuntu 8.1 (Intrepid Ibex) preinstalled.
My two questions are (i) Does anybody have any experience with
machines from this company ? (ii) Other than the Bltwish and 64bit
issues can I (compile) install and run CCP4, Arp/Warp, XDS Mosflm,
Coot and Pymol on this version of Ubuntu ? I don't mind tinkering
around a bit to get things to work as that's part of the fun.
Cheers Stephen
--
Stephen Weeks, Ph. D.
Drexel University College of Medicine
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Room 10102 New College Building
245 N. 15th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Phone: (+) 215-762-7316
Fax: (+) 215-762-4452
