1. BIOS INT13H extensions allow for 48-bit LBA addressing so there is no problem in accessing large hard drives from the real mode.
2. GRUB loader boots from GPT disks just fine; one additional small GPT partition is required for that (BIOS Boot Partition) where the second-stage loader is embedded. It doesn't have to be in the first 2TB address space.
Unfortunatley desktop linux has yet to catch up on some of the usability smarts Windows 7. One killer redeeming feature of 7 is the way the start menu search feature includes a lot of administrative functions.
Gnome-Do has all this plus tons of plugins for every possible function you can imagine (like virtual machine control or interface to google maps).
Just press hot key (e.g. Win-Space) and start typing.
Linux is light years ahead of anything MS can offer right now in their OS.
But still, WHY would I pay $1,450 more for the MacBook Pro?
Screen resolution, quality and reliability of parts, decent touch pad, decent speakers, mag connect power, Firewire for video work, no driver issues with the video card and OS, faster hard drive, multiple non-mirrored video displays, 2 pounds lighter to carry around, DVI, backlit keyboard, more than twice the battery length, automatic graphic card switching, slightly better bluetooth... that's most of it. Well and it can run and comes with OS X, which means more to most of us than the rest of it.
You can make the same comparison though with a higher end Dell laptop. It has a lot more features than the Acer and it costs more. If you don't need a high end laptop, don't buy one. If you live you life in front of laptop, well you might want to spring for one that is higher quality, more reliable, and more featureful. A grand is what, a week or two of consulting for a professional. Hell adding the new Adobe CS Suite will bump up the price $2600 but if it's the best tool for the job, it pays for itself in short order.
I own MBP produced in 2008.
The battery has been replaced twice - the last one only worked less than a year.
There are some artifacts on the LCD screen.
DVD recorder does not record dual layer disks.
MagSafe is "repaired" with duck tape; socket plug is very easy to crack when inserting into the tight power socket.
Occasionally it doesn't startup (black screen of death).
There are issues with Atheros wireless card.
Quality and reliability? It's a fucking urban legend.
Read Mac forums; I am far from being alone with these issues.
Never ever anything from Apple.
Re:$200 doesn't really include..
on
Ubuntu on a Dime
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· Score: 1
Windows is all well and good until you need something that is not covered by its start menu. It's all well and good until some piece of hardware doesn't have any support at all (not even via some hack - there are no hacks on proprietary platforms).
The problem with Windows is that even with all the advancements, it's still a crappy legacy unsecure platform that only works properly if you are administrator and stay within it's narrow selection of pre-configured OEM hardware that is known to work (Dell, etc).
Sound (ALSA) dropping out randomly and continually
What kind of sound hardware do you have? Never had any issues with mine.
kernel panics from nVidia drivers
Nvidia driver is a proprietary binary module that taints kernel. How is it a problem of Ubuntu?
I don't like Gnome at all, and when I tried to remove it, rapidly found that I couldn't.
Why have you chosen for the Gnome distro if you don't like it? Seems pretty stupid.
there's the horrid mess that is upstart
More details please - what is so messy about it? I find it way better than a horrid mess of runlevels and sysv init scripts different for every single distro out there.
the "quiet splash," options in GRUB, which remove the ability to debug
Most of the people don't care about boot messages and text consoles. Besides this can be easily changed, if you have 15 years of experience in Linux you should know better.
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1. BIOS INT13H extensions allow for 48-bit LBA addressing so there is no problem in accessing large hard drives from the real mode.
2. GRUB loader boots from GPT disks just fine; one additional small GPT partition is required for that (BIOS Boot Partition) where the second-stage loader is embedded. It doesn't have to be in the first 2TB address space.
So it is either an oversight or ignorance.
Unfortunatley desktop linux has yet to catch up on some of the usability smarts Windows 7. One killer redeeming feature of 7 is the way the start menu search feature includes a lot of administrative functions.
Gnome-Do has all this plus tons of plugins for every possible function you can imagine (like virtual machine control or interface to google maps). Just press hot key (e.g. Win-Space) and start typing. Linux is light years ahead of anything MS can offer right now in their OS.
But still, WHY would I pay $1,450 more for the MacBook Pro?
Screen resolution, quality and reliability of parts, decent touch pad, decent speakers, mag connect power, Firewire for video work, no driver issues with the video card and OS, faster hard drive, multiple non-mirrored video displays, 2 pounds lighter to carry around, DVI, backlit keyboard, more than twice the battery length, automatic graphic card switching, slightly better bluetooth... that's most of it. Well and it can run and comes with OS X, which means more to most of us than the rest of it.
You can make the same comparison though with a higher end Dell laptop. It has a lot more features than the Acer and it costs more. If you don't need a high end laptop, don't buy one. If you live you life in front of laptop, well you might want to spring for one that is higher quality, more reliable, and more featureful. A grand is what, a week or two of consulting for a professional. Hell adding the new Adobe CS Suite will bump up the price $2600 but if it's the best tool for the job, it pays for itself in short order.
I own MBP produced in 2008. The battery has been replaced twice - the last one only worked less than a year. There are some artifacts on the LCD screen. DVD recorder does not record dual layer disks. MagSafe is "repaired" with duck tape; socket plug is very easy to crack when inserting into the tight power socket. Occasionally it doesn't startup (black screen of death). There are issues with Atheros wireless card. Quality and reliability? It's a fucking urban legend. Read Mac forums; I am far from being alone with these issues. Never ever anything from Apple.
Windows is all well and good until you need something that is not covered by its start menu. It's all well and good until some piece of hardware doesn't have any support at all (not even via some hack - there are no hacks on proprietary platforms). The problem with Windows is that even with all the advancements, it's still a crappy legacy unsecure platform that only works properly if you are administrator and stay within it's narrow selection of pre-configured OEM hardware that is known to work (Dell, etc).
Sound (ALSA) dropping out randomly and continually
What kind of sound hardware do you have? Never had any issues with mine.
kernel panics from nVidia drivers
Nvidia driver is a proprietary binary module that taints kernel. How is it a problem of Ubuntu?
I don't like Gnome at all, and when I tried to remove it, rapidly found that I couldn't.
Why have you chosen for the Gnome distro if you don't like it? Seems pretty stupid.
there's the horrid mess that is upstart
More details please - what is so messy about it? I find it way better than a horrid mess of runlevels and sysv init scripts different for every single distro out there.
the "quiet splash," options in GRUB, which remove the ability to debug
Most of the people don't care about boot messages and text consoles. Besides this can be easily changed, if you have 15 years of experience in Linux you should know better.