LinOSX TechnoMash

After downloading from iTunes and watching episode 3 of the second season of Sleeper Cell: American Terror, my MacBook completely froze up and wouldn’t respond to anything. I don’t think it was some terrorist plot to thwart my viewing of Sleeper Cell but I was forced to power off the machine and since then I haven’t gotten the machine to boot up. The MacBook displays the blinking folder with a question mark in it. This means, the MacBook doesn’t recognize that a hard drive is present.

I called Apple support in the US and they are pretty sure the hard drive is dead. I’ve sent an email to Apple in New Delhi with my case number and I’m waiting to hear back from them about salvaging any data on the drive, if possible, a replacement drive, and OS X 10.4 installation disks since I don’t have my install disks with me in New Delhi. I hope to hear back from them ASAP as I need to finish the second season of Sleeper Cell

Update Juney 28th, 2006: I went to Apple Care Delhi on Monday and had the MacBook tested. The drive was not being detected in Target mode or or with the Disk Utility so a new drive was ordered and delivered on Wednesday. I had to call Apple in the US to request OS X Tiger replacement disks which were also delivered on Wednesday. Apple was also very quick about re-enabling my iTunes account to download any of the music and shows that were not backed up. Overall, a real pain and lost a lot of data but the MacBook is up and running again.

As expected by AppleInsider, the new MacBook upgrades are just basic upgrades to keep the MacBook competitive with other laptops out there.

Apple has increased the HD to a maximum of 200GB and the minimum RAM has been upped to 1GB. The maximum RAM is still capped at 2GB but the MacBook now sports the Airport Extreme 802.11n WiFi card. The minimum CPU speed of the Intel Core 2 Duo available with the MacBook is now 2.0 GHz and the maximum is 2.16 GHz. All of the other usual items are still present like Bluetooth, 1 Firewire 400, and 2 USB 2.0 ports.

I wonder if Apple has solved the discoloration and sharp edge problems with the newer MacBooks.

Well, as much as I love OS X, the MacBook just wasn’t cutting it for me. The MacBook is a great computer for people who want to get things done and not have to worry about the underlying technology. I need to be able to get things done without futzing with configurations, but I also need a flexible environment where I can work with new technologies, get back to working on my open source social networking project, and also be able to work with Linux environments like Fedora, OpenSuse and Ubuntu.

The MacBook is great for multimedia things and I will probably continue to use OS X for video editing, managing my music collection, and managing the fast increasing number of digital photos that I take. However, it will probably NOT by my MacBook. I have decided to sell my MacBook. It was a tough decision, especially since I bought it less than six months ago and I upgraded the RAM to 2GB less than two months ago. I might try another Apple portable someday in the future but for now, the geek in me is screaming for a ThinkPad running Fedora Core 6, OpenSuse 10.1 and Ubuntu 6.10.

On Thursday, I picked up a Lenovo ThinkPad T60. Sorry, but i was just too excited about getting a new ThinkPad and I didn’t take the required unpackaging pictures. The ThinkPad T60 comes with 1 GB RAM, 120GB 5400 RPM HD, Intel 3945abg Wireless, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 with 128MB Hypermemory, SXGA+ video at 1400×1050, Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 at 2GHz, DVD Recordable, 56k Fax modem, Infrared, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, Verizon Broadband Connect EVDO, 3 USB, Mic and Headphones, 1 PCI Express Full and 1 PCMCIA Slots, Fingerprint Reader, Security chip, 9 cell battery, and a three year warrant. The only real difference in specs is that the ThinkPad doesn’t have any sort of webcam (Apple MacBook has iSight) or remote control (Apple MacBook has FrontRow).

The ThinkPad has an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 128MB of video RAM, double the hard drive capacity, double the RAM of the MacBook, and also the Verizon EVDO built-in. That’s a substantial amount of hardware for $1600. The only thing I’ve found so far to complain about the ThinkPad is that the screen isn’t as bright as the MacBook and considering winter is approaching, the ThinkPad can’t double as a heater like the MacBook can.

The 14.1″ version of the ThinkPad T60 is a bit smaller and lighter than the 15″ version. I had considered an ThinkPad X60 or X41 but I decided against it mainly because they both use an Intel 950 graphics chip with 64MB of shared memory, the units in stock didn’t have DVD-RW capability and the HD was maxxed out at 60GB.

The feel of the lenovo ThinkPad T60 isn’t very different from my old IBM ThinkPad T40. However, Lenovo has made a few changes like changing the battery type and the power adapter. I won’t be able to use the battery from my T40 nor will I be able to use the two T40 chargers I have. I presume that dock options are also different for the T60 than for the T4x series of ThinkPads. This ThinkPad T60 also has the Lenovo name displayed prominently next to the T60 logo.

I’ll get into what I’m doing with my new T60 in another post but suffice it to say, I am very happy to be typing on a ThinkPad. However, I do miss having OS X working with such ease and finesse. As much as I love Linux, it is a serious PITA getting things to run and things still don’t run as cleanly or well as they do in OS X. Synchronizing a phone over bluetooth with your PIM is a perfect example … Oh well, I guess that’s part of the fun and challenge of using Linux

As scheduled, Fedora Core 6 was released on October 24th, 2006.  I’ve upgraded a Dell PowerEdge to FC6 but that was after creating a bootable CD.  Apparently, the diskboot.img that is used to create bootable USB flash drives wasn’t working for me.

Upgrading FC5 to FC6 had a few issues like an i586 kernel being installed instead of an i686 kernel but for the most part, the server is doing everything it should be.  All services, CVS, Apache, Postgres, MySQL, MediaWiki are functioning fine without any changes.

I haven’t been able to get FC6 installed on an external USB HD for use with my MacBook so my ability to play with FC6 is very limited.  I hope to get FC6 running off an external USB HD but all initial research indicates that it "should" work.  I’ll let everyone know if I get it working. 

I will also be accepting donations to purchase a ThinkPad T60 to triple boot FC6, Ubuntu Edgy Eft and OpenSuSE 10.1

FedoraMain - Fedora Project Wiki

CodeWeavers released their second beta of CrossOver Mac yesterday. I downloaded beta 2 and have been running it without noticing any changes from Beta 1. In Quicken 2006 Premier Home and Business, the same problems that existed in Beta 1 still exist.

• When Quicken opens, it doesn’t properly draw any screens. If you click on an account, it opens in a small window in the upper left hand corner of the Quicken Window. If you move your moust to the edge of the window and drag it slightly to increase the size, it resizes to fill the window correctly.
• If I open a report, such as the Capital Gains report, I can’t click on anything anymore. It is like a modal dialog box has opened somewhere but it is hidden. At this point, I have to exit CrossOver completely and restart CrossOver, then Quicken.
• Vision 2000 still doesn’t run.
• I’ve done some preliminary testing with MS Office 2003 (Word and Excel only) and there appears to be no change from Beta 1

I will probably uninstall Visio 2000 and try to install it with this beta and see if that solves the problem. However, my primary need is for Quicken to run on my Macbook and secondary purpose for pre-ordering CrossOver Mac is for Visio to run.

Here are a few screenshots of Quicken 2006 PH&B.

Ok, well, Steve got up on stage yesterday and spent an hour woo’ing journalists and bloggers for the second time in about two months. Every other major tech blog and tech news site has covered the presentation with pictures so I’m not going to regurgitate the same old news. Instead, I’ll regurgitate my opinions on what’s the reason for the fanfare around yesterday’s event.

1. Every one saw the movie downloads via iTunes coming so no big deal here. Personally, I’d be a bit more excited if these downloads were DVD quality. However, that would make the downloads too big for most people to really purchase. I’ll probably purchase a movie jsut to see what it looks like on my MacBook and Mac Mini.
2. Rumors that the Nano was going to be updated with iPod Mini-like colors have been circulating for quite some time. No big deal here.
3. We were all expecting a major update to the iPod. Coming out with a 80GB iPod, replacing the 60GB one, and making it brighter is a bit of a snoozer. An event when the infamous iPhone or “true” video iPod actually make it out the door will actually suffer from the “Boy who cried wolf”-syndrome. Apple’s had too many of these special announcement events without really wowing journalists, bloggers, users, and Wall Street.
4. Games on my phone. Games on my iPod. Games will be a big money maker but I think Apple has them priced a bit too high relative to where most cell phone games are priced.
5. iTV - This is pretty cool but I really don’t want another device to deal with. Apple can live up to their reputation of being an innovator if the iTV was combined into a digital living room version of the Mac Mini. Now, I can have my computer and digital entertainment device together with hardware and software support from Apple. I can have PiP (Picture in Picture) support of digital mobile movies (DVD and downloaded), digital tv shows (DVD and downloaded), broadcast/cable/satellite tv, and my computer. Build in the Miglia TV Mini HD into this device and I now have a built in HDTV support. This is a device I’d pick up really fast.

I’m a bit bored of the news coming out of Apple recently. I still think Apple is a great company and I expect it to do really well but Apple has set the bar really high and the expectations people have of Apple’s ability to innovate seem to be disconnected with the reality of what Apple is able to deliver in a short time frame. No question about Steve Jobs’ ability to market Apple’s products but Apple is becoming a victim of their own marketing success.

We want more and we want it faster than ever from Apple. Can Apple deliver?

CodeWeavers yesterday released a public beta of CroosOver Mac. A list of the supported applications is here. I downloaded and installed it yesterday. CrossOver Mac installed without issue on my Apple MacBook. Once it was installed, I installed, Word 2003, Excel 2003, and PowerPoint 2003 from Microsoft Office 2003 Professional. All three applications were working without incident with very light testing.

I was not able to install Visio 2000. I haven’t looked into why the installation was failing yet but I will try in more detail and post a bug report if it still doesn’t work. My next application to install will be Quicken 2006 Premier Home and Business.

Go on and download CrossOver Mac from CodeWeavers and give it a whirl.

CodeWeavers - CrossOver Mac

I’ve been using the TVMini HD on my MacBook for a few weeks and I love it. Even with the included antenna, I’ve been able to easily pick up broadbast HD signals without a problem. At $249 from the Apple Store, it’s a good buy. If you can plug it into a desktop with enough hard drive space, you can record plenty of shows and give your Tivo a rest.

TVMini HD - Key Features

I just spent 15 minutes on the phone with Lenovo trying to get information on their ThinkPads preloaded with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. I am very surprised at Lenovo’s half-hearted attempt at preloading Linux on ThinkPads. As I mentioned in this post, Lenovo and Novell announced the preloading of SuSE Linux on the ThinkPad T60p. A T60p with the following specs is available for $3099.00 by calling Lenovo (it is not available for purchase from the website, you must call to get any information or place an order).

• Intel Core Duo T2700 (2.33GHz, 2MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
• 14.1″ Screen with 1400×1050 Resolution
• 1Gb RAM
• 100 Gb 7200 RPM HD
• 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200
• DVD Burner
• 9 Cell Extended Battery
• A/B/G Wireless and Bluetooth
• Integrated Gigabit Ethernet

Oh yes, I must mention that the same exact configuration with Windows XP Home Edition costs $2289.00. Why Lenovo and Novell have to charge $810.00 more for the same exact laptop running SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is mind boggling. Why would anyone in their right mind buy this ThinkPad even if it running Linux? For those of you out there who have a T60p and would like to install SuSE, you could try running openSuSE ( Novell recently renamed the open source distribution ) and download the Lenovo software for SuSE here. It might not work because apparently Lenovo and Novell updated the SLED Kernel for the ThinkPad and I’m not sure if openSuSE contains the kernel enhancements. I am very interested to hear from any of you that try it out. I’m also curious if the software will run on other ThinkPads running SuSE so please let me know.

I still love ThinkPads ( See Apple MacBook vs. IBM ThinkPad - Part 3 ) but, by charging a ransom for a Linux ThinkPad, Lenovo isn’t gaining any friends in the community.
Lenovo - Notebooks - ThinkPad T Series mobile workstations

technorati tags:ThinkPad, MacBook, T60p, Novell, Lenovo, SUSE, Laptop

I’ve had my MacBook for over two months now. The more I use OS X, I really like it. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts here, here and here, I like the simplicity, I like the ease of use, I like the *nix foundation underlying the pretty user interface, I like the choice between commercial and open source applications and I love the stability.

I’ve been using my MacBook quite a bit the last few weeks working from cafes, Starbucks, parks, and other places where a wired Internet connection isn’t available. The MacBook has been connecting to the Internet just fine. However, the laptop gets way too hot to hold on my lap for more than a few minutes. The other day, I had to put a piece of wood under my MacBook to protect the plastic table cover from burning.

The sharp edge right below the trackpad…. Ouch! The more and more I type, I find my hands getting chaffed by the edge. It’s fine if i’m sitting on my bed and the laptop is also on the bed (craning my neck downwards becomes a different issue). If I’m sitting at a table or at a desk, and my wrists are resting on the edge of the MacBook, the laptop becomes less and less comfortable on the hands. I’m longing more and more for a ThinkPad running OS X. People have gotten OS X to run on ThinkPads and people are discussing it here.
I might decide to keep my MacBook for non-strenuous short uses and I might decide to either get my ThinkPad T40 fixed, or get an X series to carry around. Not sure that I want to spend the money on a new laptop right now since I just bought the MacBook. I will probably do some research to see if I can get a T60 motherboard with a Intel Core Duo 2 GHz chip put into the T40 chassis. I have no idea what that’s going to cost to do.

Lenovo, if you’re reading this, give Steve Jobs a call ad get him to license OS X for the ThinkPad!!!! You’ll probably wind up selling more ThinkPads than IBM ever did

technorati tags:ThinkPad, MacBook, os x, Apple, Lenovo, Laptop