Sam Varghese
Thursday, 22 January 2009 15:56
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
One thing that has been increasing exponentially at the Australian national Linux conference is that shiny, steel-grey laptop - or, at times, the sleek white one.
Yes, I'm talking about MacBooks. Last year there were just a few among the 700-odd attendees. This year, among the 500-odd people attending the conference, there are lots more.
I asked a few of those who were carrying around these shiny laptops why they were using a Mac at a Linux conference; wasn't Linux enough for them?
Web developer Jeffery Fernandez, who is employed by Internet Vision Technologies in Melbourne, said he had a Mac "because everything just works."
The hardware was top quality, he said, adding, however that he had a Linux distribution, OpenSUSE ("I am a big fan") running within VMWare. So he wasn't exactly bereft of Linux.
"Only because it's pretty," smiled James Page, senior systems administrator at the University of Southern Queensland, when I asked him the same question.
He did have some serious reasons: the Mac was what was available at his workplace. He had two choices - the Mac or Windows - and chose the former because he needed an X term.
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