{"id":208,"date":"2008-08-24T16:51:21","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T00:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/messofpottage.com\/blog\/?p=208"},"modified":"2008-08-24T16:51:21","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T00:51:21","slug":"my-next-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/24\/my-next-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"My next computer…"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’m typing this on the ancient (2005) eMac<\/a>. It’s a fine computer, although, once you move to flat screens you can never look back. Plus, it’s a powerpc chip, so Leopard is the end of the line; Apple’s going to un-support PPC starting with Snow Leopard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, it’s too slow to run Handbrake<\/a>, and it’s no speed demon when I do anything with ImageMagick<\/a>. Other than that, it’s a fine PC and I could cheerfully go on using it indefinitely.<\/p>\n

But what would I replace it with? Well, I could get a Mac mini<\/a> for $800 and up, or an iMac<\/a> for $1200 (and up). There’s a lot to be said for both possibilities.<\/p>\n

But here’s another thought. How about getting a Windows laptop and putting Linux on it — or better yet, a windows laptop with Linux preinstalled, like the Dell Inspiron 1525N<\/a>. That would cost me $575 and up.<\/p>\n

(Or I could build my own system<\/a> for probably the same price. That isn’t as much fun as it was 10 years ago, mainly because I wouldn’t save any money over store-bought, but it would let me upgrade the hard drives over time. I’d probably never get the power management<\/a> working right, though.)<\/p>\n

Linux runs every single program I use on a daily basis, except two. One is MarsEdit<\/a>, which I’m using to write this post. The other is iTunes<\/a>, which I use to sync my iPod. (I don’t think I’d need Handbrake<\/em> with Linux; I assume someone has already put a pretty front-end on ffmpeg<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I could live without MarsEdit<\/em>, not because it’s bad software — in fact, it’s excellent, best-in-breed software — but because I just don’t blog as much as I ought to.<\/p>\n

That leaves syncing my iPod. And there I’m stuck.<\/p>\n

But wait. How about this: run Windows in Virtual Box<\/a> on Linux, and run the Windows version of iTunes? Whoa! That’s, like, genius, dude<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(I wonder what’s the cheapest I can get a legal copy of Windows for on eBay?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I’m typing this on the ancient (2005) eMac. It’s a fine computer, although, once you move to flat screens you can never look back. Plus, it’s a powerpc chip, so Leopard is the end of the line; Apple’s going to un-support PPC starting with Snow Leopard. Also, it’s too slow to run Handbrake, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paRqpr-3m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accretiondisc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}