Caleb writes, <It depends on what you're doing. If you're writing cross-platform software, you want to do tests on all the platforms you're writing for, hence the PC. Also, most of my compilers and my preferred office suite are Linux and Windows only, and I don't feel like using Linux on a PPC Mac.>
Oops...sorry I forgot about you cross-platform software designers out there.....Yes, that's a big one. <Excellent point. Of course, I rely on my Linux machines, because it was cheaper to have my 190 and convert the Windoze machines to Linux than it would have been to go all Mac. > People actually throw out PCs and monitors in amazing quantities, as I learned from my boyfriend. He picks them up, takes them home, cleans them up a bit if they need it, and turns them into FREE working Linux machines. ;-) He won't spend money at all to buy himself a computer of any kind -- he doesn't have to. On top of that, because he's a packrat who snares "spares" of computers, keyboards, mice and monitors too (something dies, he walks across the room and attaches a new one), when the monitor for MY G3 died not too long ago, he was able to spare THREE monitors. One is the beautiful 17-incher (my old one was 14") presently on the G3, plus two spares. Those are 14s, but it's fine: at the whopping sum of $0.00 for both of us, the price was certainly right and the only complaint I had about my former monitor wasn't that it was "only" a 14-incher, but rather that its death was VERY badly timed. (Even though I have the two spares now, I've implemented certain precautions so I'll never have to go through that again.) <I use my Linux desktop for the same things I use the Mac for when I'm away. However, I prefer reading on the 190. It's something about that soothing greyscale screen.> Now, this is interesting. I like my laptop to mirror the desktop as closely as possible. In fact, I "need" for this to be the case. While the experience with the untimely death of the G3 monitor illustrated this most strongly, it's true in general because writing is my primary use of a computer. That is, while I'm most comfortable on the larger keyboard of the desktop, I don't like to be chained inside the apartment either. Having the Powerbook mirror the desktop closely means that I can transfer what I'm working on from the desktop to the Powerbook, then back again when I get home. Not to mention the ease of keeping a backup system: since the G3 is regularly backed up with both Zip and CDs, so is the Powerbook. If the apps and data on the Powerbook magically disappeared, all I'd have to do to reload the Powerbook is transfer it over from the G3. I've made the necessary transfers to date via printer port network, but newly arrived in today's mail: I just got one of those HDI-SCSI adapters for $6 on the Swap List (if I'd had this when the G3 monitor died, I'd have been fine: watching the Swap List and then buying this little baby as soon as I saw it listed is one of the aforementioned "precautions" I took for future similar incidents). As soon as I get done here, I'm going to go play with it -- there's something I want to transfer which is too big for a floppy, but not big enough to make it worth it to set up the printer port network: the plan is hooking the Powerbook up to the Zip drive. <I'm not going to go all Linux advocate on ya. I'm a Mac guy at heart, but the cost of a new Mac, or even a PPC PowerBook comparable to my old Satellite is more than I'm going to spend. As I said, I love my 190 so much that I could marry it. I just can't afford to go Mac only.> That's OK if you do go Linux crazy. I'm kind of used to it, thanks to my Linux-loving boyfriend, who praises it not just because of the fact that he can always construct a working Linux machine, but also because Linux itself is free and has the open source, letting him customize it to his own liking. As to how come I can afford to be on Mac exclusively, by the way, my 5300c, G3 and 190 came off the Swap List and Fleabay, for the whopping sums (hahaha!) of $30, $15 and $25 respectively. There's no way in hell I could afford to walk into a store and buy a brand new Mac either..and quite frankly, now that I know I don't HAVE to, thanks to the Swap List, I wouldn't buy a new one even if I COULD. (Kind of like my boyfriend, collecting all those junked computers and peripherals even though he DID have the money to buy new ones.) Well, enough rambling already. Time to go play with my new SCSI adapter. :-) ~Yersinia. ________ "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can change, and the weaponry to make the difference." -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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