[thelist] iBooks, OS X, Macs, Web Development, Laptops, Etc, Etc

[Jonathan_A_McPherson at rl.gov]

Hello,

> If you're a developer (or anyone who uses a computer all day) thinking
> about buying a laptop online, it's imperative that you find somewhere to
> try it out in person, first.
>
> No matter how many reviews you read, it's impossible to know if you can
> deal with the incidentals- wrist-panel speakers, how small an 85%
> keyboard really feels, or whether the particular model you're
> considering even has a full range of keys.  Also imagine it with every
> port plugged in at your desk or couch or wherever- will the headphone
> cable be resting on your hands while you type?  Will the mouse have to
> get tangled up with the printer/ethernet/whatever to reach your dominant
> hand?  These minor details become a lot more important when you can't
> just switch out components for a coupla bucks.

I agree with this muchly, but I have a bit of a problem on my hands because
the laptop I'm most interested in purchasing is a Dell -- which are sold
only via mail order AFAIK, so it's exceedingly hard to try-before-I-buy.
I've been reading reviews like crazy, but, as you said, that's really
effective only so far. Most of the 'user reviews' are along the lines of:

'This laptop is great, itz got a super-cool screen thats really clear and
plays all my cds and dvds real nice the sound is great and the laptop doesnt
make any noise and I recommend it go out and get it now' ...
'This laptop is horrible the screen has dark spots and its slow and it
wouldnt play the dvd I ordered from germany last week so i sent it back the
computer not the dvd and Dell wouldnt fix it their support is horrible dont
ever buy one of these stupid lemons there is even a hissing noise in the
cheap plastic speakers.'

> So you want/need to work in a Windows environment, but that interface is
> totally irritating, right?  You'd love it if it were only prettier/
> uglier/ easier/ more feature filled/ whatever...  Take some time to
> check out Litestep (www.litestep.net): an open-source Windows shell
> replacement that's smaller, faster, and more stable than the Microsoft
> offering.  It's infinitely customizable, although if you don't choose to
> install someone else's theme (there are thousands), you could find
> yourself killing a whole lot of time creating and editing config files...
>
> As an added bonus, Litestep is based on AfterSTEP, so if you're coming
> from or headed to Linux, it can definitely ease the transition.
>
> Many Litestep themes are packaged with the LS executable and config
> files.  Good starting points are desktopian.org and deviantart.com.</TIP>
>
> I'm not affiliated, I just wouldn't give up my on-desktop resource
> monitor and right-click start menu for anything.

Tried Litestep, couldn't get it to work as I desired in a resonable period
of time -- and it did a lot of crashing and didn't work well when it *was*
running. I want to someday, though, because I adore a lot of the features I
get in Linux window managers, especially the virtual-desktop capability. I
mostly used fvwm2 when I was at WSU-TC.

Speaking of alternative shells --

<tip type="Command shells" author="Jeduthun">
You're a Unix or Linux person who has grown addicted to the power that bash
or other command shells have. You feel inhibited when you sit down at a
Windows box with 'command' or 'cmd.' You wish you could do things in Windows
that you can do in Unix.

You need Cygwin (http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/).

Cygwin brings a slew of GNU tools -- most or all your old friends from Unix
-- to Windows. It provides a Unix-comaptibility layer so you can compile
some Unix programs for Windows. (I actually did this successfully with some
of my own code -- it's *very* slick).

Later versions of Cygwin even come with X, so you can run X on top of
Windows if you want. (-: (The X is fully server-capable, so you can run
remote X apps without expensive software like Exceed!)
</tip>

--
Jonathan McPherson, LMIT/SD&I
Software Engineer & Web Systems Analyst
email / jonathan_a_mcpherson at rl dot gov