Lets put it on the table.

So, at my campus all students have to rent a laptop for the semester. This is a forced thing for all full-time students, and it irritates me to no end (largely because the purported tech support that we're paying for is a joke, as predicted), but I grit my teeth and I rented the PC laptop, a Toshiba Tecra R10. The other choice was a Macbook.

This, in retrospect, was the wrong choice. The shoddy worksmanship and poor build have caused me numerous headaches, forcing me to bring in the laptop time and time again, and they just hand me a new one, saying, "Oh, this one will work better."

The software was fine, once I nuked Windows Vista from orbit (it's the only way we can be sure) and installed Fedora in its place. No, that's not the problem. Unreliable components is my main beef. The Wi-fi card goes out regularly. The volume wheel sometimes doesn't work, and on and on.

When offered the chance to switch to a Macbook, I took it. If I have to keep repaying this $500 fee, I'm going to get myself a laptop that wasn't made by flying monkeys.

So, as of Wednesday, my main computer will be a Mac. I will still have the desktop around for Linux, so this blog is not going anywhere, but I just want to be frank and honest. If I don't particularily like OSX (I doubt it, but you never know) I've got Debian Testing CD's everywhere, and if I've learned something it's that a desktop with Debian Testing on it never goes out of style.

Hopefully this experience will give me new insight into how to make a truly portable computer household. Until then, we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds.

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Two thumbs up for the Helios project blog, who, when I showed him my blog on Gamespot about Amnesia: the Dark Descent, gave me a free code and download to the game. Great game, great blog, great project.

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