Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:12:28 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Stuart Krivis <ipswitch@apk.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: So what happens to FreeBSD now? Message-ID: <20010628151228.N9802@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <2515701.993712862@[192.168.1.60]>; from ipswitch@apk.net on Thu, Jun 28, 2001 at 07:21:03AM -0400 References: <200106260901.AA23134284@stmail.pace.edu> <20010626084126W.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> <p0510031eb75e868cb1bd@[194.78.241.123]> <2425994267.20010627160101@163.net> <p05100337b75fdc404cc5@[194.78.241.123]> <20010628103439.C9802@lpt.ens.fr> <2515701.993712862@[192.168.1.60]>
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Stuart Krivis said on Jun 28, 2001 at 07:21:03: > >> Mac hardware has become much less expensive in the last few > >> years, and in my experience tends to be pretty price competitive for > >> the same amount of performance (witness the fact that the closest > >> competing laptop to the new iBook is almost $1000 more). > > > > Where did you get that figure? It seems to me that you can get a > > laptop from Dell, with comparable or better features, for a price > > lower than the cheapest iBook (say $1200). > > I've been looking at the iBook and it sells for $1299. It includes more for > that money than anything I've seen in the x86 world. Well, let's see: according to Apple's web page, http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=iBook and according to Dell's web page the $1299 Apple comes with: I can configure a $1314 Dell system with: 12.1 inch TFT XGA display 14 inch TFT XGA 500 MHz G3 700 MHz PIII 64MB SDRAM 128 MB SDRAM 10GB UltraATA hard drive 10GB UltraATA hard drive CDROM drive CDROM drive 10/100BASE-T ethernet 10/100+56K internal modem 56K internal modem I can save $100 on the Dell by going for a Celeron, which I'm happy to do; $50 by going for a 5GB drive, also acceptable; and $75 by going for 64MB RAM -- not acceptable. That's just me, of course. Whichever way you calculate, I don't see a price difference of $1000, or anything else particularly compelling about the iBook. > > Chip design needs a quite different kind of expertise from assembling > > machines or writing operating systems. Does Apple have it? > > Especially to keep up with the gigahertz wars between Intel and AMD? > > Why do they need to keep up with the "gigahertz wars?" A 1 GHz Intel chip > does not do the same amount of work as a 1 GHz PowerPC chip, or even a 1 > GHz Athlon. Chip speeds are for marketing only. That's the point. > Since that's the case, Apple just needs to figure out how to come up with > something like the "PR" that AMD and Cyrix were using. It might look like a > 766 MHz PPC 1.5 GHz P4 rating. I haven't used a PPC myself, but from what benchmarks I've seen, the difference isn't *that* great. Besides, the real bottlenecks in a system are elsewhere: RAM, disk I/O, etc. That's why I don't mind using a Celeron, especially on a laptop. > > However, it seems IBM continues to be interested in PowerPC, and > > certainly has the expertise. I'm not sure Apple needs to get its > > hands dirty with that. > > This assumes that IBM actually cares about a PPC that is suitable for a > desktop machine. I don't think they are. They aim the PPC at SPARC, > PA-RISC, MIPS, and Alpha. Well, but the chip's the same -- I don't see why Apple would mind if IBM is aiming for more power. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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