Why can’t there be a graceful OS designed for a reasonable laptop?

Cote’: no idea, though i will look into Fink. but it’s really about more than Portage, as good as it is. it’s being able to try and use all the latest and greatest apps coming out of the open source world without having to wait for ports, about being able to have some consistency from desktop to server, etc. you may get me on Apple hardware - though even that’s looking problematic - but you’ll have a tough time getting me on Apple software
Christopher: i actually sort of expect Apple to be anti-Linux in their support, mainly because it’s emerging as yet another threat on the desktop level according to numbers from IDC. but what’s even more frustrating is when hardware manufacturers - in this case Broadcom, who makes the Apple Extreme’s chipset - refuse to support Linux. i simply don’t get that, from a business standpoint.

James: hahaha - no, i’m not considering buying subpar hardware. i’m instead saying that while Apple’s reputation for build quality is not what some people make it out to be, *every* vendor has similar problems. i had someone tell me a few weeks ago that Harvard Business School students are having a lot issues with their school mandated Thinkpads, and are not fond of them.

downtime is a big cost, no question. but we’re all going to have it, whether it’s through human error (like spilling things on our laptops or hardware failure. i don’t know that that’s avoidable. the key is to have a strategy to mitigate the effects of such failures, whether that’s backup or network applications or something else.

This is what I go through everytime I consider Apple hardware. I almost bought an Mac as a Unix development platform, but then realized their non-blocking I/O support was as good as Linux or FreeBSD, and back to x86 hardware I went.

For awhile Apple seemed serious about Linux support, but they seemed to have given up on that. Sorry Mr. Jobs, but I’m running Dell hardware.

I don’t use fink all that much, but my understanding is that it wraps around apt-get, or whatever, and it seems to be that same type “mega-package management at your fingertips” system that you’re talking about.

All I’m saying is: I think your requirments can be met, esp. if fink does all the updating stuff you’re talking about.

Or maybe not: I don’t really use fink that much. It’s just my understanding that it’s one of those best things since sliced bread.

and as far as OS-X, i’m sure i could pick it up, but once you go Gentoo, it’s difficult to go back. have every application from apache to evolution to mysql to tomboy and its dependencies captured in a package DB and centrally administered, man that’s hard to give up. want to see what needs to be updated on your whole machine - as in *every* application? emerge -p world. it’s sweeeeeet.

i dunno. i love the hardware, but don’t think i can give up Gentoo. if the hardware support gets any better, i might be able to go that route but without it, it’d be tough.

Of course, I’d suggest just sticking with OS X. For me, it has all the things about *nix that I like (a shell, users, X-Windows-ish-y, and none of the things I dislike (having to edit a jillion different config files). I’d think that most of the applications you’d want to run would have been ported to OS X. Firefox and Gaim/Adium for sure.

And as far as having to “learn” OS X…really…it’ll take a sharp tac like you about 5 minutes Seriously though, it’s really just *nix with some nicer GUIs wrapped around most of the nasty config files. And as I’m fond of saying, everything “just works,” so what do you need access to all those config files for anyway?