Views on Macs from a longtime PC

I now use a shiny new MacBook Pro because of a recent job change. I've used PCs and Linux exclusively since our family's LC III died years ago. I'm not a hardcore Windows guy, but I really like the Ubuntu Linux distribution which we used at my last job for development.

I've got to admit the Mac hardware is very sexy and there is a lot of eye candy in the OS. I do prefer the Mac built in shell to the Windows command line shell (but putty more than gets the job done). The problem I have with it is that it still has a lot of the problems of Windows. Bad client programs that require frequent rebooting (especially our VPN software) and a lot of pain in the ass driver issues if you want to use non-Apple hardware (like a keyboard that doesn't make your wrists hurt). My Linux box at work had uptimes in months and I'd only reboot if the power at my building went out (which happened more than you'd like) or I wanted a new kernel. I find myself rebooting way too many times to solve problems in various programs (but the kernel seems quite stable).

Also, it is clearly inferior to Linux as a development environment. Its "Activity Monitor" tool looks horrible and needs some visual improvement. You can't set your mouse to give focus to whatever is under it (you have to keep clicking on windows to activate them). Linux (and I'd even say Windows) is much more configurable. Much like Windows, you don't have a suite of developer tools that just work out of the box.

So I think my conclusion is in my ideal world, I'd take the Apple hardware, wipe it and put Linux on it :). I'm hopeful that Snow Leopard will grow on me. I'm also not going to switch out my home computer anytime soon.

Great deals in your inbox: Travelzoo

A friend of mine pointed me to Travelzoo after he got a fantastic deal on a trip to Las Vegas. I decided to sign up and while I did get a lot of good travel deals (and I took them up on one), I've been more amazed with their local ticket deals on concerts and sporting events. They consitantly have fantastic deals (like 50% off Stanford football tickets or 35% off Wicked tickets) and since its delivered in your inbox you don't even have to look very hard.

The cool part of their technology is that they localize these deals, which is very important in travel. All the deals I see are for the area around SF which is very cool since I can use them all.

They don't actually book travel, they'll just refer you to the appropriate deals which means they can focus on well targetted deals. I've been very impressed.