Best compatibility with Ubuntu : Macbook, Macbook Air or Macbook Pro?

**the8thstar** · April 25th, 2011

Hello,

I'm considering buying a computer from Apple. I am trying to make a wise choice and select either the Macbook, the Macbook Air or the Macbook Pro.

I am an everyday computer user. I surf the Internet, use Office and play a couple of (rather old) games. I use occasionally programs like Google Earth, Skype, Gimp and Stellarium. I want a computer which can help me organize my music, my family pics and videos. Ideally, I'd like to keep it for 5 years.

So I would like your opinion to help with my choice.

Which will be more compatible with Ubuntu out of the box?
Which is the best 'bang for the buck' in regard to what I want to do?
Is polycarbonate a bad choice compared to aluminium?
Is it easy to change the HDD to an SSD in these models?

Thanks a lot for your answers!

**Joe of loath** · April 25th, 2011

If that's all you want to do, why Apple? You'll get much more choice and performance for your money with other companies.

**the8thstar** · April 26th, 2011

Good remark. I've asked myself the question and I would be lying if I did not admit that the Macs sport good looks. Plus OS X is Unix based and I'm quite tired of Windows as my mainstream OS for production (office work and picture archiving). There are equivalent in the Linux world but they suck IMO: OpenOffice and Shotwell don't get close to MS Office and Picasa. So I'm curious about iLife and OS X sleek UI integration.

Truth be told, Ubuntu is moving in a direction that I don't approve in terms of UI. Gnome 3 uses the screen in a way I don't understand. And even though KDE is great it doesn't look and behave like Gnome 2 does. XFCE gets close but it looks dated. So OS X looks like the next best candidate.

I know it's rather vain but I think it's important that I'm honest about my comfort zone and what I want to achieve.

**mondo2k** · April 26th, 2011

Bottom line, (my experience: buying Macs in the 80's and early 2000's for school and work), I recommend you buy whatever laptop that has the fastest processor and graphics card in it, since these two items usually aren't upgradeable.

Get a multibutton mouse with a scroll wheel. Apple may have first designed the mouse but they haven't evolved their designs with current user needs.

Unless iLife/AppleWorks is now 100% compatible with MS Office, you're going to have to get Office. No not MS Office, I mean LibreOffice, which I personally like better than MS Office or OOo, and it's FREE.

Buy an ethernet connection dongle.

Buy a spare battery.

If you buy a laptop without an optical drive, buy an external optical drive.

If you plan of filling up your hard drives with multimedia, stick with SATA drives for now. Flash drives cost too much for too little.

Depending on how much you'll be transporting your laptop, you may want to look into extended warranties.

If you want to play games - REAL games - you'll need to install Windows, and if you're installing Windows on a Mac, why didn't you just buy a crappy Dell for 1/3 of the price? And when I say Windows, I mean Windows XP, and when I say Windows XP, I mean Windows XP Black that can be *koff* found if you look hard enough.

If I sound a -little- snarky with my suggestions it's because I think Apple doesn't give you what you pay for and I'd rather have you buy a laptop with better specs AND a printer AND an external storage drive for backup for what you would pay for in an Apple laptop, BUT,... I get it. Same reason why some people buy Porsches instead of Hondas.

**harkinat0r** · April 26th, 2011

I would buy a MacBook Pro. The unibody aluminum models are incredibly durable and both my wife and I had polycarbonate in the past and they were considerably less durable. I use Ubuntu and OS X on my machine and enjoy great performance with both. In my opinion, OS X is far superior to Windows in terms of speed and stability and the service you will get with Apple completely blows the doors off of anything you could hope for with PC manufacturers.