I'm not sure why you folks are harping on apple. The difference is a 64-bit proessor versus a 32-bit processor. Apple use powerpc processors, and now they use Itanium processors. They are now 64-bit commodity. For the Operating System. You can use any Linux 64-bit OS- Linux was the first to support 64 bit outside of AIX/HPUX/Solaris. Windows does not support it yet. Only Linux, the BSD's(MaxOSX), and Unices support 64 bit.
I would recommend you get and AMD 64 bit processor on the laptop. You can do twice the work in the same amount of time. Whoever you choose to put it together for you, get that and the warranty. Laptops aren't cars. They don't last more than 6 months in a product cycle. You will be looking for support and wondering wtf? It'll be gone. Get 64-bit proc's and my recommendation is Suse/Novell/Oracle 10.0 or 10.1(whichever is newest). It'll do stuff that windows has never even thought of. The beta rendition of Windows called Vista is a security nightmare and is not production. It supports 64-bit, but it's windows. Darwin is the i386 aka intel based free distribution of OSX. You can install that too if you are comfortable. http://www.opendarwin.org/downloads/7.2.1/ Although I'd recommend linux(64-bit) or WindowsXP(if you are a newb and don't want to use 64-bit processing).
Linux was the first to fork a kernel over to 64-bit commodity processors- like Intel or AMD. The powerpc motorola and alpha/sparc procs are server only processors which have been supported by all unix OS's for some time, but that doesn't affect you. It isn't available for laptops.
When you buy a laptop you are fighting entropy. You want to get the fastest thing available with the best warranty because you cannot upgrade it. You can only upgrade that ram and ram ain't **** insofar as speed is concerned. Get 512 or better of ram for any architecture and you will be fine. And again, back to apple. No point. Everyone is moving towards commodity hardware. Jut get the best of commodity hardware and you will be fine. Apple != BMW for computers. Apple= Dumbass Hippy for computers. Have some foresight and go with the flow. Open is good. Closed is bad.
If it was any other way this forum would not exist. We couldn't fix **** if Apple = BMW. Our hoods would be welded shut and we would be sued by BMW for modifying it. Consider the future when buying a laptop. The turnover of laptops are shorter than anything else sold in the world.
In the end, it's about what you want to do and for how long. Don't box yourself in.
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