[Speakers] Shorts

[Bruce Smith]

> If you remember my presentation, I have a 15 inch PowerBook and it 

OK, I was thinking you had an ibook (with a 4x3 standard aspect).

> "Just Works" with pretty much anything you plug into it. The screen 
> aspect doesn't really matter, just remember a DVI to VGA adapter. Hit 
> F7 (or fn-F7 if you've altered the Keyboard settings for this) or turn 
> on or disable screen mirroring. Another thing to try is close the lid 
> of the powerbook, and then plug in a USB keyboard and mouse. It will 
> wake up and use the attached display as it's main display, functioning 
> like a desktop. I use this feature all the time with a nice 19" CRT I 
> have at school...

Mine goes to sleeps when I close the lid.  Do I need to modify that
setting, or does it know enough not to sleep with USB keyboard/mouse?

> also, have you tried out Apple's native X11 server, as well as their 
> dev tools? Worth at least a look... Apple has gcc and friends bundled 
> with their dev tools.

Yes, I've downloaded and installed Apples X11 server, and their dev
tools (which I've used to compile a C program of mine).

I've also downloaded/installed OpenOffice and NeoOffice/J both.
(it says you can install them both side by side! :)

> Another thing you may want to look at is Gentoo's Portage MacOS. 
> They've ported their Portage system over to Mac OS X. Its pretty 
> slick...

Thanks, I'll take a look when I get a chance.

> I originally thought of dual-booting, but OS X has been able to do 
> everything I've needed or wanted so far... 

Same here, I've been able to do everything I need for a laptop so far.
I wasn't expecting that, so I shrunk the MacOS X partition when I first
got the machine to make room for Linux.

I've actually had much better luck with MacOS X because Linux has some
serious hardware support issues with the latest model powerbook.  

These don't work under Linux yet:  Airport extreme, builtin modem, and
the f'n _trackpad_ of all things!  And probably more things that I
haven't tested yet ...

> If you still want to 
> dual-boot, Yellow Dog Linux or Gentoo might be a better bet.

I've already triple booted it with Ubuntu (two different versions), and
Mandrake 10.1.  I have two other empty partitions.  I plan on trying
Yellowdog and a fourth yet-to-be-decided distro.

 - BS