Apple has released the long-awaited and seriously overdue replacement for its iBook consumer laptop product line. Dubbed the MacBook, it comes with an Intel Core Duo processor (1.83 or 2.0Ghz), 13.3" widescreen display, 512MB RAM, and an Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics card. It comes in white and black. In the US, you'll pay $1099 for the cheapest model, in the UK GBP 749, and on Europe's mainland EUR 1079 (mainland price taken from Apple Germany, may differ per country). Update: Between all the MacBook talk, Apple also upgraded its MacBook Pro product line. Besides a minor speed bump, Apple added, as a free option, the glossy screen stuff.
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Member since:2006-01-05
A non-worry. Linux distros have run on Macs for many years without needing a 2nd track pad button. You have standard options: control-click acts as a right-click usually, and likewise you can simulate whatever you need; and, as always, you can buy devices with any number of buttons and use them.
Member since:2006-05-11
Member since:2006-01-24
>> no 2nd mouse button = useless 4 Linux
>>sad if this is true...
ah, yes. Linux users. What a curious lot. They think that;
"iwlist eth1 scan | grep -o 'ESSID"[^"]*"' | while read f ; do echo "{f:6}" ; done"
is kid stuff any user should know - - - but alas, Control+Click is just out of reach . . .
Member since:2006-05-04
Not necessarily. I've run Linux on an iBook with a G3 cpu, and currently on the last iBook with a G4 cpu. It also has only one mouse button.
However... most of the time, I use the laptop on a desk and then I always use a small external optical usb mouse, which has 2 buttons and a scroll wheel which also acts as 3rd button. I prefer to use a real mouse instead of the trackpad, since for me it's much faster and easier in use. So... in that regard the one button mouse on the laptop itself doesn't matter.
When I'm on the move, or on the train or something and it's not handy to use an external mouse, then there's still 2 ways to get access to a 2nd and 3rd mouse button.
First, you can activate mouse button emulation in the linux kernel, and you can map keys to emulate a middle and a right button click. Commonly used keys are F11 and F12 for middle and right click. This can however be a bit annoying for applications where F11 is for example maximise to full screen, then you cannot use the regular function of F11 and F12 anymore. Another commonly used key combo is Fn+Ctrl and Fn+Alt for middle and right click. This can be used on most powerpc Apple laptops for as far as I know.
Second, a method which is only available on the most recent G4 iBooks (and I assume PowerBooks). You can configure the linux driver for the trackpad to interpret a one-finger tap as a left click, a two-finger tap as a middle click and a three-finger tap as a right click. Moreover, you can configure it to do a vertical scroll when sliding vertically on the right border of the trackpad and to do a horizontal scroll when sliding horizontally on the bottom border.
I assume that both of these techniques will also be available on the MacBooks.
I have activated both these methods and, for me, it works good enough... (I don't think I would find the trackpad much handier when it did have 2 or 3 buttons) it definitely wouldn't play in my decision to buy a MacBook.
Member since:
2006-02-02
sad if this is true...