[OS X TeX] New Mac

[Fernando Pereira]

On Sep 15, 2006, at 2:14 PM, Claus Gerhardt wrote:

> Let me repeat my educated opinion that a Laptop should be  
> considered as a substitute for the real thing (fast computer, large  
> monitor), which has its merits  when travelling.

Your educated opinion may be based on assumptions that do not apply  
equally to others. For the last 12 years or so (I lost track), my  
main everyday computer has been some laptop (mostly Apple) with one  
or more external displays at work and at home. Currently, I use a 2GB  
black MacBook with 23" displays at work and at home. 2GB is critical  
for large external displays on the MacBook, which uses main memory  
for display buffers. I sacrifice some speed and local disk space to  
the huge convenience of having my work world (email, papers, data  
files, class notes, presentations) always with me. In typical uses  
with TeX, I may have TexShop on the big display and a support program  
like OmniGraffle on the laptop display, or Keynote on he big display  
and LaTexIt on the laptop display. I found that for me the sacrifices  
in speed and display space are more than worth the efficiency of not  
having to worry about synchronizing and maintaining multiple  
machines. I also keep backups on external FireWire drives, and in the  
couple of times that I had issues with one laptop, I just bought a  
replacement right away and reconstructed my world from backup, since  
I can always pass on the old laptop after repair to a eager graduate  
student.

-- F

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