The Long-Awaited Dream Machine Project
Okay, technophiles, this is the project you’ve been waiting for. If you could conjure up your perfect “Dream Machine” computer (your only limitations being that you must use components that actually exist), what would it look like? Most tech-savvy people I know would think of a monstrous, top-of-the-line gaming PC, complete with a 40″ LCD (maybe even twin-screen), wireless Surround Sound speakers, and about 20TB (roughly 20,000 gigabytes) in disk space.
I, however, have other ideas…
This Dream Machine will be:
- Portable (in other words, a laptop)
- Powerful (with higher-end specs)
- Flexible (hardware and software incompatibilities should be nonexistent)
The requirements are straightforward, but my standards are high. In a nutshell, I want this laptop to be able to handle anything and everything that I might throw at it from now through the foreseeable future — and to do it quickly and easily. In an ideal world, I would be able to buy this computer and not even need to make a project out of the whole thing. Not that I won’t enjoy this, of course. 
Unfortunately, no vendor exists which sells a universally flexible laptop (I’ll go into more details on that later), so I’m going to have to build one… however, not in the case-modding, massive desktop-constructing sense; my definition of “build” might correspond with anyone else’s definition of “organize.”
The Laptop:
- 15″ Macbook Pro
- Quad-boot:
- Virtualization:
- Windows-on-Mac
- Windows-on-Linux
- Mac-on-Linux
- Linux-on-Mac
- (For security, stability, and sanity reasons, I’ve chosen not to do any “X-on-Windows” virtualization)
The Project:
- Target completion time — Two weeks
- As tech-dummy friendly as possible! (I will need feedback on this!)
- … I’m serious. What good is a fantastic project if nobody else understands it?
- Why a Macbook?
- In the end, I made this decision primarily because of OS X. Yes, I am aware of the OSX86 Project (a project to make OS X run on non-Apple hardware). I really wanted a strong “base system” in the event that something goes wrong and I need to reformat the hard drive (which will happen at least once during this project). The Mac hardware/software combination is the only one which provides this; Linux is known to have questionable driver support when it comes to laptops, and Windows… well, let’s face it — I just really don’t like Windows. With the Macbook, if I need to revert back to a 100% working laptop, all I need to do is format and reinstall OS X.
- Why quad-boot? What on Earth are you going to do with four operating systems!?
- OS X: Media of all sorts (image/video editing, etc.), website work, daily use
- Linux: Daily use, schoolwork (mostly technical assignments), pretty much everything
- Windows XP: MS Office (OpenOffice is nice, but sometimes just doesn’t cut it), non-Vista-compatible software
- Windows Vista: … Games.
- How is all of this going to change the world? It sounds more like a “fun project” for Scott.
- “Fun project,” huh? Well, let’s be honest… that’s a big part of it. However, I’m hoping that a new computer, especially with OS X, will allow me to add some different types of media to the site. The Linux desktop on which I’ve been working, being three years old and also the same computer on which this site is hosted(!), is somewhat limiting in terms of how much power is at my disposal. I love writing, and I’m sure you all (occasionally) love reading it, but there are larger steps to be taken on this path…
Premonitions of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers):
I placed the order yesterday. The project will officially commence once the laptop hits my doorstep. Until then, may your world-changing efforts go well and may your Windows laptops survive another week.
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