Sayuri Dissatisfaction Saga Part 1: The Journey Begins

I honestly don’t know when it started, but I just happened to become dissatisfied with my my Macbook, and I realized I wanted to have a taller monitor. The 8.9” screen height just seemed too short, and I got tired of looking at my monitor with my neck slightly bent, and my back was already starting to complain. See, if I raised my adjustable table, my wrists would have a problem coping with the position, while as it is, I would really like to work with the ability to see what I’m typing at eye level.

So I decided that I needed to start praying for my next computer system already.

My immediate thought was to get a Macbook Pro. But as I was thinking about the price (Standard Apple Store Starting Price: $1899), I started to have second thoughts. What if I just bought a System76 computer?



System76 is a company that specializes in computers bundled with and optimized for Ubuntu Linux. If I would load a laptop with Ubuntu Linux, I would rather use a System76 laptop, just so mishaps like a computer burning down because of faulty sleep/hibernate function would be avoided.

As I was browsing through the laptop offerings they have, I found it amusing that I was looking for a 15-incher, and the Pangolin Value, System76's 15-incher, had a lid I fell in love with (the picture above). So my heart started to settle for the Pangolin, with a few extras. The configuration I chose (120GB HD, +bluetooth, +built-in webcam) went up to only $888. A thousand and $11 less ($1011) less than a Macbook Pro, right?

But I have a serious problem: there are no System76 resellers here in the Philippines. So either I make one of my friends send it to me, or that he/she could handcarry the computer back here. Not exactly feasible. So I went back to the original thought of getting a Macbook Pro. So I decided to head on over to the Apple reseller nearest me: Digital Hub in Robinson's Pioneer, and tried out their 15” Macbook Pro. As I played with it, I realized that it doesn’t really have much of a difference in terms of screen real estate to the 13” Macbook.

So I decided to try the iMac too, and see what the difference was. As I tinkered with the iMac, I realized that it was what I wanted: the screen real estate that I need would only be achieved with either an iMac, another all-in-one computer, or a desktop computer.

So what was I to do?

Part 2 on the next post!