As I mentioned before, I recently moved over to Mac OS X, and I was also planning on checking out Ubuntu to get further acquainted with Linux (I had previously only managed servers through SSH). I mentioned before that I booted Ubuntu Edgy from a LiveCD on my MacBook. Having successfully used Boot Camp to install Windows XP on my MacBook, I decided to attempt running Ubuntu and OS X side by side using Boot Camp to partition the drive. Unfortunately, before I could even install Ubuntu, things went horribly awry.

Although I never had problems with Boot Camp in the past, this time the gods of pre-release software struck me down. Long story short, towards the end of Boot Camp's partitioning of the hard drive, it failed and I can no longer boot into, or reinstall OS X. After searching for answers online and talking with Apple's technical support, I have to send my MacBook to Apple.

On a more positive note, this did give me a chance to deal with Apple's customer service and I must say I am quite impressed. The support technician I dealt with was very kind, and even though he had to put me on hold a couple times to discuss the issue with other technicians, he told me exactly how long I would be on hold and came back quicker than expected. It's nice dealing with customer service that doesn't leave me wondering what the hell they're doing and how long they'll leave me hanging. Oh, and he spoke English too, which is a big plus in my book considering how many companies are outsourcing their customer service (I had a bad experience with Microsoft's support which I'm sure is documented somewhere on this site). Anyway, while it sucks that I will loose my notebook for a week and may loose some data, expecting beta software to run without a hitch is a fool's dream and this experience (thus far) has made me even more confident that my decision to go Mac was the right one.