Laptop choices

[Gary Kline]

On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 11:17:41AM -0500, freebsd-lists at dclg.ca wrote:
> >>>>> "Gary" == Gary Kline <kline at tao.thought.org> writes:
> 
> >> 
> 
> Gary> 	I wish some EE and ME would design a mouse-pad with a slight
> Gary> tilt to steer the mouse; I think that would be a great
> Gary> improvment on the current scratch mousepad.  Similarly with
> Gary> Thinkpad's tiny joystick.  I've tried my wife's Dell l'top....
> 
> Gary> 	Agree that the Thinkpad's screen res is drawback; the
> Gary> 1920x1200 is a ++major.
> 
> I have the Dell D800 --- which is a frighteningly expensive machine (I
> think the 1920x1200 resolution plus a fast pentium-M will run you
> $3500 Cdn) --- but it's an amazingly good machine.  So here's my score
> sheet:
> 
> Pros:
> 
>  - 1920x1200 screen w/ nvidia 3D.  One of the best screens in the
>    business
>  - P4M processor (essential)
>  - available dual-battery
>  - next day / no questions asked onsite repair for about 10% extra.
>  - has both joystick and touchpad
>  - GigE (handy in that it has auto-crossover)
>  - real serial port
> 
> Cons:
> 
>  - ACPI suspend still doesn't work (2.5 years on)
>  - 7lbs
>  - Not cheap
>  - Dell doesn't acknowledge FreeBSD exists.
> 
> On the warrenty... I'm hard on equipment and I depend on my
> equipment.  I've been impressed that if I put my foot down and "say"
> that I believe something needs replacing, then without much fuss, they
> do it.  The next day onsite service is cool.  Most of the time I get
> them to ship me the part, but I did have them replace the moatherboard
> once --- a nice guy came and did that ... and didn't even ask about my
> rerouting of the ariels in the chassy (to accomodate a different
> interal wireless card).
> 
> On the whole, the lease is up in about 6 months.  I'd probably get
> another.
> 
> Dave.
> 
	Do you lease or buy most hardware?  I've never crunched 
	cost vs return on computers, but it seems likly that leasing 
	might win here.  Brand new machine every 18 months; what a 
	deal.   In any case, $3K (US or Cnd) is out of my league.

	All but two of my platforms were used or donated, but they
	were all rugged.  My HP Kayaks will probably still be working
	when I'm pushing up weeds; same with the ThinkPad 600E.  I 
	stress everything pretty hard with just plain use and by
	keeping things current.  I don't really-REALLLLLY *need*
	a faster laptop.  But figure I could put ubuntu on my 600E 
	for my 10-year-old [she prefers linux to windoze:)], then
	load FBSD-6 and Ubuntu on the faster TP.   The great thing 
	about unix is that it isn't over-gloppy--you don't need GHz
	processors for decent performance. BUT:: it's  the brain-dead 
	OS's their glop-ware that sells the new hardware.  If everybody
	were as cheap as I am, we'd prob'ly still be living in caves.

	thanks for your input; I'm saving it on my wish-list!

	gary






-- 
   Gary Kline     kline at thought.org   www.thought.org     Public service Unix