Laptop recommendations for 6.x

[Holger Kipp]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 10:09:53AM +0000, Nik Clayton wrote:
> All,
> 
> What's currently recommended as a FreeBSD laptop platform?

Hi, I am using a HP compaq nx8220 without too many problems.

so far I encountered the following problems:

- build-in cardreader is not recognized.
- writing dual-layer DVDs will hang at writing the split-info to
  disk (with growisofs), but can then be restarted without 
  problems.

bge0 and iwi0 work without problems, screen resolution is very good,
sound and dvd playback no problem...

> I'm using an IBM/Lenovo T42 at the moment, but that's shortly going back, 
> so:
> 
> Things I like:
> 
>   * Suspend to RAM works

haven't checked that one. never use it anyway.

>   * Nice enough keyboard
>   * Workable screen resolution (1024x768, big enough for four xterms)

yes! it is a 16/9 display and 3x3 = 9 xterms fit very nicely - or
editing very large textfiles (two) side by side with 138x75 characters each
(that is 138 chars wide!).

>   * Reasonably light

does not weight that much (I carry other more heavy stuff with me, so I
just might not notice the laptops additional weight ;-)
>   * Has a dock -- makes things much easier

don't have one myself, but no problem with docks available at customers.

>   * 1.7GHz CPU is fast enough for my needs (web, e-mail, software
>     development)

shhould be available with dual core now. mine has about 2GHz which is
plenty (for FreeBSD). Windows XP takes ages to start.

>   * Trackpad
yep.
> 
> Things I don't like:
> 
>   * Battery life isn't great
enough for 1 DVD to watch (around 2 hours), but one can fit a second
battery if needed.  
>   * Suspend to disk doesn't work
at least works with windows xp - as stated, i haven't checked with FreeBSD yet.
>   * No WiFi

has iwi-interface. works fine for me.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a laptop with all those features that works with 
> FreeBSD?

I feel tempted to buy an apple powerbook pro next time ;-) but ymmv.

Regards,
Holger