The Best Laptop

[Stuart Barkley]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004, Kevin Oberman wrote:

> Before going with a Toshiba, be sure to try the keyboard. I know of
> several people who have ditched Tecra's and I rejected them because
> of the keyboards. They often require special X hacks to avoid
> double-striking due to the excessive bouncing.

I agree with this.  I've never had the double-striking problem, but
the misplaced ~/` key drives me crazy.  The position of the cursor
keys and page up/down keys may also be of importance to some people.

The keyboard is now the first thing I look at with new laptops (my
current Toshiba is starting to show its age).  The second thing is the
"line in" jack which is now missing from most current models.  A real
serial port would be the next thing.

Question: What laptops have usable middle-button pointing devices? The
emulate 3rd button option (using left+right) is a real pain on my
touchpad (and most other two button devices I've used).

I hate mice and touchpads and I've never really used a trackball or
trackpoint system.  I prefer operating systems and applications which
don't require the use of such things and can be controlled completely
from the keyboard.

Can anyone suggest a machine which works with FreeBSD and has:

  - "proper" keyboard (almost anything except Toshiba)
  - line in port (2 channel line level input)
  - serial port
  - 3 button pointing device (touchpad preferred)
  - CD-RW/DVD drive
  - USB (2.0 desired)
  - Ethernet/modem desirable but not required
  - 20-30GB disk

Other than USB 2.0, I'm thinking an older/refurbished system could be
what I want.

Stuart Barkley
-- 
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