Laptop advice

[Jerry McAllister]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 03:48:06PM -0400, Mike Jeays wrote:

> On March 27, 2008 03:09:42 pm mdh wrote:
> > --- David Kelly <dkelly at hiwaay.net> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 01:53:57PM -0400, Joe Demeny
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > > > In the end, the best advice seems to be indeed to
> > >
> > > take the FreeBSD CD
> > >
> > > > to the brick-and-mortar store...
> > >
> > > Or you could purchase an Apple Mac Book and have a
> > > commercially
> > > supported Unix pre-installed. Guess that would take
> > > all the "fun" out of
> > > it?
> >
> > While I like Mac products and OSX is pretty cool, I
> > still find their laptops a bit pricey.
> >
> > By the by, has anyone tried FreeBSD on one of those
> > little Asus EEEpc sublaptops?  A real, tiny, i386
> > laptop for $300 (plus maybe a bit more for an
> > additional SD card to bump the storage some) seems
> > like a truly awesome deal.
> >
> 
> I bought an Eee PC, but haven't tried any other software on it yet.  I can 
> confirm that the hardware is a bargain, and I used it 'as is' while 
> travelling for ten days, and it connected 'out of the box' to the wireless 
> service provided in each hotel.  A mouse is a great help, although the 
> built-in pad is quite usable.  I had no trouble with the tiny keyboard, 
> except for needing the light on to read the keys.

What!!  You're not a touch typist??!!


A couple of others to look at:

 By HP:    http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/hps-umpc-2133-revealed/

 By KJS:   http://www.umpcportal.com/products/product.php?id=130

 By Dell:  http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_xt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab&dgc=ST&cid=27096&lid=615901O

 By IBM:  http://shop.lenovo.com/us/landing_pages/thinkpad/2008/X300?cid=us|semd|ggl|us_portable_en|t9C4|c&&s_kwcid=ContentNetwork|1073231341


I tried out a Kohjinsha in Japan and found that its small keyboard was 
pretty easy to use as well (I suppose some would have trouble with its 
size, but I found it fairly comfortable after a few minutes of getting 
used to it).  It looks about the same physical size as the EeePC.   It 
is a bit more expensive that the Eee, but it has 80GB/120 GB disk and 
some more other good features.   The display can be turned around and 
used like a tablet and there are models with touch screen. I was 
impressed with the display too.  Even though it was a 7 inch and not
exceptionally high resolution, it was sharp and very readable.   There 
is some company that is marketing a version of it with English language 
WinXP.  I don't know if they put an English language BIOS in it.  But, I 
find that machine very interesting.  It would fit in my jacket pocket - my 
major size qualifier.

Some comments and pictures:  http://technorati.com/photos/tag/kohjinsha

  Japanese website:    http://kohjinsha.com/models/sa/lineupsa.html

Of course, Dell and IBM models are more featured, but are much larger and 
much more expensive.

The HP model is yet to be seen, but looks interesting.

 
////jerry

> 
> They are a really great innovation, IMHO.  I am really pleased with mine.
> 
> The wireless card may be the problem with FreeBSD.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mike Jeays
> http://www.jeays.ca
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