ideal laptop recommendations?

[Kevin Oberman]

> From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse at wingnet.net>
> Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 19:00:33 -0400
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> Kevin Oberman wrote:
> 
> >> From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse at wingnet.net>
> >> Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 17:43:27 -0400
> >> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Hi Kevin, thanks for the reply. See comments below:
> 
> > "Great looking" is at the bottom of my list. I prefer  that they
> > work. :-)
> 
> Did I say Great Looking? I don't care how it looks either.
> 
> > 
> > 1. CPU speed is only of limited import. If the disks are slow or the
> > memory inadequate, a fast CPU is not significant for most things. My 1.8
> > GHz laptop can buildworld in under 30 minutes for STABLE and about 35
> > minutes for CURRENT.
> 
> I want a fast disk too. But I also want at least a 2Ghz processor.
> I do just fine with a 600Mhz at home, but I want to raise the bar.
> 
> 
> > 
> > 2. I think any modern laptop can handle 512 MB. After market memory from
> > a good source (i.e. Crucial) can save $$$.
> 
> Sure.
> 
> > 
> > 3. GeForce4?? Can't fathom this. ATI is the current darling of the gamer
> > crowd.
> 
> I don't really care that much. GeForce I know is supported which is
> why I mentioned it. Just as long as OpenGL works I'm happy.
> 
> 
> > 
> > 4. Pretty standard, but slight differences between devices can cause a
> > bit of pain. FreeBSD STABLE and CURRENT both can talk to my flash stick
> > as well as many others. Minor hacks can get ALMOST all to work fine.
> 
> Really? What driver? 4.8 or 5.0? Anything I should look for in particular
> so that I can guarantee they work?
> 
> 
> > 
> > 5. Most are now going 10 GigE as standard.
> 
> No. I don't think so. 10/100 is plenty fine for me. I don't send files
> that large and I live in Tennessee where everything is still 10/100.

Dang fingers. That was not 10 GigE. It was supposed to be GigE. I don't
have anything that talks 10 GigE except Juniper routers.

> > 6. Ain't no such thing today. APM is pretty limited, but I can live with
> > it. ACPI requires current and is still fairly buggy (as are many
> > BIOSes).
> 
> Dang. Should I start looking at Linux?

Most ACPI code is shared between Linux and *BSD, so I don't know that
Linux would be much better. ACPI is really not quite thee, yet. Even for
Windows XP, there can be some nasty issues.

> > 7. Ahh, a heavy-weight. Look at resolution. You can get 1600x1200 at 15
> > inches from a few vendors. These will always look better than
> > 1400x1050. (Cost more, too!)
> 
> I don't particularly care about res. I think 1600x1200 is too much
> for a 15" screen. 1400x1050 is more than enough.

I have a friend who has the 1600x1200 and I an assure you that it's not
too much. Fonts look much cleaner and it is amazingly readable, even to
my 50 year old eyes, with rather small fonts. I don't envy the weight,
but I LOVE the display.

> > 8. Duh!
> > 
> > 9. See 8. Look for Prism 2.5 or Prism 3 or for Cisco cards. Built-in is
> > nice, but some systems using mini-PCI cards have really a bad
> > antenna. Some are excellent. See reviews. Dell and IBM tend to have
> > highly rated antennas.
> 
> OK.
> 
> 
> > 
> > Avoid Broadcom and TI based units. No FreeBSD support is near at this
> > time.
> 
> OK.
> 
> > 
> > 10. Good luck! I think all of the keys on my ThinkPad T30 work, but I
> > have not mapped all of them to anything useful.
> > 
> > One possible is an IBM ThinkPad A31p. 2 GHz, 15", 1600x1200, does almost
> > everything you ask, but has broken ACPI and ATI Mobility FireGL
> > graphics. APM works VERY well, so ACPI is not too important. You do need
> > the DOS based ps2 utility to set it up, though. (Ugh.) IBM supplies the
> > floppy images for this. Not really pretty, but rugged and reliable.
> > Heavy. Over well 7 pounds or 3 kilos. Awesome display!
> 
> IBMs seem a bit overpriced and underfeatured to me. Still, if that is
> the best suggestion I get, then I might give it a try.

They are expensive, but you get what you pay for. I have had 3 ThinkPads
over many years with only the well-known battery issues with my
600E. IBM support is first-rate and the warranty is above average. It's
built like a tank, but it's still rather light for what it offers. Every
review I have seen on recent models has been excellent. See this
month's PC magazine for a mini-review of the new T40 Centrino. (Yum!)

I am less familiar with Dell laptops, but I am rather impressed with my
wife's. VERY light, single spindle unit. But she runs Windows. (I love
her, anyway.)

R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634