ideal laptop recommendations?

[Jesse D. Guardiani]

Eric De Mund wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I don't recall the first requester's name, but, hello. I always ask
> people if they're going to be carrying the machine here and there or
> are, instead, going to be using it in one place. If the machine is going
> to be travelling back and forth to work or back and forth to school on a
> regular basis, I tell them to go down to their local mom-and-pop compu-
> ter repair place and talk to pop. Or mom.

I really don't know of a single "mom-and-pop" place around here that sells
laptops. In my experience older folks are terrified of the things.

Truthfully, I don't know anyone around here that sells IBMs either.


> Have them tell you what brands
> and models you should avoid. And then ask them why.
> 
> When I did this in 2000, I learned that Dell laptops and, to an even
> greater degree, Sony laptops were flimsy, flimsy, flimsy.


I have yet to hear from a single sole who actually owns a Sony or Dell and
isn't happy with it. Sounds like a bunch of "buy IBM" propoganda to me.

I know a programmer who owns a Dell laptop and is VERY happy with it.


> They suffered
> a lot of internal breakage because the boxes were not solidly construct-
> ed. The manufacturers skimped on materials and strength, and the results
> were just what you'd expect: expensive repairs that just weren't possi-
> ble for the end-user to do himself.
> 
> On the other end of the spectrum, IBM ThinkPads and Toshiba laptops
> were, according to pop, built like tanks.

I don't know about that. I looked at the Toshibas yesterday at Bestbuy.
They're made of the same grade plastic that the Sony is made of. Perhaps
things have changed a bit in the last 3 years.


<snip>

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Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
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