new laptop suggestions - not the usual stuff

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 21:39:16 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Wesley Morgan <morganw at chemikals.org>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004, Dan Langille wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 29 Jul 2004, Wesley Morgan wrote:
> >
> >> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004, Ray Seals wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Sat, 2004-07-24 at 19:27, Michael W. Oliver wrote:
> >>>> Ok folks, I know that this comes up from time to time, and I know very
> >>>> well the FreeBSD laptop compatibility list (which rocks!), but I think
> >>>> this case is different, and here's why.
> >>>>
> >>>> I am looking for a new laptop that has the following features:
> >>>>
> >>>> 1) pointing stick in keyboard   *THIS IS A MUST*
> >>
> >> These are sadly becoming harder to find, despite their obvious superiority
> >> to the "touch pad". I was very put off when Toshiba dropped their
> >> Satellite Pro line that featured this! I'll have to hang on to my current
> >> laptop forever.
> >
> > IBM are committed to the stick I think.
> 
> Yeah but the keyboards on thinkpads suck. All springy and stiff :)

Odd. We have always used ThinkPads in my organization and the keyboard
is the one reason IBM has won the last two times we have evaluated
laptops on the basis of their excellent keyboards.

I did a bit or research into them and IBM actually did human testing to
determine the what trained typists liked in terms of force required,
length of key travel and tactile feedback and designed their keyboards
accordingly. I have loved mine from the first time I used it, though I
won't claim to be a trained typist.

My only issue with ThinkPads is the price and I've always found them to
be worth it.

A happy 560, 600E and T30 user.
-- 
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