What laptop do you recommend?

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:07:32 -0500
> From: Parv <parv at pair.com>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> in message <20060314113412.3470fde5 at localhost>,
> wrote Norberto Meijome thusly...
> >
> > On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:32:40 -0300
> > freebsd at meijome.net wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm looking for a new, gruntier laptop. What laptop is known to work
> > > WELL with freeBSD? e.g.:
> > > 
> > > ACPI with no problems (and as many features as possible)
> > > PATA / SATA with no problems
> 
> I don't think Thinkpad has [SP]ATA things (yet).

>From my T43:
atapci0: <Intel ICH6 SATA150 controller> port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0x18c0-0x18cf at device 31.2 on pci0
Since the drives are still PATA, I assume it uses a SATA/PATA chip for
the internal drives, but it may make SATA available to a docking station.

> 
> > > all other basic stuff (graphics, NIC, Wireless g, sound,
> > > touchpad ,etc ) should work too, of course
> 
> Thinkpad T42 is great in that regard, except that the use of dri w/
> suspend/resume causes lockup.  You would need to pick either dri or
> suspend/resume.
> 
> If you can, try to get a laptop either without a 802.11g (so that
> you can decide which one to buy) or buy one supported by ath driver.
> I have T42 w/ Intel 2200BG card, and it using w/ iwi driver
> (net/iwi-firmware port).  Here, connected w/ Linksys WRT54G wireless
> router/switch/AP, iwi interface|driver needs to be reset just about
> every two hours (when i start getting "TKIP ICV mismatch on decrypt"
> message.

iwi (and its kin-folk) have been betting heavy work in HEAD over the
past week or two and, hopefully, things will improve. OTOH, I have two
colleagues using this card with Windows and they complain that it locks
up periodically and they have to disable and enable it to get it back,
so this may not be just a FreeBSD thing. There is also fairly new
firmware out (V3.0) which MAY fix some of these problems.

> > > Looking into either Intel duo Core or AMD64 chips.
> 
> Can't say about Thinkpad on that.

I think the only ThinkPads with Core Duo are T60s, although I'm sure
other will follow. Don't know if Lenovo will ever go the AMD route, but
I sure hope they do. My AMD desktop is one amazing system!

> > > >From what I've read, IBMs seem to have quite good support, so
> > > >do DELLs
> > > (though they seem chunkier than other laptops). I usually get
> > > Toshiba, but I don't think they are so well supported.
> 
> Boy do those Toshiba's "TruBrite" screen looked amazing (in a chain
> store).  On almost all the displayed laptops, however, the keyboards
> are buggered up, mainly on the right side.  Keys were shifted around
> or had really unusual area of key caps.  What is amazing about the
> messed up keyboard layout is that there was much wasted space on
> the sides (owning to the wider screen) & in front of the keyboard.

FWIW, I have been amazed at the brightness of my T43. It is MUCH
brighter than my trusty T30.

> > What about DELL laptops? any model I should stick to?
> 
> People generally advise to get one from "business" line (used to be
> "Latitude" for some time in past; don't know about the
> present/future), not the "home" one ("Inspiron").
> 
> 
> > Thinkpads are a bit pricey for me atm.
> 
> T4[0-3]-generation should be affordable by now, around USD1[0-2]00.
> 
> 
> > (Greg Lehey i think was using dells... could well be wrong...)
> 
> Yes, some Dell Inspiron.

My wife has not been at all happy with her Latitude. Heavy and still not
robust. Unpleasant keyboard and very touchy touchpad. (This is from her
as I don't often use it.) I do love the 1600x1200 display, though!

For less expensive (and less powerful) ThinkPads, look at the R
series. No Core Duos there, but they start at about $800 new. No
touchpads (which I consider a plus), but a bit clunky compared to the T
series. 
-- 
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