Laptop recommendations for 6.x

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:15:12 +0000
> From: Nik Clayton <nik at freebsd.org>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> All,
> 
> What's currently recommended as a FreeBSD laptop platform?
> 
> I'm using an IBM/Lenovo T42 at the moment, but that's shortly going back, so:
> 
> Things I like:
> 
>    * Suspend to RAM works
>    * Nice enough keyboard
>    * Workable screen resolution (1024x768, big enough for four xterms)
>    * Reasonably light
>    * Has a dock -- makes things much easier
>    * 1.7GHz CPU is fast enough for my needs (web, e-mail, software
>      development)
>    * Trackpad
> 
> Things I don't like:
> 
>    * Battery life isn't great

I believe they make a 9-cell battery for the T42.

>    * Suspend to disk doesn't work

And is not going to until someone writes the suspend to disk software
for FreeBSD. Very few newer laptops do BIOS based suspend to
disk. It's moved to the OS in Windows, so manufacturers don't waste
money doing it any other way.

Several people have talked about it and a couple have promised to work
on it, but I have not seen anything real. The archives contain some
suggestions from jhb (I think) on how to get started, but it's not
trivial.

>    * No WiFi

Get a cheap Atheros mini-PCI card. It is supported on the T42 BIOS and
works well on FreeBSD. Much cheaper then a new laptop.

I think it will be hard to find a laptop much better supported on
FreeBSD than the Lenovo T4x machines.
-- 
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
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4  EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
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