From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 30 14:34:04 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 082C616A4CE for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 14:34:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.des.no (flood.des.no [217.116.83.31]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B94AE43D31 for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 14:34:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from des@des.no) Received: by smtp.des.no (Pony Express, from userid 666) id 714AD5308; Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:34:00 +0200 (CEST) Received: from dwp.des.no (des.no [80.203.228.37]) by smtp.des.no (Pony Express) with ESMTP id 5BCC7530C; Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:33:53 +0200 (CEST) Received: by dwp.des.no (Postfix, from userid 2602) id 37B0C33CAA; Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:33:53 +0200 (CEST) To: Bob Collins References: <40686157.3020902@cs.uiowa.edu> <20040330201107.GA95453@empiric.dek.spc.org> <20040330220947.GA45392@yoda.anything-inc.com> From: des@des.no (Dag-Erling =?iso-8859-1?q?Sm=F8rgrav?=) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:33:52 +0200 In-Reply-To: <20040330220947.GA45392@yoda.anything-inc.com> (Bob Collins's message of "Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:09:47 -0500") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.090024 (Oort Gnus v0.24) Emacs/21.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on flood.des.no X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL autolearn=no version=2.63 cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The Best Laptop X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:34:04 -0000 Bob Collins writes: > Wow, considering that, I had no issues other than having to use > OLDKERNEL to get my pcm slots working, my TP600X runs 4.9 perfectly. So > much for the above. I've had three ThinkPads, including a 600E. All of them had problems running FreeBSD. The 600E even had problems running Windows 2000 and XP, even though it had a sticker on it that said "designed for Microsoft Windows". Problems I've experienced include: - original battery dies, brand new replacement battery also dies within months - increasingly severe trackpoint drift culminated in the trackpoint being completely unusable, keyboard / trackpoint unit was replaced, symptoms reappeared months later. - BIOS detects trackpoint malfunction during POST, and refuses to boot without first running complete systems diagnostic (which takes about half an hour and requires a working mouse because the BIOS setup / diagnostic utility is graphical rather than text-based) - laptop suddenly decides to suspend even though AC is plugged in; upon resume, runs for 30 seconds before suspending again, etc. Once this kicks in, laptop is unusable. The only remedy I found was to clear NVRAM in BIOS setup. - DOS / Windows utility required to select RS232 instead of IrDA, because BIOS setup utility has practically no useful functionality besides "select boot device" and "set boot password". > And considering the troubles I have had with office based Dell > Brickbooks (at 9 pounds or so, they are not really portable) Inspirons > and Latitudes, I would not use them if I could do otherwise. That's disingenious. Both IBM and Dell have a variety of models, some designed for performance and others designed for low weight. The Latitude C and D series belong to the former category, as does the ThinkPad 600 series. My ThinkPad 600E and my Latitude D600 both weigh slightly less than 6 lbs, while a Latitude X300 weighs less than 3 lbs according to Dell's website. DES --=20 Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav - des@des.no