From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 30 18:15:39 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 2066216A4CE for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 18:15:39 -0800 (PST) Received: from postal2.es.net (proxy.es.net [198.128.3.206]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B94543D1D for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 18:15:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from oberman@es.net) Received: from ptavv.es.net ([198.128.4.29]) by postal2.es.net (Postal Node 2) with ESMTP (SSL) id IBA74465; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 18:15:38 -0800 Received: from ptavv (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ptavv.es.net (Tachyon Server) with ESMTP id 1FD7A5D07; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 18:15:38 -0800 (PST) To: des@des.no (Dag-Erling =?iso-8859-1?q?Sm=F8rgrav?=) In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:01:16 +0200." Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 18:15:38 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" Message-Id: <20040331021538.1FD7A5D07@ptavv.es.net> cc: Jason Dusek 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: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 02:15:39 -0000 > From: des@des.no (Dag-Erling =?iso-8859-1?q?Sm=F8rgrav?=) > Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:01:16 +0200 > Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org > > Bruce M Simpson writes: > > On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 12:48:07PM -0500, Jason Dusek wrote: > > > I am in the market for a new laptop and I would like to know which > > > laptop is the best for running FreeBSD and which one has the easiest > > > setup. Any suggestions? > > The IBM ThinkPad T40 is currently rocking my world. > > The ThinkPad series has a long history of bad batteries, buggy BIOSes > and AMLs, and idiosyncratic hardware which often requires a DOS or > Windows utility to enable / disable / configure. I'd recommend a Dell > Latitude (not Inspiron!) instead. I've been using ThinkPads for FreeBSD for several years. 570, 600E, and T30. All have run well, although the 600E did have a problem with batteries. (IBM was happy to send me replacements, though.) They do require a DOS utility to adjust BIOS, although that is largely gone with recent models and ACPI. I have had little problem with buggy BIOS with APM, but I did need to upgrade to get ACPI to work properly on my T30. It's been fine for over a year, now and the biggest issue turned out to be and error in the ACPI code in FreeBSD which was also fixed LONG ago. I have never had hardware problems with any of them and the IBM support and service have always been simply excellent. (See battery comment above.) I have historically found ThinkPads to be excellent systems for FreeBSD, -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634