Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 11:35:56 -0500 From: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org> To: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> Cc: Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com>, mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: using a laptop as a main machine Message-ID: <200211081135.56524.bts@babbleon.org> In-Reply-To: <20021108160115.60AC65D04@ptavv.es.net> References: <20021108160115.60AC65D04@ptavv.es.net>
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On Friday 08 November 2002 11:01 am, Kevin Oberman wrote: | > From: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org> | > Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 09:25:44 -0500 | > Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG | > | > | > I switched to a laptop as my main (only) computer when my Amiga | > 1000 bit the dust in 1995 or so (I checked and my first posting to | > FreeBSD list was in 1996, so I think that 1995 is right since I | > used Linux for the first six months or so). (I've had *a* laptop | > since 1992ish -- a Bondwell B200.) | > | > | > So I have some experience with this . . . | > | > | > I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned this. | > | > THE most important feature on a laptop BY FAR is a good warrenty. | > | > I insist on a three-year warrenty, which is why I buy Dells. Their | > service is excellent. I didnt get "on-site" service, but they pick | > up and deliver via Airborne Express, and if I ship it on Friday I | > have it back by Tuesday morning, so never without it for more than | > three days. | > | > I do have a desktop at work. It runs Windows and it's old an slow | > and the display is muddy but it will do in a pinch, so I can | > survive three (miserable) days without my main machine. | > | > If you use your laptop -- really use it, and I carry mine | > everywhere; in and back to work every day, on my lap with the | > wireless card outside while watching the kids play, in my car while | > waiting for people; I even carry it around the house with me from | > room to room -- then it *will* require service. | > | > If it just sits on your desk 90% of the time, maybe not. | | I have been using ThinkPads for about 7 years and just got my third | one. I expect a laptop to last 3 years. By then the technology is | just too far behind the power curve for new applications and I get a | new one. | | All of my ThinkPads are still functional and (when running FreeBSD) | reasonably usable. None has every needed service except to replace | the battery. (They seem to last about 2 years.) The only other | failure was a dead row on the LCD of the oldest ThinkPad. More | notably, my entire group (7 people) use them and I am only aware of | one failure (keyboard dies) and that was after three years while we | were waiting for the new ones to arrive. | | They have always simply worked...on my desk, at home on wireless (at | least the last two), on travel at conferences and on planes. If you | don't think I take it everywhere, just ask my wife. Our honeymoon and | a 6th anniversary trip to Hawaii were probably the only tow time I've | been separated from my laptop since we were married. | | I think you need to look at more reliable laptops. | | 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 | | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org | with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message Wow. That is indeed an impressive testimonial. I have owned the Bondwell (which lasted quite a while, actually), a Hyperdata, a Chembook (under some other brandname as I recall but it was the same hardware), Two Dells, and (briefly, because these two failed within the first week so I just sent them back and got a refund) an IBM Ambra and a Compaq. Each of them had to be serviced or replaced at one time or another within their first two years of life. (Within the first year, in fact, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me, though I can't swear to that.) I've never owned a "mainline" IBM laptop, always finding them to be a little bit too expensive for what you get. But perhaps this has been a mistake. By now I've just figured that laptops are like this, period. Regardless, though, I'm make sure I got a good warrenty. As I said to start with, I look for a three-year warrenty; you are correct that more than that is pointless since you will definately want to replace your machine by then anyway. I will seriously consider IBM for my next laptop, though. I'm really quite impressed at what you are telling me; it sounds like you use your laptop just as heavily as I use mine. I'm sure that most people do not use them quite so heavily. -- Brian, the man from Babble-On . . . . bts@babbleon.org (personal) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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