Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 19:00:33 -0400 From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse@wingnet.net> To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ideal laptop recommendations? Message-ID: <b96qc0$k4i$1@main.gmane.org> References: <jesse@wingnet.net> <20030505223531.6B6755D04@ptavv.es.net>
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Kevin Oberman wrote: >> From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse@wingnet.net> >> Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 17:43:27 -0400 >> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org <snip> Hi Kevin, thanks for the reply. See comments below: > "Great looking" is at the bottom of my list. I prefer that they > work. :-) Did I say Great Looking? I don't care how it looks either. > > 1. CPU speed is only of limited import. If the disks are slow or the > memory inadequate, a fast CPU is not significant for most things. My 1.8 > GHz laptop can buildworld in under 30 minutes for STABLE and about 35 > minutes for CURRENT. I want a fast disk too. But I also want at least a 2Ghz processor. I do just fine with a 600Mhz at home, but I want to raise the bar. > > 2. I think any modern laptop can handle 512 MB. After market memory from > a good source (i.e. Crucial) can save $$$. Sure. > > 3. GeForce4?? Can't fathom this. ATI is the current darling of the gamer > crowd. I don't really care that much. GeForce I know is supported which is why I mentioned it. Just as long as OpenGL works I'm happy. > > 4. Pretty standard, but slight differences between devices can cause a > bit of pain. FreeBSD STABLE and CURRENT both can talk to my flash stick > as well as many others. Minor hacks can get ALMOST all to work fine. Really? What driver? 4.8 or 5.0? Anything I should look for in particular so that I can guarantee they work? > > 5. Most are now going 10 GigE as standard. No. I don't think so. 10/100 is plenty fine for me. I don't send files that large and I live in Tennessee where everything is still 10/100. > > 6. Ain't no such thing today. APM is pretty limited, but I can live with > it. ACPI requires current and is still fairly buggy (as are many > BIOSes). Dang. Should I start looking at Linux? > > 7. Ahh, a heavy-weight. Look at resolution. You can get 1600x1200 at 15 > inches from a few vendors. These will always look better than > 1400x1050. (Cost more, too!) I don't particularly care about res. I think 1600x1200 is too much for a 15" screen. 1400x1050 is more than enough. > > 8. Duh! > > 9. See 8. Look for Prism 2.5 or Prism 3 or for Cisco cards. Built-in is > nice, but some systems using mini-PCI cards have really a bad > antenna. Some are excellent. See reviews. Dell and IBM tend to have > highly rated antennas. OK. > > Avoid Broadcom and TI based units. No FreeBSD support is near at this > time. OK. > > 10. Good luck! I think all of the keys on my ThinkPad T30 work, but I > have not mapped all of them to anything useful. > > One possible is an IBM ThinkPad A31p. 2 GHz, 15", 1600x1200, does almost > everything you ask, but has broken ACPI and ATI Mobility FireGL > graphics. APM works VERY well, so ACPI is not too important. You do need > the DOS based ps2 utility to set it up, though. (Ugh.) IBM supplies the > floppy images for this. Not really pretty, but rugged and reliable. > Heavy. Over well 7 pounds or 3 kilos. Awesome display! IBMs seem a bit overpriced and underfeatured to me. Still, if that is the best suggestion I get, then I might give it a try. > > Good luck! > > 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 > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-mobile > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-mobile-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services, P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605 423-559-LINK (v) 423-559-5145 (f) http://www.wingnet.net
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