From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Mar 26 16:22:03 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id QAA14070 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 26 Mar 1996 16:22:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from jbrann.dialup.access.net (jbrann.dialup.access.net [166.84.193.118]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA14061 for ; Tue, 26 Mar 1996 16:21:57 -0800 (PST) Received: (from jbrann@localhost) by jbrann.dialup.access.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA02099; Tue, 26 Mar 1996 19:20:30 -0500 Message-Id: <199603270020.TAA02099@jbrann.dialup.access.net> Subject: Re: Buying a laptop for FreeBSD - advice sought To: d_burr@ix.netcom.com (Donald Burr) Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 19:20:30 -0500 (EST) Cc: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: from Donald Burr at "Mar 26, 96 02:57:39 am" From: John Brann Reply-To: John Brann Organisation: Not while I'm at home X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL13 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Donald Burr wrote... [...] > > The notebook I am considering is the CTX EZ350D. Through some contacts I > am able to get this unit at a very good price. Obviously, I'd prefer to > spend less money, that way I have money left over for other toys... er, > necessities, like PCMCIA cards, Zip disks, etc. But if this unit will > not work with FreeBSD, I'm willing to consider an alternate. > [...] Looking at your spec. for this machine, it's very similar to a Sharp notebook I had a while ago. I know these things are often made by one manufacturer and badged by others. That machine was a lemon. The removable disk drive would occasionaly make sickening clunking noises just before the machine crashed (in DOS). The monitor (an 800x600 DSTN) was very dim and wavered nastily. I believe it has now been withdrawn by Sharp (at least it's not advertised any more). I managed to install FreeBSD (2.1) and run console sessions, but couldn't get X going - the video chipset was not supported. I replaced it with a Toshiba 415CS - which is a vast improvement (and $1000 more expensive...) John -- Beavis and Butt-Head; Vladimir and Estragon for the '90s. finger jbrann@panix.com for pgp public key