Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:28:45 +0200 (CEST) From: Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de> To: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: New notebook / laptop recommendation? Message-ID: <200410191128.i9JBSja3077602@lurza.secnetix.de>
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Hi,
Since my good old P-3-850 notebook (ASUS brand) seems to
die soon, I'm currently looking for a new one. Have any
of you guys here bought a notebook recently which works
well with FreeBSD? (DragonFly would be a plus, because
I would like to install it beside FreeBSD.) I don't care
about fast CPU, 3D gfx and things like that. My typical
applications are xterm, web browser (Opera), and some
image editing (xv, gimp). Specifically:
- It should be a Centrino with Pentium-M processor.
I don't care about battery run time, because it will
be a desktop replacement. I'll mainly use it on my
desk at home. But I do care about power consumption,
heat, and fan noise -- therefore I want something that
is as energy efficient as possible. Oh by the way,
does FreeBSD support all those energy saving modes of
a Centrino machine at all? (I very much hope so.)
- The screen should be at least 1280 pixels wide.
Those "WXGA" displays (1280 x 800 or whatever) are
fine (but of course: the more, the better). However,
1024 x 768 is _not_ enough for me.
- The graphics adapter should work well with XFree86 or
Xorg, including 2D acceleration (so moving a window
with contents doesn't draw 100% CPU). I do not need
3D acceleration, DRI, OpenGL or any other fancy stuff.
Shared video memory is fine. Power consumption of the
gfx adapter should be low. I guess the built-in gfx
of the intel chipset would be sufficient (_if_ it is
supported by XFree86 / Xorg).
- Audio output should work (at least) well enough to play
stereo PCM at 44.1 kHz, or equivalent mp3 files. The
built-in speakers need not be high quality (I'll hook
up a pair of external speakers to the line-out anyway).
I don't need surround, 5.1 AC3, MIDI, what-have-you.
- I need a fast ethernet port (100baseTX), two PCMCIA /
PCCARD slots, and two USB ports. Parallel + serial
ports would be nice to have, but aren't mandatory (I
can use USB adapters for those if necessary).
- I don't care about pretty much anything else. I don't
need built-in WLAN (I have a perfectly fine PCMCIA card
for that), modem (I have an external modem, which I
rarely need anyway), SD card slots (I prefer CF, for
which I do have a PCMCIA adapter), firewire (don't have
any such devices, and don't plan to buy any), IrDa,
Bluetooth, whatever. I don't care about the touchpad,
as I will be connecting my trackball anyway. I don't
need a DVD/CD writer (an ordinary DVD-ROM drive will
do fine). I don't need TV-Out or VGA/DVI output.
Well, I guess most of today's notebooks do have all of
that, be it supported by FreeBSD or not. :-)
- I don't care if it comes with Windows XP. I won't use
it, so I prefer that I wouldn't have to pay for it.
But most machines seem to come with it, so there isn't
much I can do. I do not want to limit my hardware
choices by excluding all Windows notebooks.
- The price should be in the range 1000 - 1400 Euro. The
notebook should be available in stores/shops right now,
preferably in Germany.
- It would be a nice plus if it's possible to get a US-
keyboard for the notebook without too much additional
cost and effort. (I'm extremely pleased with ASUS for
exactly that reason -- I got a US keyboard for my old
ASUS notebook at one of their service partners in
Germany for a very reasonable price.) That's not
mandatory, though.
Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendation!
Best regards
Oliver
--
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.
"When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb."
-- Steve Haflich, in comp.lang.c++
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