From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 19 11:28:49 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 3EAF316A4CE for ; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:28:49 +0000 (GMT) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F9D143D41 for ; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:28:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (wluzyr@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i9JBSkur077603 for ; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:28:46 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id i9JBSja3077602; Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:28:45 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:28:45 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: <200410191128.i9JBSja3077602@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-mobile User-Agent: tin/1.5.4-20000523 ("1959") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.10-RELEASE (i386)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: New notebook / laptop recommendation? 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: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:28:49 -0000 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++