From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 9 14:30:33 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org 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 561AC16A46F for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 14:30:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from shanejp@netspace.net.au) Received: from mail.netspace.net.au (thunder.netspace.net.au [203.10.110.71]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F14A43D7B for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 14:30:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from shanejp@netspace.net.au) Received: from [10.0.0.6] (dsl-202-45-125-5-static.NSW.netspace.net.au [202.45.125.5]) by mail.netspace.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EE974BC0E for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:30:29 +1000 (EST) Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v750) In-Reply-To: <200606091328.k59DSThD012167@nic-naa.net> References: <200606091328.k59DSThD012167@nic-naa.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <40FC69A5-A5A9-4C62-8F29-89F193E2D55F@netspace.net.au> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Shane J Pearson Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:30:27 +1000 To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.750) Subject: Re: New or used laptop recommendation(s) X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:30:33 -0000 Hello Eric, On 2006.06.09, at 11:28 PM, Eric Brunner-Williams at a VSAT somewhere wrote: > I've gone through a couple of Sony's, don't want to repeat that, > and I'm > looking for suggestions. I am also not very pleased with my Sony VAIO. I had been trying to get the 6 Rel series going on my VGN-A49GP and now thanks to the FreeBSD people I can run 6.1 on this machine. But now that I can finally run 6.1 Rel, after 11 months of owning and having the machine almost always on my desk (rarely moved), this $5,000 AU machine is dead. I am *really* glad that I paid the extra $250 for an extra 2 years on the warrantee. But with the poor physical quality starting to show through and the fact that it's now dead, I'm wondering if I should sell it after getting it back from Sony repairs and cut my losses and get a Thinkpad. Opening and closing it feels so very painfully plastic and like something is going to break, the silver paint on the palm rests even started wearing off after only 2 months or so. The BIOS options are about as minimal as you can get and some BIOS functions don't even work (has option to boot external device, but will not boot any USB or firewire device, not even a Sony USB floppy drive). This was my first Sony laptop and will almost certainly be my last. I would not recommend a Sony VAIO to my worst enemy. My girlfriend has a really nice IBM/Lenovo Z60t Thinkpad which I have put a minimal 6.1 Rel install (CLI only) into a very small partition for scripted whole-disk image backups for her. Can anyone report if sound is supported yet on the Z60t under FreeBSD? I'm so impressed with the build quality of this Thinkpad, that I'm kicking myself for not going with what I knew were good quality machines. Shane