Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 17:10:16 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com> Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Latest laptop recommendations Message-ID: <199912080110.RAA01041@mass.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 07 Dec 1999 12:48:06 PST." <199912072048.MAA25669@mina.sr.hp.com>
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> While I love my Inspiron 7500, I don't think it meets Brett's > requirements (note: the 7000 is no longer available, and there are > rumors that the 7500 may be obsoleted in January or February). In > particular: I have one of these, and yes it's likely to be superseded about then; thats Dell's 3-month product cycle for you. Mine was obsolete before it was shipped. 8( However, I also love it dearly already, and anticipate many years of service out of it. > * XFree86 3.3.5 does not work on it "out of the box" (note that this is > for the 7500, and not the no-longer-available 7000). The 7500 uses > the ATI Rage Mobility-P chipset, which isn't yet supported by XFree86. I didn't bother with XFree and pestered the Xig folks instead. They delivered support for this machine about a week after I got it (and I was close to the front round of shipping). There are a few very minor defects in the server, but it's been extremely stable, and performance is nothing to complain about. (It benchmarks at about 50% the speed of an AGP Voodoo 3, which is pretty hot.) > * Sound doesn't work. The 7500 uses the Maestro 2E, which Brett > specifically said he didn't want. FreeBSD-current doesn't support the > Maestro, and even the OSS drivers don't work (on a recent -current, > but that's probably due to the recent changes in -current). I'm not sure about that, but I haven't had time to go around with the OSS folks lately. I would hope we can get something resolved there soon. > * Suspend/resume works under Win98 and 3.3-RELEASE. I don't know about > -current, as I just installed -current on my 7500, and I'm waiting for > the pccard fixes (pccard has broken suspend/resume in -current). It works fine, modulo the pccard stuff. > [ Also, by "suspend/resume" in 3.3-RELEASE, I'm talking about > "suspend-to-RAM". I haven't figured out how to do a suspend-to- > disk under FreeBSD. I'm not sure it's even possible. ] It should work, but I get a complaint from the BIOS about the suspend-to-disk file (which lives on the Windows partition) even after regenerating it. I think this is a BIOS bug. > * The 7500 is a desktop replacement. It's big and heavy (~9.5lbs+). > It's fine for carrying to/from work, but it's probably not good if you > travel a lot. However, if power, power, and more power is more > important than portability, it's the way to go. Actually, unless you're particularly feeble, it's not actually that heavy. I carried both the 7500 and my old Toshiba around for a week while I moved things over, and that was just bearable. OTOH, the massive batteries in the 7500, and the fact that you can pack two into it makes it ideal for work on the go. > * The laptop can get hot. I wouldn't want to use it on my lap, as the > bottom can get uncomfortably warm/hot. The middle of the keyboard > gets warm (the hard disk is below there), and the area around the > [Enter] key to the top of the keyboard gets surprisingly warm > (probably due to the CPU). For me, the warm area under [Enter] and > [Backspace] can get a bit uncomfortable when typing. The harddisk is actually under the scratchpad; the CPU is (AFAIR) under 'g' and 'h'. The area over at the top right is the heatpipe outlet (that's where the fan duct is). I guess I'm used to toasty-warm laptops; this fella doesn't get anywhere near as hot as a co-worker's new Vaio 505VE. > * If you order the standard modem, you get a winmodem. My "solution" > was to delete the modem from the order, which saved a little $$$. I "deleted" the MS Works etc. bundle, and got slugged an extra $90. Whoops. -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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