Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 12:29:10 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org> To: mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Dell Inspiron 5000e vs. Chembook 3015A vs. Compal N38W2 (N30W series) Message-ID: <200102212029.f1LKTA008941@bunrab.catwhisker.org>
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This is rather long, and is a query about features, vs. a report of a problem or solution to same. So if this doesn't interest you (at this time), you might want to just go on to whatever's next in your queue. I've been using various laptops with (only) FreeBSD installed on them for several months now; each is a machine that belongs to my employer, and each has reinforced my perspective that x86 (at least) laptops make other PCs seem comparatively reasonable by comparison (which is saying rather a lot, given my background). Despite these quirks, though, the machines have been useful once FreeBSD was installed on them (which says a lot of positive things about FreeBSD, as well as XFree86), so I think I'm finally almost ready to take the plunge (so to speak). I think I've narrowed my preference down quite a bit, though I'm a little puzzled about one possible discrepancy, and I also have a source of potential concern that others who may have used similar machines may be able to confirm or deny (as the case may be), so I'm writing this note to avail myself of others' experiences. I expect to summarize, even if the bulk of the responses are to the list. I tend to use a lot of windows; out of habit, I still tend to use tvtwm (which I used to run on my Sun 3/60, RIP) -- it provides the virtual desktop that I find useful, and is not as resource-intensive as other window managers I've tried that provide that capability. (Of course, the 3/60 was maxed out at 24 MB RAM, which is around what one normally finds on a video card nowadays.... :-}) Thus, screen real estate is one of my primary considerations (after running well under FreeBSD, of course). Each of the laptops I've used has a (maximum) screen resolution of 1024x768, and I've become fairly well convinced that for spending my own money, I want something with more pixels on it. (Besides, I'm more accustomed to 1152x900, so some of the applications that I would otherwise run directly on a Sun (I still have & use an SS5/110), but plan on xhosting won't really fit well on 1024x768. And my eyesight is fine, so the finer detail is not a concern for me.) So that leaves 1280x1024 (SXGA), 1400x1050 (SXGA+), or 1600x1200 (UXGA). And I find that this alone narrows the field significantly. :-} So from my prowling around, it appears that the Dell Inspiron 5000e is (essentially?) a re-badged Compal N38W2, as is the Chembook 3015A. But while each of the brand-name laptops (Dell & Chembook) claim that they have possible configurations that support 1600x1200, the specifications page for the Compal N38W2 (http://www.compal.com/Product/S3/30W/N38W2/n38w2spec.htm) shows 1400x1050 as the maximum resolution the N38W2 supports. Looking at a pop-up window from a Javascript application on Dell's Web site (select "Video Card" on http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/offers/specials_3x_special29i.htm to bring up the pop-up), it appears that the video card in the Inspiron 5000e is an ATI Rage Mobility 128, 2X AGP, and that it can come with either 8 or 16 MB VRAM. It also seems that either one will handle 1600x1200 on an external monitor, but that 16 MB VRAM is required to support that resolution on the laptop screen. This seems weird to me, because I'd have thought that the laptop screen resolution was fixed (modulo integer multiples) by the positions of the LEDs themselves.... So 1600x1200 isn't a requirement, but it would be nice, and I'd like to be clearer on just what the choices really are. Is anyone actually using 1600x1200 on a 5000e or a Chembook 3015A? Or can anyone confirm that the Compal unit (available, e.g., from http://www.discountpcsales.com/specifications/mtech30w.htm) supports 1600x1200 on the laptop screen? Finally, the other issue is the mouse buttons. I confess I'm annoyed about only 2 buttons being present -- I'm not really coordinated enough to be able to handle "chording" (especially in conjunction with the CONTROL key, for example). But on the first laptop I used (an NEC Versa 6030X), I was able to map the left button to "button 2" and the right button to "button 3", and use the "touchpad tap" (button 4) as "button 1" (after I hacked a logic-reversal into psm.c; ref. PR bin/23081 ), that worked well for me -- except that I couldn't "triple click" (the effective) button 1. Single- & double-click worked OK, but triple didn't. Go figure.... :-{ On the second laptop (a Fujitsu Lifebook 675Tx), there were also 2 buttons and a touchpad, but tapping the touchpad was *not* distinguishable from pressing (& releasing) the left mouse button, so I was stuck with chording. (And that's how I know I don't want to pay for something that requires me to do that....) One of the other quirks of the Lifebook is that the touchpad is non-linear, and maintaining pressure on the touchpad near the periphery of the pad continues to send a signal that "the mouse is moving". Thus, to accomplish the equivalent of the "button 1 press/release", it's important to tap near the center of the pad, or the mouse will tend to "jump" (compensating for the "movement" it was just told about). I find this to be a feature I'd like to be able to turn off, despite its superficial appeal. The other laptop I've been using at work has 3 mouse buttons, but uses a trackpoint ("eraser-head") -- it's an IBM ThinkPad 600E. So does anyone know if the "Synaptics Touchpad with 2 buttons" that is part of the laptop in question exhibits (either of) the weird quirks described above for the Fujitsu Lifebook? Finally, are there any other "gotchas" that I (or anyone else who has already perused the -mobile archives on the Inspirons & the like back to last November or so) might want to know about? I suspect I'll be tending toward solutions that don't require that I buy anything from Microsoft, and I note with some pleasure that either Chembook or M-Tech (http://www.discountpcsales.com/) appear to satisfy that requirement. Thanks, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org As a computing professional, I believe it would be unethical for me to advise, recommend, or support the use (save possibly for personal amusement) of any product that is or depends on any Microsoft product. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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