Re: [tlug] Notebook Question

[Jonathan Q <jq@example.com>]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2002 at 06:03:33PM +0200, Godwin Stewart wrote:

>I think that's a matter of personal preference. As far as I'm concerned, my
>greatest desire is to rip the stupid thing out. I hate it, hate it, hate it,
>hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it :)

OK, let me qualify that a bit.  All current notebook pointing 
devices suck.  The things that suck the most are trackpads.
I hate them about 100 times more than you hate the erasers. 
The best is a trackball, but I don't know if even the
Let's Note line has any trackball models in it anymore.

I have an old Dec HiNote Ultra.  486-DX4 75, 24 meg (maxed),
640 x 480 TFT, 500 meg disk (and even that was an upgrade
from the factory 340).  The battery doesn't hold a charge
anymore, but at least as of 1999 they were still available from
Compaq.  Expensive at 200 bucks, but I'm tempted to order one,
sometimes, if they still have any left.  The thing is such
a marvelous machine, and so sleek and light and modern looking
that if you just stuck it on a shelf in a computer store, people
would mistake it for a new model, as long as they didn't boot
it up :-)  I basically never use it anymore, so I can't really
justify the battery cost, but it's a great machine.  In its
day, it was the best thing on the market.  They cost $5000 new
in 1994.  I'm not the original owner, of course, but I've had it
for about four years or so. 

The "eraser" in Toshiba models that have it is horrible, the
absolute worst thing going.  Even a trackpad is better.
IBM's eraser, though, is quite precise and accurate.
We have a Thinkpad 240 at work with one of those, and it's
great.  The 240 is a bit old now, we've had it two years or
more, but it has a great screen and is pretty indestructible,
a very important trait in a notebook that sysadmins chuck into
their backpacks without a case and haul it all over the
country to hook up to console ports.  The form factor is
B5, and the weight is very low.  The screen only goes 800 x 600,
but that's more than good enough for what we use it for.

>>From what I've heard, Toshiba is a good buy also since their innards are
>made by Acer Labs Inc. It may not be the fastest kid on the block but it's
>certainly very compatible.

I don't know about the ones now, but we also have a Toshiba
Dynabook 2540, and  I have tried and tried and tried to
get Linux or FreeBSD on that machine, but I can't get no
satisfaction.  I actually managed to get something installed
on it once (MDK 8.2, I think), which was a first.  However, it
wouldn't actually successfully boot after that.  Nothing would
get it past the crappy early cardbus implementation on that
box, no matter what compatibility mode I set it to in the 
BIOS.

Toshiba notebooks are very rugged, but also extremely heavy.
Some models have had serious compatibilty issues, although
that may (?) be a thing of the past.  And then there's that 
eraser, worst one on the market.

>A computer without Windows is like a chocolate cake
>without mustard

Mind if I steal this one?

Jonathan
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