tlug: VAIO 505EX vs. Moebius PC-PJ1

[Manuel Chakravarty <chak@example.com>]

Hi!

Just as I am about to buy a Sony VAIO 505EX, somebody points 
me to 

  http://www.sharp.co.jp/sc/gaiyou/news/980518.htm

where the Sharp Moebius PC-PJ1 is announced.  The machines
are very similar -- same processor and graphics chipset, and
nearly the same size and weight.

The two main benefits of the Moebius seem to be its slightly 
larger screen 11.3 (vs. the 10.4 of VAIO) and the fact that
you don't need an external device (called port replicator)
to have an external video plug, serial and printer port --
and it has a bigger hard disk.

Apart from drawing your attention to new, fancy hardware, I
write to this list because I wonder whether anybody has
already seen the Moebius in real?  In particular, I am
interested in the quality of the keyboard and screen.  (I
like the VAIO keyboard.)

A Linux-related matter that I am worrying a bit about is
that the Moebius has a builtin modem supporting the
so-called `K56flex' protocol, which seems to allow a mixed
use of 56,000bps and 33,600bps and they write, $BFbB"%b%G%`$O(B
$B#W#i#n#d#o#w#s#9#5%"%W%j%1!<%7%g%s%=%U%HMQ$G$9!#(B

So, I wonder whether this modem can only be used in Win with
the packaged add-on software.  Does anybody know this kind
of modems and whether they cause trouble with Linux?  I
don't mind using only 33,600bps.  The question is whether it
works at all.

Furthermore, as my budget probably doesn't allow to buy the
external CD-ROM: Is it easy to install (Turbo)Linux via
PCMCIA Ethernet?  (A floppy drive is included.)

(I don't want to install via Windoze as I probably delete it 
completely.)

Cheers,

Manuel




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