opinion time ;-) From: Michelle Murrain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Best Laptop? Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 21:14:55 -0500
> Right now, I'm thinking primarily of getting a Dell Lattitude CPx or > Inspiron 8000, or a Sony Vaio PCG. i've never used dell machines, but the sony machines i've used usually end up frustrating me to no end because of failures and so much of the hardware not being usuable for non-m$ os-s. i recommend against machines that try to store bios info on the hard disk -- some compaq models do this, and it is a very evil thing. boy, am i negative today... > Any advice would be appreciated - also I'd like to hear about any > other notebooks people really like. my current favorite machine is the thinkpad x20. nice points, imo: -hard disk is very easy to swap -built-in ethernet (mini-pci, so eth0 does not appear as a pcmcia device) -xga -c. 1.5 kg -2 usb ports -- no legacy ports (you can get a dock, replicator, or bay station for that stuff) -- even the floppy is usb -three mouse buttons + non-trackpad (trackpads are my least favorite pointing device) -built-in external vga port -1 pc card slot and 1 cf slot my gripes (mostly minor) w/ it are: -the built-in modem is a winmodem(?) (i think the lucent binary module may work, but that goes against my principles) -pc cards and cf cards are hard to eject unless you have small fingers -the fan is a bit noisy -i don't think it can be booted from pcmcia (not that many laptops can) -usb floppy means that one may encounter problems booting from standard rescue disks (i used to have this problem, but i haven't checked lately)
