"Heather" == Heather Stern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Heather> On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 05:24:15PM -0700, wandering jason
Heather> wrote:
>>
>> i'll use the laptop mostly for programming, writing, browsing,
>> and listening to news and lectures. i need something that will
>> run fine with potato, including X. and i need something as
>> light and durable as possible--i hop freight trains when
>> traveling and plan to take the laptop with me.
>>
Heather> A number of my friends have had Sony laptops in the last
Heather> few years, and all of them have been fairly fragile.
I've owned a Sony N505VE for two years now, and it was my sole laptop
for the first year. It's the size of a 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, and
less then an inch thick. I had to buy a D-link ethernet card/modem
combo (there's no ethernet and the internal modem is useless for
Linux).
Last year my employer gave me a Compaq Armada M300. A tad larger than
the VIAO, but faster, and it has a built in ethernet port. The modem
is a Lucent based chipset rumored to work with Linux, but I've never
used it yet.
I've logged over 50,000 miles of air travel with these machines in
each year that I used them. I take reasonable care of them, but they
do get slotted into the front jacket of my carry on suitcase. I chose
these machines particularly for size and weight, so I would not need a
lap top bag with my suitcase. Both machines have held out well. The
Sony has developed a hairline crack on the battery this month (28
months later), but the Compaq is generally flimsier (PC card eject
button broke, stuff on the docking attatchment has come lose etc.)
I run Debian on the Compaq, Slackware on the Sony. I've written tons
of code on the little Sony while on flights, trains and buses pretty
much all over the world. It's small, light, and if I had to do it
again I probably would go for the newer Sony's since they include an
ethernet port. Sony machines are frightfully unfriendly in terms of
information required to install Linux though.....nice hardware but
with very bad software.
Cheers!
Shyamal
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