Joel, One thing I haven't seen mentioned is luggable vs. laptop.
My (home) ThinkPad is quite reliable and SuSE 7.2 runs fine on it right off the install. But it is pretty heavy to lug around. I hate the eraser. My (home) PowerBook 17" is great, runs OS X and Gentoo in dualboot (had YellowDog triple-booted but wanted the disk space instead) and is not too heavy but is rather hot, so it needs airspace on both sides and you don't want it directly on your lap for very long (I have a special lap-table for it at home), but it has wireless built in and a proper screen for full movie formats (with the built in CD/DVD RW). My (work) Sharp MM10 (2.1 lbs, Crusoe chip, from Emperor Linux US$1700) is light and has wireless built in, runs XP and Slackware dual-booted, but has a small keyboard for touch typing. It also requires a special video plug, USB connections for everything else and acts as an external HD for my desktop when turned off but in the "cradle" (a nice way to share files you want to take or bring back from the road). CD/DVD is external and need a power feed, however. The battery in the 2.1 lb version is only good for about 2.5-3 hours. There is an optional that they claim does 9 hours, but I haven't got one (yet) and don't know what it adds in weight. My (work) Sony VAIOs have been reliable over the years, and light, but have run hot enough to go through batteries. Sony's repair policy on laptops is pretty strict, too. They tell you where to send it, no estimates, no phone number to call. You send it off and get it back when it comes back at whatever it costs. So I don't advocate them. Mind you, I've only run into this when I dropped something heavy on the keyboard and broke it. But that was a problem due to secure data on the machine -- I couldn't send it in to be fixed without removing the hard drive first, then they might have fixed *that*, too. I've run RH, SuSE, LFS and Gentoo on them, however. My (home) old Acer was reliable, but I never put Linux on it (the only machine in my home running Winders). The battery is only good for about 5 minutes any more due to long hot usage, but he touchpad was one of the best for feel and use. A bit heavy to carry far, though. The machine of choice, however, for playing Warlords, Pax Imperia and for running my wife's church library program. Also not mentioned so far is that *HEAT* is the number one killer of batteries (long term damage, not draining them). So if you want your batteries to stay good you need to keep track of the heat of the laptop. The Sharp is good there -- I haven't ever felt it get warm, even when I run it all day plugged in at work (it is replacing my desktop). The Apple runs hot (as mentioned), but the fan comes on (bothersome in some quite places) and the battery is up-wind of the hot CPU when the fan blows, so it generally stays cool. Keeping it on a hard surface so it has cooling air flowing under helps there, too. HTH. In Harmony's Way and In A Chord, Tom ;-}) Registered Linux User #154358 Plain Text Emails Don't Spread Virii! _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://smtp.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
