My own experiences with Laptops are as follows : Sony PCG-FR315S laptop, 512 MB RAM and a P4 processor running about 2.3 GHz. Can't remember when I got it, it was around 2003, no later than December 2003.
Running Windows XP (Only for work) and Linux - for everything else. Mandrake of various flavours, then Suse 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 and now 10.3. Worked well for ages then one day, restarting after an overnight shut down, a message "no Operating System found" Hmmm. A quick look around with Knoppix showed that the hard disc (Hitachi Travelstar 60 GB) had died horribly in its sleep. New Samsung 80GB drive fitted, restored Windows from the CD, repartitioned, reinstalled Linux. All well and good again. Recently, the keyboard expired - usual thing, some keys not working. Impossible to get one, Sony UK advised me to contact my local dealer, local Sony Centre didn't bother to reply. No more business for them then! Tried all over, but no spares to be had. Finally found one on eBay but was outbid at the last moment. Found another and clicked on 'buy it now'. Easy to fit and it has worked ok since then. I'm happy. This laptop has been all over the country for years and lived in the boot of my car at times too. Only problems have been the above, battery life is abysmal - but it was in those days. Oh, plus it's a heavy b*gger!! Runs Oracle 10g databases on Linux and Windows (well, it did!) quite happily - and that's what I do for a living, so that is most useful. I'm considering whether or not it's worth adding another 512 MB of RAM. I suspect it might well be. Cheers, Norman. _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
