[Tfug] Laptop choices

[Claude Rubinson]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 04:28:39PM -0500, Tim Ottinger wrote:
> I really love my T42p, especially for doing presentations.  It's a good road
> machine.  I've not had it a real long time (a few months maybe) but I'm
> really loving it.

Realizing that I never put my 2 cents in: I have a T40 that's entering
it's third year.  One of the best things has been the three year
warranty.  Not all of them come with that warranty; make sure to get
it (assuming that it's still around).  I've been *really* hard on my
machine.  It's my only machine and I probably use it on average about
10--12 hours per day, carrying it to and from the office.  I actually
wore the *metal* IBM logo off of the wrist rest.  Have replaced the
LCD (after it got rained on), the hard drive (after I dropped it; the
drive checked out fine but there was weird clicking noise that I
didn't trust), the keyboard (I broke the V key; turns out that I use
the V key a lot more than I realized) and wrist rest (which I think I
cracked when I installed the new hard drive).  IBM never balked at any
of the repairs.  But, the only IBM authorized store for warranty
repairs in town is PC-SOS which doesn't provide the best service.
Repairs that should take 2 days generally take 3 or 4.  I've learned
that I need to call them daily (even a few hours after I drop it off)
to remind them about my machine.  Probably the only things that were
essential were the LCD and the keyboard but I figured that I might as
well take advantage of the warranty.

The T40 was the first really thin one; I guess it's about an inch
thick.  So that's pretty nice.

Incidentally, the keyboard is very comfortable but pretty
complicated.  The hinges (or whatever they're called) for each key is
composed of 4 different parts that have to go together just so.
You'll regret it when you decide to pop off the keys to clean out all
of the accumulated gunk.

The machine is entirely comfortable--specifically, the keyboard and
monitor--for all of the time that I spend with it.  The extra-large
battery doesn't provide as much running time as I'd like; I get about
3 hours but maybe I'd get more if I tweaked the settings a bit more.

It's a bit big for airplanes but passable.  But I don't travel so much
that it's a huge deal.

It appears that my USB2 controller may be broken.  But since I don't
have Windows on this machine, it's a bit difficult to convince IBM of
that.  What I'll need to do is convince PC-SOS (before my warranty
expires) and have them replace it.

The wireless card is a Cisco AiroNet mini-PCI.  I've found that the
airo module is a bit flakey and it doesn't have all of the wireless
extensions so it's not ideal.  The built-in modem is supported via a
proprietary module that taints the kernel but works well enough.  APM
works perfectly.  I hear that ACPI now works but since I've got
suspend and resume working perfectly on APM without my having to do
anything, I've never bothered.

IBM provides extensive technical guides so that you can buy and
replace the parts yourself if you wish.  And there's great linux
support for IBM so all of the special keys work and you can tweak the
BIOS via software, etc.

I would certainly go with an IBM again.  I'm not sure that other
machines could withstand all of the abuse that I would put them
through.  But Lenovo is still an unknown; seems too early to judge
them.  And I believe that they've added the dreaded Windows key.

So, it's been in the shop twice and I replaced the hard drive once.
For never having to worry about the machine, I think that's a pretty
good deal.

Finally, I'll point out that I bought my machine through EmperorLinux
who installed Debian on it for me.  I think that today Linux goes onto
the current generation of these machines much more easily.  But back
when I bought my machine, there was a bunch of hardware that only
EmperorLinux had working.  So that was really nice.  Within probably a
year, the rest of the community had caught up and when I replaced the
hard drive, I went with a straight Debian Testing install.  But in the
meantime, it was really nice to have pretty much everything working
(there was one thing that didn't work but I can't recall what it was;
maybe the modem?) when most people were still struggling with gettting
all of the mouse buttons recognized.  They're more expensive but I'd
go with them again if I thought that the install would be difficult.
(Of course, this recommendation is from my experience with them a few
years ago.  So adjust your seasoning accordingly.)

Claude