Kurt Granroth wrote:
> Vaughn Treude wrote:
>> The finalists:
>> Dell Inspiron 1520 - with all the options I want it's around $1500.
>> (But one of the reviewers claimed its physical construction was flimsy.)
>> Toshiba Tecra A9 - also around $1500 with options.
>> Lenovo ThinkPad R61 - the fully-loaded version is on sale for around
>> $1200.
>> Mac Book Pro - the 2.4GHz 15" version, with the high-speed drive
>> option, is $2100, a bit out of my range. I _could_ set it up
>> triple-boot with XP (and Linux, of course) which would bring it up to
>> $2200. But I've always admired the Mac's design, the fact that OS X is
>> based on Unix, and the Mac's excellent video-editing software. (I've
>> been unhappy with the hassle of setting up this kind of stuff on
>> Linux.) So I'm still considering it, but don't know if it would be
>> worthwhile.
>>
>> At the moment I'm leaning toward the Lenovo. As far as I can tell, its
>> primary drawbacks are relatively short battery life, and the fact that
>> it is (IMHO) one butt-ugly machine. The battery isn't that big of a
>> problem, as I have two externals I bought for my ailing Sony, and I
>> can live with ugly.
>>
>> Any comments or relevant experiences any of you could share?
>
> I've had a number of iBooks, Powerbooks, Thinkpads, and other laptops
> throughout the years. Right now, I have both a Powerbook and a Thinkpad
> which are used very regularly. Which do I think is better?
>
> Absolutely no question at all: the Powerbook. And this is an older
> Powerbook, even. A new MacBook or MacBook Pro is so much better that
> it's barely any comparison at all.
>
> At this point, I use my Thinkpad solely for development work. Mind you,
> it makes a great development laptop and if there was no Powerbook or
> MacBook, it would even be a great laptop overall... but since it doesn't
> exist in a vacuum, then I can't possibly recommend it.
>
> A lot of this has to do with just using a laptop as a laptop. You can
> get things like suspend and the like to work under Linux... but it
> doesn't work well. For instance, on my Thinkpad T43, I had suspend
> working when I closed the lid initially, but it stopped working a year
> ago and I haven't been able to fix it since. I can suspend directly
> through the openSUSE K-Menu, though, so no big deal. But even then, it
> takes a good 15 to 30 seconds to suspend and another 15 seconds or more
> to resume. I don't even have to *think* about suspending and resuming
> with my Powerbook. It just works and it works seemingly instantaneously.
>
> Oh, and my T43 also has some weird barely supported PATA-to-SATA bridge
> for the DVD drive. It works, but DMA doesn't. Which means that I can't
> watch DVDs on that drive and all disk access spikes the CPU. YMMV may
> vary.
>
> The ATI chipset on my T43 works well enough. I got one version of Beryl
> to work with 3d-goodness, even. Lately, though, compiz is far too slow
> to use on it. Dunno why. Heck, one version of the ATI driver even
> refused to work in anything higher than 1280x1024 (a non-supported
> resolution). And even when the driver does work, it's buggy and prone
> to crashing.
>
> It goes without saying that the Powerbook is rock-solid reliable and
> Leopard 3d-goodness works without any muss or fuss.
>
> I could go on and on...
>
> Linux works well for me as my primary desktop, as my development
> platform, and as my servers... but I will never use it willingly as a
> consumer laptop OS. It just has waaaay to much work needed to be done.
>