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.
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
(text/plain)
