OT: notebook shopping

[Vaughn Treude]

Matt Graham wrote:
> After a long battle with technology, Vaughn Treude wrote:
>> The goal: As high-performance as possible for $2000 or less. In particular,
>> I want to be able to boot as fast as possible.
> 
> "Boot"?  Ever since I got a laptop that could suspend-to-RAM reliably, 
> rebooting was a pretty rare event.  Resuming from S2RAM is tons faster than 
> the fastest boot.
> 

I never had that working in Linux, but, as I said, it's an old computer.

>> 15" wide screen WXGA+
> 
> What's that in pixels?
> 

It's 1440 by 900.

>> 2.4 GHz CPU, 2 G, 100 G drive at 7200 RPM, DVD+-R, 802.11n, Bluetooth support,
>> 2 USB ports, preferably 3. 
>>
>> Dell Inspiron 1520, Toshiba Tecra A9, Lenovo ThinkPad R61, Mac Book Pro.
>> At the moment I'm leaning toward the Lenovo. As far as I can tell, its
>> primary drawbacks are relatively short battery life,
> 
> FWIW, I've owned 4 Thinkpads, mostly because I like TrackPoints and no other 
> make offers them with any degree of consistency.  My Thinkpads were all built 
> like tanks, had field circus manuals easily downloadable in PDF form from 
> somewhere on IBM's site, and they all had excellent Linux-combatability in 
> terms of hardware.  But all of mine were IBM, not Lenovo.  I don't know 
> whether the new ones are cheap crap or not, and won't know until I can scrape 
> together enough cash to run a new machine in under my still-usable T42p.
> 
>> and the fact that it is (IMHO) one butt-ugly machine.
> 

I really don't mind, I just thought I might get a rise out of some 
people. :-)

> It looks very similar to how Thinkpads have looked since they started making 
> them (classic, like a Model T.)
> 
> The Mac is not worth the price premium unless you are going to be editing 
> video all the time.  If you have *ANY* way of doing so, buy a factory 
> refurbished laptop.  You'll save hundreds of dollars.  All of my laptops were 
> refurbished, and I have had exactly 2 hardware problems with them in 8 years 
> (one was fixable with the field circus manual and a $50 spare part.)  HTH,
> 

I wonder if Mac does factory refurbs. I'll have to check into that. :-)