[techtalk] laptops

[Linda Walsh]

I'd speak up for Dell as well -- but with an important note -- get the
next business-day on-site servicing.  It's worth it!  I've a 7500 that's
fairly loaded, but it's with me everywhere. It's seen alot of repairs since
December.  Two keyboards, 2 new ethernet cards @ 1 new dongle (didn't know
the card they were selling me was a dongle card...hate those).  New power
supply (connector at computer became damanged -- possibly pulled in wrong
direction -- possibly puppy teeth)  New hard disk (Thank goddess I got a
2nd hard disk with a recent image).  The old hard disk had particular
sectors that failed in the system partition -- so I had the luxury of
backing up all the rest of the partitions (Header, Win32, /boot, swap, /tmp,
/var, /, /home).  I was able to boot off of the 2nd hard disk after modifying
it's lilo.conf via some distro-install-CD (dropped to shell) and copy
the latest and greatest from all partitions other than "/".  Also had the screws
in the lid replaced on one side (might have been fatigued from rough handling),
The lid hooks are currently broken (because of the lid being askew, they
got broken when the lid fell down.  I think I've also had a new battery pack
(one went mysteriously dead).  I also ordered the wizbang docking station which
has been replaced once.  

Some of those were sorta lame, but some are likely due to it being with me
everywhere!  On a flight across country
recently, the ability to throw in 2 power packs gave me a 6hr 40min battery
life.  I still had over 3 hours left when I touched down in Orlando.  I
just bought a 3rd in case I was on an international flight (got some
business trips coming up, though business class on continental has power
outlets).  With 3 batteries that's 10 hours.  Ok, so it weighs a ton.  I do
need a custom X-server -- the one Dell provided ran really slow.  Also --
another problem, Dell only sold certain configs with Linux.  I bought mine
before they offered pre-installed, but, for example, last time I looked,
you couldn't order the 15.4" 1280x1024 -- I think you could order the 15" 
1400x12??.  Many apps don't size well for that dot density.  Last I looked,
they didn't offer the 22.5G HD w/Linux -- just a measily 10G.  Memory
size was lower, Oh yeah, they also only sold the video card with 4M instead
of 8.  So if you want the higher powered machine, you'll need to order WIN98
and use partition magic or something similar to resize.

Anyway -- that's what I did -- just recently bought an extra 256M ram, bringing
it up to 512M.  I have the dos partition size down to about 5G and the rest
is linux.  The extra memory has made VMware run much more nicely -- especially
on a "Suspend" operation.  I *can* dual boot -- but usually it's Linux up
with windows running in VMware.  I have Exceed X software in Windows, so I
can have Linux windows from "below" in Windows -- Also my linux system is
fully available to my Windows system via Samba.  CTL-ALT-F7 = Linux desktop,
CTL-ALT-F8 = Windows desktop. Windows also runs as a window on the Linux desktop.
Choosing the 'Full-Screen' option in VMware gives the F8 desktop.  Right
now I give Windows 128M.  When I want to shut down, I usually suspend Windows
to be on the safe side.  Suspend/restore usually happens in seconds.  But
for the most part, I have both up nearly all the time.

The only time I need to boot into windows is to watch a DVD or correct a floating
point error in Money that hangs Windows in VMware.  

Right now I am needing to have access to the kernel source and do documenting,
so Word up with an X window to the host Linux machine works great.  Host
is running SuSE with a 2.2.15 kernel (latest PCMCIA release fixes a
problem with the card not re-initializing after coming out of sleep).  

So...overall, I'm pretty happy.  I do 90% of my work on my laptop and only
when I'm doing constant test-builds of kernels and such do I use another
machine (dual processor, faster disk).

Oh...two more downsides on this laptop -- price -- it set me back a bit, but
I looked at it as an investment in my career.  The 2nd --  it weighs a ton (ok,
more like 10lbs), even more if you carry around a spare battery (I usually
don't).  Recharge time is quick -- A full day in sleep mode (saved to memory,
not disk) drained battery <5%.  Oh a 3rd thing -- the built-in speakers have
poor sound.  They are squished between the battery on the right and the
DVD-floppy combo on the left and the outlets for the sound are on the side --
a good choice for ruggedization (crumbs and dust not dropping in from above
where palms rest) but not the best for fidelity  -- with external speakers
or earphones, it's fine though.

Sorry for chatting on...Guess I'm just pretty jazzed about having pretty close
to a portable workstation.  Even off the net I have enough work to keep
me busy for quite a while....oh yeah, like I have a language CD (Paris is
one of my speaking sites) -- I copied the CD's as iso's first and using
the loopback device mounted them as a samba share for windows.  Later I realized
I could save space by getting rid of parts I didn't need -- so I just store
them in a directory.  The program has video and sound and voice recognition --
and it works in VMware with the CD data on my host's samba share.  Somehow
I think that is so cool...


yack yack yack yack...
-linda