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Review of the Sony Vaio PCG-X9 215

Posted by CmdrTaco from the laptops-are-cool dept.
Big Steve pointed us to a review of the Sony Vaio X9. It looks quite impressive... I've been using my PCG-Z505SX for like eight months now. Its a great portable, but definitely not a 'Desktop Replacement'. I'm actually posting this because I'm curious what people like these days as a desktop replacement type laptop (preferably with some sort of 3D accelerator so I can play Quake3 on it).
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Review of the Sony Vaio PCG-X9 More

Review of the Sony Vaio PCG-X9

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  • I did a couple VHS->VCD conversions of South Park episodes, and well, I didn't like it. The MPEGs looked fine on my monitor, but after burning them and dropping them into a DVD tv unit, it looked horribly pixelated. Most of the scenes are static in the cartoon, so I figured it'd be easier with that than live action. Do you get any better results?
  • You da man.

    I've been thinking about picking one of those up to replace my aging TI laptop. My TI can only get about 30 minutes out of a fully charged battery at this point, so at least I'll be doubling my battery life. (:

    Link: PCG-N505VE VAIO 505 SuperSlim Notebook [sony.com]

  • If you've got an xg9, join the mailing list:

    xg9-list-subscribe@teklab.com

    I have an XG9, and am actually pretty happy with it though I could've waited a month and picked up a better spec'ed F390 instead...

    My DVD drive appears to have died on my XG9 too, though its probably a driver problem, I haven't had a chance to fix it.

    Dunno about Linux compatability though...
  • Look at the price/performance. The Vaio reviewed has a MSRP of $3299 - And obliterates a $3500 Dell even when the Dell has an educational discount.

    If Sony sold to educational markets, selling laptops in the Cornell campus store would be a lot easier...
  • I love my vaio 505ex, it's a beautifull machine, and it works great with linux. On the other hand, I do not like it's battery life of 45 minutes. Does anyone know where to get a port replicator for my vaio? And has anyone got the irda working with linux?

    Vaio owners probably know the feeling when they get out their vaio in public, and watch the envious looks of the people around you...
  • My desktop machine has been replaced with an HP Omnibook 4150 with 128 MB RAM. The sound is like rattling BBs in a Coke can, but the Linux compatibility overall is very good, the keyboard is big, the screen is sharp TLT, USB, PS/2, monitor out, 2 PCMCIAs, audio in/out, 3 1/2 hour battery life, the fingerpad is smooth, and sleep mode is very stable -- I can slap the top closed whenever I want, take it for a ride, pop it back open and it wakes up right where I left off.

    I'm bored of Quake, so I don't care to run Quake on my laptop. As long as Apache, MySQL, GNOME, Netscape, sendmail, modem and WaveLAN are working I'm happy.

    I was really unhappy with the VAIOs due the Winmodem nonsense and inconsistent chipsets. Really annoying.

  • IBM knows the value of a good keyboard. I'll never buy any laptop that doesn't let me touch-type at full speed (100wpm).

    There are only two manufacturers that put adequate emphasis on good keyboards: IBM and Compaq. IBM has the TrackPoint; Compaq has a touchpad.

    IBM wins.

    I bought a 765D refurbished, and my wife still uses it. (P133? who cares, it's 1024x768.) My employer bought me a 570. YUM.

    Granted it's a pain not to be able to use the built-in modem. But 56K PCMCIA modems are plentiful. Don't let details like that stop you from considering the parts of the hardware that you actually touch and manipulate.

  • That is, the i3700 has the touch pad AND the eraserhead track-stick-whatever you call it. Plus it is smaller, lighter, and a bit easier to carry around.
  • Did you buy all the memory from Dell?

    I got the 466 Celery version, wanna race?!?! ;-)

  • Agreed (Score:2)

    by marcus ( 1916 )
    My i3700 is working like a charm with 128MB of ram and a 12GB drive. For more disk space, you can pull out the dvd/cdrom and plug in another drive(aka mp3 space) which is what I usually do. It's worth the price just to have a portable music jukebox. Just fire up xmms, load the playlist, punch the shuffle/random and walk away, the music will play all day. The sound over headphones or plugged into the aux of a stereo is wonderful.

    With just the 12G drive I have stuffed 70+ CDs in there with 4G left over for work. The extra drive gets plugged in when I'm heading over to a friends' for a party or whatever...

    I'm starting to get tired of booting back and forth between w98 and RH depending on which project I have to deal with, but vmware is looking better all the time. As soon as I have a chance to wipe my drives, repartition and re-install, it's going to be there to run the w98 stuff.

  • There are more practical reasons to never buy from Sony. I have a PCG-838. When it works, it's a wonderful machine. When it doesn't, which is fairly often, my life is hell because Sony support is complete crap [aigeek.com].

    My laptop broke twice in the first six months. The second time, it took me three months and $200 to get it fixed, even though they agreed the problem was covered by the warranty. My warranty expires in three more months, and I expect that my machine will break again soon. Sony apparently expects that too, since they give one year warranties, even though three years seems to be common with other companies. Once the warranty is up, I'll be completely screwed. I know other PCG owners who have had similar problems.

    If you want to buy a list of specs, it's a great deal. Sony laptops give you more for your money than other brands, unless you value having a working machine.

  • I've got a Dell Inspiron 7000 -- it's great. It really is a desktop replacement. I've got the 14" screen, which is bigger than a 15" monitor, but is more like a 17" monitor, since it sits closer to you. Their customer service was great too -- the machine arrived ealier than promised, and they reimbursed me for the WinModem that they told me was not a WinModem. (All the non-PCMCIA modems are WinModems, despite what the sales people say.) I've got my system dual-booting 98 and Red Hat. Take a look at the Inspiron 7500 and 3700. The amount of hard drive and memory you can put in them is unbelievable. A tip: if you're going to be flying a lot, get a DVD -- otherwise don't.
  • What I would really like to see as a standard feature these days, on any computer but especially laptops in this range, is /ethernet/.

    I really don't understand why a 3D accelerator is considered more esential than networking.

    And I don't think a simple 10/100 Mbit implementation would make the thing much more power hungry or expensive or bigger or whatever.
  • I had two machines from Sony's VAIO PCG-505 series, which I liked a lot, but Sony's recent politics and increased incompatibility with Linux[1] annoyed me sufficiently to switch to Sharp.

    I am now using a Sharp Mebius PC-PJ2-X4 (that's at least the name it sold under in Japan) and I love the machine. The LCD screen is even better than Sony's. Video, Sound, APM, etc all works with Linux - only the winmodem is annoying. With a 333MHz PII, 128MB, 12GB disk, and an XVGA screen, the machine has enough resources for serious hacking. Furthermore, Sharp provides a 1 year international warranty on machines bought in Japan, but used outside of Japan (doesn't cover all countries). Currently, the only Japanese laptop companies with that service are Sharp and Toshiba.

    Chilli

    [1] The major problems where that the new machines (eg, PCG-N505 series) use winmodems, problematic sound chips (and Sony doesn't specify which they are using), and USB for external mouse and floppy (the latter is a problem for the B5 machines that have no builtin floppy).

  • I believe the sound on the newer Sony models is provided by the NeoMagic video chip (no, I'm not kidding), which has a few problems under Linux at the moment.

    You are right that Sony is using the NeoMagic chip. Unfortunately, although the chip is well supported for its video operations, its audio component is rather badly supported (and NeoMagic refuses to publish specifications). In fact, Sony uses different versions of the NeoMagic chip, which have different audio CODECs. There are at least three versions: AC97, CS4232, and SB16; but I suspect that there is at least one more (the one contained in the PCG-N505) and I tried, but didn't get it to work at all. When you buy a Vaio, Sony doesn't even tell you which version of the chip they used in that particular model - so, you buy it without knowing whether it will work in the end, or not. This is extremely annoying. AFIK, Sony is the only of the Japanese laptop manufactures who completely refuses to cooperate with the Linux community (others have a least a page listing known in/compatibilities and Toshiba even provides information on how to install Linux on their machines - at least their Japanese page is quite good, I didn't check out their English resources).

    Chilli

  • I had a trackball in my old Dell 486/33 laptop, and it was a constant source of problems -- it would respond poorly to motion and slip constantly. Also, the ball was so small that it took multiple strokes to cross the screen.

    My current laptop is a Toshiba 610CT with a trackpoint (the eraser head) which I like a lot. What would be perfect, IMHO, is a trackball using the "marble" technology from Logitech that provides slip free tracking by using a visual scanner. All of my desktops have Trackman Marble FX's and I love them for it.
  • Get a laptop with a rage pro card (they really suck but you can play quake3 on them in crappy graphics settings with utah-glx).
  • 35fps is not really "playable" in serious online matches.
  • How come laptops don't have trackerballs any more? IMHO the scratch-pad is pretty much the worst pointing device you could devise. I heard that trackerballs were too expensive, but that can't be a reason on a 3.5k pound machine like this.
  • Are you sure?

    On nearly all laptops you can use an external monitor at the same time as the LCD - but only with the same image. I think the author was clearly talking about two separate images; i.e. a large desktop.

    If there's a way, could you fill us in? I'm a happy 3500 owner who would really love to take advantage of this 21" currently connected to my unix box...
  • I'm really digging this laptop. Got mandrake 7.0 up at linux expo and thought i'd try it out - quite nice on this laptop. Only a couple problems. The modem is a winmodem, so I'll have to replace that. For some reason, when I connect a monitor to it x won't display on the second monitor. Anyone know why this is? Haven't really started looking into why yet. Had to run sndconfig to get sound up - the soundconfig utility that comes with mandrake didn't pick up on the neomagic. Otherwise, it's great. Oh, there is one more thing - the thing has 2 pixels that are always red. Called sony and they say that's standard and wouldn't do an exchange for less than 10 percent of the display being hosed! Not really a big deal. This is the first time I've had a dual boot machine, so I've been messing with wine - very hip. This model has a dvd, so I guess I'll start nosing around for dvd on linux stuff. anyone got any clues? i saw there was a booth at expo in .org pavillion, but never really got a chance to talk to those people.
  • yeah, tried that. it displays fine on the second monitor until i fire up X, and then it just goes blank.
  • I purchased a Dell Inspiron 7000 almost a year ago. This machine totally rocks. It's a bit heavy (10.4 lbs.), but it's worth it to me.

    The video card rocks. I has a ATI Rage Pro LT with DVD support and TV out. It supports three screens - three separate images on three separate screens. I can drive the lcd, a monitor, and a tv at the same time. Currently I have the lcd and a 17" monitor both kickin... it rocks. Quake and Need For Speed run nicely. The lcd is great... when it drops to 640x480 (or other resolutions - for games and whatnot) it anti-aliases the image (hardware) and shows it full screen... as opposed to just shrinking the image down (as some laptops do)

    Since it's a big boy, it holds big batteries! When I put both batteries in that machine, I can get about 6 hours of work time... not bad! I've also recenlty found an app that will allow me to hot-swap my options-bay... I can pop out my dvd/floppy and put in my zip drive. This is a very nice feature

    I've been looking at the new Inspiron 7500. They look even better (of course). Faster CPUs and stuff (duh)... but it also has options for an internal cd-rw and many more cool features. If I'm not mistaken, I also remember hearing about Dell shipping these beasts with Linux pre-installed. That'd be cool, although installing on this machine was a breeze... there's tons on info online too!

    To sum it up. It's big, it's heavy, but it kicks ass!

    -whyDNA?

  • Now.. what exactly do you mean by some girl's "box"...

    If you're trying to hack that... that may take more-or-less effort (depending on your looks/personality/etc.) Just remember to wear your party hat...

    Oh, and the most common "password" to hack some girl's "box" is: I love you. For some reason, a lot of girls go retarded when they hear this. Use it sparingly... it's a powerful weapon.

    ;-)

  • I'd like to strongly say the exact opposite. The trackpoint "eraser head" pointers are the worst pointers I've ever used. I love the trackpad on my Sharp Ultralight - it even emulates a wheel if you move your finger up and down the right hand side...
  • I'm curious what people like these days as a desktop replacement type laptop
    I've been using a Sharp Actius 150 Ultralight [sharp-usa.com] as my primary computer at work and home for almost a year, and I love it. It will do Quake2 smoothly at 400x300, but that's it's limit in the 3D stuff. It's fine for MAME though :)

    If I want smooth, detailed 3D stuff I have a Sony Playstation on top of my TV (with a pair of IR remote controls).

    As it happens, I'm probably going to be considering a Sony sub-notebook [dynamism.com] or a Toshiba Libretto [dynamism.com] for my next primary PC. We'll see how my TRGpro [trgpro.com] performs when it arrives next month...

  • For portable gaming I have a GameBoy - decked out with rechargable battery packs, a FlashRAM cartridge - means I can load multiple games on the one cart - and a (worm) light. Perfect for the accidental tourist.
  • Is there such an animal? A 3D accelerator in laptop would very cool.

    With the oncoming Crusoe based notebooks why would anyone buy anything else? I would wait for Crusoe powered machines.

    http://e-lab.tzo.com/gallery/geekpound.jpg
  • Those marble-sized trackballs proved to be constant service problems. getting full of crud, etc. And personally, i never felt they worked that well.

    The touchpad, obviously, is very durable.

    But i agree with you, they're awful pointing devices. I won't buy anything without a trackpoint. You know, the little eraserhead in the keyboard.

    My Toshiba Portege has one, i love it.

  • You left out this [slashdot.org] /. story obout the Sony Music Clip MP3 player that doesn't play MP3s.

    SteveM
  • Just another reason that you can't trust everything you read on /.

    I don't have one and was basing my comment on the linked thread, in which a Music Clip owner directly contradicts your statement, claiming that he did have to convert his MP3s. I guess he didn't read the manual.

    How come you didn't write anything in the Music Clip thread?

    Steve M
  • Sony won't release an MP3 player because that could conceivably hurt it's music division.

    Sony has released a digital music player, the Music Clip, which apparently can play MP3s, according to this post [slashdot.org].

    Sony's Playstation division has released in Japan and will release in the US this year a game console that plays DVDs, which will take sales from their video division.

    This shows how Sony's interest is not the consumer's interest.

    The only time that the consumer's interests and any corporation's interests overlap is when it is profitable for the corporation. This is as true for Sony as it is for any corporation.

    SteveM
  • 1) No, I DIDN'T repost this. Someone else did.

    2) Since I did accidently originally post it under my name, you damn well KNOW that it doesn't belong to you, and I DON'T want you (re)posting it again.

    3) I already admitted that it was a failed attempt at humour. It's not lame enough or 3117 enough for your posts anyways.

    Great..now I've given them something ELSE to flood slashdot with. *sigh*
  • I've used/supported/configured/etc many of the ultra light (~1 inch thick, ~3pounds) Dell laptops at work and otherwise (e.g. Lattitude LS, Lattitude LT, etc.), and they're all very nice. While I doubt any of them have 3d acceleration as of yet, most people who buy those kind of laptops don't use them for 3d video games. Though I'd love to see a gfx card in an ultra light machine that can at least par, say, Voodoo2. =)
  • wait for a bit. nvidia will come out with one soon.

    ;)
  • I have a VAIO PCG-F390, and it has support for dual monitors. I haven't figured out how to make it work under Linux, but it certainly does under Windows.

    You can also do cool stuff like map the second monitor to the video out (NTSC or PAL).

    e;
  • Sony anymore, not because of media fiascos like the DVD crap but because the VAIO I owned caused me nothing but trouble. It was a VAIo desktop, not notebook but they's the same company. The specs could be a desktop replacement but I'd like to see it work for a few hours first. The Sonys I do think are cool are the subnotebooks which are pretty decently priced at 1499$ IMHO.
  • Well not really. I looked at the arricle and did not see if it ran Linux. For me personally I have had enough of windows so it woudl need to come with Linux preinstalled before I bought it.

    Realize though that where I work I was informed that they woudl not support a windows machine that was not rebooted daily, nor do they support any applications that were not installed on the machine by them. Unfortuanately where I work I sometimes need to install software like Exceeed to connect to all or UNIX systems, and often other software to make my life easier. I'd install Linux if I di dnot have to use IE 5 at times.

    send flames > /dev/null

  • Sony is an almost prototype corp. of what most sci fi authors write about. (ie Snow Crash)
    I don't think there is anything to do about it... it would be silly not to buy the best product for you because of the company it came from. Any company person is really no better (ethically, etc) than another.
  • yepper. i have the 7500 and you can have two separate screens. my second screen is a 21" at 1280x1024 or so which is independant of the lcd.

    it also has a 3d graphics card but while it works, its not the best way to go for 3d.

    not to mention it weighs as much as a volkswagon.
  • I absolutely love my VAIO N505VE. It's the cheaper model that's out with the Celeron 333. But, it's super-light like the Z505 and others, and it really has all the features you'd want in a mobile.

    -10.4" TFT
    -64M RAM stock
    -6G HDD
    -Celeron 333
    -1 PCMCIA
    -1xUSB and Firewire on the laptop

    About the only bad thing I can think of is the Winmodem. But it's a Rockwell so we might get support.

    And the kicer, it's $1500.

    I should mention that I'm posting this on the VAIO, running Linux, in bed, with my head seg faulted and core dumped.
  • A number of coworkers of mine have purchased VAIOs and put Linux on them --- it seems to be less than a problem than putting NT on, in fact.
  • About a year ago I bought a Chembook 7000C - I think it's a rebadged Acer 8400. It cost me $2K. It has 128 MB RAM, a 8 gig hard disk, 15" screen, and a 400 MHz Deceleron, and the ATI LT Pro video. It's totally modular - you can swap out everything. What I really liked about it is that I was able to get it without ANY OS - not easy to do for a laptop, and saved me $100. It's got a touchpad which is ok I guess - there aren't any laptop pointing devices that I like. More of a problem is the lack of a third mouse button. Somebody should write a utility to convert the windows button to a third mouse button.

    Since I do a lot of numerical work I love the separate numerical keypad. Few laptops have these.

    The only problem I had with it is that the BIOS is a little weird - it seems to INSIST on having a DOS partition before it will boot. Once I created a small one I was able to use LILO, and everything else has worked out great. Both the video and sound are supported, and I love the huge screen - it is a REAL desktop replacement.

    Given the size of this beast, it isn't light - maybe 9 lbs. and battery life is about 2.5 hrs. But that isn't the point for me - I am not a road warrior.

    Next on my agenda is wireless networking so I can hack away in my leather lazy boy without running cat 5 through the living room - someething that would get my wife very PO'ed.

  • I have owned a Dell Inspiron 7000 for well over a year now and I have nothing (that) bad to say about it.

    Rage Pro LT (with D3D and OpenGL support; and dual monitor, video-out support)

    The new 7500 can carry 75gigs. That right. 3 25gig harddrives ( one internal, 1 in each of the two bays--- which means no battery at the time).

    The 14.1 inch LCD is beautiful. The 15" ones seem like overkill, but the new higher res screens may change your mind.

    Great service ( I had a CDdrive burn out and they sent a replacement within 2 days ).

    But the seller is: You can run Linux on it. Dell appears to be providing Linux support on this machine. (ahem).. only the new 7500, not the older 7000's. (major minus in my book) Better watch your back, a year later and they stop providing updates for your machine.

    Only complaints are: Internal modem is a winmodem. Gotta hate those touchpads... only 1 USB port. The weight. This thing weighs in at a hefty 9.5 pounds (w/o accessories).

    A second option is Dell's Inspiron 3700. More or less the same product, shrunk. Bad news: You can't play Half-life or Q3 too long because the video card gets too hot. You'll start to see artifacts on the screen. There are some other quirks in this system too. I don't think I'd buy one of these machines. It may weigh less, but to me, it looks like a toilet seat cover.

    Six

  • Jeez, then you best be getting a Powerbook, or holding out for Apple's new "Pismo" line, which should be out soon. Rumor has is that they will have the ATI Rage 128 mobile chip (which is also rumored to be holding up the line's production), which is gonna be about the best you'll find available in a portable. The current line only has a Rage Pro, which is the bare minimum required to run Q3A without all the "pretties" turned on...

    Of course, I'm sure you'll be finding Rob using a PB about the same time Hemos picks up his iBook, but... ;)

    -doenermord
    Don't blame the games, it takes a village to screw up a child.
  • I have a inspiron 7500... Mega beast.... I can play q3 (not too pretty, tho)... q1 runs swoit tho.

    And i love having my lcd (swoit), and my 17" trinitron at the same time...

  • I've replaced my desktop with one of the new Powerbooks from Apple and monitor spanning "just happens" as soon as you plug in an external monitor (VGA or USB). Does Linux support monitor spanning? If so, you might look into LinuxPPC on a Powerbook. Check out what it's got built-in: 10/100T Ethernet, SCSI, dual USB ports, VGA out, sound in, sound out, S-Video out, and DVD on the 400mHz models (DeCSS might come in handy here...).. And there's a PCI slot to boot!

    Mind you, Quake doesn't look that hot on the mobile ATI Rage Pro, but I prefer my couch and a Playstation for videogames anyway so it doesn't bother me that much. I bought it to do work on, and since then I've never missed my hulking desktop computer, especially since I can bring it onto jobs w/me when the need arises...

    Drawbacks: I feel the the keyboard is a bit mushy. And if you're developing Win software, this is all moot...

  • Agreed - for those who can't be bothered to work it out, $3300 ~ £2060. This is for the X[G]9 - for the X[G]19, an even nicer laptop from Sony with CD-RW drive as standard, priced at $4000 on the US website, the equivalent price is about £2500, significantly less than the cost of the X[G]9 in the UK. The X[G]18 and X[G]19 are not even avaliable in the UK, or the rest of Europe for that matter according Sony Europe's website.

    Given V.A.T. (Europe-wide sales tax) at 17.5%, the money the seller of a £3600 machine would get would be £3060. This means that this Sony laptop costs £1000 ~ $1600 to ship the machine from the US to the UK; to 'ship' an adult person here and back by air costs about half this.

    Extortionate? Certainly. Why? Because Sony, and the computer market generally, is allowed. Or rather, the US authorities have the sense to encourage competition, not excessive pricing.
  • Sony has proven time and again that they contrary to the people's interest. The term "Business is war" is a universal Japanese philosophy, the problem is that Sony takes the consumer hostage.
  • I'm certainly not a corporate basher, I don't believe in the multinational boogie man. However Sony is different from most corporations for two reasons;

    Sony isn't run like any other multinational corporation. While most conglomerates operate and finance (essentially govern) a number of child companies Sony operates as a single entity. Sony's goal isn't to provide maximum returns to shareholders. Sony's goal is to win the world. Sony isn't just a brand, it's an entity, this makes it unique.

    Sony's enormously diversified, It's trying to provide everything to everyone. This means that it won't do any one thing as another company in that particular industry would. For example; Sony won't release an MP3 player because that could conceivably hurt it's music division. This shows how Sony's interest is not the consumer's interest.
  • Yes, I know Sony released the Music Clip, that's why I brought up the MP3 example. This device employs very intrusive measures in an attempt to prevent the copying of CDs. See a MusicClip review [home.com] for more info.

    My point (which is demonstrated by the example) is that because Sony is so diversified through multiple industries and service sectors and because it's so focused on domination, it acts in ways it's competitors would not. In this case a smaller competitor producing an digital music player would solely concentrate on producing the best player it could that directly reflects the consumer's desires. Conversely Sony will produce a player that ensures that it's music division isn't threatened.

    Finally, it is my understanding that the Music Clip doesn't play MP3's, the desktop software will however transparently translate an MP3 into it's own proprietary format, a process which degrades the audio quality. There appears to be some debate on this matter however.

    Also please keep in mind that this is just one example, run a Slashdot search on Sony for many more.
  • Couple of corrections..

    1. Sony does compete with other game cos. It's called 989 studio, but now being merged into SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment of America).

    2. Sega is working on their next console. Apparently they changed their minds after seen the dreamcast sales numbers.
  • This shows how Sony's interest is not the consumer's interest

    Listen to what you just said. No for-profit company's interest is the consumer.. If it were they would operate at 0 profit margins. This is no reason not to buy from them. People chose to buy drugs because it saves their lives, not because the drug companies are operating in a "fair and ethical manner"
  • S3 makes a couple of them.

    The ViRGE/MX, which is afaik just a laptop version of the /GX2. The utah-glx project [sourceforge.net] contains early alpha support for the ViRGE line of cards. It works, but it's not exactly what you'd want to play Quake3 on.

    The mobile savage line is more interesting if you're after 3D speed on the laptop. Savage/MX and /IX. Check out the preview [sharkyextreme.com] on SharkyExtreme.

    ATI also has a couple, the latest being the Rage Mobility 128.
  • Personally I really like the TrackPoint eraser-head device that ThinkPads have, although I know people who hate it and would much rather have a touchpad. I found the solution in the notebooks they had set up at the Slashdot booth at the LinuxWorld Expo last week.

    Some HP notebooks, such as the OmniBook 4150 [hp.com] or 900 [hp.com], have dual pointing devices, with both an eraser- head and a touchpad. There's also two sets of mouse keys: one over the touchpad for if you're using the trackpoint, and one below for if you'd rather use the touchpad. This is the ideal solution, IMO, one I'd like to see more of.

  • Straight from the article:

    Bad Points:

    -Lack of a 3D card

    Also, earlier in the article, the author states, "One of the problems, to me, is the lack of a video card which supports 3D instructions (one of the main draw back with most laptops). This has sadly stopped me from playing Quake 3..." So posting a review of this particlular model on Slashdot because you're looking for 3D seems pretty pointless.

  • I just recently got a cool blue Dell Inspiron 3700 PIII 450mhz 256MB RAM, 12Gig Hard Drive, DVD-ROM Drive. It has turned out to be a great system for games. I play Mechwarrior 3, Quake 3, and Starfleet Command on it all the time. I also purchased a USB Dual-Strike Joy stick (Microsoft can't make a decent OS, but they have some pretty good joysticks), this stick makes playing quake a total blast. I can also use the s-video out jack and play quake through the TV, or a DVD for that matter. It's quite a steal at $3200.00
  • >

    I have not seen this issue, and I have played Q3 on it for over 8 hours solid. However I did have a problem with my sound card when I first got the laptop, but Dell support fixed the problem the next day.
  • PCconnection and MicroWarehouse have them listed but make them check stock. Mine was out everywhere I checked.

  • But i agree with you, they're awful pointing devices. I won't buy anything without a trackpoint. You know, the little eraserhead in the keyboard.

    Damn, how can you deal with those things? I can't even select a straight line of text with one without using two hands.

    I'll stick with my touchpad... at least it lets me do double-tap-drag...

  • I just picked up an IBM Thinkpad i-Series as my desktop replacement while I'm on the go. It is rather large, but a great value for the price. I also looked at the various Sony and Toshiba machines and they were all at least $1000 more for a comparible machine.

    My priorities are slightly different than most peoples, I need screen real-estate and memory more than anything for programming. The IBM has a 14.1" display and runs at 1024x768 at 16 million colours. This makes it great to work on. Plus it has a DVD player and an S-video out so I can watch DVD's on my TV now!

    The only thing it is lacking is 3D acceleration. I can only run half-life at 320x240 or something like that :-( Anything more and the frame rate sucks. But if you can do without your games, I would highly recommend it. It will just force me to get more work done ;-)
  • I've been looking for a desktop replacement (I'll be going fully portable soon), and I finally settled on the Compaq Presario 1830.

    It can't really be compared to sub-notebooks like the Sony Vaio. This thing is a FULL-size notebook. However, I'll never need to use external floppies, external CD-ROM drives, external modems, port-replicators, or anything else. Only thing it was lacking was an ethernet card -- popped in a Linksys PCMPC100 and everything's happy.

    This baby is loaded, for one thing... PIII 450, which puts my current workstation to shame, 64meg RAM. The 6gig disk is a little on the skimpy side if you're doing disk-intensive stuff, but I'm pretty happy with it. RIVA TNT card, I believe. I haven't tried getting it working under Linux, but it should be possible. I would have preferred a Voodoo 3, but hey. :) 15" TFT screen, which is very very nice. I haven't tried much full-motion stuff on it, but at least for day-to-day stuff, it looks awesome.

    It has every port you might need on the back, including serial, RGB monitor out, TV out, parallel port, and PS/2 port. Headphone out, mic in, and modem jack on the right side. You can add a port replicator, but I think it's only for adding an extra serial port.

    Battery life is quite decent compared to the Vaios, at a little over 3 hours. It has a touchpad, which I was a little wary of. After trying the other pointing devices available, though, I decided to try it out. I'm very happy with it. Maybe not suitable for playing Quake 3, but that's what the PS/2 port is for.

    And, most importantly, Linux installed on it flawlessly. Mandrake's current installer even has support for a network install using PCMCIA network cards. (wow!)

    One of the nicest built-in features is hibernation. I don't know if all laptops these days support it, but this one handles it very nicely. Hitting the power button (or running out of batteries) while it's on causes it to save the entire RAM state to disk, then power down completely. Powering back up brings everything back where it was. Remarkably, this actually works with Linux. All I have to do is ifdown and ifup the ethernet interface to get it back, and reload the sound drivers. This can all be automated using apmd. Only complication with using hibernation is that you have to leave a minimally-sized DOS partition with the hibernation executable on it. Not a problem at all, really.

    All in all, I'm extremely happy with this purchase. It was around $3k at Fry's Electronics, which had a 15-day no-questions-asked return policy. Very nice of them, but I didn't need it. :)

    Anyway... feel free to ask if you have questions about it. I highly recommend it as a full-blown desktop replacement. Maybe not as a super-portable, but it's not too shabby for that either.
    --
    $ more ~/.sig
    ******** .sig: Not a text file ********
  • Bah, I *snipe* very well in Tribes at 15fps, in software mode. What are you talking about?

  • I'm sad to say I have yet to find a desktop replacement to replace my current one, a Toshiba Tecra 780dvd. (Yes, the Thinkpad 770d is a titch better, but not enough to justify an upgrade.) While there are many excellent notebooks out there, there don't seem to be any coming out that are as full featured as I would like to see.

    What are the features that matter to me?

    • A big, bright, 1024x768 screen. My current Tecra's is 13.3", 1024x768, and it's great. A little bigger wouldn't hurt at all, but I don't want one with higher resolution, as I would then have to stretch 1024x768 to fill the screen.
    • Not just a fast processor but an adequate amount of cache as well. Far too many notebooks pinch pennies in this department.
    • PCI bus. Fast RAM. Quick hard disk. (Noticing a trend?)
    • A built in modem. I've gotten spoiled by the port right in the side of the Tecra. Unlike the Tecra, though, I don't want a lousy winmodem.
    • Audio line in and line out. Some sort of video out and in (preferably composite video).
    • I know I'm probably dreaming here, but I'd like separate mouse and keyboard PS2 ports without having to use a dockin station.
    • A touchstick style pointing device.
    • A DVD-ROM drive (and MPEG decoder board).

    Okay, that seems like a lot. On the other hand, there are a number of things that don't really matter to me.

    • Weight? I don't need to juggle the thing. I expect part of the "price" of a true desktop replacement to be that it's quite heavy.
    • Parallel ports and serial ports are a thing of the past. With USB, I just don't need 'em.
    • A floppy drive is also unessential. Yeah, it's hard to give them up, but really, how often do people even have files that fit on them? I move files around over networks or with flash cards.
    • I've never used my infrared port.
    • I won't be getting a docking bay, so a place for one is not important.

    If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

  • The Fujitsu Biblo mf3 has a high power 3d accelerator card aimed at DVD watchers, but more than capable for a mid-res game of your favorite flavor 'o quack, i mean quake ; )

    http://www.dynamism.com/mf3/index.shtml
  • It just came in today and I've just finished installing linux (rh6.1). Not a single problem thanks to others [utexas.edu] who have done it on similar models.

    This is my first portable system and I'm quite happy with it. I've never really been interested in portables since to me, the compromises were just too great. Sure, there are the so called desktop replacements but these things are just too damned heavy. For me, anything over 4lbs travel weight is *not* portable.

    Good:
    - lightweight (3.5lbs)
    - thin (1"")
    - decent screen size

    Bad:
    - integrated modem is of the winmodem variety (ugh!) Are winmodems cheaper? Is that why oems don't put in a real modem? Bottom line is I had to fork over more cash for a 3com pc card modem.
    - integrated ethernet requires a dongle (one more thing to lose)
    - battery life is kind of crappy (a little over an hour with power management). There's a 4 hour battery available but it's $399!!

    Finally, I got a Zoom backpack from Spire [spireusa.com] instead of the traditional briefcase type bags. Very cool and practical.

    Now, I need to save up for an Aibo...
  • 10.4 lbs is a bit heavy? Sounds more like ridiculous to me, although to be fair, many of the "premium" notebooks do weigh in like tanks.

    And are you sure it does hardware anti-aliasing at low-res modes?

  • To get the monitor to display what's on the laptop screen, plug the monitor into the back of the laptop and then turn on the laptop. That's the only way I could get it to work on my Alcam Designer i400, so maybe it's the same on your machine.
  • Besides, there's no 3d accelerator on any Sony laptops.

    Well not quite true - read this [yahoo.com] recent press release desribing the 3D hardware being used in the latest VAIO laptop ....

  • Umm... given that I have a Sony Music Clip MP3 Player and given that i'm listening to a random selection of my mp3's right now i think you're a little bit in the error there...

    The Sony Music Jukebox software allows you to import mp3s into it WITHOUT downcoding it to ATRAC3... its been working fine for me so far..
  • I just got to vote with my dollars. I wanted a small notebook, and I was considering one of the various Vaio *505*s or the IBM Thinkpad 240.

    Well, I figured while Sony was part of an orginization trying to jail hacker kids, IBM was busy porting Linux to their 390.

    So, I went with the IBM, installed SuSE Linux, and I am happy. Saved a few hundred $ too!

  • Don't Buy from Sony (Score:4)

    by Robert Wilde ( 78174 ) on Saturday February 12, 2000 @06:26AM (#1281706)
    I'm writing this on a VAIO laptio I bought in Japan last year; however, I will never buy another product from Sony.

    Just a few days ago, we had news on Slashdot [slashdot.org] about Sony's attempts to squash Connectix. A while back, there was the story [slashdot.org] about Sony's dirty tricks in it's suit against Bleem - including trying to retrieve a list of all Bleem's customers.

    And, please don't forget the whole mess with the DVDCCA and MPAA suits against DeCSS. Sony is one of, perhaps the most, powerful of the Hollywood studios - and their plans for the future are not something you want to be a part of.

    On the business practice side, Sony acts like a yakuza company - they make Microsoft look good. And in spite of the fact that the PS2 uses Linux as is development environment, the PS platform is so closed it makes Windows look like Open Source Software. (To publish a game on the PS, Sony must approve your software, you must pay a per/sale royalty, and those profits are used by Sony to fund your competitors - Sony's inhouse game developers)

    There was a time, when Morita was running the place and Sony was fighting for consumer choice and the right to own a VCR, that Sony was an upstanding corporate citizen. That is not the case now. Sony makes some fine consumer electronics, but realize who you are giving your money to. Your cash is your vote - take it to another company.

    Besides, there's no 3d accelerator on any Sony laptops. ;-) I'm serious though, consider how your money is being spent!
  • So it has an 18 gig hard drive. And firewire and DVD. Otherwise, it's not something I'd fancy.

    I'll get an Acer Travelmate 340T sometime soon. The price tag (assuming a UK pound is about ten Finnish marks) is well below half of that of the VAIO in question, it weighs only 1.8 kilograms with the CD/floppy unit detached, it has a PIII at 450 MHz, 128 MB mem (64 in the default configuration) and a big enough 6 gig hard drive. There's also a DVD drive available, but I think it'll be more useful to get one for the desktop machine and use a decoder card for good TV output.

    There's also a Lucent modem (can be used under Linux) and a Linux-compatible RJ45 network interface, though I'm going to primarily use a 3Com 589 PCMCIA card, since I have a combo connector for it (I and a couple of my friends and the people I work for have 10base2 networks, so this makes sense).

    On the other hand, the Acer is so much smaller than the VAIO, that it makes sense that I can get two of them for the price of the Sony :)

    TM 340T info [acersupport.com]
    [muted.org]
    Linux on TM 340

  • I'm quite happy with my compaq presario 1800T. It came installed with Win 98, and I resized that partition smaller to make room for BeOS 4.5 and Slackware Linux. It works great with both BeOS 4.5 and Linux, although I originally installed Slackware Linux 4 and had to upgrade the XFree86 to get the Rage Pro LT support before SlackWare Linux 7 came out.

    One neat thing about it that Compaq neglects to mention on their web site and would have got me all hot and bothered for it is that it comes with integrated ethernet. No PCMCIA needed for ethernet.

    There's a couple gotchas with the ethernet though. It uses some variant of the DEC Tulip chip in which the ethernet chip eeprom gets reprogrammed by windows. If you do a soft reboot from windows into Linux or BeOS, then ethernet won't work. If you power down from windows then power back up into BeOS or Linux it will work fine.

    Another problem is that you need to wait until the system has come up to attach the 10baseT cable (it's a 10/100 chip).

    The machine is a 450 MHz pentium III with 128 MB of ram. A pentium III is significant for laptops because pentium II laptops run the system bus at 66 MHz; pentium III laptops with the coppermine chip run at 100 MHz.

    I gave my desktop PC to my fiance and now use my compaq laptop for all my consulting work - software development, server work on linux, gui stuff on windows and BeOS. I vastly prefer using a laptop to a desktop PC for my daily work. I can sit on the couch or the easy chair and I don't have to stay in one place all day. Also I like the active matrix LCD screens, I think they're easier on the eyes than vacuum tube phosphors.

    I have a web page that addresses my laptop briefly at http://www.goingware.com/laptop [goingware.com]

    Mike Crawford
    GoingWare - Expert Software Development and Consulting
    http://www.goingware.com [goingware.com]
    crawford@goingware.com [mailto]

  • Slightly off topic but It really pisses me of that this PC is £3500 in Britain and only $3299 in the USA. When will other countries actually start getting a good deal on gear?
  • I have the sony XG9. Many evil things are said about sony but this is about the XG9 so I will only talk about the XG9. I removed win98 and installed Redhat 6.1 and VMware running windows NT 4.0 I purchased the cdrw and I have had it running for over a month now without powerdown, because it is my "desktop" for work, however on occasion I must travel to my parent company and so they purchased this machine for that purpose. I must say that my friends who have dells and ibms always comment about how "cool" the sony is and how bright the screen looks. I think that the "glass" over the LCD is really sharp as well. I have no complaints at all I can and do use the modem, the dvd (not for playing movies under linux) however I tried it before I trashed win98 and it look ok until I purchased a dvd for my big screen and saw the difference. I user the cdrw to burn cds with cdrecord both audio and data. I do have a habbit of touching the mouse pad when typing and it is quite anoying. I have the dual battery when on the road and easily get 10 hours out of linux. I want to get sound working, however I am going to install Mandrake 7.0 after I burn a backup of what is here so that I get the pentium speed bump and the use of the usb mouse. I also thought it would be nice to bump to 256mb so I can run more VMware boxes. NT is required by my job so they had to get me a machine I could run my os on and thier os on and at the time it seemed that between the drive space and the memory capacity and the cpu speed that this was a clear winner esp with the built in cdrw as I can fedex my work via burns to my employer. I have now seen that the XG19 with a speedstep 650 and that kind of pisses me off only one month after I got this one. I also see features that are in other books of this price desktop replacement features that are very nice as well, sometimes I wish I had waited to get this box, but I aint complaining either it is always a head turner...

    I really look forward to get a transmeta cpu powered portable with a gig of ram and a week of battery life that has wireless internet under 3 pounds. Hopefully I didn't purchase to soon.

  • I'm a Macintosh Guy, so my opinions are biased in that direction. However, ever since the PowerBook 3400, Apple's PowerBooks have made great desktop replacements. I've owned three different PowerBooks, starting with a PB 5300, then a 3400 and eventually a 1998 model G3 (292 Mhz with DVD). Of the three that I have owned, the 1998 Model was the best. It had pretty much everything that a desktop machine has, except for good hardware 3D acceleration and the ability to change monitor resolutions. That machine has a 14.1" display that has a viewable area that seems larger than an iMac's and is not much smaller than the viewable area on my 17" Studio Display. Of course, it lacked internal PCI expandability... but there is a company that sells an external box that will allow you to install a PCI card and connect the box to the PowerBook via the PC card slot. I do not know how well it works but at least it exists.

    For my needs, I think that a Desktop replacement should include:
    a big display (14"), crisp and clear
    minimum of 64 meg ram and expandability to at least 512 meg
    8-10 gig hard drive minimum
    ethernet
    built-in modem
    DVD
    video out
    USB/firewire ports

    That pretty much meets my needs, of course, your mileage my vary :)
  • You are definitely right about dual monitors, I've got two on my G3 and it's fantastic.

    Some of the older PowerBooks had the ability to run dual monitors built in (ie. the 5300). I think that all or at least most of the newer models only support video mirroring, unless you use a PC card.
  • After reading this "review" I can't help but wonder if this guy had used any laptop made in the past 5 years. His amazement with the hotswapable bay is silly, as this is nothing new.
    In fact, I wouldn't even consider this a geek review. Just some guy with a new laptop on a plane.
    And to top it off...no mention of the laptop running alternative OS's...that's the first thing I would have done.
  • Another Sony laptop, a european-only model from what I gathered. I have been using it for over a month now, and am quite happy. P///500, 128Mb RAM, 12G HDD, and 15" TFT display. Really nice. I run RedHat 6.1, with the latest XFree (for the NeoMagic chip), as well as Windows for DVD replay.
    Now for the cons: the video chip sucks (Quake 2 in software rendering runs ok, alien vs predator won't even start), so forget about 3D games. And linux still has no support for the sound chip (Yamaha, I forgot the reference), and SB compatibility is crappy.
    As a workstation however (this is what I bough the computer for anyway), it is great. Crisp display, lotta RAM & HDD so I can really travel with everything I need, and fast processor.
    The DVD is zoned hard, and this is a problem for frequent travellers like me, but nothing new. The hardware DVD playback is very good, and the video output is really nice for the purpose of watching a movie on a biger screen.
    Ah, the modem I got is a *$%#@ CardBus modem from a french company, and is about as useful as the plastic insert that protects the PCMCIA slots, even in windows (never managed to get a 56K connection once while my USR 56K gets one evey time.
    Overall, a good machine, but still wanting.
  • i have a compaq 1931 problems i have with it: 1. doesn't have a tv out even tho it has a dvd drive 2. does dual monitor output, but doesn't show video on the output monitor in this mode. 3. no *freaking* IR port. i mean, how basic is this? has to get an external one for my 8210 and palm. other than that it is a beautiful machine.
  • I'm using mine as the ultimate PDA/MP3/portable internet terminal/personal navigation device/whatever. The cost turns out to be about the same as all the seperate devices, and it gets a lot of attention from the techno-challenged palm users. The only down side is the long wake up times, and of course, the poor (in comparison to the palm) battery life.

    BTW: I recently added voice recognition software to make up for the terrible keyboard. Now if I could program voice activated macros for launching applications...

  • I agree whole-heartedly. I second ever word in your post. I will continue to avoid Sony products whenever possible and urge all my friends to do the same. Especially that stupid memory stick.
  • In my job, I use many different laptops and the best pointing device by far, IMHO, is the thinkpad trackpoint. The worst is the scratchpad.
  • All I can say for certain after reading the piece, and looking at the photos is that I never truly got to enjoy the look of the cool magnesium case.

    The photos were horrific. Total bush-league.

  • Incorrect, the "SlimTop" which the press release refers to is a desktop product, not a laptop.
  • I declined to buy a Vaio, and am not so sure I want to buy an Inspiron, due to the lack of audio support in operating systems other than Windows. The sound chip in the Vaio is only partially supported by OSS; likewise, the OSS drivers for the one in the Inspiron are only beta quality. As an electronic musician and MIDI enthusiast, the last thing I want is a laptop without sound. So, I'm biding my time until a complete solution is available.

    I'm sure that all of these companies which are now cash-heavy from IPOs can arrange to get hardware support for these chips, or to get the laptop vendors to use chips which are documented and supported. Let's hope they do so.

    --Brett Glass

  • So now Slashdot has turned into Computer Shopper, uh ?

    It'd be ok if this laptop had an a new and outstanding technology. But, c'mon ! Face it ! It's just another laptop, a good one, but nothing new.
  • Sony's in house developers don't compete with companies like SquareSoft. If anything they avoid competing with such companies because they know that they don't stand a chance plus companies like SquareSoft make the platform. If Final Fantasy 9 was to be made for the dolphin that would take about 5 to 10 million users from the playstation 2 with it to nintendo's camp. Sega has already said that they plan to make the dreamcast their last console. From there they plan to move to being a software company.
  • I realize that the primary purchase factor when buying any computer is whether it will adequately support Quake. One must have one's priorities.

    If you have to make a living in order to support your Quake-playing habits you can indeed use a notebook as a desktop replacement. I've used notebooks exclusively since 1994--first in a high-end Compaq docking station, but lately I've just used a port replicator to simplify making connections in my office. If I'm at a client's or on a plane I have everything I need right in my hands. I don't have to mess with reconciling two systems, I don't have to keep track of what files are where--wherever I am, my computer is there.

    It is new notebook time, and I'm intrigued by the VAIO. They look good--very good. But looks don't matter--I make my living with my notebook (I run a small software development firm) and I want the best possible tool. My big disappointment with my present notebook is that it does not support multiple monitors--once you have programmed with source code on one (or more!) monitor(s) and the running application on another, you simply don't want to go back to doing it any other way. I am told that Dell notebooks support multiple monitors, and I'm intrigued. I'm a bit disappointed that this review doesn't touch on the question.

    Writing the review while in-flight is a nice touch--but I wish the writer had mentioned whether the VAIO came with the necessaries for connecting to the onboard power supplies now common on many airlines. You simply cannot board the plane with enough batteries for the flight from Chicago to Tokyo--so any reasonable notebook has to be able to simply connect to the onboard systems.

    And, perhaps most importantly of all, I wish he'd written about the tactile feel of the keyboard. My most recent notebook has been a WinBook--a very nice notebook, but the keyboard is a bit soft. I like it--but I don't have the love I still feel for original 14-lb. IBM 101 key keyboards. Big, heavy, clunky--but absolutely splendid keyboards. I wish more reviews gave more information about that--it would help so much in making a purchase decision.
  • i know i'm gonna get bitch slapped for this (just keep telling yourselves "at least it's not naked jackie chan") but i gotta go with the powerbook G3. 10 hrs of battery life, hot swappable everything (yank that dvd drive to save to zip) graphics accelerator (yeah, it's an ati, but at least the mac games are optimized for it) Dual monitor capability out a the box, ir, usb, it runs Linux, hell, with an emulator it'll even run win32s. which reminds me - anyone know anything about netbsd on a mac?
  • been thinking of checking out YD. have been struggling with L-PPC for months...

    now if only my roommate would let me play with it on her powerbook :)

  • How many people will be playing serious online matches cramped over a notebook? 35 fps is playable for casual play.
  • I have a Inspiron 7500 and just spent basically all day Thursday (except when I brought it to class - not bringing the monitor with) with dual monitor support. It gets addicting fast to be able to have multiple things open at the same time, and search on one monitor and have the results open in the other, etc. I was running both the LCD and external monitor at 1024x768 and didn't mess around with the other settings too much. I could have also hooked up a TV to the TV out simultaneously, but I didn't try that. It has a ATI Rage 8MB card, which is the best Dell (and I think everyone else - if even that) has, but I have to admit I haven't done any 3D games on it yet. It weighs quite a bit, but I take that as a required evil for the power it has.

    The battery life is awesome too. With the battery that came with it I can go off to a 3hr class and come back with over 60% (sometimes closer to 70%) battery life left. I haven't tried to measure the full life yet (It's got LiIon batteries, so I keep it topped off). This battery life is taking notes in Staroffice and/or Mathematica with Rain running in the background, so you won't get the same battery life running Q3 or whatever, but for reports/web surfing it rocks!

  • There are some great new VAIO models out in Japan: super-thin subnotebooks with PIII processors, and up to 128MB memory, 12GB disk.

    See (in Japanese I'm afraid): here [sony.co.jp].

    I bought the Z505JX a few months ago, which has "only" a PII400. I am very, very pleased with it --- nice screen (12.1 inch, 1024*768), pretty big keyboard considering the overall size, 8GB disk, plug-in CD-R drive, built in modem and ethernet, firewire, etc. And not that expensive really (about 350,000 yen for everything). Don't know when they're going to bring these out in other countries though.

    And it runs Linux with no problems too. The disk was even prepartitioned so I didn't have to screw around with the Windows installation (which comes with some nice digital video software).

  • I too have an I7000 that I've been very happy with. I popped in a Xircom Realport 10/100/56K modem card to replace the Winmodem. The 15" screen on the I7000 may be overkill, but sure is nice for staring at for long periods!

    As desktop replacements, these notebooks come pretty close, and at 10+ lbs they can feel like you're lugging around your desktop on your shoulder. I recently purchased a Willow Design [willowdesign.com] Darwin backpack to carry the I7000 and assorted accessories around in, and found that 10lbs on your back is a lot easier to carry.

  • My first desktop replacement was a sager 200mmx. Sager's laptops are cheap in both senses of the word. It was a fairly decent laptop except that I had to replace the battery twice in 2 years, and the FN key went out on it. I just recently replaced it with a dell cpt celeron466. The linux drivers for the inspiron work fine in the laptop, so i had sound and X both working in minutes. One nice feature of this laptop is the presence of both a touchpad and a stick pointer. It still only has 2 mouse buttons, but you'll be hard pressed to find one with 3.
  • What I use for my desktop/laptop is a Powerbook G3. [apple.com] It has, according to Apple [apple.com], an ATI RAGE LT Pro video controller for 2d/3d support. I like it as both a desktop and laptop machine, and wouldn't get anything else. If you're a Mac person, this is the thing to get.
  • Well the laptop that I myself use for desktop replacement is Compaq 1274 (In fact I am posting this message from the laptop now). No, it's not for playing Quake3 (I haven't tried, but I don't suppose its possible), but I could play unreal (in Mikeysoft OS) in a very low resolution, but it worked. It is great for coders, music lovers, just casual desktop users, net junkies but not 3d gamers. Here are the highlights: AMD-k6-2/366/64MBram/4.3GB. For more detailed information, you can check out a how-to that I have written at http://strlen.net/compaq1274. Happy laptoping.

  • Well the laptop that I myself use for desktop replacement is Compaq 1274 (In fact I am posting this message from the laptop now). No, it's not for playing Quake3 (I haven't tried, but I don't suppose its possible), but I could play unreal (in Mikeysoft OS) in a very low resolution, but it worked. It is great for coders, music lovers, just casual desktop users, net junkies but not 3d gamers. Here are the highlights: AMD-k6-2/366/64MBram/4.3GB. For more detailed information, you can check out a how-to that I have written at http://strlen.net/compaq1274.html

    Happy laptoping. And it works perfectly in Linux too.

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