[PLUG] Re: New Laptop

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> 1) Laptops are borrowed from factory service, not owned.  The laptop may
> need service once a year.  Look for a company that does very rapid repair,
> with no backtalk.  Good (formerly great): IBM .  Very bad: Dell.
> HP/Compaq might be OK, very Linux conscious, no direct experience.  No
> opinions beyond that.  Get the three year service contract, subract that
> ($400?) from your starting price.

  Ah, you cynic, Keith! :-)

  I will admit to continuing problems with my first portable: in 1992 I
bought a Gateway (made by TI) 486DX/25. Junk design. However, since then
I've had two Toshibas on which I installed linux (the Libretto L70 and the
Portege 3025CT) and had absolutely no problems with either. The Libretto I
sold rather quickly because the keyboard is too small for touch-typing. The
Portege is still here, with a new battery and Slackware-9.1. Slow by today's
standards, but a wonderful, light machine. (For sale, btw, if anyone's
interested).

> 4) If you travel a lot, or are otherwise more than a couple of hours
> away from a charger, get a Valence N-Charge external battery for about
> $300.

  Nods in agreement. On Keith's recommendation I bought the 65Whr version at
Fry's on my way to Corvallis last month. We had to meet in a room on the OSU
campus where I did not have access to a wall outlet. Glad I had the extra
juice.

> 5) Extra chargers, or at least extra charger power cords, are a good
> idea unless you like crawling around plugging and unplugging things.

  For my Toshiba Portege I have two chargers. One stayed in the office and
the other was in my computer bag always available for travel. In my case it
was not a conscious decision. I was on the plane to Reno when I realized I
left the adapter in the office. So I ended up at a mobile computing
distributor down there (Go Direct?) where they allowed me to make a retail
purchase of an A/C adapter/charger as a walk-in.

> You will find that, starting with a budget of $2500, you will be down
> to $1500 by the time you pay for all the goodies that make laptop life
> worth living.

  What about used? Is that a realistic option for someone? Just curious.

Rich

-- 
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>