[PLUG] Laptop brand recommendations

[Rogan Creswick]

On 7/12/05, Evan Heidtmann <clydefrog at adnap.no-ip.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 14:48 -0400, Rogan Creswick wrote:
> > The ThinkPad T-series is quite good.  They weigh in at around 5 lbs,
> > and with extended battery hit 4-5 hours on a charge.
>
> That sounds like a very good battery life. How does reality match up
> with what they claim?

Those numbers are based on the experience of friends & co workers, I
don't know what IBM claims -- probably 5.5 hours.


> I've used some old thinkpads (ca. 1998) at school and they're built like
> tanks. They seem to run forever. Have they kept up their good
> engineering, and do you expect it to continue under Lenovo? I was biased
> towards IBM, but after the acquisition I'm not so sure.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that the quality has degraded, but
I don't have a lot to base that on.  On the plus side, I'm working at
IBM research and haven't heard anyone complaining about the newer
thinkpads (and there are a *lot* of thinkpads around here).

> Can you recommend some reading on understanding the issues involved in
> power management, and how to test to see if a given machine works well?
> I have never owned or used a laptop with a working battery, so this is
> new territory for me.

I don't have any good links -- I'm no expert here either.  As a
general rule, the newer it is the less likely it will work
flawelessly.    As Rich mentioned, the linux-on-laptops site is a good
start.  I'd also check out emperorlinux.com, the laptops are extremely
expensive, but if the hardware can be supported, they are probably one
of the first to find out if and how.

Other than that, ask around and google are my best suggestions.
  
I'm interested to see what you go with, if you end up with a T-42 we
should swap configs.

--Rogan