Re: What laptops work?

[Greg Gallagher <greg@red-bean.com>]

Scott <scotte@speakeasy.org> writes:
> Also, how do people find the qualify of the VIAOs?  They are really nice and
> slim, but can they stand long-term abuse and use?

The quality is nice;  screen is nice, built-in ethernet works like a
charm, etc.  However, I have to confess the disk is SLOW.  Most of the
time it doesn't bother me though so no complaints.

As for wear and tear, my laptop (Z505HS) is in for repairs now.  My
own stupid fault, the charger cable got stuck on my chair handle and I
swiveled to answer a question and it pulled it right off my desk.  3
feet drop, approx. and everything kept tick'n just fine.
Unfortunatly, it ended up landing on the charger connecter itself and
will not charge the battary anymore (it inconviently pops out if you
don't hold it in!).  But I would recommend these laptops if
slimness/lightness is the highest priority.  It was the slimmest,
cheepest notebook I found.  Compaq's, IBMs, everything else was a
little pricier.

> My main usage would be for remote UNIX administration.

I have OpenBSD installed on mine and am happily using it to do the
following things:

1. Story writing, creative writing using Lout
2. Programming, Python, C etc.
3. Experimenting with OpenBSD (my main machine at home still runs
Linux, not ready to switch over)

Also remote UNIX administration but the modem will not work under
OpenBSD so when I get my laptop back from Sony I'm probably buying a
modem card for it.  I had 0 luck in getting the modem to work, and
didn't have a change to work on the sound before time (but I'm pretty
sure OpenSound will have a driver).  Oh, and X works great... the
screen size, while only 12", is a beautiful display.  The keyboard is
nice, although some things do annoy me about how big a shift key is,
where the | key is, etc.

Greg Gallagher