Quoting Eric Jacoboni (jaco@teaser.fr):
> >>>>> "John" == John Fisher <jdf@rse.com> writes:
> John> And I would like to know if there is anyone that just bought a
> John> brand spanking new laptop, notebook or portable and is running
>
EJ> I've a Dell Inspiron 2500 and it works well with NetBSD (as well as
EJ> with Linux and the two other BSD). New Dell models should work, too,
EJ> except for the crapy winmodem they put in it... Don't know for the
EJ> build in netword adaptor, but it should be ok as it's a RealTek chip.
EJ> 
EJ> If i had to buy a laptop, now, i would seriously consider new Apple
EJ> models (iBook models, as my wallet would'nt support

Part of John's question needs to be:
   And I want to use it for _________


A few of our road warrior guys (all fairly hardcore system admins)
had Dells.  One is on his 7th keyboard in 14 months.  I never got
the sense he beat on them particularly. And there was often a Dell
service guy (local co. with contract) coming in with most of the
parts they needed to fix the 7 Dells in our group.  My laptop
predated the Dells (a 14" Vaio) and when that kept not working, I
pulled rank and confiscated a G3 Powerbook when a marketing guy
left and I refused to give it up for a Dell.  I only toyed with
NetBSD on it, I kept needing software that ran on OS9...

Some of the developers loved the little Vaio's.  Hook them up
to a 21" screen for long term use, and deal with tiny screen
in meetings.  802.11a made laptops awesome.  I found the
screens too small to work on all the time in hotels. Linux
and FreeBSD all over them.

A friend just brought his ThinkPad and refused to touch Dell laptops.
He just made them buy him RAM and pay to fix the screen when it got
hurt in a fall.  Hasn't failed to run a Unix yet.

So: Apple, Thinkpad, the Small Vaios are acceptable.


But I hate BIOSs and managing interrupts and such.  In 40 seconds, I
can have a Mac hardrive in my hands, swap a keyboard or add RAM.

chuck