> nuless they've gotten smart and put the bios/cmos stuff 
> somewhere on the mainboard and moved it off the hard drive...

Doubtful.

> yes.  find the sucker.  :)

There was no one.  I don't feel like being the first.  Even the linux people
had to hack things to get them working.

> unless, of course, you don't care about video or sound.  
> beyond the standard beep and the 80x25 text console.

No, it's gotta work, but the Video is an ATI 7500 and the sound was ESS -
pretty standard.

I think Perry (and yourself) have pushed me away from the Compaq towards a T
series.  The only difference is that the T series doesn't appear to have a
serial port (minor point, but nice to have), and is $3.7k as opposed to the
Compaq, which is $2.8k.

I've heard the integrated 802.11 antennas which are made for both a and b
are rather a comprimise in terms of range (which makes sense to me).  I
guess it's a minor point.

I'm probably gonna drop the funds for a T series today.  Thanks for the
info.

beers++;

-Jon