[TriLUG] Purchasing a new laptop (slightly OT)

[Greg Brown]

I have  to second the Apple motion.  I have a 700 Mhz G3 powered 14" 
iBook and I love it.  Like some of the pervious posters have said - 
don't rely only on the Mhz speeds of a computer to make a 
determination.   That said, the new generation of iBooks have a 900 Mhz 
processor and as large as a 60 gig HD (40 std), so you're getting a 
little more bang for your buck than I did - especially when you 
consider the recent price drop of iBooks (after the release of the 12" 
PowerBook).  I've also got a CD-RW, firewire, 2 USB ports, a modem, and 
a 10/100 ethernet port (not to mention a 802.11b airport card - but 
that was $100 extra).

My wife has a 15" PowerBook with the G4 processor and a DVD-R drive and 
you do see some performance gains with the G4, but not a huge amount.  
Not enough to justify the cost, IMHO.  The one thing that the powerbook 
has that I wish my laptop had is a PCMCIA  slot (which the powerbook 
has one).

X11 works great on my iBook so I'm able to X around to Linux and UNIX 
boxes with ease using ssh -X.

If you're set on a non-apple laptop I'd suggest the IBM as well.  IBMs 
are put together nearly as well as Apples with attention to detail like 
rubber grommet mounted HDs (standard on iBooks and I think IBMs as 
well).  Personally, if you are going the Intel route, I'd suggest a 
mobile class Pentium.  I think the regular pentiums get WAY too hot in 
laptops.

Greg