From owner-freebsd-mobile Fri Sep 5 02:32:14 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id CAA27986 for mobile-outgoing; Fri, 5 Sep 1997 02:32:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nico.telstra.net (nico.telstra.net [139.130.204.16]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id CAA27978 for ; Fri, 5 Sep 1997 02:32:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by nico.telstra.net (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id TAA00237; Fri, 5 Sep 1997 19:30:47 +1000 Received: (grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id TAA13351; Fri, 5 Sep 1997 19:00:41 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19970905190041.25506@lemis.com> Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 19:00:41 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Poul-Henning Kamp Cc: John Polstra , freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: High-resolution displays References: <199709041536.IAA00947@austin.polstra.com> <6946.873447410@critter.freebsd.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.81e In-Reply-To: <6946.873447410@critter.freebsd.dk>; from Poul-Henning Kamp on Fri, Sep 05, 1997 at 10:16:50AM +0200 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8250 Fax: +61-8-8388-8250 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Fight-Spam-Now: http://www.cauce.org Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, Sep 05, 1997 at 10:16:50AM +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > In message <199709041536.IAA00947@austin.polstra.com>, John Polstra writes: >> I want to set up a laptop running FreeBSD to use when I'm working out >> of town. > > Hi john! > > First decide if it's going to be your primary machine or not, this may > sound weird, but you may soon find that you spend much more time with > your portable that with your stationary machine (Think "bed, beach, garden, > airport, plane, bus, train, office..."). If it's going to be your primary > machine, you may want to choose slightly differently. A very good point. When I bought my machine last December, I intended it to be a machine to use when I didn't have any other. I still don't use it at home, but I found that it is very convenient to have a complete environment with me when I'm travelling, and I will now invariably use it in other people's offices. As a result, I find it's underdimensioned for what I want to do. > Display: > > You seem pretty determined about this one. Be aware that on an LCD you > can use far smaller fonts than on a CRT. I run a 5x7 font most of the > time with no problems. (I cant wait until I can aford a LCD screen > for my desk too :-) Bigger screens means bigger powerdrain, and they > are more fragile (although they're pretty damn robust these days. Your > hard disk will croak first I bet). I agree with John, though. The next machine will have at least a 1024x768 display. > Floppy disk/CDROM drives: > > If weight/portability is important, consider getting a machine with > external floppy and CDROM. My floppy drive is at home all the time, > I never use it. Or interchangeable ones. But I don't miss a CD-ROM in my machined. > Keyboard: > > It is about the most important thing on the machine, if you can't live > with it, forget it. Try it out, even the same manufacturer makes many > different keyboards. The layout of the keys should be examined too. A point to be made here: you can always remap keys. Except for that damn fool Fn key which is used to remap other keys. On my machine, it's in the bottom left hand corner, where I want to have Alt. The result is painful. I don't know of any laptops into which you can't plug a real keyboard, but that would be an absolute no-no for me. > "Real hackers run -current on their laptop." But of course. Greg