Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 19:00:41 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk> Cc: John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com>, freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: High-resolution displays Message-ID: <19970905190041.25506@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <6946.873447410@critter.freebsd.dk>; from Poul-Henning Kamp on Fri, Sep 05, 1997 at 10:16:50AM %2B0200 References: <199709041536.IAA00947@austin.polstra.com> <6946.873447410@critter.freebsd.dk>
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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
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