[plug] [Semi-OT] Laptops- Toshiba A100

[Patrick Coleman]

On 2/12/07, Max <mn8_linux at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 11:29 am, Tim Bowden wrote:
>
> SNIP.....
> > Battery life is not so
> > great; About 2 hrs, but that suits me fine as I'm mostly on mains.
> > It does limit what I can do while travelling, but I'd rather go for
> > raw power and speed as this is my main day to day work machine.

To weigh in with my $0.02: I've got a Fujitsu Lifebook T4010 which has
been excellent. It's a tablet PC, so you'll pay a bit extra, but I get
~8.0 hours of battery with the second CDROM-bay-battery installed
(which is the most important thing for me). I imagine Fujitsu probably
make a non-tablet model of the same thing, though I haven't checked.

It's small and fairly light. You can replace the CDROM with either a
second battery, as I mentioned, or a plastic bay cover to reduce
weight. Its not a graphics workhorse (Intel 82852 aka "Sandwich"
chipset), but then thats not what I use it for. YMMV.

I do run Windows on it (because of the tablet note-taking software),
but I've booted up with a ubuntu livecd a couple of times and
everything (including the tablet, which I think is just a wacom) seems
to work ok. Wireless is Intel PRO 2100 which just worked from Ubuntu.

The biggest downside to it is the fan, which is a bit noisy. Otherwise
the build quality is excellent. I'd definately recommend Fujitsu to
anyone in the market.

-Patrick