What Laptop Do You Use, And Why? Options

[ToneBlind]

I assume the vast majority of everyone here uses or has used laptops in addition to their Zaurii. What do you use and why?

My first laptop was a Toshiba Tecra with a P-III 650 Mhz. Very nice machine at the time (almost 8 years ago.) It performed reasonably well, and was mostly problem free. It had a tendency to overheat, specially after a couple of years. I wasn't crazy about the construction of the machine (a few creaks, soft screen hinges, etc.) I didn't like the design either (2 tone plastic in the LCD cover, for example.)

After that I got an IBM Thinkpad T23 (refurbished), and I was extremely impressed by it. Much more solid, better looking, overall a more professional laptop (comparing it to the Toshiba was like comparing a Mercedes to a Toyota.) Whenever I had any problems it was very easy to service using the hardware manuals from IBM. A very modular system. Changing RAM, hard drive, even major components like the keyboard or the LCD panel was doable and somewhat of a pleasure.

Due to my experience with the T23 all the rest of my laptops have been Thinkpads. I have an X21 that I picked up in mint condition in ebay a couple of years back for little over $200. I have a dual boot of Ubuntu and Windows XP on it. It is beautiful, solid, and performs well, and now can be picked on eBay for about $100. Granted it is not as portable as the Zaurus, but it is still a very small system and with vastly superior possibilities.

So, what laptop brand are you guys partial off? Are you a Dell Devil, an Apple Advocate, or a Panasonic Person?

[jocasmi]

I've got an Acer Travelmate 212T, a very simple machine, without infrared, wifi and bluetooth. However it is working well since eigth years ago. Its only problem was the battery life, that dead in its very early times, and when it was working it had a poor working time, just two or three hours.
Despite of that, it is still working with debian, OpenBSD and winXP. It never had a hardware problem.
Nowadays, in my country, Acer has decreased its fame, mainly because of its repair service.

Greets

[ToneBlind]

I've got an Acer Travelmate 212T, a very simple machine, without infrared, wifi and bluetooth. However it is working well since eigth years ago. Its only problem was the battery life, that dead in its very early times, and when it was working it had a poor working time, just two or three hours.
Despite of that, it is still working with debian, OpenBSD and winXP. It never had a hardware problem.
Nowadays, in my country, Acer has decreased its fame, mainly because of its repair service.

Greets

You've been using it for 8 years? That's awesome! By the way, I'm from Spain also (but I live and work in the U.S.)

I wasn't into laptops when I was in Spain. Can you find Thinkpads usually over there? If so, try to grab a hold of a 2nd hand T23, or an X21-X24. You won't be sorry you did!

Buenos dias!