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?

[adf]

Acer 5520 - lot o power for little $$. Currently running stock 32 bit vista (I have no idea why) looking into a 64 bit ubuntu, though currently there seem to be issues with gutsy on it.