[wplug] (OT) Laptop Durability

[Gentgeen]

I have to second the IBM post.  I have a 2nd hand 380D (circa 95 I think).  
I got it from a friend who had no problems with it during his ownership - 
and he does a lot of travel for presentions and such (within the US).  
When you look at the laptop, you can see that it is well travelled (small
scratchs, dull "coat", occational floating pointer, etc)  but in wonderful
working order.  I have now had it for a year now, with only the occational
floating pointer, and a battery that does not hold a great charge (2 hr. MAX).
When I got it, I installed Debian, and had NO problem with the hardware at all.

My second vote would have to go to the iBooks, but that is conditional.  The 
last school I worked at had leased iBooks for all teachers and students in the 
district.  The teachers got the clam shape ones (also called tolet seats) and 
the kids got the first series white square ones.  The clam shapes were WONDERFUL
as far as durablility, although a bit heavy for a modern laptop.  The white ones 
were CRAP, even if you take into account that they were used by students.  (I'm 
sure the students were not as careful as the teachers were.)  The keys could 
pop off way to easily, paint chipped, CDROM trays would regularly break, latches 
would break, etc. Apple did confess that the CDROM and latches breaking was a 
design defect, and said they would fix it in the next generation.


On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:53:23 -0700
"Mark Haney" <mh2g at xinterra.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm thinking about getting a laptop, which I would dual boot with Linux and 
> FreeBSD. I've never had one, and I'm a bit concerned about their 
> durability. I know that many wplug subscribers have experience with 
> computer support, so this may be a good forum to ask some of my 
> questions about laptops.
> 
> How long do they generally last? (I would probably be carrying it back and 
> forth between school and home daily.) Are there certain brands that have 
> a good reputation for durability? How easy is it to have failed parts, such 
> as a bad hard drive, replaced? 
> 
> Of course one reason I'm interested in this is because laptops are 
> expensive and I want to use it as long as possible! Another reason, 
> though, is that I'm thinking about purchasing a refurbished laptop to save 
> some money. Has anyone had any notable experiences with refurbs?
> 
> Thanks for any insights you can share,
> Mark Haney
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