Dell laptops vs. Thinkpads (was RE: [wplug] eMachines? )

[Bryon Gill]

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Vanco, Don wrote:

> wplug-admin at wplug.org wrote:
> > Quick afterthought though, I have heard some new ThinkPads don't play
> > nice with ACPI, which could be a problem for running Linux.

I've got a Dell inspiron 2650 (1.6Ghz Celeron, 32M Nvidia, 256M RAM) that 
I picked up new for $650.  It's a behemoth at 8 pounds or so, but it's 
been very reliable for me for the year or so that I've owned it now.  In 
fact, it's been my main computer at work for the past 6 months and I've 
had no troubles with the hardware except for the ACPI support.  It's 
getting there, but I still can't suspend properly for instance.  It used 
to sort of work with an earlier kernel, but the fans kept running.  As of 
the 2.6 kernel at least I've got a working battery monitor, and I've got 
throttling working but that seems to be more suited to a server.  On the 
other hand, it's great to have as an extra computer for lan gaming- it 
runs Warcraft III (Winex) and NWN (Native/SDL) very nicely.

I've also owned a few thinkpads in my day, although no recent ones.  I 
still have an older 200Mhz Pentium thinkpad with no cdrom or floppy drive 
on board.  It's light as a feather at only 4 pounds and it makes a great 
terminal to lug around.  APM support worked perfectly.

So there you go.  The Dell laptop was quite a bargain, but I've had 
compatibility issues and the thing is very heavy to lug around.  Someone 
said that the Thinkpad was worth the extra money, but a) I didn't *have* 
that kind of money at the time and b) this laptop, minor irritations


Bryguy

> 	There was a kernel update to Centrino support recently, this might
> help.... there were lots of non-functional things there....   but I know
> that "user friendly" ACPI support is still a bit shaky.
> 	Interesting duality with IBM there - they're kicking out Microsoft
> all over the place, but the laptops are still owned by the OS.  Intel really
> dropped the ball on supporting Centrino anywhere but under Windoze.
> 
> > But, I've
> > had no problems with my 1400i-2612 purchased in '99.  I actually get
> > better battery life with Linux than with WinXP, which is
> > weird but I'm
> > not complaining (of course the battery isn't 5 years old).
> 	I've always had better battery life under Linux.
> 
> Don
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