...dedicated laptop ... suggestions on brand?

 I have owned many,

 Most reliable was a Dell. "Ultra-Sharp" screen offered at the time was well
 worth the $extra. Person who is using it says it is still going strong
after
 about 5 years.

 I suggest you stay away from Sony. I currently have a Sony VAIO. Wish I had
 not bought it. Comes loaded, partially filled, with too much nonsense
 software, I upgraded OS and could never get it to work right after that.
Too
 many unique driver for sound/video/add-ons etc are required. Hours of
 attempts to install everything downloaded from Sony have not worked.
 Wont run Linux

 My daughter's HP got her through 7 years of college and still runs.

 My son-in-law has a neat IBM with a screen that doubles as a tablet. He can
 write on on screen with a stylus. He is teaches mathematics at Cornell and
 prepares all his lectures on it. lecture notes are all done using the
 stylus,
 and published on the web. Has dual boot Windows/Linux, which works great.
He
 loves it. I you might need those features, I can get you more information.
 Let me know.



 R

Latest Mfr laptop reliability data, as published by SquareTrade.
Hardly the definitive source, but interesting none the less.

Mark Supinski

I love my solid state 40 Gig drive on my Azus EeePC and Linux is
in read only memory. Seven to eight hours of battery life because of that
solid state drive. I run the whole newsletter on it when
I am on the road. With the help of a few 32 gig USB sticks.

It is not cheap however running around $700.

Paul Lamar




Interesting reliability chart.  What was the source?

Under the heading of "anecdotal data point" I have a hard-used Compaq
(HP) V2410us that's going on five years old (bought in the fall of
2005).  It's been to Europe and all over the US and is generally the
machine I use at home - bounces (sometimes literally) between the
dining table, the coffee table, and the kitchen counter.  The outside
case is kinda flexible and cheap feeling, and the silver coating is
worn away from the wrist rest in a few places.  The battery has long
since packed it in (only about 30minutes charge now), but otherwise it
has been totally trouble free.  I'll probably buy an HP dm3 with an
AMD as a replacement - thin and light with a metal chassis.

I like Toshiba look and feel, but I still hold a grudge against them
for selling our secret submarine screw technology to Russia, so I
won't buy one of their products.  Many of the Toshiba laptops have
problems with the power jack being torn from the motherboard - I got
to fix this on the my sister's Satellite - inadequate strain relief
and cold solder joints.  In Toshiba's defense, I've fixed the same
issue on a Compaq laptop (which had been dumped on the floor).

My parents and sister each have an ASUS netbook (2 Linux, one XP).
They have been good machines if a bit short on disk space - all of
them have SSD's only.  One of them mysteriously has quite short
battery life.

My parents have Dells as their desktop machines - failed video card on
one and failed MB on the other.  I have two Dells at work - one
Redhat, one XP Pro.  Just had a MB cap fail after a few years of
operation.  Their mice have had problems with Linux.  Cheaply built,
and terrible customer service (not unusual).  I'm always suspicious of
the Enron "crooked E" (compare the logos)..  :)

I agree with the assessment on Sony.  Too many proprietary hardware
pieces - failed power jack with a very expensive replacement option.

All of the people I know with Apple products love them.  I had a nano
crap out on me (dead) so I went to the Apple page and filled out the
problem report form online.   About 15 minutes later they sent me an
email saying it sounded like the problem was something probably
covered under warranty, and that they were sending me a package with
return postage.  The next day DHL dropped an envelope at my door with
the necessary shipping materials..  I put the nano in the package, and
dropped it at the DHL center.  Three days later I had a new nano.
Service = loyal customers - I have since bought an iPod Classic and an
iPhone.  Haven't had any more problems.  Performance/dollar is not
very good on upgrades of their computers - bigger disk/RAM upgrades
are expensive.  Their pre-packaged stuff isn't bad.


Matt-