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Hewlett-Packard / Compaq

Gateway 2000 now Gateway

Packard Bell

As always, you're not nearly as fabulous as you think you are, Apple.

That AC isn't me, the original old hardware AC. As I said earlier, it's DDR. Not DDR2. I've also found older laptops to be much more reliable hardware-wise than newer ones, I have an old Toshiba Satellite with a Pentium stashed in my closet that works fine.

This Gateway 6510GZ is what I'm using, and I'm not the least bit surprised it hasn't died, personally.

It's much more comfortable to veg out on the couch and play a game on the big screen.

Then buy or build a PC to put behind your TV. If you want a small form factor comparable to that of an Xbox 360, consider a Gateway SX with an AMD CPU. True, it has integrated graphics (northbridge and GPU on one die), but so do the consoles, and PCs with AMD CPU have a Radeon or GeForce, not Intel "Graphics My Ass".

But remember, netbooks are optimized for the net and only the net. If you want to do anything else mildly processor intensive like watching a HD video, good luck. (Even Intel's Atom processor is essentially an overclocked 486.) If you want to watch a DVD, good luck--your netbook is probably a little too small for that DVD drive!

FUD

I recently purchased a netbook (Gateway LT3103u) and have been quite successful at programming, watching video (Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and H.264 MKV DVD rips), word processing, spreadsheets, and remote server management -in a 3lb machine that runs for days on a charge (it goes to standby pretty quickly when not in use to save power).

Its a bit more than just "for the net and only the net".

I'm having problems with suspend/resume on my laptop ... well, actually, I'm having problems with resume. It suspends fine and dandy; resumption ... it doesn't. Hibernate also works, and the computer resumes just fine from hibernation if all the peripherals connected at hibernation are still connected when I bring it back up. So it's something in DeviceKit-power, which replaced the now-deprecated HAL daemon, and I haven't gotten far enough into the various logs to find the specific problem.

That's literally my only problem; everything else works (including my software-based Winmodem, but who still uses modems anymore?). Ubuntu 9.10 is faster than 9.04 and appears to use less RAM with the same software set running. (That's in my experience; your mileage may vary with driving style and tire inflation.)

Plus, I don't know of any brand of monitor that comes with a HDMI input.

Never heard of HP, Gateway, or LG?

Even the "budget" laptops on their list aren't as powerful as the Gateway P-7811FX, which leaves those laptops in the dust for a couple of hundred dollars less...

Seriously -- the Gateway has 9800M GTS graphics (compared to the puny 8400M models they listed in the "budget" section), comes with 4GB of RAM -- AND it costs a couple of hundred dollars less.

Take an All-In-One computer from Gateway:

Gateway® One ZX190 1399 Dollar Core 2 Duo, 19" screen, etc.
Half the price of an iMac?

Mac Mini:

CompuStre: AOpen Pandora MiniPC MP915-B Slim DVD/CDRW 40GB Cel-M 1.4 512MBDDR2 549 Dollar. This thing is worse than the mini *and* more expensive.

But it seems as if your only qualitiy indicator is speed of folding@home. Strange. I guess your PC is a PS3 then ..

Half the price?

And some other fellow slashdot users have done the same for the Pro and the notebooks. When you compare Apple to sth. of similiar quality and design (e.g. Sony) Apple looks quite competitive.

If you compare Apples to lemons, well, than you'll get lemons. It's fruit, but the taste is really sour ...

When I get enough cash together I want to pay $100 to someone to help me resolve problems with my Gateway P-6301 laptop that Gateway (made in Taiwan, I think) didn't see fit to take care of in advance:

-- enable the multimedia finger-glider panel (yeh, I downloaded driver from alternate sites...)
-- enable the screen dimming
-- enable the wireless NIC

Audio works, mouse is of course fine, and of course the Ethernet CAT-5 NIC works.

This might be a few months away. Next time, I'm going to spec a laptop that has all this stuff working. But, I fell for this laptop for it's 17":

-- glossy display
-- nicely-size keyboard
-- dual (but, sadly non-modular) hard drive caddies/slots (which I filled).

The sucker weighs 8.34 lbs, tho:

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2007/Godzilla/1014776R/1014776Rsp2.shtml

It's running PCLinuxOS from 2007, with VirtualBox (pre Sun Micro's claws), and (ahem) vista. Mainly running vista for:

- TurboCAD
- (AutoCAD when I want to study work stuff at home, of course abiding by the PLU)
- Lotus SmartSuite
- Freeship and other things that don't seem to work in WINE on MY installation
- other apps that have no Linux equivalents (talking QUALITY not functionality

Vista is in its own partition (and it's getting to be time to reclaim that 20+ GB of C:\ and give it back to /home... ), and i've only booted vista natively maybe THREE times, and never did any REAL work in it.

KDE runs much more smoothly on my laptop than GNOME.

I'm using a Gateway 2000 P6301:

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2007/Godzilla/1014776R/1014776Rsp2.shtml

It has only VGA out (yep, no HDMI or DVI or other connectors). I have a separate LCD at home that I'd like to "span" or expand my desktop to, but I don't want a "single" screen simply duplicated to the LCD. I want to put on the external LCD any virtual desktop or app of my choosing.

A year or 2 ago, I thought I read in LXF about 2 or more Xserver options to edit by hand to achieve this. There were/are commercial implementations, too. But, I misplaced those mags and can't find the archives online.

My laptop currently is running PCLinux OS 2008, KDE 3.5.8.

Video controller information:

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Up to 384 MB of Dynamic Video Memory

The external LCD is recognized only if connected during boot up. After booting, if the LCD had not been connected, it simply is not recognized, doesn't light up, and I have to connect it and then power cycle if I want to use the external LCD

Currently, I'm looking at:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/os-mltihed/index.html

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/openbsd-misc/2007/9/2/153902

Can you offer me any xorg or advice?

Thanks!

...So the future of convergence between PC and TV will probably be not in all-in-one systems but in devices that link the PC in your study with the TV in your living room, and since there's no household name yet for PC-to-TV linkage, the field is wide open for some lucky company to make a product that becomes synonymous with the concept, the way "TiVo" is easier to say than "Digital Video Recorder". Maybe that will be a boost for systems like Vista. If that happens at about the same time that a Vista successor is released that makes the interface easier to switch to from XP, I'll bet that will be the tipping point that gets people switching voluntarily. (Of course many people will switch by then just because they need a new computer and they couldn't find one with anything but Vista on it.)

Honestly, it's much much nicer than the Dell, and arguably better-designed than the iMac, too.

http://www.gateway.com/programs/one/

They do have the attractiveness of not having cords or other extraneous things that confuse users

To a large extent, so does the iMac and Gateway One.

I saw the news about this a while back before it was released. However I was recently bought a laptop by my sister for £300 from Tescos here in the UK. Its a Gateway ML3108b and runs Linux just fine (although the soundcard doesn't seem to work). When you look at the price of fully fledged laptops now, this doesn't seem much of a deal.

gateway isn't that bad. what always attracted me too them was products i couldn't get anywhere else (like the pre-windows excellent gateway nomad subnotebook)

so lately, that has been the gateway tablet (heavy, but cheap... go ahead, find me something cheaper and prove me wrong, you can't)

it's fun to play civ4 on a sub-$1000 tablet pc, as many a curious onlooker can attest to. made possible by gateway

thank you gateway

Gateway adopted BTX for their entire desktop line a long time ago. Example: GT5220 Media Center Computer.

Apple is slightly behind with that technology.

hmm... rumors?

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/05/10.18.s html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/ 12/1549216&from=rss

it is from December 2004, but it has been "hacked" and done, and i agree... Apple needs a tablet... but i dont like the "new" patent (from the 10th) i think they need to take a page out of Gateway's book with their tablet...

http://www.gateway.com/products/gconfig/proddetail s.asp?seg=ed&system_id=m280eb

i think the versatility of having a laptop or a tablet is great... not everyone wants JUST a tablet, but a lot of people want or could use both...

but the new laptops are cool, trendy like the RAZR phones (which i have... the black razr is so much better than the silver! hehe)

go apple!

Your wish is granted. Really, I'm not a big fan of Gateway, but I saw one of those monitors, and I was definitely impressed.

I suppose I should have qualified "smaller" with a short explanation. I agree that if they came out with something thinner/lighter it'd do well and I'd want one. I meant that I couldn't see there being a market for a machine with a screen smaller than 12 inches.

What I'd really like to see them do is cram a 17" screen into a 12" enclosure... I'm a whore for large screens, but don't want to carry around a larger machine. If they could make it one of those tablet/laptop convertables (eg. this gateway model) I'd give my right arm for it.

So back to the hardware. Whatever premium you think exists (I disagree) on Mac Gear is what my good friend and I call "Worth Every Penny." I've seen an iBook that a caring mother drove over with her BMW X5, sure the LCD was cracked but system still booted in FireWire mode and I was able to retrieve all the documents they needed. My own 12" alBook has been used and abused by myself since they were released and through nearly 2 years now (3 years on an iBook) of my sister's college education without a single failure. I'm kind of upset that I even bothered buying AppleCare for it since I've never had to call them once, not once.

My iMac G5 is one of the most brilliant home computers ever created. One power cord runs the whole system. One. The case is practically seamless and is almost as easy to move around my home as my old powerbook was. When I first shipped it to work some antiMac socialist went crazy and asked why I didn't buy some gateway that was "the same case and form factor and is no different" - http://content.gateway.com/www.gateway.com/img/pro d/249x176/prf55c_pd.jpg - ya freaking right.

I will unplug my internet connection and live in a cave before I buy a "Mac" installed on some beige box AlienDellWare piece of shitbox.

Sorry for the rant, I was up for a little karmaburn anyway.

I have an ugly grey-case pc next to my tv. It looks roughly similar to this and is currently running MCE. Sure, I've got a project in mind to do a project with the components you describe. But I got this PC from a friend for free (minus the cost of a power supply replacement).

Out of curiosity, where in your post did you say this? :-)

Why must you keep this argument going when you KNOW YOU ARE W R O N G?

Gateway Limited Warranty Statement"1. Technical Support. During the Limited Warranty Period, Gateway will provide product technical support..." options in this section include telephone or online support for the life of the warranty.
IBM (lenovo) Limited Warranty Statement and contact tech support page "An initial
diagnosis of your problem can be made either by a technician over the telephone or electronically by access to a support website." Options for warranty support include online and telephone. "If you are not in warranty, you may be billed for the call."

Why is it such a problem for you to understand this? You obviously have absolutely NO experience in supporting, buying, or using non-apple computers. You have no clue that the industry wide standard is more than what Apple offers.. You have no clue that Apple is the exception to the rule by offering 90 days. They are THE ONLY MAJOR COMPANY IN THIS INDUSTRY WHICH DOES NOT OFFER BUILT IN TELEPHONE SUPPORT FOR THE LIFE OF THE WARRANTY.

Read that again: Apple is THE ONLY MAJOR COMPANY IN THIS INDUSTRY WHICH DOES NOT OFFER BUILT IN TELEPHONE SUPPORT FOR THE LIFE OF THE WARRANTY.

Do you want me to repeat it again? Apple is THE ONLY MAJOR COMPANY IN THIS INDUSTRY WHICH DOES NOT OFFER BUILT IN TELEPHONE SUPPORT FOR THE LIFE OF THE WARRANTY.

When are you going to realize that your entire argument from the beginig of this thread was based on this FALSE ASSUMPTION? How are you going to say things like:

Well, they prove to me that you don't care whether you're right or not.

Gateway does not mention it -- and guess what, they don't offer Dial-A-Geek at all, unless you pay for it.

And, if you're really that paranoid about needing a human voice for the life of your warranty, drop two bills and buy some AppleCare.
And this is any different from dropping MAYBE ONE bill on an extended or premium plan with any other brand?

Apple customers get complimentary phone support from Apple for 90 days for all hardware.
ROFL. Complementary support. That is like saying you get complementary electricity for 90 minutes each day when you rent a hotel room. Give me a break.

Every single one of your posts in this thread are rooted on baseless accusations. No evidence. Complete lack of respect, and total rejection, for the truth. Since you don't know what this means at the end of the day I will tell you: It means you are a hypocrite. It could also mean you are a liar, or ignorant. Or ou are inexperienced. Or you are a Troll.

But I will give you the benefit of the doubt because you claim your aren't a troll. You claim you have experience in the industry (dropping your fake resume). You claim you aren't a liar. So I will believe you and just chalk it up to plain old every day hypocrisy.

Well, Dell, Gateway, and IBM certaintly do [have Dial-A-Geek tech support for the life of the warranty].

Prove it. Just about any one of the major vendors will have a 90-day, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 4-year warranty. There are a number of quid pro quo issues with warranty information, and if you're concerned about fairness, then let's be fair. Actually, you smell like trollbait to me, but anyway...

Dell's one-year limited warranty.
Here's how you can contact Gateway with your Technical Support issue. Notice the convenient link for upgrading your warranty. Wonder where it goes...DOH!
Here's the Gateway 1-year limited warranty (pdf).
And, for the record, here's Apple's one-year limited warranty.

Just compare and contrast the three warranties for a moment. They're mostly just legalese, but as far as legal documents go, I like something Apple's warranty lists in the first paragraph:

If a hardware defect arises and a valid claim is received within the Warranty Period, at its option, Apple will either:
(1) repair the hardware defect at no charge, using new or refurbished replacement parts, or
(2) exchange the product with a product that is new or which has been manufactured from new or serviceable used parts and is at least functionally equivalent to the original product, or
(3) refund the purchase price of the product.

Nice and easy. And not all that hard to read, considering it's legal information. By the way, I'm not going to waste my time surfing the horrid IBM website to pull up warranty information. Suffice to say that you ain't gonna get one year of free Dial-A-Geek access just because you bought a ThinkPad. You want to study more truth, go here and find the relevant warranty.

Dude when is the last time you have delt (sic) with Apple? The way you claim to be treated has NEVER been a policy with apple (sic).

The last time I dealt with Apple was November 2005, when I went into an Apple Store in Chicago to get replacement feet for my 14" iBook. Like I mentioned before, I walked out with two sets of replacement feet (that's 8 feet), still in the ServiceSource packages. I paid zilch (that's $0.00). I didn't fill out any paperwork, and I didn't get a receipt. All I did was bring my laptop and my request. Walked out satisfied.

And you're probably right. "Policy" is a strong word -- it would suggest that everyone should expect to be treated the same way. I rather think of it as "courtesy." Maybe only those who give courtesy get it, I don't know. Maybe I'm lucky. Or witty, clever, and charming. Or not. All I know for sure is that anytime I've needed anything from Apple (and that's been quite a lot -- I've been an Apple customer since 1981), I always came away satisfied. Maybe it's because I'm knowledgeable enough to avoid buying crappy Performa stuff or consumer-branded (read: low-end) also-ran products. I buy best-of-breed, and I've always gotten a satisfactory return in Apple's support response and product quality. And I really don't think my anecdotal experience is in any way unique. You and that other fellow, however...

You must be a master of persuasion.

Well, thank you. I am also rather good-looking.

I personally know several authorised service providers and none of them would offer this level of service. They pay for these feet. And they are giving them to you for free? Did you even buy the laptop from them? If it was an apple store, do you see what is going on here?

Uh, yeah. Free feet. Actually, that's no

Well, Dell, Gateway, and IBM certaintly do [have Dial-A-Geek tech support for the life of the warranty].

Prove it. Just about any one of the major vendors will have a 90-day, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 4-year warranty. There are a number of quid pro quo issues with warranty information, and if you're concerned about fairness, then let's be fair. Actually, you smell like trollbait to me, but anyway...

Dell's one-year limited warranty.
Here's how you can contact Gateway with your Technical Support issue. Notice the convenient link for upgrading your warranty. Wonder where it goes...DOH!
Here's the Gateway 1-year limited warranty (pdf).
And, for the record, here's Apple's one-year limited warranty.

Just compare and contrast the three warranties for a moment. They're mostly just legalese, but as far as legal documents go, I like something Apple's warranty lists in the first paragraph:

If a hardware defect arises and a valid claim is received within the Warranty Period, at its option, Apple will either:
(1) repair the hardware defect at no charge, using new or refurbished replacement parts, or
(2) exchange the product with a product that is new or which has been manufactured from new or serviceable used parts and is at least functionally equivalent to the original product, or
(3) refund the purchase price of the product.

Nice and easy. And not all that hard to read, considering it's legal information. By the way, I'm not going to waste my time surfing the horrid IBM website to pull up warranty information. Suffice to say that you ain't gonna get one year of free Dial-A-Geek access just because you bought a ThinkPad. You want to study more truth, go here and find the relevant warranty.

Dude when is the last time you have delt (sic) with Apple? The way you claim to be treated has NEVER been a policy with apple (sic).

The last time I dealt with Apple was November 2005, when I went into an Apple Store in Chicago to get replacement feet for my 14" iBook. Like I mentioned before, I walked out with two sets of replacement feet (that's 8 feet), still in the ServiceSource packages. I paid zilch (that's $0.00). I didn't fill out any paperwork, and I didn't get a receipt. All I did was bring my laptop and my request. Walked out satisfied.

And you're probably right. "Policy" is a strong word -- it would suggest that everyone should expect to be treated the same way. I rather think of it as "courtesy." Maybe only those who give courtesy get it, I don't know. Maybe I'm lucky. Or witty, clever, and charming. Or not. All I know for sure is that anytime I've needed anything from Apple (and that's been quite a lot -- I've been an Apple customer since 1981), I always came away satisfied. Maybe it's because I'm knowledgeable enough to avoid buying crappy Performa stuff or consumer-branded (read: low-end) also-ran products. I buy best-of-breed, and I've always gotten a satisfactory return in Apple's support response and product quality. And I really don't think my anecdotal experience is in any way unique. You and that other fellow, however...

You must be a master of persuasion.

Well, thank you. I am also rather good-looking.

I personally know several authorised service providers and none of them would offer this level of service. They pay for these feet. And they are giving them to you for free? Did you even buy the laptop from them? If it was an apple store, do you see what is going on here?

Uh, yeah. Free feet. Actually, that's no

Strictly speaking, you're right, but quality is hardly irrelevant to someone thinking of buying such a system, which was presumably part of the reason the parent asked the question.

I was mistaken about Dell making PCs with that form factor, though; it was Gateway I was thinking of, as your comment reminded me. We use a number of Gateway Profiles here at my university, and I've found them to be decent machines.

I'll admit I didn't take too much time looking at it, but there was some reason why I didn't look at the NX860X, or decided it wasn't quite the er, apples-to-apples comparsion. But OK, I'll play... here is the Gateway NS860X... and it's $2059. Of course, maybe that's all decked out... Ok, I went through Gateway's PITA customization process ( man, they want to sell you a lot of stuff with your laptop, eh? ) and included XP Pro and whatnot, ended up with what I think ( not positive ) is a system pretty close to a MacBook Pro for $1709.99... oops, I forgot bluetooth... should we think about software bundling and throw in Gateway's optional photo and DVD software and such? Still I'm puzzled... your base price is much lower than the one I found... and what's up with the $2059 quote on that other page, is that maxed out somehow? Oh, and I forgot a webcam... ha ha this is almost funny... I just threw in a webcam and Quicken and the low-end photo and movie/DVD editing programs, and guess what the price came to ? $1,989.95 before shipping and handling! Too funny. Oh, I see where you got your cut-and-paste, here's the version I did :

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2) w/ XP Pro Backup CD ........[ +US$100.00]
Application Software: Microsoft® Works 8.0
Processor: Intel® Core(TM) Duo Processor T2400 (1.83 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache) ........[ +US$90.00]
Memory: 512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1-512MB module) ........[ +US$40.00] ( um... that's not right, is it? I guess I wanted the two 256k 67Mhz ones for $20?)
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive ........[ +US$35.00]
Optical Drive: Integrated 8x Multi-Format Double Layer DVD Writer (DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW) ........[ +US$75.00]
Digital Editing Software: Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90 (6616209) ........[ +US$79.99]
Bluetooth: Bluetooth Wireless Networking Module ........[ +US$50.00]
Finance and Accounting Software: Quicken® Deluxe 2006 ........[ +US$49.99] ( not sure if this is still bundled... it was for a long time )

The photo album software and webcam show up as separate line-items for whatever reason, and total to about a hundred bucks.

Oh, that whole no dual-layer drive thing? Uh... this is a quote from the MacBook Pro "What's Inside" web page:

Maximum Read: 8x DVD-ROM; 6x DVD-ROM (double layer DVD-9), DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW; 4x DVD+R (double layered); 24x CD

Again, I'm not really in the market for a new laptop; maybe I missed some fine print, dual-layer is there on the MacBook Pro specs page. To be fair, you'd need to buy an Apple modem ( I guess Apple thinks we're all using WiFi and broadband these days? ) so that's $49 if you don't have a USB modem and if you have an ancient camera that doesn't have USB or you need a flash card reader for some other (?) reason, you'd need that... but still, pick *all* of the options that equate a MacBook Pro purchase, and it seems that even your Gateway example gets very, very close to the MacBook price, with little details only left, like uh, why can't you get a single 512MB 667Mhz RAM module from Gateway, and the screen sizes are different and the Gateway is a little heavier as a result...

I'll admit I didn't take too much time looking at it, but there was some reason why I didn't look at the NX860X, or decided it wasn't quite the er, apples-to-apples comparsion. But OK, I'll play... here is the Gateway NS860X... and it's $2059. Of course, maybe that's all decked out... Ok, I went through Gateway's PITA customization process ( man, they want to sell you a lot of stuff with your laptop, eh? ) and included XP Pro and whatnot, ended up with what I think ( not positive ) is a system pretty close to a MacBook Pro for $1709.99... oops, I forgot bluetooth... should we think about software bundling and throw in Gateway's optional photo and DVD software and such? Still I'm puzzled... your base price is much lower than the one I found... and what's up with the $2059 quote on that other page, is that maxed out somehow? Oh, and I forgot a webcam... ha ha this is almost funny... I just threw in a webcam and Quicken and the low-end photo and movie/DVD editing programs, and guess what the price came to ? $1,989.95 before shipping and handling! Too funny. Oh, I see where you got your cut-and-paste, here's the version I did :

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2) w/ XP Pro Backup CD ........[ +US$100.00]
Application Software: Microsoft® Works 8.0
Processor: Intel® Core(TM) Duo Processor T2400 (1.83 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache) ........[ +US$90.00]
Memory: 512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1-512MB module) ........[ +US$40.00] ( um... that's not right, is it? I guess I wanted the two 256k 67Mhz ones for $20?)
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive ........[ +US$35.00]
Optical Drive: Integrated 8x Multi-Format Double Layer DVD Writer (DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW) ........[ +US$75.00]
Digital Editing Software: Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90 (6616209) ........[ +US$79.99]
Bluetooth: Bluetooth Wireless Networking Module ........[ +US$50.00]
Finance and Accounting Software: Quicken® Deluxe 2006 ........[ +US$49.99] ( not sure if this is still bundled... it was for a long time )

The photo album software and webcam show up as separate line-items for whatever reason, and total to about a hundred bucks.

Oh, that whole no dual-layer drive thing? Uh... this is a quote from the MacBook Pro "What's Inside" web page:

Maximum Read: 8x DVD-ROM; 6x DVD-ROM (double layer DVD-9), DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW; 4x DVD+R (double layered); 24x CD

Again, I'm not really in the market for a new laptop; maybe I missed some fine print, dual-layer is there on the MacBook Pro specs page. To be fair, you'd need to buy an Apple modem ( I guess Apple thinks we're all using WiFi and broadband these days? ) so that's $49 if you don't have a USB modem and if you have an ancient camera that doesn't have USB or you need a flash card reader for some other (?) reason, you'd need that... but still, pick *all* of the options that equate a MacBook Pro purchase, and it seems that even your Gateway example gets very, very close to the MacBook price, with little details only left, like uh, why can't you get a single 512MB 667Mhz RAM module from Gateway, and the screen sizes are different and the Gateway is a little heavier as a result...

Slow down there, cowboy. Acer != Dell, for starters. Mmmm... *slightly* slower video? That's an X1400 vs a X1600, I'd like to see that benchmark. Similarly for the CPU, 1.66Ghz vs 1.83Ghz ? Oh you forgot to mention memory : 533Mhz memory vs 677Mhz ? 1280x800 display vs Apple's 1440x900? It appears I could go on and on, but... you get the point. This is not the laptop you're looking for.

Oh, and that's a retailer-discounted price, after rebate. The real price is $1499. Sure, you get it for $1299 eventually, but... meh. Point is, there are more than a few ways that the Acer isn't equivalent even "functionally" whatever that means ; it's more like what I'd expect the iBook replacement to be, except I expect that to be Core Solo and even cheaper...

These are not "similar" specs, and it's only $500 cheaper, really. Find a machine with actually similar ( as opposed to consitiently inferior ) specs, then get back to me. I suggest checking Dell's website. Oh, that Gateway laptop? $2099-2,809.95 depending on configuration... again... maybe a bit cheaper, but not a really, definitely not a big difference, sorry... Apple is competitive here. The only real issue is they don't have the mind-boggling wide arrange of choices you find from the 8 other larger manufacturers. Sure, that's an issue for some, but if that's a bigger issue than Windows vs OS X... use Windows. Really. You want to have your cake and eat it to ?? Um... so do I, but I'm not going to tell Apple they need to support other hardware manufacturers' businesses, and I'm not sure why you'd think they should.

I'm going to guess that if Dell or HP or Sony offered Apple a really, really good deal ( including co-development, etc ), they *might* get an OEM deal out of Apple... but they'd really, really have to make it worth Apple's while. Apple *could* release OS X for more generic systems, but should they really, would it be a wise business move? How much would it cost to write drivers for all of those video chipsets and memory cards and...uh, why was it again that you can't run Linux on that laptop? I see... sorry, Dell or someone offering Apple a giant stack of cash is the best you're going to hope for, if OS X on their hardware is somehow what you really, really want. Start yourself a letter writing campaign... to the hardware manufacturers, though, not to Apple...

I just got a new Gateway laptop with a wireless card made by Broadcom. After much trying and cursing, today I finally enabled the thing, thanks to ndiswrapper. It is interesting that the drivers from the CD are not working, but some strange driver for a similar card from Gateway's website is running well. I had some lockups in the process, so I am ready for nasty surprises down the road.

Anyway, this post is made from a Gateway 6023GP running Ubuntu Breezy, through a new and shiny wireless connection :) IMHO, wireless devices need a lot of help, but the situation is by no means hopeless. It looks like ACPI support is almost worse. Still cannot get the damn thing to hibernate...

I have found it very difficult to spec-out and price one of Dell's better laptops or one of Powernotebook.com's better offerings without bumping into the $2,000 range to get everything I want.

*boggle*

Well, I doubt you'll be looking at the new Macs, then. I got one of these for about a grand, and it's got a 15.4" WXGA screen, 80G HD, 512MB, DVD +/- RW, 802.11g + 10/100, 4 USB/VGA/FireWire, supports monitor spanning, up to 1.5G main memory -- I mean, what is it you want, anyway? I added the extra 1G of memory and I'm able to run WebSphere + Oracle 10g + WSAD and develop a good-sized Java app on it. I'm hard-pressed to think what you might want that isn't covered here (although I'd spend the money for a 7200RPM hard drive, I guess).

I really don't want to get into a pissing war between you and an AC, but

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I enter the BIOS Setup utility on the Gateway 610 Media Center PC?

A: To enter the BIOS Setup utility, turn on the computer and begin pressing the F2 key in one-second intervals. If you complete this step successfully, the BIOS Setup Utility screen is displayed. If no screen is displayed and Windows starts up normally, repeat this step.

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Also the Apple Intel Dev boxs seem to ship with BIOS.

Apple's Developer Transition Kit features a Pentium 4 660 processor running at 3.6 GHz.. run Microsoft Windows without issue.. feature a standard Phoenix BIOS

The AC may be wrong, but I havent seen anything to indicate that. If you could cite something, that would be helpful since I'm really interested in the Apple X86 Laptops but the EFI turns me cold.

I looked here: http://gateway.com/products/GConfig/proddetails.as p?system_id=nx560xl&seg=hm.

BTW, not to sound redundant, but have you tried here?

Links to MCE 2005 systems(their e-stores)
I know this takes all the fun out of it, but sometimes it really is just too much work
to get a computer to do stuff that should be easy(i.e. Suse vs. Gentoo; i use both).
Consider these a few points of reference for your plans for World Domination
("...What are we going to do tonight Brain?..." ;-)

Shuttle: Shuttle m1000
which looks like a 'normal' audio/video component, and a variety of SFF-based systems from 899$US.
the advantage of the SFF-based systems would be customizability(video cards up to 6800gt, HDDs to 400GB
(three drives in a P-series chassis=1.2TB),

HP(Hewlett-Packard): HP z500 series
also a 'component' style chassis, five models of varying performance and capacity, also customizable.

Gateway: Gateway FX400
sadly, all towers, but customizable(dual-core!)

Sony's newest vaio system: Sony VGX-XL1
a bit pricey at 2300$US but totally full featured with a dual-core P-D 820, and a 200-disk optical jukebox
NOT customizable.

(why can't i get the HP link to NOT be green? OR, better yet, why can't i get the other links to BE green? bah.)

Considering that a "CPU" can be had for $400 (2.8GHz Celeron D without even trying, just a search on google).

So 24 hours a day, $400 -> 16 days work. Let's add in 25% for "stuff" (electricity costs, etc., being generous...) and you're still saying that a problem that takes 20 days or more, you're better off buying a throw-away PC and running Linux on it.

So, it must be aimed at the smaller problems. Like what ?

Simon

I agree, except for the BTX example. I think BTX is being adopted (gradually) by the mainstream. We can't just expect them to drop all of their proven, mature ATX designs right away for newly designed BTX cases. For mainstream BTX that's already been released, see:

• Gateway 9000 series
• IBM ThinkCentre A51p
• Shuttle i Series
• Dell Dimension 9100 and 5000
• Dell Optiplex SX280, GX280, and GX620

I know last year I could buy an enlight atx desktop for about $50 or so. I complained that was a touch spendy for a beige in contrast to all the midtowers priced at $20 or so. But now the phrase "home theater PC" has been coined... the old style desktop case is now a "media center". Now you're lucky to find the desktop style for under $65.

But all is not lost. The old Gateway Destination PCs are starting to hit the used market for under $75 or so. The last one I looked at could take a standard 6 slot ATX board so long as you pulled out the two bubbles the slot one retention bracket screwed into. While the original product was so underpowered it couldn't do what it was advertised to do, I have to admit the case was nice and fit in a normal stereo stack.

There has been a similar laptop from Gateway , which has been shipping for at least 1.5 yrs.

http://products.gateway.com/products/gconfig/prodh mseries.asp?seg=hm&gcseries=gtwym460&clv=Img

You can customize any of the Gateway M460's to reach ~10 hours of battery life when configured with their Primary 12-Cell lithium ion battery + the modular 6-Cell lithium ion battery.

The 12-Cell is obviously the primary battery... while the 6-Cell fits into the modular bay.

Pretty sweat setup and no accessories needed.

I know I've seen them in stores, but try Gateway and eMachines to see for yourself.

My computer can already do all of this, without some fancy package from Intel.

Is your computer as easy to operate as a TV or VCR/DVD? What is the bootup time of your media center? Keep in mind the average user gets confused setting up a VCR.

Gateway circa 1997 or so released their own media center Destination series in the $5000 price bracket. It included a huge VGA TV 27 to 35 inch and Harmon Karmon sound system. The TV wasn't worth writing home about as its dotpitch was too low for 640*480, even models sold later didn't include and the system was too slow to record video in real time. But the major complaint was the fact that people had to wait for windows to bootup to watch TV (no one could figure out you could jack the cable directly into the TV). Channel surfing was slowed down made the whole experence of watching TV more complex requring a huge keyboard sized remote.

My computer can already do all of this, without some fancy package from Intel.

Is your computer as easy to operate as a TV or VCR/DVD? What is the bootup time of your media center? Keep in mind the average user gets confused setting up a VCR.

Gateway circa 1997 or so released their own media center Destination series in the $5000 price bracket. It included a huge VGA TV 27 to 35 inch and Harmon Karmon sound system. The TV wasn't worth writing home about as its dotpitch was too low for 640*480, even models sold later didn't include and the system was too slow to record video in real time. But the major complaint was the fact that people had to wait for windows to bootup to watch TV (no one could figure out you could jack the cable directly into the TV). Channel surfing was slowed down made the whole experence of watching TV more complex requring a huge keyboard sized remote.

HP will sell you a HP Compaq dx2000 "Small & Medium Business PC" for about $650 that includes Microsoft Works (not MS Office, not MS Works Suite) and Windows XP Professional. Office costs $100 more. (Select "Windows XP Professional with SP1a" for the OS.)

Gateway will sell you an E-2300 desktop for $550 with Windows XP Professional and Works Suite (which includes Word and Encarta but not Outlook). Office Basic (Word, Excel, and Outlook) costs $90 more.

Most companies that have an Exchange server buy Outlook with their PCs or have a license agreement to install it throughout the company. However, don't try to sell me this "you can't buy a business PC without Outlook" argument.

Depends how you define cheap.

You can get a half-gig flash based mp3 player for under 50 bucks.

As for the MacMini, for 499 you get: 1.25ghz G4, 256 megs of PC2700, 40 gig HDD, and a 10/100 ethernet and a 32 meg Radeon 9200.

Compare to This for 349 - oh, this comes with a 17" Flat CRT

Apple is still overpriced, but the Mac Mini is as close as they've ever come to putting it in the "regular folk" price range.

I'm just not in the market for a 2.9 lb mini-box that I can't upgrade or tinker with myself, or I'd consider one.

I really wish there was such a thing as a "barebones" mac, or that they'd open the platform up to third parties. But then, they'd face the same software challenges as MSFT, and their OS would perform about as well.

I picked up a Gateway 700GR system a few months back to replace another box and its a BTX based system. I wish more BTX stuff would hit as I'd like to replace this case with somthing nicer... http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/3726/3726nv.shtm l

My university just began a Tablet PC program at the beginning of this academic year and while I admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, I've become a believer in the power of Tablet PCs. The students and faculty have been issued the M275 Gateway Tablets and while it may not be the best of the best in terms of hardware, I still wouldn't trade it for a top of the line laptop.

So what's so great about these Tablet PCs? Portability comes to mind right away. Sure, the wireless internet access is great, but this thing's also incredibly lightweight compared to all the books I used to carry around, which leads me to another point -- consolidation. Despite having only started this Tablet PC program this past fall, several of my books for my classes were either online or in an electronic format of some kind. My chemistry lab manual was in PDF form and (unfortunately at times) specifically prohibited printing so as to comply with the goal of making our school a paperless campus. Every single professor I had this past semester told my classmates and me to leave our books at home because we wouldn't need them. All of my assignments were submitted electronically and returned electronically. Students and professors alike could search for information in class in real time. Want to find the electronegativity of Francium? Go Google it!

The thing for me which sets the Tablet head and shoulders above just a plain old laptop, though, is the writing feature. I take all of my notes on my Tablet (using Microsoft OneNote). I did all of my calculations for Chemistry, Economics, and Math in OneNote as well. I printed professor's powerpoint lecture notes to the Windows Journal and wrote right onto the PowerPoint presentations. My Economics professor created lecture note templates for each chapter and allowed us to fill them in as he taught. In just one semester, notebooks and paper essentially became obsolete, and instead of dragging 3 several hundred page books, 3 notebooks, and 3 folders to class, I only took my Tablet, stylus, and maybe a calculator (though the Tablet even has that, and I even have a TI-89 emulator on my Tablet). The Tablet made my schoolwork so much more consolidated.

The one thing I do long for, however, is to run GNU/Linux on my Tablet. We're allowed to install pretty much whatever we want to as far as software on our machines, and I looked for a distro that would match XP Tablet Edition, but I couldn't find anything that came close. I dislike Microsoft just as much as the next guy (or gal), but I have to admit that when it comes to Tablet PCs, the free software camp is really trailing behind. I considered Xandros and also Lycoris' Tablet PC distro, but they're in their infancy at best. I'd miss being able to write in red ink all over a word processing document, writing notes and then having the program convert them into typed text, and the amazing handwriting recognition (especially with XP Tablet Edition 2005). I long for free software to catch up, and as a Computer Science major I hope that perhaps soon I may be able to begin contributing toward that goal, but for now Microsoft has the power and unfortunately that's the way things are. I really welcome this article's news of developers taking an interest in the Tablet PC and sincerely hope it's just the tip of the iceberg with respect to free software growing to serve the Tablet PC market.

Intel's glory days won't be behind them until I can visit dell.com and pick my processor for most systems. HP sells Intel processors in the vast majority of their machines. I looked on Gateway's business website only to see more Intel machines. The majority of people I know run WinTel -- particularly those who don't know what they run.

That isn't to say I'm not rooting for more competition. As my posting history indicates, I've become something of an Apple fanboy (I'm typing this on a PowerBook). But I recognize myself as a microscopic part of a oceanic market. I don't use Intel processors; the DIY geek market picks AMD, but I don't think so many others do.

No, Gateway does not make an iPod. They're seling (pre-selling really,) a $250 MP3 player though. Stores up to 1,000 songs. Yawn!!