Slashdot Mirror

Hanno asks: "There are US companies selling Japanese gadgets not available in the US to local customers. But what about buying American hardware in Europe? I'm thinking about buying a US laptop that is not sold in Germany and the import, payment and warranty issues are giving me a headache. Has anyone else done this and what was your experience?"

"Here's the story: Fujitsu Germany does not want to sell the P2000 laptop over here in Germany - after some I research, I managed to contact one of their laptop product managers and he told me that Fujitsu-Siemens Computers Germany will absolutely never sell it, no matter what.

FSC also does not offer to import the laptop from the US sister company and obviously, they do not provide support or warranty for a US-only laptop in case it gets broken over here.

Well, frell you, FSC, thanks for your consideration of customer input. But the P2000 is still a pretty unique piece of hardware, even the price is ok, and there is no competing product on the European market (at least none that I know of).

Next problem: Most US mail-order shops do not ship outside the US anymore. (This includes Fujitsu's own webshop. Even the P2000 giveaway sweepstakes is US only...) And of those who do ship to Europe, most do not accept foreign credit cards anymore, at least not those who are known for good customer-support. What other payment option should I consider? Any shop you can recommend?

Finally, how about support and warranty with Fujitsu US and/or the store I bought it from? Do foreign customers get any such support at all? Has any of the readers who bought a US-only product and brought it to Europe tried to get support later and what was your experience?

(In case you wondered why I am not asking about it: Customs is not a problem. Buying US computers and having it sent to Germany is customs-free, I'll have to add the German sales-tax to the price, though...)"

Every few months I see a new laptop that really impresses me, and Hanno submitted one that does that with room to spare. PaceBlade has a transmeta chip, PCMCIA, irda, USB and all the usual stuff... except that it features a removable ir keyboard, and can be used as a traditional laptop, or as a workpad sorta thing with a pen. Expected release around the middle of the year with a $2k price tag... I'm super skeptical of that price.

Hanno asks: "While watching a summary of the global new year's eve 2000 celebrations on CNN, I was wondering if those celebrations were visible from space. News reports claim that those were the biggest fireworks and light shows in history. So for a space observer, it must have been interesting to watch a wave of fireworks "moving" from timezone to timezone. I guess that some folks from the various military, research and commercial satellite organizations are reading here. So if you have any, "please post pics" I'd love to see a summary of Y2K, as seen from space." Now this would be really cool to see. Did anyone have their spy eyes on for the new year?

Hanno asks: "It seems to me that some folks think that X is outdated and should be replaced. I know of the Berlin project and the announcement of Amiga to use the Linux kernel seems to be another candidate of a non-X windowing system (if the new Amiga is ever to happen). I wonder about the reasons. With this question, I don't want to start a discussion if X should be replaced or not, but I only want to find out what's bad about it and where other solutions are better. And I don't want folks to simply bash X, just some solid, technical reasoning. Which other windowing system (on which other operating systems) are out there and what are their pros/cons compared to X?" All I ask is that you folks PLEASE restrain from the rampant advocacy. I think this is a good question that might start a thought provoking discussions. Have at it.