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Rolling Your Own Laptop?
rneches asks: "I've been looking around for a Linux friendly laptop, and I've found a
couple of reasonable systems. However, there really aren't any laptops out there that really meet the needs of a Linux user.
In particular, most laptops are, more or less, desktop replacements.
As such, they are loaded with scads of nifty features, beefy
processors, and so forth. This is great, I suppose, if you are
running Windows or MacOS and want a desktop replacement. If you're a
Linux user, and spend most of your time in emacs windows (er, frames), most of that fancy stuff is more of a liability than an asset. In other words, I'm talking about coders, admins and other Linux hackers more than I'm talking about the 'average user'." In short, rneches is looking to find a way to build his own laptop, and if the platform doesn't exist to be able to do this, he's looking for help in creating one. Interested?
Which brings me to my point - Is it possible to roll your own laptop? I've looked at pc104 systems that might do the job for a base, and flash disks that would be great for storage and battery life, but the video, screen and enclosure are all somewhat of a mystery to me. I've taken apart Dells and (shudder) Sonys, and the video hardware is completely non-standard and funky. Each major brand of LCD has a different connector, and require a special (as in, not your average VGA compatible card) hardware to drive them. I'm not sure where I'd get a decent PS/2 keyboard that would be appropriate for a laptop. And as for the case itself - well, I'd probably need take out some life insurance, and then get in touch with those folks from the /. story a few months back about making storm trooper costumes from vacuum molded PVC.
I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project. The pc104 standard seems like a pretty good standard to use in the same way desktop system use AT and ATX. Most of the pc104 boards are intended for ultra low power embedded systems, but there's no reason I can see that beefier chips couldn't be used. You'd have to give up the spiffy ZIF sockets, but laptops aren't really that upgradable anyway. Chances are, there's already a pc104 board that will do just about anything you want at very low power consumption. You could cram two or three pc104 boards into a really thin laptop (side by side, not stacked).
If someone started making pc104 video cards that could drive a host of different LCD screens, that would help a lot too. And, of course, someone would have to make some decent cases.
Is there anyone out there who's tried this? Any successes, I hope?
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?"
"From a laptop, I want five things:
- A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
- Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
- Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
- Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
- Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
Which brings me to my point - Is it possible to roll your own laptop? I've looked at pc104 systems that might do the job for a base, and flash disks that would be great for storage and battery life, but the video, screen and enclosure are all somewhat of a mystery to me. I've taken apart Dells and (shudder) Sonys, and the video hardware is completely non-standard and funky. Each major brand of LCD has a different connector, and require a special (as in, not your average VGA compatible card) hardware to drive them. I'm not sure where I'd get a decent PS/2 keyboard that would be appropriate for a laptop. And as for the case itself - well, I'd probably need take out some life insurance, and then get in touch with those folks from the /. story a few months back about making storm trooper costumes from vacuum molded PVC.
I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project. The pc104 standard seems like a pretty good standard to use in the same way desktop system use AT and ATX. Most of the pc104 boards are intended for ultra low power embedded systems, but there's no reason I can see that beefier chips couldn't be used. You'd have to give up the spiffy ZIF sockets, but laptops aren't really that upgradable anyway. Chances are, there's already a pc104 board that will do just about anything you want at very low power consumption. You could cram two or three pc104 boards into a really thin laptop (side by side, not stacked).
If someone started making pc104 video cards that could drive a host of different LCD screens, that would help a lot too. And, of course, someone would have to make some decent cases.
Is there anyone out there who's tried this? Any successes, I hope?
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?"
This is dumb. You'll end up paying three times as much to develop this thing. Just go buy an ultraportable, like the Thinkpad X22... no drives built in, weighs barely anything... runs anything you want, and hell, you can even get it with linux pre-installed.
Wouldn't it be easier to get Linux to work on a laptop instead of building a laptop from scratch.
-"The early bird catches the worm, but the late bird sleeps the most"
What about tux screen ? http://tuxscreen.net/
Even though it's a telephone type system, you might be able to get enough information from it to build what you need. It has a ARM based processor running Linux. You might get some ideas from that.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to build a laptop?
Before you attempt a roll your own take a laptop apart and see if you can get the thing back together. I amost garantee that you will not be able to get the case back on.
Just buy one for heavens sake!!!
You have to much tiem on your hands
Modern definition of an expert: Someone who comes from far away with a powerpoint presentation.
In what way? I have run Linux (various distros) on a variety of laptops ranging from an old toshiba T3400 to various Tecra's and Thinkpads without too many problems.
Anyhow, building your own laptop would be quite a challenge. You don't have a choice of nice, standard-sized mobos that fit nice standard enclosures. Laptop parts (mobos, cases, screens) are made to fit by the manufacturer, there ain't much you can change except for the HDD.
And you don't want PCMCIA (PC-CARD), well bang goes most of your hardware customisation options right there!
Look,
You are asking for a lot of trouble and I doubt you will be satisfied with your hackies result.
I am a typical "power-user" and have cycled through many laptops and machines but it seems I am settling on my laptop just for mail, and do all my development on a box. Just the raw power makes a huge difference.
I used to love my Linux laptop about 2 years ago, I felt so sophisticated. Tell you the truth I am running w2k on it now (A Sony Vaio), just wasn't worth the trouble. Then my box runs Linux (RH) and I do most of my java development on it, I am very happy with it.
Bottom line is this: Laptops and boxes are very different in how sensitive they are to "fucking around". It is pretty simple to assemble a box from scratch, even fun and economical but with Laptops I wouldn't fuck with quality, you need high end material and high end assembly, otherwise you are going to have a clunky thing that doesn't hold up... and then the linux choice to boot is imho a mistake, but that is another story.
Get real,
marcf
The real mnf999 always posts as anonymous coward
Maybe considering that you want really really good battery life, you should consider stipping yet more out of the specification.
I was wondering if, as an emacs user, you could cope with a real text-only display - just like a text mode console. Surely the lack of video RAM, bandwidth etc should save some power?
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
TOSHIBA TECRA
With a bigger screen and better video. Maybe take a look at an iPaq, grab an expansion chassis and a couple of NIC's (Whichever you want), and have a blast. You can even install Linux on it, if that's what really floats your boat.
See... and you thought your sig was boring - TT
It will save you much aggrivation and probably a lot of money as well.
It has many of the features that you asked about.
PC104 is an old, but still very usable reference platform for building embedded devices.
Hit this google link
Google Search on PC104
It has a much greater use/life in Europe than it ever did here in the States.
The little modules are stackable, and they make little "backplane" like boards for you to put the modules.
Or as Egg Chin in Big Trouble in Little China said, "Its like your salad bar -- we take what we want, and leave the rest for everyone else"
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
Heh...I've had no trouble getting even Debian to work on my IBM Thinkpad 760XL. Sounds to me like
meches just hasn't put enough effort into getting
a laptop to work the way he/she wants it to.
Well, you could start with some pc-104 components, add a pcmcia module, an LCD control module, etc. Or you could base it off of one of many SBC's available in the EBX little board format such as this one from Ampro. Then you just have to find an open-frame LCD to use, pick some drives and fabricate your own case. Easy right ;-).
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
"I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project."
What day was that? 1950? First Desktop PCs were sold as kits, you realise.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
I suggest taking a look at some old (used) IBM ThinkPads. I've used them for years, and for the most part they're great. They're too expensive when they're new, but the older systems have just about everything you're asking for. Most had built-in Ethernet at least as an option. Many had CD-ROM as only an option, with the space replacable with an extra battery or hard drive. They're a decent size and well-built. The ones with butter-fly keyboards (expand when opened) are exceptionally small.
The only issue could be battery life. But like I said, with some models you can drop the extra drive and use a battery instead, or maybe IBM sells better modern batteries that would fit in the old systems.
So check out models from IBM and then search for them on auction sites and such. Good luck!
P.S. When you've found or built what you're looking for, let us know what linux distro you used, or how you built your own, since so many of us have issues getting Linux up on laptops.
Developers: We can use your help.
The TiBook G4 has almost _EXACTLY_ the features you want.
It runs Yellow Dog Linux very, very nicely.
And the wide-screen aspect ratio on its display is FANTASTIC for running side-by-side xterms....
--nbvb
IBM THINKPAD
I think one's effort would be better spent with improving Linux hardware support instead of going through the hassle of building a laptop from scratch.
Akin to turning the house around to install a light bulb.
My only laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 210CT, which is a P120 with 32Meg RAM and it has CD-Rom and 1.3 Gig harddisk and TFT 800x*600 screen (2 dead pixels). I use this machine more than my "big" desktop machine. It does basic surfing and email with WindowMaker (browser:Opera), so I guess doing emacs on console shouldn't be a problem at all. Okay, compile time (I suppose you develop C/C++) could take a while but everyone needs a good coffee/tea/mountain dew-break once in a while.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
really, really, really big E-Z Widers and about a pound or more of blunt.
Don't think so when you have to compile a kernel or some other large source file. I rather like having 512MB Ram and a fast processor in my laptop so I can spend more time coding and less time waiting.
Any basic laptop will do. I saw an iBook running YellowDog Linux. It was a refurb for under $1,000. He added a three button mouse and was having a lot of fun.
If you want to do it for an intellectual challenge, go for it, but don't confuse it with anything practical at this stage.
photosMy Photostream
Tuxtops used to do it but are now focusing on software. Their hardware buisness is being handled by QLITech Personally, when I wasnt using x, an old Compaq presario 1210 running Slackware worked well (except of course the modem. Now I am running a Sony Vaio PCG-FX240 with Red Hat 7.2, and it has no problems (except the modem, which I have no need for with broadband everywhere I use it. ). (Slack install didnt go as well as I would have liked...) A great deal of useful info can be found on the Linux on laptops page.
Have you read the Moderator Guidelines yet?
Yeah you are such a special coder with such special needs - woooooo.
Just buy a Dell and quit posturing.
Why do so many people think that using Linux somehow makes them other than average?
You think you are better than the CEO because you use Emacs?
I wish to God there was standard laptop parts like desktop parts, but the fact of the matter is: there isn't!
Not to mention that putting a laptop together is a general bitch! I once, when I was working as a computer technician recently, was asked to replace the bios battery in a laptop. The manufacturer said it was doable so I made my attempt...I never even got as far as the battery...I couldn't get the case completely off. Hahaha...putting it back together was even more fun.
It'd be a good idea if the parts were standard, but they aren't...no where near it!
Derek Greene
I can see this going the way that portable SPARCs did... although, that was a great idea, just too darn expensive.
Somebody else said that a titanium iBook has a good feature set, and I'd have to agree - MASSIVE screen, and LONG battery life.
Ofcourse, its bogged down with DVD drive, modem, sound, infra red and a whole load of other crap, but hey - it fits most of your needs.
What would be really cool would be something like a MIPS or SPARC based laptop in the casing of a titanium iBook - purely for the screen size. Anybody else think that would rule?
Check out Sceptre . I remember reading a few years ago that they were the original oem for dell, quantex and a few other laptop makers. Can't confirm it though. I think PC Magazine even had a story about how Quantex and Dell Inspiron were essentially the same laptop with a few small differences.
I use IBM Thinkpad 600's. PII-266MHZ with 128 RAM 2MB video, refurbed units with extra 2year warranty can be had for $599.00. I get 5+ hours of battery and linux runs like a dream. I do use a PCMCIA dongless 10/100 net adapter (and they have the best screen you'll find in a laptop).
Helluva lot cheaper than building one (it is almost impossible to build one, believe me I am a system builder.)
Meches can find what he is looking for in just about any laptop produced today. So what if it comes loaded with more bells and whistles than a belly dancer...whipe it off and start over.
Battery life of a week, on a system used for coding...I think that is a little far fetched. I have to agree with him on this point though. My COMPAQ (ewwww) 1200 barely has enough battery life to spend a week out of town checking email. Course...it is a Windows system.
What is the average battery life most of you see?
He added a three button mouse
How did he do that? (Looking forward to voiding the warrenty on my brand-spanking new iBook)
Please, don't call it 'Rolling' a laptop the same way you call it rolling a blunt. Let's not promote any more drugs. Drugs are bad, mmkay?
Not quite the question, but I bet a great many people looking for a Linux laptop really do care about things like color.
I am a developer who uses X and graphics tools. In my looking for a laptop had one priority: Screen resolution.
I purchased a Dell C800. Currently I am staring at a 1600x1200 16 million color Mozilla window. Not only that, but how many CRT's can do that resultion well. With my LCD, not only is the screen crystal clear, but I still have room to have more things on the screen at one time than I can really pay attention to. For my application testing (jsp), I do my editing in full screen Netbeans, then minimize leaving two terminal windows, and a Mozilla window (or two) open. I use the two terminals for packaging and deploying the app for view in mozilla.
I have had RedHat 7.1 and (now) 7.2 on the C800, and most things work fine. Only problems I have had is the video adapter doesn't support DGA (for direct VMWare screen access) and the internal modem (on a ethernet, 802.11b, modem combo card) did not work until RH 7.2. RH 7.2 detected the modem on the first after install boot. I have never used the wireless interface, so I'm not sure it that works.
This is a great machine for the high end Linux user, I would buy it again for use with RedHat 7.2. (I have the 1Ghz version btw.)
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Small, durable, and insanely long battery life (9 hours+ with quad capacity battery.) They're coming out with a new version that runs at 600Mhz and runs at 1280x600 native resolution.
This remind me of the Simpsons episode when Homer was hired to build a car...
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
"Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well."
1 week battery life? I think you should invest in an international power adapter. And you don't want PCMCIA sockets, why not? What about expansion?
I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
;-)
I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'
What's up with the obsession with airplanes? Don't you know that they don't allow you to use laptops on flights?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
vi (vim) forever!!!!
--Chemguru
> So, basically, I want a tough little
> system with a StrongARM CPU, a flash
> disk and grayscale 1024x768 LCD.
> Insofar as I can tell, no one makes
> such a thing.
RiscStation is about to issue an ARM-Powered laptop...
And RiscOS machines support ARMLinux or RiscBSD (even though I 'd advice you to just keep using RiscOS which is far more intuitive and performant on such platforms)...
Anyway, the product is not ready yet but you may hear about it *very* soon.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
ever here of tuxtops ? how about the laptop howto ?
btw 2 years ago i took a generic laptop (Twinhead Slimnote) and installed RH 6.2 w/ no hardware problems i am sure the latest
RH versions support the hardware in the laptop of your choice.
roll your own laptop ? re-invent the wheel ?
eramm
I've been thinking about retro fitting an old IBM thinkpad, for just this purpose. Remember, the old laptops had about the same battery life a current ones, but they used old NiCad technology. Strap a fat new NiMH or Lithium cell to that baby an it should run for quite a while. You might also try switching to a less processor intesive application like vi. :-) Since I still see a lot of the old thinkpads around, I'm inclined to say they are more durable, but don't quote me. Concreate is an indescriminat laptop killer...
I was going to build a shoe-boxed size PC for myself using standard size mobo and drives, right-angle PCI arms and a wood box. My plan was to mount the mobo on the bottom and the drives on top.
For a screen I would slap a 13" LCD on top to finish it off!
Seriously look into it. Made by Hewlett Packard. The OmniBook XP (or any variation of) works perfectly with linux. Resolution, screen size, harware detection, etc.
I have successfully run both Linux Mandrake and Red Hat on it. (Even back to Red Hat 6.2!)
I use a Xircom ethernet card, and that was detected by both with no effort.....
Why build your own when you can easily buy one ready to go?
Linuxrunner
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
What's wrong with the present shipping laptops? Do you really dislike beefy processors? Just because Linux can run on a 486 doesn't mean that I want it to. I'd much rather have a beefy processor and "scads of nifty features", even if I don't use all of them, than an anemic piece of junk.
If you want a great laptop, especially a great screen, try looking at the Dell Inspiron 7000. That's what I use, dual booted with Linux, and it works great. Also, the 15" screen is the best in all laptopdom. It ain't cheap but, that screen. Wow, that screen!
Well, for battery life, you could port Linux to this.
I own a Sony Vaio (Superslim series, PGC-Z505), and it has nearly anything you're looking for. It really lacks in battery life time. 2hrs if you VI on it. But you can buy a "6hrs" battery, that means you can VI on it for 6 hrs. And then you'll still have the 2hrs battery shipped by default... well I guess you could fill in your suitcase with batteries. Other thing that sucks is 64MB of RAM. But I don't really notice it with Linux (but default OS: WinME aghhhhh...).
I installed a Debian on it with NO problem, even if I had no CD rom, not even an external one. Builtin networking is enough - quite good, not a 3com but having in my home network with just 3coms and a kickass switch the Vaio integrated well.
It is small (letter paper sized x 1inch) and light (3lbs maybe), but has a max res of 1024x768 (there are some smaller ones which only have 600x800). Didn't get the modem working.
And I find it really nice. That's also a reason I bought it, but I don't think you actually care.
But if you really want to build your own... well, if you have the money to buy the parts and the patience to put it all together I think it will be at least a very instructive activity and you'll learn a lot from it. I'd like to hear of the result.
You may want to check out CyberResearch they have alot of NEMA-12 and NEMA-4 Compliant 'portables' that may suit your needs. They have ALOT of other interesting equipment as well. I used to work for them - they are a very reputable company, and although the stuff they sell is on the pricey side, its well worth it.
Don't Tread on Me
or how about a REAL long power cord.
Being a hopelessly addicted computer user, and a college student 147 miles from home, I've often brought everything -- My 15" monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the tower. It's quite a lot to bring, so when I built my new box, portability was the key.
Here's the base unit:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/bookpc2.htm
It's small, compact, and fits in the large pocket of my schoolbag nicely. It currently has a 933 Pentium III, 256 mb of memory, and a 40 mb HD. It's dual-booted with Win98 and Mandrake Linux 8.1
I also use a special keyboard:
http://www.dnrtechs.com/foldable.html
I feels a bit strange at first, but it's not all the difficult to et used to -- even for everyday use.
Finally, I have a logitech optical mouse. I don't have a LCD monitor yet, I'm hoping to find a thin 15".
"Software is a feeling, refined and expanded by each who touch it."
-Solstice
Solstice@deninet.com
Erm...did you read the original post at all? He is specifically looking to *not* expand his laptop, presumably because he doesn't care. Moreover, as unrealistic as it sounds, he doesn't want to worry about power adapters. <BR>
<BR>
It's like I said, "Hey, I really want pancakes for breakfast!", and you replied with, "Pancakes? What about scrambled eggs? And how about some toast with them?" Bah.
.. a Psion 5mx.
It runs linux, although its not particularly complete yet. There has been major development on the 5mx recently though and hopefully it should get to a good state soon.
OK maybe not the size of thing you want but its 36Mhz ARM, 16Mb RAM, compact flash disk, backlit greyscale 640x240 screen, goes 8 hours on 2 AAs and you can carry it in your pocket (just about).
The machines are cheap second hand now since psion have gone tits up but you better be quick before they disappear. Get a big CF disk and you can have a full debian-arm distribution on it.
look here for the linux on psion files
If you want something bigger, how about the netbook? 32Mb, 206Mhz ARM etc. This runs linux too but im not sure at what level of completeness.
Its a shame psion have stopped making these machines, as technically theyre very nice.
Probably by plugging it into the USB port.
(Just a guess)
Reality has a liberal bias
Well, I have a 5 year old Toshiba, and the disto I use (older laptop, small harddisk) is Peanut Linux . Everything works, XFree86, sound, network PCMCIA card and modem PCMCIA card. Give it a try. I ditched KOffice and parts of KDE2 (well, most of it, not everything) because it's too heavy for my laptop, but with WindowMaker it works fine.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I first installed Linux on an old Sager-Middern laptop (233MHz, 128MB Ram) and my battery life went from ~2 hours to 8+ hours. I am a "power-user" in that I normally have from 3 to 8 applications open at one time. Windows just sucked the battery dry. Linux seems to handle the large number of applications much better. Even with significant swapping going on. On top of that, you should see the looks I get when I "surf the web" from 35,000 feet.
This poster has obviously never heard of the Biscuit PC form factor. Much cheaper and easier...not to mention many times smaller.
Buy a Biscuit, d00d. They rock!
Nevermind the Mac part, think: *durable, *good keyboard, *smooth trackpad, *3 standard NICs (modem, 10BT, 802.11b), *your choice of *nix distros, *running mad gui BSD distro outta the box, *primo battery life, *space-saving tack-sharp LCD, *VGA or RCA video out, *Different. Okay, okay, it's missing a second mouse button, but if you're in emacs all day long, it isn't like you'll miss that. Go down to Fry's Microcenter, where ever, and open up the terminal app and look around the guts. It's all there.
I've been looking around for a friendly world order, and I've found a couple of reasonable approximations. However, there really aren't any "peace, love, and sex communes" out there that really meet the needs of a person looking to live in a blissful, peaceful world. In particular, most areas of the world are, more or less, filthy criminal cesspools. As such, they are loaded with scads of seedy prostitutes, beefy murderers, and so forth. This is great, I suppose, if you are running Windows or MacOS (sorry, had to). If you're a philosophical megalomaniac human, and spend most of your time wondering how you can come to rule the world, (er, create world peace), most of that criminal activity is more of a liability than an asset. In other words, I'm talking about religious zealots, current governments and other hackers more than I'm talking about the 'average person'. In short, hexx is looking to find a way to DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, and if the platform doesn't exist to be able to do this, he's looking for help in creating one. Interested?
Hands down the best laptop to run Linux on.
Enourmous 15 inch display, ATI high speed 3D to make those MESA OpenGL video extensions scream on X and a very rugged design.
Plus IBM's warranty which is the best in the business.
Although, it did set me back $4200 bucks when I bought it, but if you want a machine to do Oracle, Java, Linux and network development/troubleshooting it canb't be beat.
-hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
but what is a laptop, after all? it's a portable computing device. You can buy really tiny computers, such as tiqit or pocket pc (many slashdot articles on these) :
tiqit
pocketPC
add a fold-up keyboard, and a 5G PCMCIA drive
5G pcmcia
And a display device, either a portable screen (there are wireless screens out there) or glasses:
micro glasses
and you've got a really small computer. There are also a couple articles I've seen on building a "laptop" into a small stainless steel or brushed aluminum brief case.
Obviously, designing a motherboard and integrating everthing into a nifty case would be nice, but that's where the cost comes in. Buying really small parts isn't cheap, but building your own thang never is. But you *can* build a really small, portable computer, pretty much tailored to your needs.
You might also consider (if you really want to go for the gusto) the new technology that lets you output circuits via a printer (which thus far has been used to create cell phones and batteries):
but I see no reason you couln't print custom PC's! In short, although it may not be cheaper, it is I think possible to build something small, light, portable, and tailored to your design. And if you do, could you send me one?
cheers,
neil
neil@dove-tail.com
Do what I do... Toshiba Portege 7020CT with Windows 2000 and a telnet session. Works great and I can still play my DVD's. Rolling your own laptop isn't going to be cheap.
You might be able to find an RDI Powerlite laptop however. These were based on the Sun Micro-Sparc and had built in ethernet, SCSI-2, TGX graphics and a 800x600 active matrix TFT screen. I have seen them on eBay for $200-300.
'Same speed C but faster'
I have been wanting exactly what you are talking about for at least 6 years now. I've been looking for off-the-shelf because I've felt that I didn't quite know enough about hardware to build one and really don't have the time. A few years ago when Sun was talking about Java chips that could natively handle the language and perhaps it's own OS I thought they might head this direction with some hardware... but alas.
There are certainly enough (net|sys)admins out there to support a 'community' for this effort. After all this hardware setup is perfect for us at work or on the road. (Even at work we are away from our desks at racks of computers or in foreign data centers!) My company (Steem) will gladly step up the web resources , maybe even hardware purchasing if we could begin producing something 'sell'able. I would even venture to guess that ThinkGeek would support the endevour on some level.
I'll keep an eye on this story and see what develops. Obviously the more off-the-shelf (COTS as the gov businesses call it) stuff we can find the better. I have looked at the PC104 hardware and it seems do-able but we'll need to work at getting all the other pieces together.
BTW, if you haven't read through the MIT wearable web pages or wearables central, I suggest that you should. Lots of good hardware suggestions there.
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
Have you considered a shoulder-top instead?
Now, supposing I decided I don't like OS X (I like it fine so far, but I haven't messed with it that much), well, then I can switch to Yellow Dog Linux, which is a Linux distribution designed specifically for Macs. Since they concentrate on one individual vendor, their compatibility should be pretty good. (I'm surprised there isn't an IBM Linux distribution out there.)
This is not to say that building a laptop from scratch isn't an interesting idea, but I wouldn't be able to do it myself, so I figured I'd come up with an alternative.
I know this sounds seriously wierd, but it's relatively easy to take apart a laptop shell without damaging it by easing your fingernails into the joins between the mouldings and prying them apart, popping in those little moulded snap locks as you work around the case. Using screwdrivers etc. to lever apart the case will almost certainly scratch, deform and generally mess up the mouldings.
If you don't have custom tooling, a strong set of fingernails can often do the job safely, and If you're not too much of a geek, you can even clean under them!
I'm kind of partial to my Dell Latitude CP (model M233SD). Everything works on it as far as I know (though I'm having a bit of touble getting sound working under the v2.4 series Linux kernel - it works perfectly under v2.2). If you can find one on eBay, snag it (and get a memory upgrade while you're at it - they can use up to 128MB of RAM, just so you know.)
Proteus' Child
Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.
As another commenter pointed out, look at existing handhelds. It seems to me that what you want is a more-or-less fullsize keyboard and screen for something like the new Sharp Zaurus Linux PDA. So, instead of going nuts trying to build a laptop from scratch (neat idea, but WAY impractical IMHO), try finding or building or commissioning an expansion part: an adapter to whatever expansion slots exist on the Sharp or iPaq, which provides a USB controller and 2 ports (keyboard and mouse), and provides some sort of basic video out. As an alternative, a new cradle that has a built-in keyboard, trackpad, LCD screen and Ethernet port. Let the cradle have its own built-in battery (I hear fuel-cell technology is up-and-coming), and there you go. Add extra storage to taste (flash?), and you would really have something.
In fact, I'd buy something like that in a heart-beat. In all honesty, a gadget like this, truly well-designed and built, would make a good Linux-based hand-held into a truly killer device. Laptop manufacturers would be running scared!
"From a laptop, I want five things:
* A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
iBook: SuperCrisp 1024x768 screen. Don't want color? Just turn it off.
* Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
iBook: Check.
* Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
The current crop of iBooks is rugged. I've dropped mine a few times (oops). Not a scratch, no problem. And unlike the PowerBook, it *feels* rugged. I am confident that it could withstand the abuse that I dish out.
* Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
This is the only place I can't help you, except to say that if you aren't using processor intensive tasks or the CD drive, you will get 5 hours (maybe more). Get a few extra batteries and an international adapter if you are going to Tokyo. (Don't they have the same power plugs there as here?)
Also, the adapter that comes with the newest iBooks is very compact and lightweight. Cord wraps around it easily.
* Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
iBook has 100BaseT, and with an AirPort Card, you're all set. And there is no PCMCIA. (If you want that, you want a PowerBook). The antenna is very good, much better than the PowerBook. (Up to 300 feet in some cases)
See other posts for good reasons why you don't want to build a laptop, but value for dollar, an entry level iBook can't be beat.
Pick one up at your local Apple Store or on the web.
Good Luck
Reality has a liberal bias
I run linux on my laptop that my company gave me... its a Dell Inspiron 3000, and it runs great... why would you want to spend the next 5 years building a lappie? if it works, dont complain... ;)
Battery life is an issue due to the age, but I use an old tosh Tecra XCDT PII machine, installed redhat and I can do graphics editing at 1024x768 quite happily and cost me absolutely nothing to buy as work threw it out....
Working for the (other) man
Get a hp48gx. 4Mhz cpu. Has a complete suite for asm/sysRPL developing, a 131x64 mono lcd, fits in your pocket (barely even if you have large pockets, though) the batteries last for MONTHS, it has two pcmcia-like card slots for memory (up to 4M, standardd=128K) or, if you got the balls, custom hardware, and hundreds of apps (www.hpcalc.org). Now if some freak can make a network card for that thing...Oh yeah, IR (can barely do irDA) and rs232 cable. can do 9600bps but recent hacks allow it to go above 56K.
you will probably never going to find something sturdier, with the exception of a caterpillar 10ton truck.
Development has stopped since years, we are afraid _production_ has stopped too, get while you can.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
Now, think about how often you've damaged a laptop in minor accidents. Even in a case, a short fall is likely to require a trip to the shop. The durability on these things is hardly industrial grade.
Rolling one is just asking for trouble.
The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
Doesn't sound like brother rneches could roll his own Doobie much less a laptop.
Get an Apple Titanium PowerBook running MACOS 10.1. Get the developer tools CD which installs all kinds of nifty stuff, gcc, cvs, project builder. And you're set to go. It's all bsd unix, you can open terminal and console windows and have full access to your system via shells.
MACOS 10.1 is the best thing to ever happen to computing and is the ultimate geek's operating system, and is also the best operating system you can ever run on a laptop.
Its networking configuration is very easily configurable and nicely abstracted behind a very nice interface. Check this:
1) At work, i am connected to the 'net via corporate LAN thru my ethernet port and static tcp/ip configuration.
2) At home, i have a dsl connection and multiple computers, all sharing the connection via a LinkSys DSL router, with DHCP enabled, and an Apple airport base station acting as a bridge to the rest of my ethernet LAN.
3) At my girlfriend's place, she just has a simple phone line and I can connect via dial-up only.
==> I work during the day as a web applications developer, and run the NetBeans java IDE on OS 10.1 which comes pre-installed with Java 1.3, while listening to mp3's with i-tunes, with 10 terminal windows opened with multiple ssh connections to various hosts, using shell scripts i wrote to manage files, quickly edit files with emacs, do complex file search and replaces in BBEdit. I also have my DVD player idling with my crouching tiger hidden dragon DVD just sitting there waiting to be watched during my lunch break.
Work day is over. I unplug the laptop's ethernet jack, unplug my desktop speakers and the power cord, drive home.
As soon as i get home, i open the laptop. This instantly wakes it up from sleep. It instantly detects that I am not using my ethernet port, but it also detects that there is an open wireless network at my home. It hops on it right away. Then automatically makes the DHCP request as I had configured to. BAM: I get home, I wake up my laptop, and it's connected to the net via its airport card.
Say I wanna go to my Girl's place rite now and check my e-mail from there. Put the laptop on 'sleep', get there, plug her phone jack into my modem port, and click the little modem icon on my status bar and select "connect". And there i am. Easy.
I recently downloaded, compiled and configured the standard samba daemon distro by passing a few flags to the configure script. OS 10.1 already comes with a couple samba clients built-in via command-line and is also handled at the URL/protocol level, but not samba SERVER. So that lets me share drives with windoz weinies, while i already had the built-in ability to share drives two-ways with AppleTalk clients and unix/linux NFS clients, via standard unix command-line as well as a couple GUI tools.
It really doesn't get any sweeter than this. Wether you are just getting your feet wet into Unix, or you only work in vi/emacs and swear by terminal and console windows, this puppy has everything you need to get your stuff done and your jollies off.
I guarantee you, there is absolutely NO cooler operating system than OS 10.1. They've still got improvements to make, and it's still unofficially considered 'betaware', but hey, I've been using it very intensively for weeks now, and it hasn't failed me. and the titanium powerbook with its wide screen and pretty colors and all its connectivity stuff is just way cool.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
I worked for Quantex and they are the exact same laptops as the dells with a different sticker on them.
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?
Hell Yes! Look at the market for home-brew PCs. My guess is that most people in that market are like me and would love to be able to build a laptop with the features important to us, at a more reasonable price than a new laptop. I've been daydreaming about being able to buy the parts and roll my own laptop for at least a decade.
An existing example is the Palm market... there are many small companies that specialize in selling hacker hardware to replace Palm cases, buttons, and also sell new screens, memory chips, etc... I could definitely see it being viable for X86 portable gear too.
Any of the crusoe laptops would work. The Sony Picturebook and the Fujistu Lifebook P series (I think) are based on the crusoe laptop. They definitely aren't easy on the pocketbook, but they are the closest thing to what you are looking for. Having a battery that will last a week is about 687 miles on the other side of a pipe dream, but the Crusoe laptops, with the larger battery, will last up to 20 hours. This is nothing short of herculean for a laptop. These also do not include all of the frills that you mentioned. Just about ideal, based on what you mentioned....
[include -something witty]
(insert attempt to be witty here)
If you're going to the trouble to make a custom laptop, you should ruggedize it. It would be easier to modify a ruggedized briefcase than to get someone to fabricate a custom plastic case. And, it would look a whole lot cooler.
See the Halli Mac. This laptop modification was here on Slashdot back in August.
----------
perl -e 'print(pack("H*","646176652e7761676e657240676d616
/me == lazy
Toshiba did make a nice StrongARM laptop called the Confolio (I kid you not). It was a mobile network computer, and ran a untetherd version of JavaOS. I have one in my closet, I keep hoping that the ARM Linux guys will make a port to it, or that one day I might actually have time to do it myself...
What do you know I wrote a novel
If buying laptops components was anything like buying the components to put together a PC then we would be stuck with bulky beige laptops for life.... PC case design has only gotten worse over the years .. I am glad this never happened in the laptop world.
.. or a Sony Viao, or even a pretty little iBook and remember that style counts.
So go a buy a nice Ti Thinkpad
Your OS has a lot to do with what kind of battery life you'll get. Especially when it comes to things like slowing the hard drive, dimming the screen etc that can save you a ton of battery usage but totally rely on energy-conserving system software.
I'm not confident that any of the OSes you mention would perform at a level you'd need to see your battery lasting a week between charges.
I can't spell or type, but that doesn't mean I'm unusually stupid.
You might want to look at the Thinkpad X20 and X21 series laptops. Not only does IBM go out of its way to make sure they are fully linux compatable, but they are less than 4 pounds. I have one, and installed a SanDisk FLASH IDE Hard drive in it (just ordered a 1.2GB drive infact) and am getting 4hours+ battery life which is not bad on the standard battery. They also have a PCMCIA and a Compact Flash Slot so you can expand the storage easily. I currently have a 128MB Flash IDE Drive, and some compact flash cards I use. Slackware can be made to fit nicely on the small amount of space. The laptops also dont have lots of bells and wistles, and are fairly simple, with many options on built in network cards. You have a choice of wireless or 100Base-T 3Com brand.
He didn't say that he doesn't ant PCMCIA sockets. He said he wants the network connection built in, not through the PCMCIA slots. Dongles are a pain in the ass.
he should get an iBook
Reading Is Fundamental
I suggest you start by looking here LinuxDevices.com's SBC reference, it is a terrific resource.
/., is the trouble you have driving a standard LCD. Dead laptops with very cool and useful LCD displays probably litter the parts pile of every slashdot user(!) - geeks are really unable to give up that LCD. Outside of buying a terribly expensive driver card from someone like Earth LCD. Also you may want to have a look at this reference.
Im not sure the PC itself is your problem, simply getting a proper LCD driver and VidCard is your real issue.
As Ive seen/thought many times before, even recently mentioned here @
This is an excellent question, an excellent topic and a very worthwhile idea. Basically, how do we hobble together some cheap, general purpose computers... not too much power - not much more than a network connection... these could be terminals in the home, "tablet-pcs", a DIY "ConnectedTouchpad/IOpener/Audrey", portable MP3 players... all cry out for *EXACTLY* the hardware this question is asking for.
A modular "embedded" PC. Just like our desktops... expandable, extensible and versatile. Why dont we have a solution like this for PDAs? Without straying OT too far, it would be *EXCELLENT* to see a DIY laptop for a lot of reasons.
(This all pertains to the new white iBook, not the original "toilet seat" iBook.)
From personal experience the iBook is a real strong candidate for providing the features specified. It has all the key hardware built-in: CD-RW or DVD, modem, 10/100BaseT ethernet, USB, FireWire, AGP 2X ATI Rage128 Mobility 128, external video. For $100 you can add an internal 802.11b card (antenna already built into the laptop). I have experienced 3-4 hours battery life in real-world use. All this for $1500, which is very price-competitive with other laptops.
I've been using YellowDog Linux on the iBook and it's very complete. Latest kernel and XFree86 4. About all you can't get with PPC linux is commercial stuff like RealPlayer or Wine (you get Mac-On-Linux instead). And there are various distros to choose from like YellowDog, LinuxPPC, SuSE and Debian. Or you can use the pre-installed Mac OS X and go BSD (it's easy to replace Aqua with X Windows, or even go pure text).
If you are truly interested in the best laptop for linux and set aside any preconceptions or biases I think you'll have a hard time finding a better laptop for the price than the iBook as a killer linux platform.
As previous posts have indicated, IBM makes great laptops. My IBM ThinkPad 570E runs Debian GNU/Linux sid/unstable without any problems. I have everything working down to the Lucent WinModem.
'rneches' has clearly looked at the current market of available laptops. Prolly only missing out on a few low-profile products.
This is an 'Ask SlashDot' posting. Why are people posting additional questions rather than useful tidbits of information.
He has specific goals in mind for the laptop of his dreams (goals that I happen to share), why would you suggest a piece of hardware that violates 90% of his wish list as a solution?
That ends my rant for now and here are a series of links I have dug out of other postings.
PSI_Linux Psion hardware / Linux software project.
Sceptre - Hardware retailer
AMPRO nifty smallish hardware
IBM X-series laptops
Linux-Laptop.net lot's of docs on making laptop hardware work with Linux
TuxScreen strange hardware hacking project
Cyberresearch hardware retailer
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
First the poster says that modern laptops have whiz-bang features you don't need (I am hard-pressed to think of which features these might be), then he goes on to demand a nice screen, ultra-light weight, insane (and unrealistic) battery life, good video performance for anti-aliased fonts, and built-in networking. He says he doesn't want a beefy processor but then says he's going to do coding and run Emacs...in my experience either or both require a beefy processor.
The inherent contradictions should be clear to all. The reality is, if you want all these features, you're going to be stuck with a whiz-bang computer. The latest screen, networking, and battery technologies always come with the most beefy processor available in the day, because those people who can afford those technologies are the ones who need and can afford the beefy processor. Sorry, but you're just NOT going to find ultralites with beautiful 15" TFT screens and 8-hour (?) battery life that runs a Celeron. And as others have suggested, you have NO chance of making a machine of your specifications - laptops represent the cutting edge of consumer PCs in almost every respect except where heat is a mitigating factor.
And forget about taking a computer to Tokyo and not charging it for a week, unless you plan to leave it in hibernate mode.
Going to a restaraunt with you is a staggering exercise in pain & humiliation, isn't it? I can just tell: you must be the sort of person that looks over the menu at a fine dining establishment and then makes the staff do backflips to come up with some esoteric custom dish for you, because the many, many fine offerings they provide are never quite right. Give me a break... :)
I wouldn't pick at you, because you've clearly thought about this a lot, but somehow you haven't noticed that your requirements are, aside from just plain silly, mutually exclusive & thus impossible. You want a week long battery -- yeah right! -- and you want ultra light weight (thus, um, no battery??) and built in high speed wireless networking? How much power do you think that's going to draw? I'll admit, I'm not sure myself & maybe it's less than I'm thinking, but you are going to have to make some compromises between these wildly varying demands. If you want long life, it means a big battery. If you want lightweight, it means a small battery. You pick.
And in the, assuredly long time you're going to spend ruminating over that dilemma, there will be thousands of others that take one of the many fine off the shelf offerings, meet 90% of what you seem to really want here, and they'll be able to get on with their lives without a second thought. Might I suggest relaxing & trying to do the same?
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
It works great. The screen is small but better than new cheapies. VI works like a champ so editing is easy. It also makes a nice terminal with ssh NAME -X to the rescue. Put Proftp on it for file transfer. It's a little slow on compiling large codes, but every large project is made of small chunks.
If I ever feel like it's inadequate, the modular design makes it a natural shell for a home built monster. The keyboard tilts up and all the guts are right there. I've seen other laptops with tiny screws, and wires that come popping out like a dis-emboweled cow when you open it, yuck.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Since I haven't seen this mentioned yet, I've been looking a little into the same thing lately and have come across the N20U, I don't have a lot of specs but do some Google searching on the N20U (top result is http://www.armcomputer.com/n20u/home.htm) and you can see what it's like. ATI 8meg graphics adapter, PCMCIA stuff included, but from what I've seen it's essentially a barebones laptop (no processor or HDD even) that you can customize out how you want. Mobile PIIIs can be had for the $100-$200 range off of pricewatch and 2.5" HDDs aren't too expensive. it may end up being the same price as a dell or ibm, but hey you built it yourself. I've seen a couple float through Ebay but you could probably buy direct.
Cheers,
- Sawbones
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
BSI makes some inexpensive rugged laptops. Kontron also makes some unique field computers, particuarly the In Rave. Wescom also makes some field computers.
There are also about 85,600 more matches on GOOGLE. Just do a search for industrial laptops.
Linux on the Panasonic CF-41...
Makes a perfect Linux Box for me...
Its small, though and really cheap...it definetly isnt bloated with useless features and you can put in a real large disk since there are no bios-disk-size restrictions, the newer ones have real 12" ColorDisplay. Want something special? Its got its CD-Drive under the Keyboard...i think thats neat!
Need more performance? Try a newer Panasonic Thoughbook...i think they rock!
Cost isn't outrageous, certainly not compared to building your own. $1299 + sam ram from elsewhere gets you going. (DVD or CD/RW will kick the cost up, wireless adds $100, but as of today it is 128 bit encryption.) Think about it as $2/day to have a computer.
I have friends like you.. I agree its a great project if you just want something to do and you feel like being inventive. But seriously.. What you're asking for is kind of odd. Specifying lower standards for some and higher on others.. just doesn't work on pre-made machines. If you want a laptop that runs like a champ go to a big companies re-sale auction of old equipment and buy your self an old laptop for like 400 bucks and it will run linux like a champ. I personally went the route 2 years ago of buying the cheapest laptop I could find at the time. It was an E-machines E-slate.. yes many people groan when thinking of E-machines but I ran linux on it.. an it ran like a Champ... A champ I tell you.. As well as it was a kickin' half life server in linux... thats all.. I did much much coding on that thing in my senior year of college.. and the damn thing could take a beating plus it was cheap to begin with..
Who makes you Sig?
How do you fit W98 and Mandrake Linux on a 40 Megabyte harddisk? I never managed ;-)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Multiwave sells custom laptops here. You can even get one without an OS so you can install Linux on it and you don't have to pay for Windows!
I buy all my computer stuff from mwave. They're very reliable.
Just buy an ibook and run one of the PPC Linux distros on it.
I would check with Itronix.... I would tend to think NOTHING can compare to their durability.
See http://www.itronix.com
David Byrd
CEO - 21st Century Tech., Inc.
URL: http://www.nite-surfer.com
See our Illuminated Keyboard
I've used PC104 LCD video cards before. You can probably find some interesting stuff (like PC104 LCD controllers) at http://www.earthlcd.com/. Additionally, there are many PC104 SBC's with built-in LCD controllers that drive a number of popular displays. See http://www.sbc-pc104.com/ for a list of manufacturers.
Instead of building a laptop, why not installing VMware? It builds a virtual PC and supports Linux just fine.
http://www.vmware.com/
I was looking for a laptop last year and settled on an Acer Travelmate 340T, and everything is still running nice and smooth. A couple of weeks after I bought it I discovered the website http://www.eurocom.ca. They specialize in custom built laptops and seem like a very decent service.
Get a Powerbook G4 laptop, put yellow dog Linux, or just run OS X and install Emacs.
woot!
We probably wouldn't be "rolling our own" Desktops right now if it werent for people like this guy...
This is an excellent idea and I would love to help out in a project like this. I've always wanted to roll my own laptop... And something setup with the pc104 standard would be a great start. This could be the future of laptops for everyone.
--- #@$DF@#2%@^%3^&*$%FRHG%%[NO CARRIER]
Always good to see more senior citizens getting into Linux! My grandmother is only 72 and using Mandrake, maybe when she gets a little older she too will be AOK with Debian!
This seems to be close to what you want. It just needs a bigger display (which will consume more power). Or try this to obtain that special geek look! Enhanced by mumbling 'Close window. open xterm. err emm dash err eff dot' into a headset!
Links to this came from here
Bas
Its funny cause you have nothing better to do than pretend other /.'s are fags. Its funny how reality will ruin you life eh?
The biggest problem with your specs is that you are very unlikely to be able to coax a week of battery life out of a machine running a "standard" OS such as Linux. Batteries don't actually last very long when running a reasonably fast CPU, and in addition are extremely heavy (so you can't just solve the problem by adding lots of extra batteries).
With my laptop (Toshiba Portege 3480CT), the closest I could get to a really long uptime on batteries is by adding a high capacity battery, which costs quite a bit but would give me six hours. If I could afford one, then in addition to my two standard batteries (at least two hours from each), I would have a total of 10 hours away from the mains. That's still nowhere near a week though!
Here's a somewhat ridiculous suggestion, but it just might work. You know where you're going to be in advance, and you're going to be there a week: buy a refurbished name brand PII for $100-$200, get a refurbed monitor for another $50. (Prices in $US.) Have them shipped to your destination. Bring a CD-ROM of your favorite Linux/BSD/whatever distribution with you and either do a run-from-CD or just a quick install.
After a week is up, either ship the PC to your next location, or donate it to a local charity and write it off.
Obviously, you have the additional time overhead of getting your system up and running when you get to your destination, but my thought was that it would get amortized over a longer trip.
Another disadvantage would be that you couldn't work on the plane, but I figure that if you're not in business or first class, it's too tight a squeeze anyway. I can barely type on a Palm foldable keyboard on those food trays.
(I do admit I didn't read ALL the posts above... excuse me if this was already said.)
;)
One thing that might meet the requirements is a funky piece of high-tech I was about to buy when I saw the price: The japanese IBM notebook "s30". That thing is a B5-sized laptop with:
-Battery for at least 6 hrs.
-Built-in WLAN-support
-no drives -> weights 1,3 kgs
-costs around $2500 at dynamism.com (If I remember that right)
-it has VERY cool japanese letters on the (english) keyboard
What they WERE good for is, all solid state battery backed memory. They'd run for an entire day on batterys no problem. Hell you can slap in Compact Flash and PCMCIA cards. CF lan cards are just the ticket. Of course... drivers would be the issue.
I had a Compaq Aero 8000 for awhile (until I realised how much WinCE sucked) and this is pretty much the perfect box for this kind of thing imo.
The big drawback for the chap starting this thread is that they can't deliver the required power to many (or even most) PCMCIA devices and 802.11B may well be one of those.
P.S. I got mine being disposed of dirt cheap frin a shop on Tottenham Court Road in London. It's discontinued so they're dumping stock.
Linux runs on the new iBooks.. I personally have a PowerBook Pismo (firewire model, model before the G4 Titanium).
:)
:)
Linux runs GREAT on it. Infact, I would never recommend a non-apple laptop to anyone who isn't afraid of running Linux/Unix
To me there were 3 important factors:
1. Screen size, 14.1" 1024x768 minimum
2. Keyboard, laptop keyboards are typically terrible. The powerbook keyboards are amazing, I would rank them 2nd best keyboard of all time.. right under the IBM model:M
3. Battery life - each battery can do upto 4 hours, in theory. You can fit 2 batterys in a Powerbook.
They actually say my model of powerbook is still a little better then the new iBooks.. the new iBooks may come with newer/better software, a new look, and sporting all of the features of the Pismo.. but the bus on the motherboard is slower, reducing overall performance.. also the Pismo is upgradable to 1 gig of ram and has an upgradable processor card. Oh, and since they are now a little older.. expect to find them cheaper
When I took my laptop to the UK, I had no problem at all running it off 240V/50Hz, I just had to buy a 3 prong UK->tele-funken cable (not a problem, they're fairly univeral).
Japan shouldn't be a problem either, since the connector is used on a variety of game consoles and other devices.
Alternatively, you can buy connector adapters (without step-down/up transformers) that are designed to convert one mains voltage connector to another, for devices that auto-sense.
Ability to use AC power in a different country is obviously something that the laptop manufacturers thought about, so I wouldn't say extremely long battery life is a real need just for international travel:).
The idea of long battery life on linux is a joke. Until the hackers get around to programming half-way decent APM features you mine as well just keep your laptop plugged in if your using linux.
I have a Gateway Solo9500XL (P3 1ghz, 15.7" TFT LCD, 256mb RAM) and have been running Linux on it for about a month. I've been seriously disappointed with quite a few things. The one that bothers me the most is this recently developed problem. I SMELL PLASTIC GETTING VEERRRY HOT. Running linux on the computer doesn't allow for the intel speedstep technology, nor does it kick on the CPU fan. Now, I don't know if this is a hardware issue, but I'm reinstalling Win2k ASAP.
Linux is just not worth the hassle to be on a laptop. From the 50% drop in my battery performance because of Linux's crappy APM/Battery Support, and the strange odor eminating from my laptop has made me decide I'm going to stick to Linux on my desktop.
NOTE: This is just what I WISH I could get for a laptop if price were no option.
Case: Titanium or spun aluminum, something tough enough that I can drop the thing and not scream "Oh fuck" and to protect the solar panels that'll slide out from the cover...
Power:
1. Solar panels that would slide out of the cover and detach so they could be aimed at the sun, also the cover of the laptop should have attach points for them and plug into a common "power in" point2. Kickass light long lasting battery or fuelcell technology.
3. The "power in" point should accept upto 240V in so it could be plugged into anything, from a car lighter to a european plug and everything in between. Also the solar panels should be able to charge the onboard battery when the machine is off.
Ram: at least 128mb
Non Volitile Storage: If I could get my hands on a a multi GB DOC drive, that would be dandy. I'd like something that was like 20mm on a side perferrably. so that I could several of them. My idea is the less moving parts the better.
Keyboard: something confortable (this has for the most part been sorted out.
Mouse: The "nipple" works good as do touch pads. Not really sure, maye something better?
Display: 1024x768x16 at a minimum. Also, the solar panels could be oriented in such a way that they could be used as "shades" so that the glare could be cut.
Video Card: a card with great 2D and good 3D.
CPU: Crusoe or SA or PPC, whichever would give me the best weight/power@heat/performance. I'd be pscyed if they could build a processor that had the main memory on the same die as the processor. Also it should be low power enough that cooling isn't an issue. (hence why I like the crusoe). The other idea would be todo some underclocking.
Security: Since its in an aluminum/titanium case, it should be lockable. Though Acer has started including a Fingerprint scanner on their laptops. That would be a sweet way to login. Try Guessing THAT password!
Networking: Integrated 1Gbit + wireless + 1 pcmcia slot.
Enviromental: I'd like to be able to take this laptop to the beach and set it down. It should be compeletly water proof to 10M with all external connectors sealable by either the clamshell of the case or double seal gromits. Internally all components would be sealed in that injectable clearn rubber epoxy stuff. The keyboard would be completely replaceable without having to open the machine. I'm thinking it would be either some clip in system or small aluminum jack screws. As for the keyboard connector it would be connected via surface contacts so that their wouldn't even be a cable running inside.
Other things I'd like it to have would be a GPS of some kind. This could be just a PCMCIA card since I don't think I'd ever have a modem in it.
This would be my ultimate laptop. It would be a bit bulkier (probably like one of those thin aluminum suitcase things) but it would be kickass.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
I got a LinuxLapStation earlier this year, and I'm delighted with it. 1600x1200 accelerated LCD color screen, 128M of RAM, 20G hard disk, ethernet and modem built into motherboard, and an 8 hour battery life preinstalled with Linux (RH6.2, though looking at their website you can now get RH 7.1 together with recent Debian and Mandrake installations.
There are some downsides. The CPU is an embedded AMD 486DX clone, running at 66MHz, to keep the power down. The graphics card is 8 bit, the sound card is some crude chipset which can't be used at the same time as the CD ROM because they share an interrupt (though why would you want to?) and the external floppy unit is the size of a car battery - although it does contain a couple of PCI slots. The mouse alternative is basically two "volume control" type rollers on either side of the laptop, left for up and down, right for left and right. And charging the battery has to be done with an external unit - you can't plug in the charger or have the laptop running off the mains while you wait.
Still, it's excellent. I've dropped it a few times without any negative consequences, and it's pretty cheap - it's probably the only sub-$500 new laptop I've seen.
Racists should be sent back to where they came from
Wow!
/. crowd would be more receptive to this... but wait, I forgot, it is now just a bunch of technoweenies instead of actual knowledgeable people now.
I thought the
I think building your own laptop would be a great idea... Imagine, all the possibilities... it may be small at first and a little more expensive, but all it takes is a few startups to do such a thing to get some standards out there for building your own laptops...
Who ever thought the PC would be standardized (hell, I still remember my old 8086... that thing had no clue what a standard is...
Imagine actually having a choice of what goes into your laptop!
Advantech (and other companies), I think, makes a couple of industrial display/touchscreen(built in mouse) based boxes that could serve your purpose. The embedded PC I am thinking about is p133 based with a pc104 bus. They are thick, but tough. There is a tradeoff. Add one of those cool one handed keyboard and it would be a pretty compact device...
Batteries though...everyone wants that super-battery. If you find it let us know!
Allen
Sort of retro in its own way.
So something like this would be viable if you do not mind re-inventing the luggable ;-)
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
--Mid
Linus, why do you want to make your own kernel? It's too much work! It's too hard! It's too expensive! Just use Minix or DOS like everyone else!
Most of the comments here just dont get it. To all these people I'd like to say - it's about a vision of what you want. It's the feeling that that there's a better way, and it just might be doable.
This is how Linux began - A vision of what one person wanted, and the desire to make it so. Don't be such a bunch of damn naysayers.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - BF
For long battery life, you might do a Google search for the NEC LaVie. NEC claims 11 hours battery life, which is the longest battery life I've seen in a Laptop.
Kinda low on the performance side, but the battery life more than makes up for it!
I just don't know where to get one in the USA!! It seems they are only sold in Japan, and importing them is EXPENSIVE!
The thinkpads are a great option in old laptops to install linux on. There also a lot of other good older laptops to install linux on. I tried with it my old Olivetti and had no problem whatsoever doing the install. Everything worked the first time, except for X. It only filled up 3/4 of my screen. No incompatiblity with the graphics hardware or anything, just couldn't get things set exactly right in the config and no-one out there had much experience in setting up X on one of these things. This was probably due to the fact that Olivetti got out of the business right after they made my model. Still, if you're X-guru, you can probably make it work, and the command line worked just fine. I had an Echos P-100 with 40 megs of memory wtih an LCD screen. Aside from the display only using 3/4 of the screen, X worked great. I could run a Gnome desktop very nicely. I figure you could pick one of these up for around $100 or two these days, slap in a network card, and you've got a great, cheap command line terminal. I'd probably try to upgrade the HD because at 1.3 Gigs it's pretty small. They come with a CD-ROM and a floppy that you can swap in and out.
Leave those two things out and all the evil splendor they imply: no CD/DVD, no deep color bits, no sound, no floppy, no CCD camera. Use all the extra space for another battery. You could get some battery life out of mono-no backlit LCD screen.
People want more powerful laptops so they can be desktop replacements, not just because Windows needs more horsepower. People who want smaller devices use PDAs, ultra-lites and similar. I use my old laptop for all the reasons you do and want a new more powerful laptop. Why, so I only have to deal with one computer for most work.
Like others have said, for you want buy a old used laptop, the battery life will be the only thing you won't get, but buy a second battery and your set. Also check out an Apple iBook small inexpensive and runs Debian just fine.
Your mistake was trying to speak for a community instead of yourself. If your going to speak for the community, do your research first.
All that horsepower does come in handy when you take a break from coding to jump in on a quick game of Quake!
It seems what you want is a highly portable, highly light weight, super efficient dumb terminal or VNC terminal. Well my friend, let's be slightly realistic here, if you are going to have a CAT-5 plugged into the sucker, get an internation power adapter kit. Now I hear, "What about on the plane, on the train, in a boat, in a house, with a mouse." If you are going for extreme portability (as you've implied) and for all of these features I MUST recommend that you try to convert an Internet Appliance into a portable. Personally I run an IOpener with Jailbait linux. I can always VNC into a more powerful machine, or just --display=zTTTz:0.0 to any application on any linux server anywhere on earth (since we have the ethernet installed). It takes DC power so you could easily build a custom rechargable battery out of it or sucker one of those EE majors into doing it for you. If you need a week worth of power, my friend, you need to accept the fact that you will be lugging a lead-acid car battery with you wherever you go UNLESS you get serious about this and buy about 50 of those Air-powered batteries (expensive and un-rechargable, but some last upto a month). I would also recommend converting a WebSurfer Pro. The manufacturer of those can give them to you with integrated Ethernet. Couple that with the fact that it has an integrated power supply that does NOT have a bulky cooling fan, it has an insanly small board, and you can get yourself down to just an inch or two tall and about the size of a piece of paper. Go out and purchase an LCD online. There are many websites that have LCD's that accept RCA video inputs. Pricy, but that's what you are asking for. Finally these things have wireless keyboard/mouse combos so you could hook it up to a TV and use it from a comfy hotel couch if you are in Tokyo, or get really creative and attached a folding keyboard like the ones Palm Pilots use to it directly. Of course you would need some sort of custom case since you wouldn't want to use the mammoth sized one that it comes with and would thus need a buddy that is good with cutting/sanding plastic (just need a circular saw). This also has an integrated M-Systems flash disk so you can cut your power consumption enough that you could maybe get this to all run off a battery (depending on the LCD's power consumption). And you would want to get rid of the lame DC-AC-DC conversion with the power supply (that EE friend again). This second path will give you exactly what you want, but it will take a lot of work and favors from friends. I'd just get an i-opener, come up with a smaller keyboard, usb nic, make a compact mount (instead of it's big mount, and poof! done.
First, consider that LCDs are expensive and nonstandard, as already mentioned. TVs on the other hand, are cheap, mass-produced and rugged, even when portable. So...use a TV for the display. Of course, the bigger the TV, the more expensive it'll be...but then you can use it to watch TV too.
Then you want rugged and portable? Get a biscuit form factor PC. They're small, but they're still standard PCs (which can therefore run Linux), including all the usual connections. You can get them with TV outputs (for VGA drivers), and built in ethernet and serial connections. Check out some of them at this site.
Most don't come with a hard drive, and you'll have to "roll your own" there, too. You have a choice: buy a biscuit with an IDE connector, or buy one with another standard connection, such as Compact flash or PCMCIA. If you go with the IDE, a portable 500MB IDE isn't that expensive. I saw one for $40 (US dollars) recently.
Then of course, you have to worry about batteries/power supply. That's not as big of a problem as you might think - there are LOTS of battery manufacturers. You want long lasting? You'll have to pay for longer lasting. On the upside, the compact system shouldn't take as much power as a standard laptop would.
How rugged is the result? Well, you'd be creating the casing for everything, so that's pretty much up to you.
So, I figure these costs:
$400 CPU (with ethernet, etc...)
$400 portable Flat Screen TV (VGA video displayed)
$50 Hard Drive
$800 Batteries/Power supply (enough to last a week - a SERIOUS load, and still probably an underestimate of the price)
$80 Casing
Of course, for an extra $500, you could upgrade to having real SVGA video, but you don't need hardware acceleration of video for most applications with which this technology is normally used, so...you can't get it.
I suppose if $1730 is three times as much as you would have paid, then this is a bad deal...but since the Thinkpad X22 retails for around $3000, I think I'm talking about a better deal than a prebuilt machines. Plus this thing is actually upgradable.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I did have a terrible time forcing Mandrake-Linux to install on my Gateway 5300. But Redhat worked great. (Text mode only though)
But once installed it brought a tear to my eye!
Here's a website I created as a sort of review. (Had some issues with StarOffice other users may run into with an S3 vid card.)
http://www.on-point-tech.com/rh5300/
Handhelds are getting betta. That new Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D has a keyboard, too! Read up on it here.
I had an old HP Omnibook 300 with flash disk.
Rated 9+ hours on a battery charge, B/W screen, and about 3 lbs. Of course, it only ran Win3.1 (and DOS), but I didn't replace it until this year, for many of the same reasons this guy cites.
Superfast processors and high res displays are way overkill for simple editing (I use TeX and Emacs almost exclusively for documents) and programming, which is most of what I do on the road. It is a mystery to me why no one makes a machine like this anymore -- certainly one could take the basic Omnibook design, put in more memory, a faster processor, and ethernet connectivity and have just about everything in his wish list.
BTW: I finally replaced the HP with a VAIO Z505LS. It is a great unit, except for the poor battery life (1.5 hours tops with the included battery, 4.5 hours with an extra capacity battery at the expense of extra size and heft).
You get it with OS X and you can install xonx if ya want. plus you can play around with cocoah =)
then you can run VPC when it comes out for ten and install whatever other operating system you want in there.
i think this is my first post after joining quite a while ago...
starting at 1,299, it aint bad.
i'm probably gunna get flamed for posting an apple product though, heh
But I dont want to build a laptop. I just want a desktop that is small enough to tote with me to different places. No built in screen, no battery, no built-in user devices (mouse/keyb).. I've looked into the Espresso and Cappuccino and similar devices (some aluminum box by Shuttle?) but they all slack in performance. Maybe once the nForce comes out there will be some better options out there? I just want something about the site of an etch-a-sketch or a decent sized binder that I can take with me to friends houses / work / etc.. I have no interest on using something "on the go".. just something slim and powerful enough to be an all-around desktop replacement. we're talking 32-64mb video memory, 3d accelerator, optical drives, all that..
hell
the idea is pretty much like the gamecube except it's a computer and i want it to be more SLIM, not like a f*cking BOX.
Cheap, built well, nice LCD screen, long battery life (thanks to the G3 processor), built in 10/100 networking with 802.11b wireless capable, runs linux
I am curious...by why aren't laptop's standardized like desktop PC's are?
I mean, I can hop on to just about any computer show, and walk out in 10 minutes with the parts for a PC. It seems like this wouldn't be too difficult. A case/power supply, different LCD's to fit inside said case, components, etc...
I've been down this thought path. Before I get into it (In the end you realize its not worth it) - let me make two suggestions:
1) Toshiba Libretto - these puppies range from p75|133's with 32mb ram to something more decent (300ish?) - the lowest two models are the tiniest damn things you ever did see. Only quip you might have with these is small keyboard, and only 640x480 resolution.
2) Sony Picturebook (PCG-C1[X,XS,etc.]) - this ranges from pmmx 266+64|128mb ram to crusoe 667(?)+64|192mb ram. Their screens are BEAUTIFUL (1024x480 though), the video performance is good.
In case you can't tell - I have owned the lowest two models of both of these lines. I still own the picturebook, and use it daily at work. Its portability and performance are only matched by its successors. The libretto I passed on to my brother when I got the vaio, and he brought it backpacking around europe with him so he could offload and resize his pictures then upload them to a website.
--- that said ---
The only real solution for building your own laptop - unless you're going all out 100% your own hardware (insane lengthy expensive) is to go PC104/PC104Plus/Proprietary embedded systems. The advantage is you may make it so you can actually upgrade - but it sounds to me like you're looking for a keeper, and it doesn't need to be powerful. The other problems you will run into is video performance isn't a neccessity in the embedded area - so forget amazing performance. Additionally, you will have a field day connecting to an LCD and once you do you'll find you can't find an OEM LCD as nice as the ones you see in big-name laptops. It's a wonderful thought, but I suggest going with the libretto for max portability (very small dock thing gives parallel+serial for those null modems), or vaio for something with some screen real estate while holding the portability.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Actually, the Pismo has one advantage that even the PBG4 doesn't: you can install two batteries. Sure it's going to weigh a little more than the CD-ROM, but that's at least 8 hours of battery life with proper energy saving settings, which likely can't be beat by anything larger than a PDA. (But the batteries aren't cheap. The third-party PBG3 batteries at Fry's are $200 each.)
Plus, OS X can run MacOS 9 software, and with Virtual PC, Windows software too. (A WINE-like emulator would be better than Virtual PC, though.)
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
it's not pointless... actually what this product should be is a tablet with some sort of easel on the back. add wireless, a touchpad, a happy hacker keyboard, and voila: an open source laptop. rarely is my laptop actually on my lap. 8 pounds of heated plastic. all i need now is vinyl couch covers. a company called dave design (i believe) makes some truly beautiful cases. throw in the new nvidia chip, a 833 transmeta or an arm (yummy!)... coop computers. very cool. i can get the product designers and product development engineers.
Tigerdirect, of the Audrey Fame, sells refurbished, legacy laptops that might be just up your alley. They're pretty cheap, to.
funny thing about japan, half of their system is 50Hz, the other 60Hz ;->
"Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings."
So he basically wants 24 bit video, I believe that there's no such thing as a "window settings" hardware aceleration and you don't need any kind of special hardware to obtain anti-aliased fonts. BTW, "decent framebuffer"?
I used to sell laptops that we custom built for ppl, no body would by them because individual parts were so expensive. Why would anybody buy a laptop with a 500mhz processor for close to 1500 when you could at the time buy it at best buy for 1100. Shope around price watch for discountinued laptops, or any good inexpensive laptops with the specs you want and pop linux on there. Lot cheaper than building it yourself.
Here's what I'd like to see a laptop built around:
:(
http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/index.cfm
Wacom's new ``Cintiq'' LCD / tablet display unit.
Sadly Fujitsu switched from an active digitizer to a passive, so this sort of thing seems to be going backwards
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
There are several linux only laptob vendors out there. Penquin computing, ASLabs, and more. I've seen several advertisments in Linux Mag and Linux Journal, SysAdmin, and other 'zines.
You're not looking too hard.
That said, I'd love to build my own laptop as well. I think it would be pretty cool. I build my own PC's (for me, family, friends, etc.) all the time.
-- DuckWing
sony vaio PCG-Z505HS is what I "roll". It is almost fully supported by OpenBSD & RedHat. PIII, 1024x768, X Windows drivers, large HDD, ethernet interface built-in to laptop, pcmcia slots, and with triple life battery, three to four hours of battery life. oh, and it weighs in at 3.3 lbs (more with big battery). I wouldnt use anything else.
To get insanely long battery life you'd need a very low-drain laptop coupled with something like an Electrofuel 120 or 160 (a think that looks like a mousepad that fits under your laptop, but which is actually a 12+ or 16+ hour battery).
Disclaimer: I haven't used 'em, but I saw them at Comdex and they looked cool enough to put on my Christmas wish list.
The Toshiba Portege 300CT is a GREAT laptop. It's a "sub-notebook"-- it's 10"x8", with a 1024x600 screen (very crisp, and the aspect ratio is nice, too). I have one, and it runs OpenBSD like a *champ*. Sound support, USB support, the whole shebang. PCMCIA works great, and the parallel and serial port extender bar is *really* small and portable. One of the OpenBSD developers (Dug Song) runs a Portege 300CT as well-- he even has kernel config files and XF86Config files available online...
It runs on a Pentium 133 with 32 or 64 megs of RAM (depending on options). It comes with either a 1.2-gig HD or a 4.3 gig HD.
In other words, it meets all the requirements for what you need the computer to *do*.
The problem comes in when you try to do it for too long. The backlight on the screen (a nifty feature) can be turned off, and the processor can be slowed down to save power. But even then, you're looking at slightly over two hours of worktime with the standard batteries. Long-run batteries will run you $150 (but, hey, not bad-- the laptop itself goes for $250 these days). Battery life on the Portege 300CT *sucks*.
You can do what I did, though. I bought a small motorcycle battery and a trickle charger. The laptop is small enough to fit in the same case as the battery. I made up an adapter so that I can hook the motorcycle battery the same way I hook up the AC adapter. It will run for about 20 hrs this way. Not only that, but it charges the regular battery while it runs.
Full blown laptop? Not quite. But try this:
Get a 31xx monoPAQ. Get the compactflash sleeve and the pcmcia sleeve (the latter because it has its own battery). Get a large (5gb) PCMCIA drive (IBM microdrive), a smaller (1gb) CF flash card, a Targus foldable keyboard, a CF 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA Sierra Aircard 510, and a CF vga-out adapter. Find a LCD panel that you like, build a battery pack for it.
Some creative duct taping or plexiglassing and yes sir, you have a Linux-capable computing brick that has a modular power system! Go full-tilt, and you have VGA on a full LCD with a keyboard and your big microdrive. Monitor dies, and you switch back the native screen. PCMCIA battery pack goes down, switch to CF. CF draining you too fast? Switch to internal memory.
If you want to get more creative, try it with the new 38xx series. Has longer battery life and built-in SD so you don't even need a sleeve. Don't forget, for the 31xx and 36xx series ipaqs, you can expand internal memory to 128mb with some creative soldering (read: surface mount).
So let's review your criteria:
1) clear screen: the 36xx has a nice screen, and whatever external LCD you choose could be good.. up to you.
2) decent 2d video: Hrm... well, it runs Quake. You decide.
3) Physical utility: Well, build a padded titanium case for your ipaq and lcd screen. Should be sturdy. Use it as a foot stool.
4) insanely long battery life: modular battery style means you can get long battery life. 12+ hours with the monopaq alone. Since everything else has it's own battery pack (except the CF sleeve), you can mix-n-match. A little creative hackery and you can probably paste an external big battery to the ipaq.
5) networking: 10bt, 100bt, 802.11b wireless, CDPD wireless and CDMA wireless. Sounds good to me.
Sounds fun to me.
and build a notebook out of a hardcover briefcase. It would be a bit bulky and intimidating, but you can at least get by without all the proprietary parts and upgrading impossiblities.
A funny story: A friend of mine once traveled to the UK with her PowerBook 140 and StyleWriter (a Canon inkjet rebranded by Apple for a while in the early 90s). The former was variable voltage, but the latter was ... NOT! When she plugged them both in with plug adapters only, the StyleWriter (or at least the adapter) quickly began to emit thick smoke.
Months later, she took the StyleWriter back to the retailer in the US. She told the guy: "I plugged it in, and it caught fire!" Very baffled and concerned, the store owner replaced it - not, of course, knowing the whole story.
So make sure you have a universal adapter before plugging in your laptop in Europe!
sulli
RTFJ.
Intel Pentium MMX or AMD K6, K6-2, K6-2/3D
Up to 450 MHz CPU with 100 MHz system bus
512 KB L2 Pipeline burst Cache memory
Two DIMM sockets supports ECC / SDRAM up to 512 MB
Dual Ultra DMA/33 EIDE and folppy interface
CRT / Flat Panel Display interface with 2 or 4 MB display memory
LVDS supports Flat Panel Display cable up to 20'
10/100 Base-T network interface using Intel 82558
Ultra Fast and Wide SCSI-3 supports 40 MB/s
Disk-On-Chip (DOC) socket supports up to 144 MB Flash disk
Four serials ports, one parallel port and two USB ports
Dynapro Touchscreen interface
Thermally controlled CPU & system fans
It runs Linux just fine (SuSE 6.3), although I never had a chance to try it from the DOC, since I got the DOCs with Phar Lap already flashed on them. We even got our touchscreen to work! (Sorry, I don't remember the manufacturer.)
It uses standard 168-pin SDRAM, and supports 100MHz FSB, and it actually has the jumper settings for a 500MHz CPU (not sure why they list 450MHz as the top speed, ours were running at 350MHz). Basically it's a highly integrated, very compact Super7. The footprint is slightly larger than a paperback novel, and the hieght is determined by the RAM. The IDE sockets are laptop style, and the PS/2, serial, parallel, and USB are headers that you have to plug a small interface card into that has the real connectors on it.
The only interface I can think of that you'd be missing is firewire, but in my experience firewire is pretty sketchy under Linux anyway, so you may not be missing much.
When I was working with these I was constantly fantasizing about stealing one and building my own portable system. The only problem I could think of was finding a small enough AT power supply, although it uses an adapter which could easily be modified for any PSU that provided the right voltages. Just make sure your 5V rail is stable, they're kind of sensative to that.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Sounds to me like your looking for a real unix machine, sure, you could install linux on a windows laptop, and it would work. However, you might look in at http://www.rdi.com/ and check out their portable UltraSPARC-IIi® processor based laptops. Built in SCSI, nice screen, sparc 400mhz proc. Not the kind of battery life your looking for, but worth a look anyway.
Cost is certainly an issue with PC104 -- however for what he's asking for (EMACS => Eight Megs And Counting) -- he could probably pickup some low end 486 cpu modules and run quite happy.
;)
Processor wise, there are more than just x86 options available, but again, is portability the real issue? if so, why does it matter which processor is on board?
formfactor is also not an issue. certainly the original intent was 'stackable' -- however I have seen flatboards that provide the bus on the board that allows you the opportunity to put the modules side by side
its a matter of balancing the resources and the needs/desires.
with pc104 the thing really could be in the "wearable" class of computer, as a swank utility belt wrapped around the midsection
and given whatever dietary needs he has, he might have room for a "wide bus"
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
Bad idea. Not going to happen.
You want a week's battery life? not going to happen.
By the way, from the sounds of it, you aren't the 'typical linux user' by your requirements.
My advice, and no, I'm not a mac user...
Get a new mac iBook. yes. That's right.
Give OSX a shot while you are at it.. then install linux if you don't like it. IT's light, much better than average battery life, very nice display, rugged, and cheap.
last for a week without ac, that seems unbelievable. The rest of it is probably doable, either with an all in one board pc or a lunchbox style thing I've seen.
Where do you want to be, What are you doing to get there.
You may want to consider the Compaq Armada 4000 line, particularly the 4220T.
It's like 5lbs, 266mhz Pentium MMX mobile, 12" screen (does 800x600), runs linux very well... grab one of those 2-slot-high 3com PCMCIA cards that lets you jack the ethernet straight into the card (no more dongle annoyance). The stock battery will run you in X, editing files, for about 8 hours. Add a second battery, that time goes up to 18 hours, depending on use. These numbers are with a Toshiba 4gb IDE laptop drive. If you replaced that with a less power-hungry Flash device, I'm quite sure that a double-battery setup could run for 25-30 hours on this laptop.
I used to run one of these laptops as a car MP3 player, and it could normally go 15-18 hours without being recharged on two batteries. It also recharged to full in about 3 hours.
.... um, i lost you after "0110100001101001".
A couple of possibilities pop to mind....
:) -snap- (sound of rubber gloves)
A while ago I remember somebody making a computer in a briefcase. This could do nicely as a case for a selfmade portable.
Use a lightwight motherboard or a PC-104 based stack. PC-104 is more likely to have the nice addons as networking (wired and wireless) and usually are easier to run of a single voltage.
They are also more expensive....
Buy a cheap 15in LCD momitor, and hack it to run of 12 volts instead of AC.
Use a 12V sealed Lead Acid or Lead Calcium battery (the type usually used in UPS) This will add some weight, but will give you a long battery life and lead acid batteries are easy to charge, and usually lasts a looooong time with proper care.
Add you favorite keyboard (keep it in its own casing so you can detach it ) and a CD-ROM drive and you have your ovn portable (not quite a laptop) that guarranteed will give you some (unwanted) attention at security checkpoints at airports
Seriousely though... A portable like this could be made for $500-$1000 depending on the hardware used.
--
main(i){putchar(177663314>>6*(i-1)&63|!!(i<5)<<6)&&main(++i);}
My father is 71 years old.
Shouldn't you be in class, kid?
Norwalk, CT. to LA? Is there a direct flight?
I used to love my Linux laptop about 2 years ago, I felt so sophisticated. Tell you the truth I am running w2k on it now (A Sony Vaio)
Rooten tooten, you sound like my boss! 6.9E9 HZ, 1E9 RAM, DVD, HDTV screen and surround sound to read email. Hmmmm, he's sophistic too. Let me know if you can keep the W2K virus stable long enough to run SSH -X to that fab desktop.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
A lot of the juice for a laptop i spent on the display, so even if you power the machine with a Z80, your week in Japan is just a dream.
For a display, you might need to go with something like e-ink. But I'm sure you'll have to wait another couple of years before they have something you can use in a laptop, and by that time, you won't need to roll your own. Unless of course the manufactureres continue to commit to MS bloatware. Jeez, people, you DON'T need an 18-wheel truck going at supersonic speeds to go to the grocery store.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
So, in short, not all Linux users' needs are created equal. Your needs might be well served by one of the subnotebooks out there which place a priority on compact size, light weight and battery life. But for many of us developer/consultants who have to run an entire universe on one machine, we'll take as much machine as we can fit into a briefcase, thank you. :-)
Straying from the discussion just a bit...
I have an older IBM ThinkPad 560E and the screen isnt as good as it could be. It has a few blemishes, but aboveall the contrast could be vastly improved. I use it mostly for coding under the console and the black background is too gray compared to the white text.
Anyone have any recommendation as to what replacement screen I could get? Or are these TFTs pretty much the same in terms of color sharpness and contrast?
Its a real shame that sony have kind of lost thier way when it comes to laptop design.
Ive one of the 505 series for years now and its really the nicest little lappy Ive found, and is a real pleasure under linux (usb, firewire and irda all work well).
Sonys' newer laptop are pretty much butt ugly though.
Sony C1 Picturebook. 2.2 lbs. Crusoe chip. Nifty.
A nice, clear screen.
... and i want a pair of big titties in my face, along with dana delaney riding my schadol ... ain't gonna happen!
Decent 2D video performance.
Good physical utility.
Insanely long battery life.
(and my fav)
Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
I have the Sony slimline vaio. It has 750mhz processor, and I dual-boot win and Linux. I use the RedHat boot program and all is good. The laptop is extremely thin, lightweight, ethernet, firewire, usb, video out, modem, color screen... what more could you want for a linux laptop? They are cheap too, if you don't want a 1Ghz P3 and 3inch thick laptop. The IBM slim ver. probably works good too. The computer exists, just look harder.
I can swear by the iBook - dunno where you can buy the shipstones yet, tho...
Seriously, the main drawback with the new iBook is that you'll likely LOSE the new Apple AC adapter - it's so much smaller. And you gotta sleep, right? Charge at night. Turn off airport (remember - it's an antenna - it's job is to pour energy out the sides of your machine!), keep the sound down and the energy panel tweaked, and you'll get a day's work out of it.
Asking for Palm-grade batt life is a bit much for the present.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
you should be able to squeeze the whole computer in here , run a connector to a battery pack, and have room left over for 2 beer cans on the side .. can't you just see this guy sitting in coach?
Actually, a powerbook G3 might be better - with two batteries you can actually get close to 10 hours unplugged. The screen is still great, and you should be able to find one for close to $1000.
The big issue I have with your specs is the monitor. I've found any lcd screen uses up my battery much quicker. Heck even turning down the brightness saves battery. So why don't you try something like the eyeglass monitors. No they're not big, but this one uses RCA connections. So make sure your video card can handle that. When you can, hook it to a tv should make life a bit easier. They have batteries for it too. The other problem I have is that a "high gain antenna" probably sucks up quite a bit of juice to knock into that insane battery life. Defintely make that switchable. So at this point instead of your laptop, you're building more of a pc. So you should be able to use standard pc parts. Then just muddle with the power parts (the real magic), and you'd probably want to use a solid state drive to save on power too.
-cpd
Replace HD will a flash 2.5" HD
http://www.web-tronics.com
Do not use a swap space.
Underclock the system.
Backlite the lcd with tritium. It
will stay lite 10 years or so. Somebody
may sell the glass. (tritium is used in gunsights
).Might be expensive.
Low powered cpu like transmeta's crusoe.
There's a web site out there - www.compgeeks.com. They have slightly used laptops (came off corporate lease) that might be a few years old. While I haven't bought a laptop from them I have bought other things - by the way, their customer server SUCKS. They've messed up a few of my orders, overcharged me for other things, and it's taken forever to get situations remedied. However, they are cheap and they do have stuff you won't find too many other places.
Personally I bought a Dell Latitude years ago used and it's been one of the coolest little laptops I've ever had. It was only a P133, but the screen was beautiful, ran Linux like a champ, and had a good battery life. If I was looking to buy I'd find a Dell laptop, used, for about $400. I bet it would rock for a development platform on the go.
-brian.
----- obSig
Who the hell is christine watkins??
...about that battery life requirement, you might try hacking on a QuickPad Pro. Of course, it meets almost none of your other requirements.
Plenty of today's PCMCIA NICs don't have dongles, e.g. Netgear FA411 (not an endorsement, just a remark).
"Oh, I hope he doesn't give us halyatchkies," said Heinrich.
I can say from personal experience that starting to work on pc104 is a throwback to the days of building your own clones... When everything you do seems new, and as if no one else has done it before. (Which is ridiculous but still you can think it.) There are many resources out there for building a PC104 system... and right now you could probably get away with spending around 700-900 dollars for a decent 486/P1+ram+MiniLCD+Lion batteries that would fit in a large pocket (or perhaps one of those eholsters that was reported on a while ago.)
it stayed in the shop from the first week. Compaq could never fix it, I traded it for a lesser toshiba model. Now I have a TFT 8000 that has problems (bottom quarter of screen goes out after a while until you turn it off and let it cool), compaq again cant fix it. AVOID compaq crap.
As others have pointed out this will be far more expensive, time consuming and less powerful than a laptop that you could buy. With that said a LART would be pretty close to what you want. It consumes about 1 watt of power (the LCD would need more power), has a add on ethernet card, and has enough memory to run emacs (however you would have to add more flash or a hard drive to store emacs). It would require the hardware knowledge to interface it with a LCD screen. It certainly could be done for only about $2000 to $4000 dollars and lots of time.
I've seen a couple of people suggest an Ipaq, Though for your use, possibly going even slow and go with the NEC VR1481 (What is used in the . Linux has already been designed for this processor with flash support. Now you need to find a reflective LCD screen of suitable size and proper mobo. It shouldn't be too terribly difficult to get ahold of an Li-Ion battery. You will need this all put together on a new mobo, as expansion on the Agenda is limited. You would be looking at 10baseT connectivity at best.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
I nearly fell out of my chair! That picture (follow the link) is the funniest thing I've seen in a month.
-=-=-=-=- osjedi uses Debian GNU/Linux. -=-=-=-=-
why not get an iopener - and make a custom case for it. and get it to run on a battery. they run linux - and theres plenty of info on how they are put together... for 50 bucks you get pretty much the whole machine (screen, mem, linux, etc) then all you need is the following:
/.
a case - you can make one yourself.. or check the other people I linked to (ruggednotebooks.com)
spend some more money and get a solid state HDD
get one of those little foldable palm keyboards and get it to run with the iopener: or even better get one of those flexible plastic ones that are fully water proof..
get ruggednotebooks.com to waterproof the whole thing for you (prolly expensive but they might like the project?)
and go and actually do this and make sure you tell us when its done - so this isnt just some pointless ask
Christine Watkins is the first victim of "Jaws". Read the novel...it is great. I think she is mentioned in the movie too, but I'm not sure. :-)
It's just a little joke on my nick "Jawtheshark"
i run linux on a Compaq Presario 1622 and it runs perfectly except for the winmodem not working. i do most of my development on this laptop.
I work as a consultant in a data center and the features I always dreamed about in a laptop are
2 nics on board
2-4 rj45 serial ports
and keyboard/mouse/and vga inputs so that i can
use my laptop as a monitor/keyboard on systems in
racks with just a few cables.
since i'm bothering to reply, I have a thinkpad t20 and it rocks with linux. 1024x768 X; working
sound, dvd, infrared, and onboard NIC.
Just a clarification, Newark Airport's designation is EWR, not NWK.
That's what's called for, really -- a basic laptop design, add your own processor, video on a daughter card. Either that or a standardized laptop mobo form factor, but that would perhaps be asking too much from the current market?
/Brian
You could try starting here:
usedlaptops.com.
Surprisingly useful machines, and some pretty damn sweet prices. No, I don't work for them in any way.
Or try ebay or the like. Getting something used is a sweet deal if you don't need a solid warranty (most geeks don't) or the bleeding edge of tech (doesn't sound like you do).
Good luck,
Jason
If you want to get picky, it looks to me like he has a 40 millibit disk. I bet it's really good on power though!
I want a device similiar to the units shown on Star Trek Enterprise, with a bright OLED display a bit bigger than your palm, with sound, voice recognition, and touch sensitive. You could use a pen or the voice recognition. It would also contain a digital camera, and could have other devices plugged into it. A StrongARM processor, with 256MB of RAM and 10GB of flash should be sufficient. Anyone know how to go about getting components like the OLED display and to build devices like the Star Trek ones?
But not the one everyone else is talking about (i.e. an iBook/Powerbook). A coworker had an Apple Newton E-mate which was a cross between a laptop and a PDA.
It had a monochrome screen, no hard disk, smallish keyboard, and looked fairly rugged. Being based on the Arm chip and not having any moving parts, it probably had an OK battery life.
Surprisingly, the things weighs 4 pounds (!?) at least according to the page I mentioned above. The actual unit only had 4MB of memory, as well, which seems small, even for its time.
I suppose, for the adventurous, you could try to track down a unit and use it as a basis for a new machine. Of course, these are rare, and I suspect they still go for a pretty penny. Newton owners are a pretty fiercly loyal bunch. I doubt you could run Linux on it all that well... EMACS is out of the question with so little RAM.
Something like this, ARM based, flash memory, perhaps a screen with optional backlighting and greyscale, and of course Linux based is something closer to the mark than a full-blown laptop. Connectivity would also be an issue. I suspect the keyboard is a bit cramped, as well. But still... an interesting idea. One potential use that springs to mind is a cheap rugged machine for field use.
Oh please. This question is -dumb- but I wonder why this guy assumes that the rest of Linux users have the same needs that he has. Linux runs on Laptops very well. I have installed and used Linux on Dells, IBM and Sony. Hardware compatibility is pretty good. Most laptops on the marked are just suitable for running Linux as for running Windows.
As for short batery lifes this is not something that only Linux users are complaining about. There are also plenty slick and light laptops on the market (IBM X21, Sony Vaio SR7k, etc) that are not exactly desktop replacement models.
I would see if you couldn't pick up an old IBook - sure, they're pretty goofy looking - but they've got great battery life, their wiked durable (At the university I used to work at - we game them to CS Work Study students to lug around, they never broke one, which is better than I can say for most anything I touched), and with something like YDL installed - you've got an insane number of options for your configuration. It's got a built in 10/100 Eth0 and you can put an airport in it. That would be a pretty decent machine. You can get on off Ebay
\Drew National Data Director, John Edwards for President
Check eBay for a RISC-based laptop. You didn't think that any had been made? Well, there were a few, but they're insanely difficult to find now. I've seen SPARCbooks get dumped on eBay. I even thought about buying one, just to say that I owned one.
Anyways, it sounds like an ancient 486SX/25 laptop would work fine for this. Go buy one on eBay for $50. Then you'll need to get a battery, but I guess you could hack a modern day battery to work with on of those proprietary systems. You are a hardware hacker, aren't you? Any good solution to this problem is going to require a little soldering and hacking, if not weeks of searching eBay for cheap parts.
I've got another idea for you: get a DEC Multia (166 MHz 21066A CPU) off of eBay, buy a cheap LCD flat panel, and keep them both in your suitcase. I've thought about imbedding my Multia into my girlfriend's Chevy. It'd be the first 64 bit Chevy, I bet.
I guess I should never post on slashdot before my first class, huh?
"Software is a feeling, refined and expanded by each who touch it."
-Solstice
Solstice@deninet.com
... you want to run EMACS on it!! ;)
--joshua
Depending on whether the mods are VI-guys or EMACS-men, I'll either get a +3 Funny or a -1 Flamebait. :) But it wasn't intended to be flamebait, just funny....
> A WINE-like emulator would be better
> than Virtual PC, though.
Not to mention nigh impossible. Perhaps
WABI is the term you're looking for.
First, LCDs are tricky to interface, and of course, they have to fit into something - like a unique, non-swappable plastic or titanium case.
The reason we still have laptops that have 4 hours battery life and still cost $2000+ is because laptops aren't clonable. The case is unique, and therefore the manufacturer controls the entire design.
Also, there's the RF/EMC problem - if you "build your own", who knows what RF is being given off? You have a lot more leeway in an office environment than a plane.
I know you are trying to build one yourself but I found a site that sells Linux friendly laptops. QliTech Linux You can even customize one and they'll build it to your (picked from a list) specs. The 2 set models they have come with ethernet built-in. Wireless ethernet (802.11b) options are avalible. A little pricey though and the standard models are a bit excessive in the hardware department for what you are looking for(ie: 20 gig harddrive, 1GHz P3). I think may be good for others who don't have the stomach for what you are attempting!
x/0=x
roll your own joint dewd.
Odd that your boss can't run Linux on his Vaio...
I've got an FX220 on which I happily run RedHat 7.1. The built-in modem (a WinModem) won't go, so I have a PCMCIA Xircom. The built-in network adapter (Intel EtherExpress 100) works fine. The CD/DVD-ROM works fine. The on-board sound (i815) works fine with the OSS drivers. The video (i815 also) works fine.
Sadly, it seems their Fn+ key controls require software to work, so I can't adjust screen brightness or that sort of thing. :-(
I use this box on the road for development (PostgreSQL, Tomcat, etc.), so can actually use the extra power this box provides.
I wouldn't run Windoze on this for any reason. Linux is what I need, and Linux is what I run.
It's not that hard...
Gordon
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien
Well i *love* my Toshiba 1750. It cost only 1750$ CAN, and RedHat 7.1 runs like a charm on it.
Everythink work, even the Lucent WinModem !
64 RAM, 10 Gig, ATI Rage Mobility AGP 2x, Active Matrix, Ethernet + modem, disk drive included and 24x CD-ROM.
And more recent laptops from that "family" are even better, with DVD, 20 Gig and 128 RAM, for 1800$ CAN.
So you should reconsider waisting your time and money on such a project, and save your $$$ for some great machine.
I would rather roll a joint than a laptop, thank you.
I'm intrigued by your idea, insofar as I'd like to know if it can be done for anywhere near a reasonable cost. I've played around with PC/104 modules and had Linux run on them without troubles. The module I'm currently using for an embedded system supports dual 100M ethernet (ya, a tad excessive :), 64M RAM, up to 192M of chip-on-disk (HD replacement) and comes on a single PC/104 board. To make it functional as a system, only a power supply board and a video board were needed. I think the power board could be dumped if running on batteries.
/.
:)
I've in the past looked at some industrial LCD screens that were B&W and came with a driver card that was standard VGA, not your typical funky laptop arrangement. They were pricey at the time ($1000 in 98), but may have decreased.
Battery life can be had if you're willing to carry around a heavier battery (there are lots of off-the-shelf ones available).
The problem I see is that it would be difficult to impossible to build this into a case that would rival a typical laptop for size. Those R&D guys doing laptop design are miracle workers! I can just imagine what they must be saying everytime marketing comes along and says "we need it smaller".....
In the end, though, you'll probably end up making the same decision I did and buy a standard laptop of some sort (I'm using a Dell C500 right now and it works great with Linux (Slackware)).
Just don't give up if you really want to do this. There seem to be a pile of nay-sayers for
I'm building my own car right now just for fun and to prove it can still be done.
Greg
I actually put a lot of thought into the same thing awhile back, but didn't come up with anything substantial.
/. or google should bring it up): this has built-in 10/100baseT if I'm not mistaken and a nice StrongARM processor, with some RAM.. Plus they can load Linux on it.. :)
The biggest problem is the lack of commoditized componentry that would make this work out.
Here's what I would recommend starting with:
cerfcube (search on
Then, pick up one of those 1.8" HD's, see pricewatch?
get a happy hacker's keyboard
grab a 13" LCD and take off all the "extra crap".
Now, the problem becomes: how to integrate it all together, for which I have no answer. You'd also have to cobble together some sort of power supply, which I am also clueless about, nor do I have the funds to experiment with.
Personally, I found a Sony Vaio 505FX on ebay for around $600 with shipping sometime back, and I run Linux (Redhat 7.1) exclusively on it. Works and installed flawlessly. It's durable, rugged, and very lightweight. Small size, no built in networking, though (although newer models have it), and the battery life absolutely sucks ass (I don't go anywhere without my AC adapter and constantly look for places to plug-in, if I can find it), but other than that, it's great. I use it at work to work on programming homework (although I've now got ssh installed on my linux machine at home and I find myself ssh'ing in from my desktop more and more..). Again, battery life sucks, even in console mode. I'm going to pick up a quad-life battery sometime soon (although they're INSANELY expensive.. maybe someone will come up with a retro-kit one day with one of those nice batteries the little Apple MP3 playercomes with..).
Well, have fun.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
You know what you're smoking when you roll your own.
Is it time to go home yet?
Since people have already mentioned incuding the ibooks in your evaluation, I thought I'd mention another possibility, the Series 7
;-)
http://www.psion.com/series7/
640 x 480 7.7" screen, StrongArm processor, PCMCIA, CF, IRDA, 8.5 hour battery life.
(There's a near-identical machine called the netbook that they sell more into the indstrial market that is also worth a look.
http://www.psion.co.uk/netbook/
)
It runs EPOC, which might actually do you, but there is an ongoing project to get Linux on it.
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/
I'm not sure how solid this is (except to say that it's certainly not a finished distro like you get on the ibooks) but you wanted to do some hacking, didn't you say?
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Remember the radio that runs on a crank? theres a device that uses a sort of bike break like device that genarates DC power to charge dead battries. I don't have a link for this but there is such a thing. The only catch is that you haver to hand crank your battry back to life in lieu of a wall socket.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
I have an IBM ThinkPad i1400 2611-411 that I've upgraded to 256 MB RAM and a bigger, better, badder HDD. It suits Linux development *almost* perfectly. The screen only displays at 800x600x16bpp. I run a custom distribution: Linux From Scratch. I'm using kernel 2.2.20-aa1 with a handful of other modifications. Everything including the Lucent "winmodem" works great. I even get about 15 hours of battery life with a special battery made by Electrofuel, Inc.. There are several reviews of that product out there, too. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are several "older" notebooks out there that can be used for this purpose. My ThinkPad has survived several one meter drops without breaking (although the case did pop open a bit once). There aren't even damaged spots on my HDD! Combine this with a handheld (Palm, Visor, Pocket PC), and you can really be mobile...
I want a Camaro V-8, take off all the sheet metal and chrome and glass, take out the seats and carpeting, replace the transmission with one from a Mustang, the carburator needs to be from a Honda Celica I want to replace the back and passenger seats with a extra fuel tanks (One of hydrogen and another of Corn Oil) of course I want to have room to store one gallon of milk _only_ in the trunk but I need a mini-pasturizing center to fit in there as well for my projects, I will need some music so I will install a walkman that has a cigarrette DC adapter with a ferris wheel cassette changer in my seat. I want my car to also transform into a port-a-potty so I don't have to worry about my lack of hygiene skills...
Yeah I think that about sums up the "project scope"... Any suggestions of what I should use in my project? *DUH* The similarities to the orginal poster are staggering!!!
This seems to fit the bill.
Look - if all you are going to be doing on it is editing text, why do you even need a new/nice machine? Sounds like all you want is an old P166 or 233 laptop, stripped of all its drives, with a PCMCIA ethernet card. Almost all of them work great, have great video performance, and are old enough that most or all of their hardware is supported under gnu/linux or *BSD.
Get real. You sound like you are building your dream machine. You wanna spend $3000 or $250?
Have you considered hacking an existing laptop to meet the specs you want? The IBM X series might be a good place to start. Here are the conflicts and solutions that I propose:
They have fast, battery draining CPUs:
ACPI 2.0 supports controlling the speed on speedstep processors. If you are willing to spend the time or fund the effort, you could get linux to support this aspect of ACPI and take the the speed down to 50Mhz.
They have bright, backlit, color LCDs:
1. Stay in framebuffer. 2. Crack the sucker open and disconnect the backlight, and then use a custom high contrast setup.
They suck batteries at 3 hours per charge:
1. Replace the hardrive with compact flash. I have seen adapters that let you do this for sale on ebay. 2. Remove the CPU fan, since you won't need it at 50 Mhz. 3. Buy multiple batteries, they cost about $150 each, weigh very little ( 1lb.), and the IBM can hibernate (suspend to disk) and allow you to swap batteries without powering down.
Granted this will mean that you are spending a lot of money and not getting what you paid for, but compared to getting custom build laptop cases, this might not be that unreasonable. Anyway, just my $.02.
josh
I've never been to Tokyo but im sure they have electricity. You might need an adapter but you can afford that with the thousands you save buy buying something a little more common. As far as the week long battery goes don't you sleep. This is a great time to recharge the battery, really it is. If you want something small, getting great reviews, supposedly good with linux, and 7 hour battery life try the fujitsu p series
Whose idea was it to put Windows servers on the net in the first place, anyway?
The LCD is your main sticking point. Forget it.
Get goggles. A head-mounted display will be lighter, use less power, be easier to protect against harm, give more privacy, and be way more 'leet.
Anyone else notice a market for super well engineered battery packs for OLDER laptops? I mean if you could build a battery for an AST 810 that would last a week, what would that cost?
You can't have everything. If you are willing to give up SOMETHING.... Price or weight... It can be done now. When do you want it? I can build one into approximately a briefcase size now. The batteries are gonna take up the most weight & space.... and most of the money after the monitor... but as a prototype it's a start. Then you cut down on the size/weight and make them cheaper. Seriously. I can spec it out and custom build it in a weekend using STOCK parts. Think I can't?? E-mail me at tekxpres@bellsouth.net and I'll send you a shopping list and my shipping address.
you WILL have a hard time meeting your requirements and having it be normal laptop sized or cheap. I can stuff a brief case cheap....
Great idea.
The state of the art of PCB manufacture has advanced considerably since the days when the Apple1 was designed and built in a garage. If you don't believe me, disassemble an Apple][ or a Commode64 or any other computer from the 70's and put its innards next to those of a modern laptop. The first thing you'll notice is that the laptop parts are much smaller and _much_ closer together. Also the traces on the board are narrower and _much_ closer together. What you'll _not_ see is that while the Apple][ PCB is probably a two-layer deal (traces on both sides) the laptop PCB (or any modern PC motherboard, really) has at least 5 or 7 layers of traces and possibly more like a dozen. This takes its fabrication out of the scope of the casual experimenter and into the realm of professional printed circuit fab facilities, whose setup charges alone will give you a massive coronary. As has also been mentioned, many of the parts are available only in reels of 1000 pieces. Designing and building a custom PCB the size and complexity of a laptop computer is something only the big boys of the consumer electronics industry (Sony, Toshiba & Hitachi, IIRC) can attempt to make money at. Lesser outfits like IBM, Dell & Compaq farm this stuff out, or find an OEM.
Then you get to start on the case. It's my understanding that a plastic mold for something the size of a laptop case co$t$ something upwards of 30 or 50 thousand dollars to machine, and you'll need at least 4 big plastic pieces (top & bottom of case & lid) The setup charges of an injection molder (once you have a mold!) will also give you a fainting feeling.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.