Desktop Replacements and the 11 Pound Pencil

Marco Ramius writes "Tom's Hardware Guide has an article up entitled 'Unwieldy Laptops or Portable Desktops?' in which the author lugs an Alienware Area-51m desktop replacement to a 32 hour LAN to assess what advantages and disadvantages desktop replacements have over desktops themselves." They also have a related article entitled The Case of the 11 Pound Pencil where an office adopts a desktop replacement solution to unsatisfactory ends. Both interesting looks at appropriate uses for hefty hardware.

Comments

Alienware Area-51m

[IflyRC]

This my friends is the source of global warming. A machine that puts out so much heat that you can feel like stripping down as soon as its powered up can melt the polar ice caps. These should be banned in Antarctica and Canada.

Re:Well...

[Agelmar]

Had you RTFA'd, you would know that the "11lb Pencil" is a name that the editor from THG gave a HP laptop (can't remember the part number) that was given to employees to replace forms which were previously filled in with pencil. The new laptops and the associated changes with "going digital" were of little practical use. In the end, the things were no more useful than a pencil for the application they were purchased for, but much bulkier, hence the term 11lb pencil.

I'm not sure if the parent post was just unfunny or ignorant, but it's definitely -1 overrated.

Shared devices

[dada21]

When my old Sony VAIO died, I cried. It had no CD-rom, no floppy, and was so thin and tiny that it went everywhere. It barely had any ports. When I needed to burn a CD or connect a peripheral, the network or USB gave me the option, which I rarely used. Now that Sony is on my hit list, I couldn't find a decent replacement, so I bought a reasonbly tiny Compaq (yes, shudder, but it works great) until someone releases a real "on the go" laptop that works well.

I always get aggravated the the market for desktop replacements is to totally replace everything you'd do on a desktop. For me, I prefer a memory stick over a CD-R. I don't need video outputs, and the need to shove every port into a portable machine doesn't seem cost or space or energy efficient.

How many of you with desktop replacements are really using all the options built into it? Hasn't the Internet mostly reduced the need for all these external connection points? For me, I set up a private WiFi AP at every location I visit, and I never have to worry about anything but battery life (I hate plugging my laptop in even to the AC outlet).

Re:Shared devices

[peragrin]

Hence why I bought a 12" powerbook. but now basically any 12" under 5 pound computer is great.

Try something like the Acer tablet. If tablet's would just drop in price a bit I might even switch to using windows once in a while.

Re:Shared devices

[JanneM]

I've used a Panasonic R3 for over a year, and it's womderful. Less than a kilo, good keyboard, 1Gb memory, and (in practice, with Ubuntu Linux,) 6-7 hours battery life.

Oh, and there's no fan. None at all. When I unplug it, the harddrive spins down and it's _totally_ quiet.

Re:Shared devices

[joekampf]

I am a consultant. I spend 8 - 10 hours at a client, then go home and work for another 3 or 4 hours. I have a HP Pavilion zd8000. It has enough horse power to run WebLogic, MQ, Apache, Oracle, Eclipse, and any other office productivity software I need to get my work done. It is heavy, yes. But to keep that much software in sync between home and work would be almost impossible. I never worry about performance, the screen is wide and gives me the ability to have lots of windows open. The only anoying thing is the power brick. Although I just might invest in a brick for home and at work.

Re:Shared devices

[danielk1982]

The R3 is a very well put together laptop. But expensive.

Re:Shared devices

[Mark Hood]

I agree, there's a lot of people *cough*managers*cough* who get the top end, desktop replacement 'because their role demands it' and then lock it in the drawer at night when they go home. If that's how it's used, get a desktop.

I have a Thinkpad T42 - and I use the modem, built-in wireless, built-in network, PC-Card slots, both USB ports, headphone & mic sockets & CD/DVD drive almost daily.

The only things on this that I don't use are the PS/2 keyboard socket and parallel port. The CD-Writing is rarely used too, but has saved my bacon a couple of times on-site (if I had an external writer, Murphy tells me I'll leave it at home when I need it most).

So while a lot of people can work with a laptop with minimal features (or even a desktop) some of us really do use the 'desktop replacement' features to their utmost. Once I get back to the office, this laptop slips into the docking station and works seamlessly with a nice big external TFT, keyboard and mouse, USB hub, network connection, etc.

Not to say I wouldn't prefer it was lighter, but it's far from the one in the linked article!

Mark

Re:Shared devices

[myspys]

I have an MV Ixius (http://www.go-mv.com/)

17" widescreen, 3.4 ghz p4, dvd-burner, geforce 6800 go, 1 gb ram, 80 gb hd (7200 rpm) and a _REALLY REALLY_ crappy soundcard (my ooold 16-bit soundblaster sounded much better)

do i use all the features of this laptop? no

do i move it around? not really

is it good for applications that require a lot of cpu/io/mem and for games? yes, very much so

it's good to be able to move it around, although i almost never (when i go somewhere, i take my 15" powerbook)

and oh, btw, the casing sucks (which looks like the same case as the alien-laptop reviewed). after using it for a while, the black paint comes off

Re:Shared devices

[coaxeus]

Aye I'm not sure why the T42 has a parallel port. I haven't used such an interface in about 10 years. My office gives all us network guys t42s, despite the #1 thing we need in a laptop being a serial port. So these things have no serial port and for some reason a parallel port. They now give us cheap usb=serial adapters with the things. They have crappy drivers that always change the port#, but they work.

Re:Shared devices

[Rakishi]

There are a lot of small 12" notebooks, with no cd-rom drive and limited ports, google for subnotebooks. They're in the 2 to 3lb range. Smaller ones have a smaller screen.

Re:Shared devices

[DrXym]

When my old Sony VAIO died, I cried. It had no CD-rom, no floppy, and was so thin and tiny that it went everywhere.

Which is why that if ever these hand cranked $100 laptops appear in a commercial version, I will be first in line to get one. They're going to be insanely useful things - imagine not having to lug cables or anything else except a paperback sized box for browsing and word processing whenever and wherever you liked - on the beach, in a coffee shop, on a train. Sling it into a bag, crank it up and you're set.

Re:Shared devices

[NutscrapeSucks]

> Aye I'm not sure why the T42 has a parallel port.

Walk into the average office building and you'll see a bunch of HP departmental laser printers that all have parallel ports (and very few if any have USB). If you think of the on-site salesman or consultant, they want to be able to print without worrying about how to get on someone's network.

Re:Shared devices

[coaxeus]

Interesting. We are all about the networks up here I guess. I travel to all sorts of different offices and am always provided network access for that sort of thing, attaching a local printer is unheard of. The big oil corps tend to have special vlans and whatnot for just such purposes. Hell, most printers have IRDA which I'd use prior to whipping out the old parallel cable.

Re:Shared devices

[DarkNemesis618]

In my office where I work, the trend is now to buy Dell D610 Laptops with Docking Stations. The D610's aren't paper thin, but they're relatively light and are pretty good. When the users are here at work, they have their docking stations with plenty of ports as well as a keyboard, mouse, & monitor. They can then just undock and take the laptop on the road no problem. It's the best of both worlds in my opinion.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

olo PSP?

Re:Shared devices

[NutscrapeSucks]

Yes, if you're going to be onsite for any length of time. But if you're just visiting for a meeting, the chance of having network print access is just about zero in my experience. (I'm not saying it's an extremely common usecase .. I've maybe done it twice in 10 years. But IBM designed the T-series to be the ultimate roadwarrior laptop, and I presume they knew what they were doing.)

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife just bought me a 12 inch iBook. It weighs in at just under five pounds, it has an 80 GB drive, plus a CD burner, DVD player, and it's battery lasts six hours. It's perfect for writing novels, which is what I use it for. I also moved my CodeWarrior development environment onto it, just in case I want to write code while I'm away from my main machine, a dual G5 tower.

So if you're open to a Macintosh, it's a good little workhorse and it's inexpensive.

Re:Shared devices

[Total_Wimp]

I saw weblogic, I saw HP and I saw "power brick"

I'm in the same boat only I'm in IT and our HPs are the massive 9600s. We haven't actually given them to our consultants yet because we're afraid of a revolt over the weight, but they're the only solution we currently have to the revolt over the poor performance of our current laptops.

Power vs. Weight. What do you do? In our case, like yours, this is no pencil replacement issue.

TW

Re:Shared devices

[Jozer99]

I have a Fujitsu Lifebook P7010. Its great. It weighs 3.1 lb (~ 1 kg), but manages to squeeze in a 1.2GHz Pentium M, 1Gig RAM, ABG WiFi, 100GB HD, and even a DVD burner! Check it out, its a great deal, both portability and almost full desktop functionality. Before this, I had a Toshiba Portege, but like your Sony, no media drives, and basically the only IO was a single USB port.

Re:Shared devices

[networkBoy]

I've had excellent results with my T40 and T42 notebooks. Why not IB^H^H Lenovo?

-nB

Re:Shared devices

[networkBoy]

Any sort of serial port* would be nice though...

-nB

*by any serial port I mean RS-232 std with possibly a non std connector and a dongle or how 'bout another RJ?

Re:Shared devices

[mwvdlee]

I have a laptop I use for browsing, chatting and mailing primarily, with a splash of occasional simple graphics editing or programming (though I usually just walk over to my desktop machine, the laptop resides in the living room).
For purposes like this, WiFi and an array of USB ports would suffice. I use about 2GB of the 6GB HDD. Neither the floppy nor CD ports get much use. I only use one of the PCMCIA slots for WiFi. The 800x600 screen (It's an old P3/600 machine) is a bit small though, and if the TV-Out would actually display DirectX output as well, I'd use that too.

Re:Shared devices

[tygt]

My desktop replacement is..... a desktop replacement.

It sits on my desktop, making a ton of noise most of the time, and only moves about once a month or so when I visit the "real" office a few hours away.

I have the following plugged in most of the time: audio, 3x USB (keyboard, mouse, flash reader), Ethernet, external video (I use the lugtop's 17" and a 20" tube side-by-side, with the 17" on a home-made stand).

Now, the telling factor: When I visit the "real" office, I really don't need this computer. I barely need anything other than an X terminal. So for me, the only thing that this monster (9-10 pounds, not 11) gives me is another screen on my desktop and a supplementary heater for wintertime (which I loathe in the summer).

If I had to do over again, and I will sometime, I'd buy a really small lightweight laptop, use it 5% of the time, and have a real desktop with multiple video outs and a 2-3 LCDs on the desktop.

Re:Shared devices

[JustAnEngineer]

I have to agree on whether a "desktop replacement" laptop is all that important for most people. For my work I end up using my iBook for nearly everything I do. Yes, it's slow compared to the Dell desktop that I sit next to, but it does everything I need, and it's not all that heavy to carry around. I keep the Dell for when I need to do large amounts of data processing, since the faster processor and larger memory do come in handy then, but otherwise it's just idling and wasting electricity. I would think that, for most people, this could be a better way to work - have a powerful desktop sitting somewhere out of the way, and remote desktop into it from a lightweight laptop. I guess that wouldn't work for games, but I can't think of much else that really needs all that power to be carried with you.

Re:Shared devices

[Jaysyn]

I haven't seen a departmental type printer use anything but an Ethernet interface for about 8 years now.

Of course, I've only seen about 150 or so in that time, YMMV.

Jaysyn

Re:Shared devices

[homer_ca]

You're not looking hard enough. Just about every laptop maker has a model in the ultra-portable category: 12" screen, no optical drive, about 4 lbs (some close to 3 lbs), and pretty decent battery life.

Re:Shared devices

[elliotCarte]

I had one (zd8000) too up until recently. I loved it for the hefty processor, the kickin' vid card, wide screen, ports for EVERYTHING, etc. I did get tired of lugging it around though. It and the power brick are very heavy for 'portable' equipment. It was really a bit of overkill for me. I used it, yes, and enjoyed the performance, but more often than not I do my computing at my desk at work or at home, where I have desktops. I'll buy a lighter (and cheaper) laptop when I get a new one. It's a great rig for someone who'd use it as their only (or primary) computer though,... well except that it comes with an internal wireless card that uses a Broadcom chipset for which they don't supply a Linux module(driver). Other than that... -elliot

Re:Shared devices

[Anne Thwacks]

I'm not sure why the T42 has a parallel port.

Because, as those of us who have to work for a living know: a TON of important software uses it for the dongle!

Re:Shared devices

[swthomas55]

I use just about everything on my IBM T40 except the PCMCIA slots and the parallel port at one time or another. I'm a developer. I travel for work a few times a year, but I take my laptop home almost every night.

I use the video port to drive a projector in conference rooms. I use the USB port for many purposes -- mouse, Blackberry connector, flash drive. I use the PS2 port rarely, but have plugged a mouse into it once or twice. Ethernet port, built-in wireless, and bluetooth are used daily. CD-RW not so often, but as the previous writer noted, it has "saved my butt" a couple of times. CD-ROM/DVD used lots both for work and entertainment. Since most of the places I stay have either ethernet or wireless in the hotel room, I don't often use the modem port -- except when I visit my parents, who only have dial-up, still.

The 1400 x 1050 screen sometimes feels cramped to me, as I run it at 1600 x 1200 when it's docked on my desk at work. I will never buy a laptop with a smaller screen.

For all this, I'm willing to lug the weight around. That weight includes the 9-cell extended life battery (1.06 lbs) for a total of almost 6 lbs.

Re:Shared devices

[GmAz]

I own the HP zd8110 (nearly identical to the zd8000). I love it. It weights about 8.5 poinds, a huge 17" screen and quite a bit of power. I do video editing, photo editing, games and the common office applications on it. Its worth every penny and every pound. I am almost tempted to move my desktop and give it a permanent home on my desk. Power and compact size, its a wonderful life.

Re:Shared devices

[Bombula]

and the need to shove every port into a portable machine doesn't seem cost or space or energy efficient.

Which makes me wonder, why not have just one or two 'mother' ports and a peripheral that you can plug in to give yourself all the others you might need? Maybe that's what USB is supposed to be, but I look at my machine and USB doesn't seem very 'universal' to me. Video, sound, network and other stuff still on other ports. Is such a mother port impossible?

Re:Shared devices

[RESPAWN]

Bingo. That's the one downside to the T-Series. It is nice that it has parallel, but whether you choose to believe it or not, a serial port is still useful in this day and age. That's one area where the Dell D6xx series has an advantage over the T-Series.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw weblogic, I saw HP and I saw "power brick"

I'm in the same boat only I'm in IT and our HPs are the massive 9600s. We haven't actually given them to our consultants yet because we're afraid of a revolt over the weight, but they're the only solution we currently have to the revolt over the poor performance of our current laptops.

Power vs. Weight. What do you do? In our case, like yours, this is no pencil replacement issue.

Well, I'm running Apache, Tomcat, Eclipse, Word, Lotus Notes, etc. Right now I have the following setup, and it's sweet:

• HP nc6230 2ghz CPU, 2 GB ram, 60 gb 7200 RPM drive, CD/DVD R/W+ drive, 3 USB ports
• Windows XP Professional (sorry, but the office doesn't support Linux desktops. Yet...)
• Docking station
• External 19" HP 1955 Flat-screen moinitor set up in tandem with the laptop's screen so I can use both monitors

I can run all these apps as well as several browsers simultaneously. I can compile my Java apps to .war files using Ant in <= 20 seconds. Tomcat loads from a cold start in < 5 seconds most times.

This thing goes to about 6 pounds or so (I think -- I've never actually weighed it) and suits my needs for both a desktop replacement and a mobile PC that I can use outside the office.

Re:Shared devices

[jandrese]

So much for hoping that Dongles would go the way of the dodo as serial and parallel ports get phased out. Man I hate those things. It's not like you don't find cracked pirate copies of Autocad all over the net or anything either.

Re:Shared devices

[TCaptain]

Count me in for HP, I have the older zd7280 and its a beast. 11 pounds and a 17inch wide screen, its heavy to carry and tricky if I DO use it on my actual lap.

BUT holy cow, it is a beast in terms of power as well...I use it for everything from development to gaming. I loved my old laptops but I was sick of getting a "transit" laptop rather than a full blown desktop replacement.

On the other hand...carrying the thing to work and everywhere I go daily does keep my arms nice and solid.

Re:Shared devices

[Slack3r78]

That's the case with all Panasonic notebooks. The two best notebooks I've ever owned were Panasonics, and we're talking original Pentium class machines. The only problem is they make Apple hardware look cheap. :-)

Re:Shared devices

[jandrese]

I'm writing this comment on a Dell D610. :)

They do offer good performance for a reasonable size (perhaps one of the best regular style laptops I've ever used), but it's just not in the same league as those old viao picturebooks. Those things almost fit in your pocket. Sure the screen was some obnoxious resolution (1024x400 or something, you had to scroll it up and down) and the battery life was crummy unless you had the extended battery bar attached, but man, those things were portable. You didn't need a special laptop case for them, just toss them in your backpack/briefcase and go.

IMHO, the perfect microlaptop would be maybe half the size of the D610, have a 576x1024 screen, a built-in power supply (no brick!), and some way to store the power cable in the laptop. It'd also need wireless. Preferably halfway decent battery life. obviously you'll have to give up good graphics, a fast processor, the optical drive, perhaps even the PC-CARD slot to fit all of that in, but I think it'd find quite a niche.

Re:Shared devices

[bhtooefr]

Looks like he's describing the ThinkPad X series.

41 = Old, but cheap, and with usable power
60 = New, fast (it's actually a Core Duo), not cheap
60s = New, fast (Core Duo again), smaller, and also not cheap

Re:Shared devices

[tverbeek]

In the process of trying to determine whether my current Diamond Mako (a relabeled Psion Revo) is going to have to be replaced. (The battery-recharging system in these has a tendency to fail. This is the fourth one I've owned.) The only ports it has are a power input, a (proprietary) serial port for data transfer, and an infrared port I've never used. But it has all the functionality I usually want to carry with me (e.g. a QWERTY keypad), and because of its size (it makes even a 12" PowerBook look like a cafeteria tray), I can carry it with me. The bad news is that they don't make them anymore. And no one else makes anything comparable. Even Psion was in the process of putting these things on steroids, making subsequent models bigger and "more functional" (before they sold the OS to Symbian and then quit the market). Why oh why is no one willing to make a portable computer that's truly portable?

Re:Shared devices

[GlassUser]

Which makes me wonder, why not have just one or two 'mother' ports and a peripheral that you can plug in to give yourself all the others you might need? Maybe that's what USB is supposed to be, but I look at my machine and USB doesn't seem very 'universal' to me. Video, sound, network and other stuff still on other ports. Is such a mother port impossible?

Oh you can get them. The manufacturers just insist on adding all the extras. The only ports you really need on a computer are video (there's just too much data for USB to handle), USB, and power (got to get power in somehow, USB host can't do that). You can get usb peripherals for keyboard, mouse, sound, printer, network, and . . . whatever else you have dedicated ports for.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

the ultra-portable category: 12" screen ... about 4 lbs

Sorry, but if I can't put it in a pocket and it weighs more than anything else I might carry around with me, I wouldn't call it "ultra-portable". Let's drop the hyperbolic marketingspeak, please.

Re:Shared devices

[Kuad]

Amen, that's why we're a Dell D6x0 series house. Our unix and network guys would go apeshit without a serial port.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a compaq R3000 which is a massive piece of technology. Heavy yes but reliable and with plenty of horse power. I did buy an extra power brick for home which helped when lugging it around 5 days out of the week. I also started using a Targus backpack instead of a over the shoulder side bag. The back pack helps even out the weight across my back instead of pulling down one shoulder.

Re:Shared devices

[Alan Hicks]

Aye I'm not sure why the T42 has a parallel port.

Walk into the average office building and you'll see a bunch of HP departmental laser printers that all have parallel ports (and very few if any have USB). If you think of the on-site salesman or consultant, they want to be able to print without worrying about how to get on someone's network.

I found myself in the position of needing a parallel port on my laptop just last week, and I was perturbed that I didn't have one. Granted, it's the only time in 3 years I've ever needed a parrallel port on a laptop. I was troubleshooting an HP DesignJet printer for a client that was connected to an HP printserver. I couldn't be certain that the printserver or the centronics cable wasn't bad, and the only way to test was to hook up a computer to the printer via a known-good centronics cable. I had to lug a desktop out into the hall, along with keyboard, mouse, and monitor just to test. This would have been much easier had my laptop possessed a parallel port.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

Belkin makes a good USB-Parallel cable. It's 40 bucks I think.

Re:Shared devices

[darkjedi521]

Where the heck is the PS/2 port on the T42? I've got one of those things, but I can't find that port. I've got a S-video port between the USB and RJ11 jacks, and that's the only DIN connector on the system.

Re:Shared devices

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Really? I "work for a living" in the computer field, and I haven't encountered an app that required a dongle, much less a parallel port one, in over 10 years. I assume Autocad still does, but I hardly limit my definition of "work" to Drafting...

Re:Shared devices

[k33l0r]

Hasn't the Internet mostly reduced the need for all these external connection points?

Oh, please. Last time I checked, my printer didn't have an wifi connection nor can I connect my speakers to my laptop using the internet (Can nothing be done about sound quality on laptops?.

For me, I set up a private WiFi AP at every location I visit

Not everybody connects via wifi. A traditional rj45 ethernet connection is still way faster and more reliable that wifi.

I never have to worry about anything but battery life (I hate plugging my laptop in even to the AC outlet)

I guess you want to recharge via the internet too... Perhaps you've never had a laptop with the tiniest bit of "woomph". I know my (moddest) AMD Mobile Athlon 64 (in my laptop) consumes power like a beast. And I think you misunderstand the phrase "desktop replacement". The main purpose of these sort of laptops is NOT ultra portability. They are computers which are EASIER to move about.

Re:Shared devices

[SyncNine]

I've got a zd8000, and even though this is somewhat off-topic -- you can use ndiswrapper to get the wi-fi working. Certain distributions that I've never found even work with it straight from install! (Based solely on hearsay. ;))

Other than that, the zd8000 is nice. While I've got a whupass desktop (athlon64 3800+/sli nvidia 6800gtx/2gb ram/720gb hdd/yadayadayada), I have never once had the desire to pick it up and lug it anywhere. LAN party or not, that box is staying there for a LONG time.

With the laptop, on the other hand, it's much easier. My buddy and I go down to the local Starbucks and wile away hours playing UT2004 or similar.

I'd never recommend the laptop to anyone who had to carry it around for business though, the thing weighs in at about 11-13 lbs., once you include the power brick, obligatory second battery (1 hour battery life on their 'HIGH CAPACITY' battery if you're doing anything worth a crap). It's quite a pain.

But, for sheer performance, you can't beat it. It plays UT2004 in very high resolutions and gets 90fps. Doom 3 and Quake 4 play on it remarkably well. If you're a gamer and like to game on the go, it's great to have. I don't really mind lugging it around because I don't go too far with it -- and I don't carry it all the time.

Anyways.

Re:Shared devices

[Dion]

Sound and network can hang off USB, that leaves video which isn't really that big a connector and you need the video board internally anyway, so it's not a candidate for externalization anyway.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

That's ridiculous. You can NOT run gigabit over USB, no matter how hard you try. Hope your company doesn't need to transfer large files around quickly...

Re:Shared devices

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

how 'bout a USB adapter ?

Re:Shared devices

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

sure it is. check this out: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/avcards/805c/

external video card you can plug in a USB 2.0 port.

Re:Shared devices

[jersey_emt]

I agree. My company uses Dell D610's for our mobile workers and they are a good compromise when used with a docking station. My D610 is equipped fairly well: 2.0Ghz Centrino, 2GB RAM, 80GB 7200RPM HD, Radeon X300 graphics. And while not a subcompact it is still quite portable. And when plugged into a docking station, is great for when you are in the office.

Re:Shared devices

[Breakfast Pants]

Pickup a Toshiba Portege m200.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been shopping for a 12" laptop lately (I've given up on finding a replacement to my 10.4" lifebook that actually will fit my needs), and at one point I came across an ad in the newspaper for a "Light and Portable" 15" laptop... Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but in my view, 15" is huge!

Re:Shared devices

[icebattle]

I have pretty much the same sw/hw profile, and I can tell you that investing in multiple power bricks was totally worthwhile. I picked 2 up on eBay for the price of 1 brand new. I keep one in my backpack so that I don't forget to take one along when I'm on the road for a few days. Makes for a heavy backpack, but being able to put the laptop down and be running in a minute beats crawling around under desks and worrying that repeated rolling is going to kill the proprietary plug.

Re:Shared devices

[swthomas55]

My mistake -- there is no PS/2 port on the T40, but there is one on the dock, and that's the one I've used on occasion. I've got a bluetooth mouse, so mostly I don't need it.

Re:Shared devices

[leomaster]

Seems like there's two or three needs that prompt people to buy a laptop. The Minimalist group: wants small, light notebooks that have minimal connections and long battery life. This group is driven by the desire to have basic computer connectivity while on the go. These people either have very light computing needs, or have a powerful desktop machine for their heavy computing needs. The Standardized group: wants a reasonable balance between weight, cost and connectivity. This group is driven by the desire to have basically a portable desktop, but not a powerhouse machine. These people are the standard corporate or household user who typically only has one machine and has to use it in multiple places. The Heavy group: wants the most powerful, expansive machine they can get that is portable. Battery life is not usually a consideration. These people are the heavy user (multimedia creation/editing) who typically could have powerful desktop machines, but want a portable desktop to simplify their lives as they carry work home, to a remote office, or to meet with clients. And yes, this group does usually use most, if not all, of the ports. For myself, I have a SAGER laptop with a 17" monitor, 3.8 P4, 2GB memory, 120 GB HD. At home and both offices I have a second monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other externals. Myself, I wish manufacturers would make an even GREATER distinction between these three groups. For our group, we would like a portable machine that doesn't have a battery penalty, and adds no cost in an attempt to "conserve battery life." Just give me the most powerful machine you can stuff in a portable package.

Re:Shared devices

[Spaceman40]

FTFA:

In the right situation an 11 pound package might work; like if the social workers used the notebooks on their desks and took them home to fill in an occasional form after work. But that's not what their totally IT and workflow unconscious bosses wanted them to do. They wanted their minions to fill in forms on the notebooks in real time as they did their work. To that end, the bosses had almost every paper form used by the social workers transformed into an Acrobat or Word form and decreed that paper forms could no longer be used.

Re:Shared devices

[xrobertcmx]

That is exactly what I use now. I had a 15in Dell, but it didn't fit anywhere and was not really all that portable. My 12in Powerbook however is perfect. It has the right balance of usability and size.

Re:Shared devices

[darkjedi521]

Enough people commented on it being there that I figured I was missing something. And since its a port I could use, figured I'd ask.

Re:Shared devices

[jamespharaoh]

Try Panasonic:

http://dynamism.com/r4/main.shtml (very tiny)

http://dynamism.com/y4/main.shtml (what i am typing on now)

Re:Shared devices

[BroncoInCalifornia]

They now give us cheap usb=serial adapters with the things. They have crappy drivers that always change the port#, but they work.

The latest drivers let you change the port number with Device Manager.

Re:Shared devices

[networkBoy]

those tend to have way more issues, least of which is seemingly random assignment of COMx as well as some wierd incompatibilities (like with netstumbler and my GPS)
-nB

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

3.1 lb is actually 1.4 kg.

Re:Shared devices

[Anonymous Coward]

X41 is the tablet convertible model, it is not old. You are possibly confusing it with X40.

Re:Shared devices

[Mark Hood]

Now that I look closer, it is an S-Video port.

Good job I have a USB mouse :)

I have a PS/2 keyboard in the office, but that's stuck into the docking station, which is why I confused the two.

Well spotted ;)

Mark

Re:Shared devices

[bhtooefr]

There's two X41s.

The X41 (NOT the X41 Tablet) is an updated version of the X40 that has the i915GM chipset and DDR2 RAM. Nothing else is changed.

The X41 Tablet is a somewhat modified version of the X41 that is a convertible tablet.

Re:Shared devices

[rabiddeity]

So pay $15 and get a USB to parallel adapter. A parallel port on the back of a new laptop? That's absurd! That's real estate that could be used for much better purposes, like making the unit smaller.

Re:Shared devices

[NutscrapeSucks]

Yes, my mileage does vary. The HP 42xx is probably the most common dept laser printer in the world, and it comes with a parallel port.

Re:Shared devices

[Jozer99]

Hence the "~".

Re:Shared devices

[Com2Kid]

Look into Toshiba.

14.1" screen, less than 4.5 LBs, with CDROM drive, etc.

1.6GHz+ Pentium M should be enough, 2Ghz if you need it.

Re:Shared devices

[Total_Wimp]

I laughed when I saw this. We're using M3s right now and they're just not enough for our speciallized apps. The reason we're looking at the HP 9600s is because they use a desktop architecture in a (big) laptop body. This was the best we could find without going to a boutique shop like Alienware.

TW

Re:Shared devices

[commanderfoxtrot]

I travelled around the world (inc. USA, Oz, NZ and HK) with my Psion Series 5 in the late 1990s.

I had full web browsing, email and was able to write a 200,000 word diary with ease on my journey. It also played a good game of chess. Two AA batteries would last 24 hours of constant use, or months of standby.

People were amazed at the technology, but it seems we haven't really moved on. The keyboard in particular on the Series 5 is a joy to use. PDA's just don't cut it for serious road use.

These days I seem forced to lug around a small laptop.

Re:Shared devices

[loraksus]

You can ftp a print job to most of the higher end laserjets (print to file and upload the .prn, .pcl or .ps - whatever the printer supports) and more often than not (I've never seen it off) anonymous login is enabled.
Of course, you need to be at least on the same subnet, but that is a way to completely sidestep any o/s layer based blocking.

Re:Shared devices

[Alioth]

I find my 12inch PowerBook a suitable desktop replacement. If I want to use it at home, I plug in a USB keyboard and mouse and a 21 inch monitor. At the same time it's extremely portable.

And I do use all the ports - Firewire for capturing video off my camcorder (I wouldn't ever have a notepad computer without this), both USB ports, mini DVI port (for connecting to a TV or a monitor) and microphone and headphone jack (for use with Skype, or just the headphone jack for listening to music). Ethernet for plugging in where there's no wireless.

A desktop replacement doesn't necessarily mean a gigantic slab - it really depends on your needs.

Re:Shared devices

[smellystudent]

The one I've seen recently is from a company called Market, which makes label printers which go on large packaging machines.

My client requires parallel ports on all machines used in production just so they can run the damn software.

Re:Shared devices

[Fred_A]

The Psion machines were great and came with very well designed software.
It's a shame that the Revo was botched up as it was (I have a dead Revo+ too, the ususal charging problem), the series 5 were still going quite strong.

The little programming language that came with it (can't remember what it was called) was quite nice too.

I miss those nice little machines.

Re:Shared devices

[Jaysyn]

Yes, it also has an expansion slot for a JetDirect card. I've just never seen anyone use the parallel port to a print server. Always been either ethernet to a print server or directly attached to the network.

Jaysyn

Re:Shared devices

[GlassUser]

That's ridiculous. You can NOT run gigabit over USB, no matter how hard you try. Hope your company doesn't need to transfer large files around quickly...

Your PCI bus can't transfer at gigabit speeds either. You do all your work on a switch?

Re:Shared devices

[iocat]

Even an R series @ 5-6lbs is fine for just about everyone, and they're becoming cheap as dirt ( My girlfriend has a R51 and she loves it. She does a lot of writing though, so the keyboard is important; that's the main reason I wanted her to get a ThinkPad over a Mac. I have a T60 dualcore on order, but honestly my R4x was working fine, and with the 14.1 inch screen, it's really small enough to be used anywhere, even Coach. Even Coach on United!

The 11lb. pencil is an example

[amcdiarmid]

of how NOT to do an IT project. (No talking to end users before implementation, questionable usage of laptop, wrong choice of laptop for use if OK, and no benefit to effencies or data retention.)

The Desktop Repleacement Laptop, is an interesting read: The machine held up in the LAN Party (E.G. Extremely heave use) for the first 2/3 of the party, then started giving some errors that they have seen in desktops as well. The Machine itself appears to be a desktop shoehorned into a LARGE laptop case.

While personally, transportable computers are anathama to me. (I don't want anything over six pounds (3Kg.) If you really want to run fraggers that most of my machines will choke on... more power to you. No, literally - remember to bring an extension cable.

my $.02

Re:The 11lb. pencil is an example

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want anything over six pounds

I'm still waiting for a laptop thats six pounds of machine and 5 pounds of lithium ions.

Re:The 11lb. pencil is an example

[SCHecklerX]

It's a great example of a total lack of properly implemented project management. And unfortunately, it's exactly the type of crap I see at my own job every day :(. Here they want to buy software to fix process problems. They don't understand that you have to have a well defined process, and then you can try to make that process better (if possible) with software. The really irritating thing is that we have some very skilled people here who know the 'big picture' of how to use IT to improve processes, but management constantly just throws canned software at things hoping to make it better.

Come again?

[Anonymous Coward]

"they have had something of a mixed reception among IT professionals."

Since when did any "IT Professional" ever consider purchasing a fucking AlienWare machine? A laptop that has "a little alien head on the back"? Or is someone trying to convince me that gamer kids should now be considered "IT Professionals"?

Re:Come again?

[chrismcdirty]

Probably since Alienware's website mimics Dell's and also sells business, professional, and government desktops and servers.

I saw a rumor a few days back about Dell buying Alienware. I saw this website a few months back and assumed the same thing.

Re:Come again?

[Anonymous Coward]

We have a couple where I work, actually.

Re:Come again?

[vertinox]

Since when did any "IT Professional" ever consider purchasing a fucking AlienWare machine? A laptop that has "a little alien head on the back"?

Well... Maybe the guys who work at SETI ;)

Re:Come again?

[generic-man]

If you work at a company casual enough to permit employees to wear Thinkgeek apparel and have various tchotchkes/toys/etc at their desks, a little alien head on your laptop doesn't seem so bad. Most of their "business" offerings have pretty muted styles compared with their gamer machines.

If I were a sales guy, whipping out an OMGGAMEZ0RD00D laptop might look a bit professional, especially when the Quake "humiliation" sound plays instead of the usual "ding" beep. For IT folks in an office it's no worse than lugging around a Dell 8000/9000 laptop.

Re:Come again?

[Provocateur]

Please, please tell me that you even play the Quake "Denied!" for invalid logons, so that I can live vicariously through you.

And good karma I wish upon you, if you always have someone try out that unsuccessful logon whenever you open up your laptop, just to let them know Who's The Man.

And you are the sh*t if you play Rocket Arena's "Impressive!" when you've finished the job and you're stowing away the laptop. To which you reply to your Alienware, Now now stop it.

Re:Come again?

[Syberghost]

Especially considering they're just Uniwill generics with a little alien head on the back. You can get the same damn laptop from half a dozen other vendors for less money, and stick your own alien on it.

Re:Come again?

[fm6]

I think the problem with the little alien head is not so much a matter of atmosphere as to the message it sends. Alienware charges a premium price for hardware that is optimized for game playing, not business productivity. You see an IT person with such a machine, you've got to wonder about somebody's priorities.

Re:Come again?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Since when did any "IT Professional" ever consider purchasing a fucking AlienWare machine?

Well a lot of them have Macs, which is essentially the same thing 90% of the time.

Re:Come again?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

To be fair, a powerful gaming machine is essentially a powerful machine full stop.

When looking about for a good value dual core workstation, which was going to have to do some significant number cruching, I found that the only really powerful machines available were the gaming rigs. Skimp on the graphics card and the the sound system, and a gaming machine becomes a very affordable workstation.

Re:Come again?

[fm6]

Skimp on the graphics card and the the sound system, and a gaming machine becomes a very affordable workstation.

Alienware definitely doesn't skimp either. Video and sound hardware is probably half the cost of their laptops.

In any case, high-end processing power doesn't usually make sense in a non-gamer's laptop. A laptop needs battery life and an absence of weight. In any case, IT people don't usually need to run big CPU-intensive apps.

Of course, if you're a scientific or engineering type, you probably need not only raw processing power, but the ability to do fancy graphics. So yeah, an Alienware workstation might make sense. But not a laptop!

I don't think an Alienware laptop really makes sense in any case. Why devote cost and weight to a battery you'll never use? If you want a portable gaming system, get a Shuttle

Re:Come again?

[SilentTristero]

We just bought one for doing desktop video and special effects (and demos of same). Highest-powered desktop-replacement portable we could find. Had a bad video card which they replaced immediately.

Definitely worth a look for the professional. And in the video/post-production/special-effects biz, believe me the alien head is NOT a problem!

-- ST

Re:Come again?

[enjo13]

I'm a "IT Professional" (lead technical architect) in a fairly top-end professional environment. I interact with quite a few top level business development/sales/engineers at a number of large companies around the world.

I own a Dell XPS Generation 2. Giant machine with LED lights and everything. Its a large desktop replacement machine, but reaction is always quite good from the people I work with. They love the screen, but not the size. I love the horsepower and the fact that I can play a few games while I travel and I don't have to own a dedicated gaming machine at my house.

Point being, the parent is absolutely right. There are corporate cultures that are quite tolerant of things that are not neccesarily 'normal'.

Re:Come again?

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally run a 2.5 lbs Dell X1 (rebranded samsung), and am in fact a Computer Science major in college. None the less, the shuttle doesn't have a biult in display, and moving large displays around is an annoying and dangerous (for the display) proposition. Also, network monitoring software, and the accompaning statistics can be very very processor heavy. Most admins I know run such systems on desktops or servers admitadly.
Another example is runnign software with full debugging turned on, or running softare inside of a simulator. IT professionals don't USUALLY do this, but the good one's do. If you have a problem and you want to figure out the solution, sometimes simulation is a good solution for trouble shooting. Some IT professionals also do work that involves sales pitches which may use shiny graphics, or need to be able to run heavy applications themselves so they can properly support them for their clients. Lets say your IT for game development, or a phyaics lab, or a robotics lab, or any company that uses programs written in Java (I.E. 90%).

Re:Come again?

[leomaster]

So the thinking is that someone that carries around a heavy portable designed to run high-end multimedia MUST be more concerned about playing games than working? You guys need to get out more. Some business professionals actually DO NEED a powerful multimedia machine that is portable.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1. Video producer, editor, sales rep., etc.
4. Audio producer, editor, sales rep., etc.
3. Animators and their ilk.
4. Multimedia groups that produce everything from full-length motion pictures to e-learning to advertisments.
5. Graphic designers, web designers, etc.
6. Game designers, editors, sales, rep., etc.
7. Engineers; mechanical, software, electrical, chemical, biological, etc.
8. Architects and other CAD users.
9. People who use high-end multimedia presentations
10. Oh, yeah, and gamers.

Basically, if you need a powerful multimedia machine that's portable, and cost is not the primary concern, Alienware products are a good option.

Re:Come again?

[fm6]

No of whom are IT people. We're talking about IT people.

And even if we weren't, I'd still choose a Shuttle over an Alienware. A laptop is just the wrong configuration for a high-end graphics machine. If nothing else, you risk setting your lap on fire!

Re:Come again?

[generic-man]

Unfortunately, I have a 12" PowerBook G4. It barely even runs emulators without skipping a frame here or there. I blame its 4200 RPM hard drive. Out of respect for my coworkers I wear headphones when listening to my Quake sound effects. :)

Re:Come again?

[Crunchie Frog]

I didn't relaise shuttle cases now came with built in screens and keyboards. Oh wait, they don't. You can't compare shuttle with laptop.

Re:Come again?

[fm6]

Just because the display doesn't fold into the rest of the system doesn't mean it isn't portable. Check out Shuttle's portable displays some time.

I guess you're still stuck with a non-portable keyboard. Oh wait...

This reminds me of...

[Mark_Uplanguage]

...George Carlin's theory of stuff. I have a desktop computer at home, and then I go on vacation with my laptop, which I leave in my hotel room. I leave my hotel room with my PDA, which I leave in my car. My PDA stays in the car, and I bring a pencil and notepad to the park where I scribble my deep thoughts.

Typical

[pheonix]

This happens all over. I've fought with more small businesses about spending a little bit of extra money to test a "solution" now rather than scrapping a "solution" later than I can count. It's absurd, and it's something I'd assume advanced business degree wielding managers would understand. As a result, many places I've worked have had their own versions of 11# pencils... like printing one copy of a several hundred page document for each region to be mailed to a print shop in that region so that photocopies can be made...

Frustrating.

Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[jellomizer]

With almost everyone having having highspeed internet. Which seems to counter act the old problems of Lag. I mean it is not like the old days of 1995 where you needed to connect the computers up to a Hub or a Null Modem cable to play these game. Because the average rate of house to house comunication was 14.4k. If you are a gamer just get a mega system with more wires then there are bacteria on your keyboard. Save the laptop for "Professionals" who need to do less System intensive applications and whos poor computer perfomance will not bother other people.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[operagost]

Some geeks actually like to leave the house and meet other people once in a while.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[IflyRC]

Nothing says socalizing like fragging the guy sitting next to you.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[jellomizer]

That is what D&D is for. And that way you are at least talking to people.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[shaka999]

You missed the word "parties" in your sentence.

The lan parties I've been to at friends houses are first and foremost social events. They are usually accompanied by a keg and a table of snacks which everyone contributes to. Being an all out geek fest people tend to bring their favorite gadgets and such. At any given time there is a small group not playing and just hanging out.

The last one I went to actually had a female. Yes slashdot....a female. Times they are a changin.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[jellomizer]

Yes slashdot....a female

Hosts Mom?

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[Bazzalisk]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/07/04

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[Veldcath]

Why, yes. Yes they are.

You can play games online. You can chat within those games or with GameSpy or Y!IM or whatever. But you can't take a break from the internet game and go out to have a smoke with your opponent. Or stand around the grill with your fellow players while you char some bratwurst. You can't walk over to someone's machine when he says, "Woah! Check THIS out!" and it's very difficult to coordinate a whole group of people switching from game A to game B all at the same time.

When you play on the internet, your latency is different from everyone else's. Those who have the fastest connections to the server get an advantage. At a LAN Party, everyone's on the same local network. Everyone's fast. There may be differences in hardware, but the network is the same for everyone.

For me, like other posters, our monthy LAN Parties are social gatherings as much as anything. We get together, eat food, shoot the shit AND each other. We show off cool videos we've found, share casemod photos we've stumbled on. I've brought my airsoft guns to show off, another guy is big into model kits and has been talking about taking a large RC Jeep body and putting a media computer inside it. Last time, I fired up some Eddie Izzard for people to listen to while everyone was waiting for the last few players to arrive. You know... A DVD. On my monitor. For everyone to watch or ignore as they saw fit.

Tell me you can get all that from some game on the internet. Tell me you can have a good /friendship/ with your foes on some random internet server. Or, well, maybe some people care more about their score than the people they're playing with.

-V

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[carpe_noctem]

Sorry, LARP's don't count. Oh wait, you said LAN Party...

Sorry, still doesn't count.

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[somersault]

it was a cat

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor cat :/

Re:Are Lan Parties still Revalant.

[Julia Cameron]

• Some geeks actually like to leave the house and meet other people once in a while.

Only if they're other geeks.

Duplex Printers

[AnonymousPrick]

FTFA: Why, oh why didn't they spend a few thousand dollars to buy for enough duplex printers like HP's 1320 for each office?

He also mentioned showing them how to flip the page.

I have an old HP 682C. When I first got it for a Windows 95 system, HP's driver had a duplex feature built in. When you selected duplex printing, it would prompt you with a picture showing you exactly how to flip the pages around and insert back into the machine to print on the other side.

Now, on XP, I have to use the MS driver. It doesn't have a duplex feature so I have to do it manually, remembering that when printing even pages only that I have to set the "print in reverse order" check box. Sometimes I forget and waste a tree. And for some wacky reason, I just can't get MS Word to do this correctly. It's like it ignores the check boxes or something - Arrg!

My point is: doesn't HP's drivers come with this "manual" duplex feature anymore? That way, these folks on really tight budgets can get a much cheaper machine and still print "duplex" without having to remember or read notes on exactly how to position the paper. Yeah I know, it does seem like an incredibly stupid thing to deal with. But when you have a lot of shit going on, it's really easy to screw it up.

Re:Duplex Printers

[Brian Stretch]

My point is: doesn't HP's drivers come with this "manual" duplex feature anymore?

Yes. I use it all the time on my PSC2410 (two years old?) under WinXP. Go to Properties | Finishing Tab and check Print on Both Sides and uncheck Automatic.

Re:Duplex Printers

[hal2814]

They may but from what I remember, it can lead to a lot of problems when using the printer heavily in a shared environment. The last printer my office used that did this "manual duplexing" didn't block other jobs so even though you knew exactly how to orient the page from the picture, you still had to make absolutely sure that you were flipping your page and not someone else's. You also had to make sure that the job about to be duplexed was yours and not somebody else's.

Re:Duplex Printers

[bigbigbison]

I've got a small hp1012 (1112? 1011? I'm not home now so i can't look at it to tell specifically) that has manual duplex.
I never use it, however, because I almost always use scrap paper that has already been printed on one side. I'm sure that the people at the university library think I'm weird but whenever I'm low on paper I just grab handfuls of paper out of the big pile of printouts that people never picked up.

Re:Duplex Printers

[fm6]

HP has always had weird issues with their software, drivers in particular. Once I upgraded a driver, and discovered that I no longer had access to my envelope feeder. Obviously the new driver didn't have a correct list of my printer's capabilities!

But I always hated manual duplexing. One misfeed and you've wasted half a ream!

portable ENIAC

[ExE122]

First of all, I'd like to say that I don't even own a laptop. I'm the last of a dying breed.

Having that said, I'd like to say that I agree with this article. I think a lot of laptop use does not offer any benefits. I also think a lot of laptops are overkills.

Examples:

• Back in college, I took a software engineering class where I was the only student without a laptop. I also go the highest grade in the class. The laptops were distractions. I saw people using instant messenger, playing video games, reading slashdot... (cricket, cricket). I thought it was a complete waste. They didn't offer any "educational benefit" whatsoever.
• My dad works as a plumbing and mechanics inspector in one of the richest counties in America. This is funded by the county government. They have provided him with a Sony 4 megapixel digital camera, a Samsung Blackberry PDA, and a Panasonic Toughbook laptop. Now his job is to make inspections to ensure there are no code violations (this is the complex part). He then takes pictures with the camera, puts them on the laptop, and emails them to the office. He then uses his PDA to update the status of the request. While I'm sure this is a very effective system, he doesn't need a $40,000 twelve pound laptop that can survive a two-story drop, works underwater, and can render 3D graphics in 2400x2000 resolution.

Now before anyone goes jumping down my throat, I'm only saying that most people don't seem to understand that buying the biggest, most expensive laptop isn't always the right choice. I don't expect a lot of those people to be reading this article right now, and I do think that laptops can be used effictively and efficiently by people who know what they are doing. I just think that 90% of the time, this is not the case.

Re:portable ENIAC

[MrFlibbs]

The main point of the article is not that laptops aren't useful, but rather that the type of device used is this case (a large laptop) was not well-suited for the job at hand. In fact, this is only one of multiple major shortcomings the article sites:

1) A large desktop replacement laptop was chosen when a thin and light laptop or PDA would have been a better choice.

2) The PDF files required duplex printing when the office had only single-sided printers.

3) Users weren't adequately trained on how to manage the data files. The original PDF files should have been READ-only, and the users trained on where to save the files they created.

4) No database tool was used. This forced each electronic form to be filled in anew each time instead of pulling up client data that had already been entered before.

The gist of the article is not that laptops aren't useful, but that jumping onto a technology bandwagon without first gathering requirements from the actual users and designing a solution to best meet the user's needs leads to half-assed solutions.

The poor users were essentially forced into using large laptops to do the job they could have done just as well with a notebook and pencil. The article maintains a good solution is possible, but in this case was not achieved.

Re:portable ENIAC

[zenmojodaddy]

You're right, a Toughbook is way too much for your dad's job. In order to prevent this shocking misuse of equipment, I hereby volunteer to take it off his hands. I know, I know... it's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Rakishi]

Back in college, I took a software engineering class where I was the only student without a laptop. I also go the highest grade in the class. The laptops were distractions. I saw people using instant messenger, playing video games, reading slashdot... (cricket, cricket). I thought it was a complete waste. They didn't offer any "educational benefit" whatsoever.

Good for you. Now, when you have 3 people in a group project trying to share what they did have fun loading each other's stuff on whatever computer you're next to. Or you could all simply bring your laptops and share... oh wait.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Browncoat]

While I'm sure this is a very effective system, he doesn't need a $40,000 twelve pound laptop that can survive a two-story drop, works underwater, and can render 3D graphics in 2400x2000 resolution.

I'm pretty sure someone out there does, though. King Kong, maybe.

Back in college, I took a software engineering class where I was the only student without a laptop. I also go the highest grade in the class. The laptops were distractions. I saw people using instant messenger, playing video games, reading slashdot... (cricket, cricket). I thought it was a complete waste. They didn't offer any "educational benefit" whatsoever. I still hold that people are responsible for their own actions, and if not instant messenger or email or video games, or even slashdot, students are going to find some other way to distract themselves. Some students doodle, some students talk, some students (yes even in college) pass notes.

I have a laptop and I'm in college. Why do I use it? Mobility. Parents are facing a tough choice nowadays -- a lot of parents, as tech savvy as they might try to be, are still daunted by all the new gadgets out there. For them, the PC (or mac) is still the biggest territory they have yet to fully understand. Technology is moving as such a rapid pace that as soon as your average mother gets to understand Intel vs. Athlon, she notices "hyperthreading" and has to figure out what that means. Most parents want the best of both worlds, because most (I'm saying most here) assume that a laptop is a desktop in a smaller case. So on that thought, they're going to look at laptops to provide the portability they think their kids need, and also the power they think their kids are going to have. "Desktop replacement" is somewhat lost on many people, despite how literal it sounds.

And if the case is that they know what they're doing, most parents are still going to go with a laptop, because they're making one large investment and they want the option of portability, if their kids need it 2 years down the line. They're not looking to buy a new laptop during college, unless something happens. Laptop trumps desktop when you're looking to make one decision, and you're not sure what your kids are going to do in the future.

One of my friends is an architecture student. His parents bought him a desktop replacement, which is fine when he needs to run his software to run models and look at blueprints and other things he has to do, but he doesn't have any kind of portability. I think he's just moved to a lighter laptop. He really needed something lighter because he was always going to sites and he needed to do measurements and record data.

Re:portable ENIAC

[somersault]

ever heard of email? Or if your file is that big, a memory key/whatever, but even in a group project I doubt you'd be transferring large files very often. And all sitting in a little circle coding on your laptops is going to wreck your neck. If you're going to be in proximity for long amounts of time you could just setup a LAN anyway

Re:portable ENIAC

[Slack3r78]

Actually, your father's situation is exactly what Toughbooks are designed for. From the city's perspective, it's less expensive to pay a 50% premium for a ruggidized notebook once than to pay to fix or replace it later if it gets damaged.

Given his job (from what you've described) requires being in active construction sites, it's not inconceivable that accidents happen. If you've never worked in government, IT managers have a tendency to overspec equipment anyway, so if they're going to pay a premium, from a taxpayer perspective, I'd prefer they buy something that will hold up in the environment it's going to be used in.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Anonymous Coward]

Now before anyone goes jumping down my throat, I'm only saying that most people don't seem to understand that buying the biggest, most expensive laptop isn't always the right choice. I don't expect a lot of those people to be reading this article right now, and I do think that laptops can be used effictively and efficiently by people who know what they are doing. I just think that 90% of the time, this is not the case.

I'm the current IT purchasing manager for the Orange country building inspection office, you're purchasing recommendations have been taken into account.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Anonymous Coward]

I use the ftp service supplied by my university (with a web interface) if I need to transfer big files. It's also useful when you have to print, and your computer isn't set up with the LAN network, and you leave the assignment to the last minute so there isn't enough time to set up LAN.

I've also done group assignments working off one computer -- conceptualize on paper, then transfer to computer. And yes, that was for a software course.

Re:portable ENIAC

[telbij]

Now before anyone goes jumping down my throat, I'm only saying that most people don't seem to understand that buying the biggest, most expensive laptop isn't always the right choice. I don't expect a lot of those people to be reading this article right now, and I do think that laptops can be used effictively and efficiently by people who know what they are doing. I just think that 90% of the time, this is not the case.

I once read a study that found that people who just buy the first thing that appears to meet their needs are usually happier than those who spend days or weeks researching before making a purchase. It's very rare that a product exist that has the exact mix of features that one would need, and even rarer that you would know what that mix was before making a purchase. So if you're obsessed with getting the perfect solution you're bound to be disappointed.

Now enter the world of computers. It's rare for people to know enough about them to even process all the available information. Even among geeks, it's impossible to keep up with all options, especially with software thrown into the mix. The decision to buy a desktop or a laptop is one of the few that has obvious pros and cons even for the layman. The question is, do I want a more powerful machine that sits in one place and is a pain to set up and move, or a less powerful machine that I can take with me and requires no setup.

My girlfriend's parents replaced their desktop with a laptop a couple years ago. They never even take the thing out of the house, but they use it about 100 times more than they did the desktop! I think they made the perfect decision.

As for myself, I used to have 4 different desktops that I used at various locations. Without one central machine that I could use as an rsync server, it took a lot of mental gymnastics just to keep my files straight. When it was time to buy a new computer, I could have gotten a fast powerful desktop that would have met my computing needs to a tee. Instead I opted for a top-of-the-line laptop, consolidated all my files, and now I can work from a coffee shop, or an airplane, or the in-laws house. The desktop would have given more processing bang for the buck, but the laptop had a much bigger impact on my productivity.

I'm sure a number of people buy a laptop for the wrong reasons as you suggest, but I think portability is one of the few easily-understood factors in buying a computer, and I think most people know what they are doing when they choose it.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Knara]

Isn't this what CVS and it's relatives are _for_? Keeping the source code on your laptop without checking it in somewhere is a great way to lose your project the day before it is due, in my experience.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Rakishi]

ever heard of email? Or if your file is that big, a memory key/whatever, but even in a group project I doubt you'd be transferring large files very often.

Because saving graphs, sending them over, waiting for feedback then redoing things is so much faster than asking the person sitting 5' from you. Or asking them a question about things you do not udnerstand.

And all sitting in a little circle coding on your laptops is going to wreck your neck.

That is why they invented desks and chairs. And I wasn't talking about pure coding, personally I decided to find a major which isn't getting outsoruced to india.

If you're going to be in proximity for long amounts of time you could just setup a LAN anyway

Yes, because dragging my desktop and monitor across campus without a car is always great fun.

Re:portable ENIAC

[Rakishi]

It's also useful when you have to print, and your computer isn't set up with the LAN network, and you leave the assignment to the last minute so there isn't enough time to set up LAN.

Welcome to great world of wireless networking, enjoy your stay.

Re:portable ENIAC

[somersault]

so your campus doesnt have it's own computers/network? *thumbs up* You dont have to have a laptop just because everyone else does. I've got one, but it's from work, I wouldnt buy one anytime soon. Our campus had generic PCs all over the place, and workstations in the CS Dept. I cant think of a valid reason for *needing* a laptop.

HP pavilion ZD8000

[quokkapox]

My desktop replacement notebook does just what I need it to do, it replaced my desktop. Plus it's mobile. I spend 90% of my time using it near an outlet anyway, so the brick just goes everywhere with me and the machine itself. Combined weight with brick and targus case is ~15 pounds. Battery lasts about an hour unless you try something ridiculous like transcoding and burning a dvd.

The nice thing is, the 2.8 GHz processor and constantly running fans literally warm up the entire room where I happen to be working and provide a pleasant, white-noise droning all the time. My hands stay nice and toasty because there are built-in handwarming areas. Plus I can keep my coffee reasonably warm by resting it on top of the power brick.

All in all, no complaints from me.

Re:HP pavilion ZD8000

[jcgf]

You forgot to add the workout you get by carrying that beast around.

Re:HP pavilion ZD8000

[Anonymous Coward]

nah, you must own a inspiron

This is a product review?!

[rhesuspieces00]

In the final third of the LAN, however, we began to notice increased instability that was not allayed by restarts. All the games we played would switch to the desktop, though strangely not crash entirely, at random intervals. This was an annoyance, needless to say, and damn well fatal during one or two of our more infamous matches.

We can only put the instability down to sheer wear and tear.

Wait a second. This machine got a positive review. I'm sorry, but I don't see how instability after 24 hours of usage on a brand new machine can in any way be considered tolerable unless usage involves throwing large blunt objects at the thing. What am I missing here? I can think of a lot of processor intensive tasks that take longer than 24 hours to complete, and I *really* do not want to see any instability while they are in the middle of running. Are my expectations out of line here?

Re:This is a product review?!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you are absolutely correct. And excusing it by saying that some crappy desktops do the same thing is also inexcusable.

Re:This is a product review?!

[alkali]

I can think of a lot of processor intensive tasks that take longer than 24 hours to complete, and I *really* do not want to see any instability while they are in the middle of running. Are my expectations out of line here?

Maybe. If you're not designing nuclear weapons(*) or doing CGI for a major motion picture, I'm not sure why your processor is working overtime for more than 24 hours. And if you are doing those things, I don't know why you'd use a notebook.

(* If you are doing this, please don't gripe that you can't take your machine to the Los Alamos Starbucks.)

Re:This is a product review?!

[rhesuspieces00]

more like converting a queue of video_ts folders to H.264, or long computations in mathematica or matlab. and i could probably think of some other marathons i've put my machine through. yes, a desktop would be better for these tasks, but as a student i dont have the cash flow for a tower and a powerbook, and I live off campus so its a pain to use computer labs. besides that, i dont like trying to keep files in sync between two computers.

Re:This is a product review?!

[Hektor_Troy]

Ever been to a lan-party? I don't know this one in particular, but the last one I attended took place in a gymnasium and had about 200 participants. After about 20 hours we had to have doors open and bigass fans running to circulate cool outside air inside for two reasons:

1) The stink
2) The gymnasium AC wasn't buit for 200 people each toting a 300 W rig. That's about 60 kW of heat being dumped into the air constantly.

We hit temperatures of abut 35 deg C (95 F) in the middle of the gymnasium before the doors were opened.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was part of the problem. Using a computer in a non ventilated hot area will make it difficult for it to be stable if it's only designed to be used in "normal" temperatures. Doesn't matter if it's a laptop or a desktop at that point.

Re:This is a product review?!

[conteXXt]

"I can think of a lot of processor intensive tasks that take longer than 24 hours to complete, and I *really* do not want to see any instability while they are in the middle of running. Are my expectations out of line here?"

A fellow Gentoo user I see :-)

Re:This is a product review?!

[Numbstruck]

I didn't get to RTFA but I probably wouldn't base a systems ability to run enterprise/business/mission-critical software on whether or not it crashed playing games.

Also, I would probably group these DTR's into 2 categories, as not all of them are intended for the same usage.

Maybe...

1)Gaming DTR

and

2)Business DTR

Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - how?

[digitaldc]

The gaming fun and festivities began with a round of Counter-Strike Source, went through various strategy games, and was interspaced with bouts of Unreal Tournament 2004 and various single-player games along the way. The machine was in motion for 32 hours straight.

Was this done by one person or a group? From the article you would think that the guy sat there playing games for 32 hours straight.
If it was just one person, this marathon gaming feat should be immediately entered into The Guinness Book of World Records.
There are currently no entries for marathon LAN gaming.

firewire?

[iotaborg]

It's great to see that a laptop with 2 cd drives, 4 usb ports, etc etc still does not have a full-fledged 6-pin firewire port.

Re:firewire?

[Veldcath]

Sadly, I doubt you ever will see a 6-pin Firewire connector on a notebook. Firewire is falling out of favor, becoming a "video professional only" connection. Not only that, six-pin means... powered. And we all know how power-hungry notebooks already are these days. Can't be powering devices off them as well.

-V

Re:firewire?

[flappinbooger]

Had a Gateway M500 laptop. It was limited edition, but it had a 6 pin and 4 pin firewire, both.

Re:firewire?

[lucifuge31337]

Sadly, I doubt you ever will see a 6-pin Firewire connector on a notebook.
cough..MacBook Pro.....cough

Re:firewire?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every Apple notebook since February 2000 has had 6-pin FireWire 400 onboard, e.g. for hooking up external hard drives that draw power from the port, DV camcorders, and digital SLRs (Canon, Nikon). Also, FireWire target disk mode allows you to use FireWire to link two Macs together and use the connection to transfer files or resurrect a nonbooting machine.

Re:firewire?

[Alioth]

What, like my 12 inch PowerBook? I guess that 6 pin Firewire port must be something else then. Seems to convince Firewire hard disks and my video camera though.

Yes, they are

[repvik]

The high-speed connection at home can never replace the feeling of being in a hall with 150+ other nerds.
Also, a LAN tends toward rock-solid near-zero latency. I know that many FPS gamers appreciate this.

Re: Yes, they are

[johnthorensen]

Nor can it replace...the smell.

Re: Yes, they are

[repvik]

I'd moderate you "+2 ROFL" if I hadn't already posted ;-)

Less of a difference than there used to be.

[hal2814]

With the large adoption rate of LCD monitors for desktops and the use of USB/Firewire on both laptops and desktops, the difference between the two is getting smaller and smaller from a usage and space standpoint (and even from a price standpoint). I've even seen some of the low end Compaq desktops using a keyboard that is basically an external laptop keyboard, shallow buttons and all. I haven't used a desktop for regular daily work in about two years. Even though I used to loathe laptops, I don't really miss using a desktop as much as I thought I would. In fact, last year I bought my first laptop for home use. I use it to play games and browse while my old desktop is connected to the TV as a media player and my older desktop sits in the basement largely unused (might make it a MAME/emu gaming machine or a file/print server). I don't think the desktop will ever die out but with laptops being about as cheap as desktops nowadays I can certainly see laptops becoming (if they're not already, I have no idea) the primary computer that families buy for their home, especially if they have a wireless Internet setup.

Re:Less of a difference than there used to be.

[ThousandStars]

Perhaps more importantly, the percentage of people who need a desktop's power has diminished greaetly over the last five years. For most purposes -- web browsers, office tools, simple to medium scale development -- the processor's speed and the interconnects simply don't matter much. At the same time, operating systems are now pretty stable. For basic tasks, the amount of additional benefit one gets from a desktop over a laptop is declining. Around the time the higher clocked Pentium III's hit, computers became good enough for most things. I haven't seen much done with the additional power computers can offer most users who aren't playing intense, modern games or running servers or editing video.

I use a PowerBook that's a few years old as my daily machine; despite the hoopla, I won't upgrade to the new OMGWTFBBQ fast MBP anytime soon. For what I do, I just don't need to.

You -- the guy who does video editing -- and you -- the guy who compiles OO.org several times a day -- and you -- the guy who does scientific computing and 3d modeling -- the above doesn't apply. I know you need the fastest machine available. I know you're pushing the cutting edge. The rest of us, including most /. readers, aren't, and we don't really need the speed of desktops, though we don't complain.

Re:Less of a difference than there used to be.

[peawee03]

OK, I know this is both OT and dumb at once, but this is Slashdot, so whatever...

Isn't the guy compiling OO.o multiple times a day about 10 years behind or so, according to MS?

OK, so that was stupider than I thought. Still posting.

Re:Less of a difference than there used to be.

[RESPAWN]

I think a lot of it just comes down to general ergonomics. I tend to do most of my websurfing and Gmail checking via my 800MHz P3 laptop on the couch. I have no problem with this -- the laptop is plenty fast, even when despite my tendencies to leave FF open for weeks at a time with ~20 or so tabs, and it's nice to be able to move it around to the couch or the recliner chair, etc.

That said, if I have to do any serious computer work, I still prefer to do it from a "real" keyboard and using a "real" mouse. I like the feel of a real keyboard underneath my fingers, partly becuause I can find all of the ancilliary keys (arrows, Home, End, etc.) by touch on a full keyboard, unlike on a laptop keyboard. Also, I genuinely seem to type faster on a full keyboard with the slightly deeper key presses. And as much as I am used to using a touchpad, it is easier and quicker for me to user a regular mouse, especially during click & drag operations.

Now, I'm a computer nerd. Let's take this one step further to your average luser, like the people I support at my office every day. Complaint number one from the laptop users: they hate the touchpad and trackpoints. They also seem genuinely shocked when I give them an extra mouse and show them how to plug it in to the USB ports on the back of their laptop. They didn't know they could use anything else.

Complaint number two always has to do with the keyboard. Despite the fact that I have done a side by side comparison of a full size keyboard, showing that the home row keys are standard sized, many users refuse to accept this fact and insist that the keyboard on their D600 is smaller than the one in their office.

Complaint numbers 3 and 4. Many people like to complain that their screen is smaller on the laptop. This is pretty much true, and IMHO, the laptops with the 17 inch screens start to encroach on the "too big to lug around" territory. Not to mention, they look stupid since they usually use the same keyboards found in the 15" laptops. The other complaint I get about screens is from people who feel that they need the screen at eye level, but their keyboard at lap-level. That's not possible without external peripherals.

So, the best solution to solve all of these complaints would be a docking station, right? That's what most offices do. But is there really any reason for a home user to spend an extra $200 - $300 on a docking station just so they can actually make their laptop comfortable? They really would be better off purchasing a desktop.

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight

[chatgris]

That's no record.. I've personally done 48 hours.

The human body can take a lot of punishment. :)

Josh

PS

[rhesuspieces00]

I don't want to sound like an Apple troll, but I would like to point out that I have been using my powerbook for well over 2 years now, and while it doesn't have the horse power of a "desktop replacement", it has been my only computer, has seen many 48 and 72 hour tasks and is as stable today as the day I bought it.

Re:PS

[homer_ca]

I can't RTFA because it's slashdotted, but I can tell you running 3D games is one of the toughest stress tests for a system. The CPU and GPU usage are both maxxed out, and they're both generating a huge amount of heat, maybe double the heat of a CPU intensive task. I've run CPU intensive tasks on laptops before like compiling, and most laptops don't have a problem with that even if the case gets too hot to touch.

RAID array!

[syd2000]

From TFA:

...there's even a RAID array!

Wow, how'd they pack all those drives in there?

Re:RAID array!

[rhesuspieces00]

it actually has two hard drives, so its a little RAID. that seems a bit ridiculous to me, but not as bad as having two optical drives.

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[Kangburra]

from TFA: some other industrious fellow was keeping the unit warm for me.

So the machine was used continously by different people

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[moe.ron]

There are currently no entries for marathon LAN gaming.

If there was, it wouldn't go to someone playing 32 hours straight. It would go to that Korean man who died after playing for 50 hours. [BBC News]

One computer.

[LWATCDR]

I know that this is a shocker but many people only have one computer. For those a desktop replacement laptop can be a good option. I know that many of us have at least a whole room dedicated to their computers but we are the minority.
For some home users the fact that they can just put it into a desk drawer when they are "I know this part will shock you all" not using it is a big plus.
What is even more strange is some people don't think that computers are an attractive part of their home decor and want them out of site when not in use.
That ideal set up is a small light notebook for portable use and a desktop for heavy use but for many they have to find a one computer solution.

Re:One computer.

[ROOK*CA]

I know that many of us have at least a whole room dedicated to their computers but we are the minority.

I know I do, it's referred to in hushed tones around the household as "The Temple" and smells of incense and candles.

What is the need?

[Device666]

In my environment I hear a lot of people buying laptops mainly because you can fold them away and saving space. Some people want to buy laptops and do all kinds of demanding things on their battery, which is simply unrealistic. If you buy a multimedia machine with a lot of "bells and whistles" then you should expect very short battery times, bye bye dream. If you consider games to be not fast enough yet, allthough your desktop has a serious expensive 3D card, laptops will never be as good.

If laptops are not good workstations / gaming stations or burning batteries, they still have aesthetics and can be easily put out of sight. Which most of not-geeks would prefer. Office work can be done to perfection with a seriously effcient equiped laptop (centrino for example), presentations and 5 hours battery life.

A nonconformistic gamer doesn't buy a laptop, it's a nice ac-adapter-driven media-center, and a nonconformistic company owner/ salespeople probably want one. For aesthetics there is so much room for improvement, Apple has some answers. However I would like to see a good looking efficient laptop or a good looking nonbox like desktop computer, great at games and playing media (broadcasting over the net) And in the mean time,unless youre in the office stuff, why even pay so much for so little portabillity and power?

Small form factor systems and eSATA

[Mongoose]

I think a better compromise is an SFF using eSATA drives. I have an iDEQ 200N ( AMD Althon XP) and iDEQ 330P ( AMD64 x2 ), and I can use eSATA to 'share' the i386 operating system. I can even carry it with me, and use it whereever. This is an option for Linux, but it's not possible with some OS like Windows that don't like you to swap motherboards, etc.

I run an internal AMD64 build of ubuntu on the 330P, and load the i386 as a chroot. I also have a windows and OS X development enviroments under the Linux i386 image. It's a portable solution for my development needs, and my eSATA case can also do USB 2.0 for lower end machines without eSATA.

Re:Small form factor systems and eSATA

[Anonymous Coward]

nice setup!

Lag...

[Ex-MislTech]

I know ppl on DSL and Cable, and lag is occuring spuriously and even disconnects
as the internet traffic is continuing to rise , but the backbone Infrastructure
is not receiving upgrades at critical points .

This is causing slow web browser loads, intermittent disconnects, and ping times
that spike from time to time at predictable points along a trace route .

The choke points are literally choking, and you can run network monitoring
tools to see where various ISPs and long haul providers are skimping
on spending and it is causing odd behaviour from our broadband .

It doesn't happen all the time, but at peak usage times it is more prevelant .

Ppl in online games like everquest often type in messages to ppl on different
ISP networks the question "lag???" and get a chorus of resounding echoes "yes" .

Some of this could be blamed on the game servers, and networks til you look at
a test that was done by myself .

Different game, Different provider, Different ISP, corresponding lag spikes .

Key points of DNS or routing is reaching critical mass .

It could be the massive increase of p2p apps, it could just be total traffic,
I do not know, but it does pose a important question.

How bad is this going to get ?

Ex-MislTech

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[malelder]

if there was a category, 32 hours wouldn't come even close to the record...not a "real" gamer, are you? (;

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[Man Eating Duck]

You haven't been to many LAN-parties, have you?

Yes, people (mostly kids) DO go upwards of 48 hours without sleeping, showering, eating or even keeping their intake of liquid up.

Exhaustion due to lack of sleep, dehydration and low levels of blood sugar (is that correct?) is a real concern for those running the party.

32 hours doesn't sound that extreme to me, when I attended The Gathering '93 and '94 we kept it up in the same manner. We didn't game much though, mostly coding and using their über 1.5 Mbit internet connection :)

The cure for the 11 lb pencil

[hoggoth]

The cure for the 11 lb pencil is the one ounce Hipster PDA.
My laptop and Palm have been sitting in a drawer since I started using a Hipster...

Re:The cure for the 11 lb pencil

[monkeyGrease]

I'd never seen that before, but I have evolved to basicly the same thing, w/o the clip (so just step 1). My pocket binds them just fine without the clip. Otherwise they sit on my desk; usually spread out; like a bunch of windows on top of my desk. I also prefer a 0.5mm pencil instead of that pen.

Ultra high resolution
Screen space infinitely expandable
Wonderfully tactile interaction methods
Infinite battery life
Immune to EMP

Re:The cure for the 11 lb pencil

[Doctor Memory]

I've been using one of these for years. Works well, and even impresses the occasional PDA-jaded client. I sometimes still carry my old Palm Pilot (so old it still says "US Robotics" on the front), but I never really found an app that let me draw and annotate diagrams the way I can with pen and paper. The Palm wins when it comes time to play Asteroids, though... ;)

Re:Well...

[Savage-Rabbit]

"...pencil."

noun,
An archaic instrument for writing or drawing, consisting of a thin stick of graphite or a similar substance enclosed in a long thin piece of wood or fixed in a metal or plastic case.

Grow up.....

[Horus1664]

My Alienware laptop has been doing stirling service for more than two years. They use high grade components with good build quality and the highest performance in a laptop at the time, just what I was looking for.

I've been an IT professional since well before it was 'trendy'.

My question is why would someone NOT buy a laptop because it had an alien head on it ?

Re:Grow up.....

[gamlidek]

As an "IT professional," on very rare occasions have I needed to show up to customer sites. I didn't have an alienware laptop at the time, but the people that I worked with were very much like me and would probably have asked questions about it and whether or not I liked it. I sincerely doubt that most customers even *care* what kind of laptop you're using, as long as it works and works well.

Now, by IT Professional I mean programmer or system admin. If by IT Professional the parent poster meant something different, which probably is the case, then I think he should have used a different title.

cheers, /gam/

Re:Grow up.....

[Slack3r78]

Support and service. I've had an Alienware notebook in for repair for nearly a year now, because it has a bad screen inverter and the part just plain wasn't available and Alienware wouldn't give the customer the time of day because it was out of warranty. Interestingly enough (timing wise), she just brought in an inverter she was finally able to find on eBay yesterday. We'll see how that goes.

At any rate, while this may not be the norm, I've heard horror stories about Alienware refusing to support their equipment and giving the customer the run around even while in warranty for me to avoid them altogether.

Re:Well...

[ajs318]

Sounds expensive ..... I would have thought you could get a pencil for eleven pence if you went to the right place!

Two Words:

[C10H14N2]

Link Whore.

Now, I now we all need to pay for our precious little websites somehow, but if the real estate is 90% advertising and 10% "original content" -- and a one-page article is spread across five, I stop reading...well, lately I don't even start. The advertisements wouldn't bother me as much if people would just keep the article all on one page. You know, we do have these things called "scroll bars," so we don't have to load the same 1MB of crap five times just to find out what happened to sister Debbie's "11lb pencil."

Honestly...

AC/DC Adapters

[darthservo]

more power to you. No, literally - remember to bring an extension cable.

The AC Adapters required to power some of these laptops are insane. I personally own a Dell Inspiron 5160 (not an extreme gaming computer), and that power supply is a brick - est. 6.5" x 2" x 1.5"

Recently, my department purchased an Alienware laptop for a mobile server (used for product demo purposes, capable of running VM-ware). That power adapter is even larger than mine. And it gets incredibly hot, too.

perfect for iMac

[foniksonik]

This is the scenario for an iMac.... replace a tower + screen with a small footprint all in one. Laptops don't make for great desktop replacements... they are too cramped, not ergonomic... display is too small, etc. etc. for day to day office use. They are even less expandable and upgradeable than an all in one type pc, the list goes on.

iMacs are wonderful for desktop use and relatively portable when it comes down to it... ie: you can move them around by yourself... all the connections are easy to get to, they have built in wireless so no need to rewire or extend the network to a new space.. if you have a wall port for ethernet no problem... built in speakers and headphone jacks for privacy... the new ones have the built in iSight for video conference and all have a built in mic for audio conference. New ones have bluetooth built in for use with wireless input and for synching up your pda with entourage or ical....

Bonjour is a god send for IT... just buy a printer that uses zeroconf and you'll never have label another ip address on it again just 'add printer' and pick bonjour , voila.. the printer shows up and will work without special drivers, though you may want to download them for extra features for special people...

So many nice things to say about the combo of OS X and iMac for office use.

Re:perfect for iMac

[BenjyD]

The majority of people I know who use laptops as desktop replacements have add on USB keyboards and mice they use at their desktop. With an iMac, you can't pick up your work machine, do a few hours work on the plane/train and get set up in a client's office in a minute: you have to have an extra laptop, which means duplicating files and setup.

Centrino laptops these days are powerful enough for most things (I can play BF2 on mine with decent graphics setttings) and have at least 3hr battery life in normal desktop usage

Re:perfect for iMac

[foniksonik]

Do they also dock them into a display as well?

I wasn't talking about people who travel... was talking about office workers... those who work in offices 90% of the time. The other 10% they can take a company laptop with them. For those who do travel to various extra office meetings a lot whether long distance or down the street.. of course a desktop replacement is a good choice and with all the peripherals as well...

Re:perfect for iMac

[BenjyD]

One office I worked in had docking stations with keyboard, mouse and 19" CRTs on many desks. I agree that many laptop displays are quite poor, although they are improving rapidly.

That said, the main advantage of having a laptop as your main computer is that it doesn't matter where you are, your entire work environment is right there, with no synchronisation problems and no software licence problems.

Re:perfect for iMac

[Anonymous Coward]

Laptops ... are even less expandable and upgradeable than an all in one type pc...

I dunno, man. Last time I checked, people were scrambling to try and figure out ('cuz you know that's how we do) how to open the iMac G5. Even for the G4 iMacs, *I was actually intimidated* to open one (This was for modding the fan so that the iMac could glow w/ a blue light)!

When comparing upgrading RAM of an iMac to a laptop, I would rather upgrade laptop with less than 2mins. of my time, versus breaking down half a computer with +5mins of my time.

But again, I'm sort of a n00b, and thus an AC
so don't listen to me

Peace!

Re:perfect for iMac

[Anonymous Coward]

And this is why we don't let Mac zealots into our IT shop.

viva la resolution

[Anonymous Coward]

I have seen laptops as toys ever since they came out, because the display resolution has always lagged so far behind what's available on a desktop that writing code—especially in an IDE—is a cruel joke.

As soon as I saw that someone had come out with a 1920x1200 laptop, I bought one, and now it's my primary machine. It was expensive, and there are things that annoy me about it, but you can't argue with being able to sit down in a coffee shop or on the plane and with two pages of code side by side and all of your debugging windows visible.

I can truly write code in comfort anywhere I want now, not just at my desk.

Catering to a specific niche market

[bigtrouble77]

There's a couple of users that really benefit from DTR's. Programmers and web developers heavily benefit from the WUXGA screens. Graphic artists require fast GPUs and dual core CPUs for rendering. Hardcore gamers simply require the best of everything.

I'd be hard pressed to find anyone else that could find the new 11lb DTRs useful. I have a sager 9750 and it suits my purposes perfectly (I'm a web developer, programmer, graphic artist and gamer). I do transport the machine, but rarely run it off of the built in UPS. Satisfies my needs perfectly.

Cheaper Than A New House

[blueZhift]

Well at least the luggables are cheaper than buying a new place. I generally prefer the white box PCs I've built myself because they can be upgraded as necessary very easily. But now, I'm facing the problem of needing to carve out another room in my place. So I'm thinking of desktop replacements that can be used anywhere in the house and turning the white box machines into servers and putting them in the closet. If I upgrade the home network as well, I might even be able to use the laptops as decent remote terminals to the servers for graphics intensive applications that I'd rather run on the servers. This would all not be cheap, but still much cheaper than buying a new, bigger, place and moving. So if the U.S. home market does cool off, maybe there'll be a little blip in sales of desktop replacements as more people choose to do more with less.

Re:Cheaper Than A New House

[Anonymous Coward]

Good point. A cup of coffee is less expensive than a new house as well, why not go with one of those? What the hell are you blathering about?
I generally prefer the french press cups of coffee I've made myself, as they are easy to customize.
I'm thinking of getting to-go mugs that can be used to drink coffee from anywhere in the house.
I'm thinking of putting the old mugs in the closet, and getting my coffee from them wirelessly.
Insert random statement about the state of the housing market here.
  Garth, take your ritalin!

Right idea, wrong CPU

[Brian Stretch]

The 3.6 GHz of Pentium 4 power is desktop standard, and the mobile GeForce 6800

Or buy the Aurora M7700, which is the same thing but with an Athlon 64 X2 CPU. Significantly less heat and way better performance. That would be much less likely to overheat than the P4 version. Plus bringing a recently purchased P4 machine to a LAN party is a good way to scream "CLUELESS!" to your fellow gamers.

Better yet, get the same Clevo D900K notebook without the expensive bling from a vendor with a less elaborate marketing department.

Re:Right idea, wrong CPU

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Plus bringing a recently purchased P4 machine to a LAN party is a good way to scream "CLUELESS!" to your fellow gamers.

Why? I've got a pentium 4 at home and it runs the first person shooters just fine if you turn the settings down. In fact, if you turn the settings down enough, your games will be faster and less laggy than those running with all the highest settings on the groovy kids customised $3000 machines.

Bringing a $600 P4 machine to a LAN party to play starcraft is a good way to scream "You guys got Shafted" to your fellow gamers. The younger ones looking to purchase might even thank you for it.

The Area 51 is worth it.

[ericbrow]

I purchased my Alienware this last November, and I'm not sorry in the slightest. 3.8GHz P4-hyperthreaded/2GB RAM (room for 4gb)/240 GB HD/DVD+-RW/Combo Drive/5.1 Dolby/17"/internal 802.11abg/12-in-1 card reader/video in AND out/256 MB Video, it just cannot be beat. Before my purchase, I put together the best laptops I could find on all the major manufacturers websites. They all came in at just a few hundred less, with half the specs. Heat is the major issue. I have found that if I can place my laptop where the video card vent hangs off the side of a desk, it stays cool. Some might complain about the weight. I carried more weight when I was in the Army. It lugs just fine, and I count it as more exercise. If I could wish for anything more, it would be room for just one more miniPCI slot, so I could have internal Bluetooth. It's got two cards, but they're already taken.

Re:The Area 51 is worth it.

[PoderOmega]

I have found that if I can place my laptop where the video card vent hangs off the side of a desk, it stays cool

Are you sure you are happy with that purchase? If I spent thousands of dollars on a top of the line laptop and I had to do that to keep it cool I would be pissed.

I carried more weight when I was in the Army

I don't understand why you are comparing this to a laptop... of course you carried more weight in the Army. For the rest of us, it might just be too heavy. That's like saying I used this 9 inch monochrome monitor for 10 years and now I am totally happy with this new 12 inch color monitor.

Re:The Area 51 is worth it.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

I purchased my Alienware this last November, and I'm not sorry in the slightest. 3.8GHz P4-hyperthreaded/2GB RAM (room for 4gb)/240 GB HD/DVD+-RW/Combo Drive/5.1 Dolby/17"/internal 802.11abg/12-in-1 card reader/video in AND out/256 MB Video, it just cannot be beat.

Except on battery life.

My Thoughts on Alienware m51-7700

[xaoslaad]

Alienware m51 7700 is a performance beast. Problems: It is not doubt heavy for a laptop Another big problem is overheating. I have to throw something under the front to raise it up about a half, or else the fans underneath don't seem to pull enough air to keep it cool. Having your laptop shut down continuously is a pain in the ass. This only happens when I am playing graphics intensive games, and if I do not tilt it up with something; minor but VERY annoying. Alienware support sucks a big one too. I sent my laptop in for repairs (ya the damage was COMPLETELY my fault) and they lost my laptop for two weeks after they supposedly 'confirmed' they received it. Parts were backorder for two months, and then they shipped it out saying it could take a month or more to receive it (I am overseas military); it arrived in 6 days. Incompetent to the core. On the flip side, I definately disagree with the article about being unable to upgrade. The graphics card is a mobile PCI Express daughterboard you can unplug and take out, and therefore replace. I am sure they will offer better graphics cards in the near future from what I bought in mine, and there is nothing stopping me from calling Alienware, buying one, and upgrading it. It's less than 8 screws to do so. It _may_ even be possible to buy a card from a 3 party (have NOT looked into it) and upgrade that way too; there are less options than a desktop to be sure, but definately not impossibe. The CPU is easily accessible, and I'm sure can be upgraded, though I have not looked to see what processors the motherboard does support. You have 4 memory slots. You can insert two mobile HDD and two slimline CD/DVD drives. You can even upgrade the audio via PCMCIA/USB solutions. There are 4 USB ports and 2 firewire ports for additional peripherals. That's similar to most desktops, so you can't argue on that from either. I'm not really sure where he was going on that one.

There's a trade-off, of course

[blueZ3]

We all want to have it all, but like every other area of life, choosing a notebook involves choosing between incompatible choices. You can have small, thin, and light, or you can have powerful and robust. There doesn't seem to be an option for an ultra-thin, ultra-light notebook with a top-of-the-line processor and long battery life.

My personal leaning has always been towards the small/lightweight side of the equation. After all, I'm much less likely to lug around a 15x17", 15-pound behemoth that runs on batteries for 20 minutes than I am to tuck my 8x11" 4-pound powerbook under my arm. As it is, I still frequently leave the PowerBook behind when I don't think I'll need it. Of course, I do carry it to meetings and when I'm traveling overnight--but there are a lot of times when it might be nice to have it "just in case" where I leave even this fairly small and light computer behind.

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records4/Check er/CheckRecord.asp?Q=9&PID=&Answer=Yes

The Guiness Book of World Records doesn't allow longest time spent gaming records.

I'd rather...

[infiniterb]

Have all the features and not need them rather than need them and not have them. I have a DTR (Dell XPS Gen2) that has saved my ass with its burning capabilities when I've been out in the field and needed a driver or something for a PC that didn't have a functioning USB port to work with my flash drive (I've worked on some fairly old workstations). It's also nice to be able to game a bit when there's some downtime and not have to go to my desktop to play.

Bloody Hell

[ajs318]

These people should not be allowed to have computers. Plain and simple.

Where I work, we have been using close to 100% LAMP since before that name was even invented. Everything is done using custom, in-house-written Perl {or, nowadays, sometimes PHP} scripts on a central server, and shoved into an SQL database. I don't believe we've spent a single penny on software licencing since before we moved premises, and that was a year ago.

Once you've written a couple of LAMP applications, it's easy enough just to copy the important functions out of a past one, spend an afternoon tinkering with it and have a new one up and running. The most important thing is to get procedures in place for doing something by hand first, before you even think about computerising it.

But, I know we're exceptional. Some of the firms we have to deal with, employ people basically to copy and paste stuff from an e-mail or Word document into an Excel spreadsheet. They think they're doing something clever, even going so far as to describe their operations as sophisticated and computerised. Go figure .....

I long for a modern affordable clamshell pc

[bigbigbison]

If someone would make one of those old clamshell style handheld pc's with a 3/4 size keyboard, wifi, and a decent sized hardrive, I would snap it up in a minute. Something like the NEC 900 with the current windows mobile os on it would be a killer app for college students. The ability to have an instant on device you could easilly type on to take notes in class and be online with (hell, throw in mp3 player and video too) and it would be a nice alternative to lugging around a heavy laptop that takes forever to boot up and shut down.

Re:I long for a modern affordable clamshell pc

[Anonymous Coward]

the Sharp Zaurus has 600Mhz, up to 6GB harddrive, almost 200MB flash (in various places). It needs a seperate CF wi-fi card, but meh, not having it in all the time saves battery. The screen is 'only' 4inch 640x480. Unfortunatly only released in japan, so it needs a translated / 3rd party rom. I'm using one at Uni this year, and loving it.

The Temple?

[LWATCDR]

Does that work as well as "Home Office" for a tax write off?
I mean can you write off the power bill, and upgrades as tithing?

Re:The Temple?

[dodobh]

All your income is donation to religious charity. No taxable income, no deductions.

Great for keeping coffee hot

[Zerbs]

I'm a computer programmer, and the last 2 years the company I worked for had me using an IBM G40 desktop replacement. Honestly it made sense for the number of times we took them with us to do presentations at meetings, for checking up on systems from home etc. Yes the P4 in it did generate alot of heat, but not that much that it was going to overheat, even with constant use durring the day. I used to be in with some LAN party people, even 7 years ago before they were called that. Even with today's "desktop replacement" laptops you probably still need the extra umph that even a mid range graphics card can give over integrated graphics.

No, No, No!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do we feel the need to tell others what they need?

I say let them buy the biggest, most expensive laptop they can. It will only improve or make cheaper the laptop I want to get.

Alienware in the workplace, not an issue

[retendo]

I've had the same Alienware laptop at several companies and the little glowing alien has never been an issue. The laptop is great, it's really fast an really stable. I needed the horsepower for heavy development so a gaming laptop is ideal.

I even gave two presentations to the Atlanta Java User's Group with this laptop. It never seemed "unprofessional". Some folks thought it was cool.

I'm a 31 year old developer, I'm not worried about people thinking that I'm a "gamer".
My work is good, it speaks for it's self. Who cares about the gimics, it's a nice piece of hardware.

My 2c's....

Uh? Lightest Post!

[Dark Coder]

Why are you lugging 11lbs worth of geekish love-handles? Shed some pounds! Go on a diet!

Try my Sony PCG-Z505HS with triple-battery life, tricked out with 120GB HD, built-in 100MB Ethernet which ONLY weighs ...

      3.75 lbs (8.2 kg)

That's right, only 3.75 lbs... Thinnest laptop alive today... It can be yours for only $249.99 from E-bay.

One can have running Gentoo Linux with seven VMWare images at your fingertips.

Love the dent-proof magnesium case.

It's not a big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

Desktops are not the easiest things to move around, but if you've ever lugged around a gig-worthy amplifier and guitar -- or, worse, if you're a drummer who brings a full set to shows -- obsessing over minimal weight differences and "clunkiness" of a relatively light box seems kind of ridiculous.

Maybe the computer industry needs to come up with the equivalent of a "gig bag" for desktop systems, with similar pouches and compartments that would fit wires and a mouse in the same way a guitar gig bag houses picks, capos and extra strings.

Re:It's not a big deal

[PitaBred]

Oh, like this? Jesus, search Google before you say something stupid. That took me all of 2 seconds.
If you ever think you have a great idea, chances are someone else has thought of it first.

Re:It's not a big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus, think of the children before you engage in needless snark. And please forgive me for not knowing about those famous "x-bags," which don't particularly resemble gig bags anyway.

My point still stands. People haul ridiculously heavy Marshalls and other such equipment all over the world every day concerts and rehearsals. Carrying a PC is like carrying a lunchbox compared to tube amps and heavy instruments. Not that big a deal.

Re:Well...

[Brett Johnson]

Would like to RTFA, but the 11-pound pencil site is slashdotted too.
I did get to read the first page, so I got the gist of the story. But it
is one of those annoying sites that only put 2 paragraphs of text
per page, forcing you to [Next] your way through the article. The
article is probably only 10-12 paragraphs long, but I only saw the
first two. All subsequent pages failed to load. There just is no
excuse for serving up text in such tiny nibbles. I am not an infant.

Yeah, I know site designers do it to inflate ad delivery statistics.
But in truth, I don't go passed the first page on most of these sites,
because thh poor quality of the content does not warrant the frustration
factor of having to navigate through it.,

Re:Well...

[Alex P Keaton in da]

Old joke- The Americans spent millions of dollars and several years developing a pen that would write in space. The Russians just used a pencil...

In a word, 'Yes'. And 'No'.

[BeanBunny]

Like joekampf, I have an HP Pavillion ZD8000. Truthfully, the only thing I haven't used on it is the firewire port, but that may change soon as I am running out of USB ports. Everything is useful on it, but that is because I use it for almost everything. I bought it so that I could plunk it down on the living room coffee table and do real work there (my wife found that more agreeable than me having to retreat to the basement for hours on end). Like mentioned before, the wide screen is great, it includes an actual, built-in number pad, and the Radeon X600 video tears through Half-Life 2 (although, sadly, performs only adequately on Battlefield 2).

Perhaps the point you are making is that most people don't need all of these features in their desktop, let alone their "desktop replacement." Fair enough. But everyone's requirements are different. I don't often take my monstrous excuse for a laptop on the road (to be fair, it's smaller than some), but I didn't buy it for that - I bought it because it has a slim form factor that looks good in the middle of a well-decorated room, and I can tuck it away whenever I need to. Having said that, I am about to buy a laptop for my wife (she found out that having a computer wherever you spend the most time is actually highly convenient), but her requirements will not include burning CDs or playing games; portability is the main desired feature, with a 12- or 14-inch screen that can easily fit in her backpack. She won't need the built-in 7-in-1 media reader to write her book or check her e-mail.

What's wrong with aliens?

[tepples]

A laptop that has "a little alien head on the back"?

Are you afraid that Alienware logos will make immigration agents want to bust your business for hiring undocumented aliens? Or do you work for a defense contractor that requires security clearance (and thus citizenship)?

Re:Well...

[VaticDart]

For those of you who think this is true, it's not.

Both the Americans and the Russians used pencils in orbital flights in the early days of the space race. However, they both realized that it was kind of a bad idea to be using something that shedded little bits of graphite or lead into a zero-G, high-oxygen, stuffed-with-electronics environment. So a company, Fischer maybe, not the US government, spent about a million US dollars developing the "space pen" which was then sold to both the Russians and NASA.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Very funny.

And all the American go huh?

Software license problems

[tepples]

That said, the main advantage of having a laptop as your main computer is that it doesn't matter where you are, your entire work environment is right there, with no synchronisation problems and no software licence problems.

Unless your laptop is a tablet PC and the only available software license specifically prohibits use on computers with a touch screen. The license for Macromedia Flash Player was like this for a while.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I love to ruin a good joke:

NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere.

Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge. Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink, which had a flash point above 200C. The sample Space Pens were thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian.

All research and developement costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No development costs have ever been charged to the government.

Re:Machine was in motion for 32 hours straight - h

[soupforare]

Have you ever been to a good LAN party? At LoliLAN 2k5, a 6-man+spectator(friends) LAN I went to last year, I was up for almost eighty hours before I stood up, felt lightheaded and then passed out. Slept for two hours, got a ride home from my friend and then jumped on a pub for some BF2! No, I wasn't high on methamphetamines. I can go longer than 80h with drugs. The sleep dep hallucinations start to get to me though. During a gaming con at our uni, I had been up for days and then decided to stay up for the whole of the con. Started getting really paranoid on the last day, go outside for a smoke and I can see the monster sprites from Ultima on NES poking out from behind the trees. That really sucked.

The porn. The PORN!!!

[bradleyland]

Dude, have you seen the size of a quality porn video lately? Need I mention how much more porn you can download over 100/1000 mbps than you can over a 3-6 mbps cable/dsl connection?

LAN parties... not just gaming.

The review sucks

[danimrich]

I like the second article, but the first one really sucks. Sorry, but it does.

-No mention of the performance other than that it was okay for the LAN party.

-The reviewer says that the pictures don't really show the size of the machine. Well, why doesn't he take some pictures of the device instead of using photoshopped stuff that probably came from the manufacturer's press office??

-He talks about the weight and the battery life, but provides no information about it (apart from saying that it's heavier than a monitor).

Okay, maybe the reviewer was stll hung over from the LAN party. But then, why doesn't he wait until the next day to write a sensible review?
This review is nothing more than a feel-good piece of writing that does not provide much more info than what could be gleaned from the manufacturer's web site or a store. It's more like an ad-even though he mentions the problems that arose later on.

Portable, my ass

[soupforare]

If you want a real laptop, import from japan. The libretto and the lifebooks are nice and small.

Portable computing has come full-circle. Desktop replacement laptops today are the lunchbox luggables of yesterday.

I want the ideal couch-coding machine

[SnuffySmith]

I'm guessing that a lot of people who don't need an ultraportable for travel, still need a fully functional machine that's reasonably easy to tote and use just about any place. I find I need a laptop that is in many ways a desktop replacement, that is, has all the hardware (CD burner, ethernet wireless, full keyboard), but doesn't weigh a ton.

Since I got wireless, I neglect my desktop and code (and surf and read and look up crap on imdb while I watch TV) on my couch. I find, though, that my 10-pound Dell Instpiron 5150 is too big. And what's with the damn fan on the bottom of the computer? That means I can't set the thing down on the sofa or the ottoman w/o worrying about it overheating.

For a lot of stuff, my work computer, a 15" Powerbook, is perfect -- great size, back-vented so I can set it on the sofa cushion, light enough both it and my bulldog can be on my lap at the same time, X11 -- but it's a pain in the neck to use for coding on Emacs. I need Control and Option keys on both sides of the space bar, dammit!

Duplexing via Photocopier

[billstewart]

Lots of photocopier machines support 2-sided copying (and 1->2, 2->1), and sometimes you can get your bureaucrats to let you buy one of those even if they won't do something clueful with the printer.

Gamers vs. Non-Gamers

[billstewart]

Gamers need high-end machines - almost nobody else does. If you're a gamer, laptops aren't good enough unless you're in the really high-priced heavy-duty heavy-weight game, and it's probably cheaper to buy a fast desktop and a lightweight laptop. For non-gamers, a $400 PC is more than good enough, and you can hide it under the desk if you don't want to see it, and then use whatever laptop makes sense for your portability needs. If you're depending on a laptop as your only machine, you desperately need an external disk drive for backups (even though DVD burners for laptops are finally available), and you might want an external DVD burner on USB2/Firewire anyway.

Workout

[quokkapox]

You forgot to add the workout you get by carrying that beast around.

I've been modded +5 Funny, and I wasn't kidding at all. I have no problem whatsoever with my setup. Yeah, you get a bit of exercise schlepping around 15 lbs of computer. Whatever. The human body evolved to be able to carry moderate loads around all the time, and since I ain't haulin' firewood, rocks, dead seals nor live babies, I get to haul around my computer. And I ALWAYS take the stairs to work off the 24-oz Code Reds I'm wont to consume when sedentarily working at said machine.

what the hell is this stupid review

[Soban]

the damn article is a perfect example of the fact that when people dont have anything good to write they will pick up an old issue and put some bling in it (alienware in this case) and put it in to fill the space. The article have no comparison table and the final conclusion that it comes up with is alread known by all the supposed "dumb idiots" who go out to buy a desktop replacements. I mean seriously who was the target audience? computer freaks like me who would like to have a desktop replacement for lan or people who like to buy laptops for style and in some cases to show off. what the hell writer thought that a person who will buy an alienware (and go to lan parties)does not know what he is doing. seriously if you dont have constructive to write then just dont put out stupid articles like that or Next time include some kind of comparison chart so atleast you can have some real reason towrite an article.

Bean Counters and Laptop Specs

[billstewart]

I work for a company that's large enough to have a clueless IT department and an purchasing bureaucracy that works at desks and never goes out in the field. We're only allowed one machine per person (which meant that the person who built our lab had to do deep bureaucratic magic), so we can't do the "desktop plus lightweight laptop" or even "departmental server plus laptops". A number of years ago our bureaucrats decided to standardize on overweight laptops with built-in floppies and CD drives, and while my shoulders think this was a terrible decision, at least I finally had a machine that had the parts I need instead of needing to beg and whine to get external CDROM drives for a machine that wasn't built for it. On the other hand, they decided to go with the "high-end" graphics option, which had 24-bit color and 800x600, instead of 8-bit color and 1024x768 (sigh.)

These days USB2 means that we're finally not limited to vendor-proprietary peripherals - so I can use my own external disk drive to do backups, and use my external DVD burner if I want to burn DVDs (the latest work laptops have DVD-ROM/CD-RW, but at least it's thin and lightweight), and if for some reason I needed a floppy drive, I could go buy a USB version, but so far there's been no need. One the other hand, the display adapter still doesn't support more than 1024x768, so I'm still stuck with a resolution lower than the Sun-3 I used ~20 years ago (pictures look better, but I use text 99% of the time, and I'd rather have 4-bit 1600x1200 :-)

Re:Bean Counters and Laptop Specs

[Horatio_Hellpop]

// On the other hand, they decided to go with the "high-end" graphics option, which had 24-bit color and 800x600, instead of 8-bit color and 1024x768 (sigh.)//

Eh? How can a 24-bit graphics card *not* display at a higher resolution than an 8-bit card?

That's whacky.

Re:Bean Counters and Laptop Specs

[billstewart]

You'd have job waiting for you in that IT department if they hadn't outsourced it...

Graphics cards have a finite amount of resources in them, such as memory, and they decided to spend the resources on more color depth per pixel instead of more pixels. 1024x768 is more resolution than 800x600. 800x600x24 is better than 800x600x8, but as a programmer, or writer, or diagram-drawer, or web-reader, I need more pixels a lot more than I need more colors. For looking at satellite imagery in the late 80s, it would have been nice to have more than 256 grey-scale (not that you could really see more than about 64 greys on the CRTs we had, but it would have given us more bits for overlays or false-color or let us avoid having the screen flash palettes as you switched between windows.)

Workable desktop replacements

[wanorris]

Personally, I hate the so-called "desktop replacement" notebooks that weigh 8 pounds or more, but I want pretty much all the functionality of a desktop computer. I wish I could use one of the little 12" ultralights, but I need more screen resolution to run Visual Studio and other apps effectively, and I hate integrated graphics.

My current compromise is to use a midweight (5-pound) notebook that's light enough to easily carry around most places -- for example, if I want to work through something over lunch, a 5 pounder is reasonable. It's practical to use for web surfing or (moderate) gaming while lying on the couch or in the car. For all of those things, a big notebook is overkill.

When I want something even more portable for using while walking around (or whatever) -- taking notes, playing MP3s, portable video player, mini-games, tasks, text reading -- I've found a Pocket PC pretty workable, though there are other similar alternatives.

I have a SAGER with the same specs

[Anonymous Coward]

And honestly I travel with it everyday, game on it at work AND at home, take it to LAN parties, burn DVDs on it, I've hooked an XBOX up to it via the TV tuner. I beat the hell outta the thing and it's one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Sig

[Sky Cry]

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." -- Albert Einstein

Re:Uh? Lightest Post!

[Anonymous Coward]

check your conversion 1 kg = about 2.2 pounds

My experiences with a Sager 9860

[Anonymous Coward]

I carry around a Sager 9860 laptop. It weighs in at 12 pounds, not including the power supply which adds another 3 or so, gets very hot, and it has no battery life. Thats not why I have it, I have it because I am not a pussy. Lets face facts, if you have one of these you have it for a reason, and being a pussy is not one of them. Perhaps youre a hardcore gamer, or a developer. Its not for your average business traveller, or business user. That being said, heaven forbid you actually have to get off your lazy ass and carry around something that weighs *gasp* 15 pounds. Why perhaps you could even loose some weight! Perish the thought. Honestly if you're even remotely outraged by a 15 pound object, Im sure there are some day laborers in Kenya that would never stop slapping you.

yeah, but does it...

[Anonymous Coward]

...run linux? snark, snarf.

VNSNY.ORG uses tablet pcs and custom software

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently did a brief stint as a java developer at vnsny.org in Manhattan.

To explain what they do, here's the blurb from their website:

With over 9,500 highly skilled care providers, VNSNY is the largest not-for-profit home health care agency in the nation. In 2004, we made 2,300,000 professional home visits to more than 106,000 patients. From Flatbush to Riverdale, Chinatown to Harlem, New Hyde Park to Old Westbury, our caregivers travel throughout New York City, Nassau and Westchester Counties, seeing an average of 26,500 patients each day.

The caretakers who make home visits carry lightweight tablet PCs to enter all of the patient's data onsite. I don't mean that they simply enter data into a PDF or Word doc, but into a custom vb application that collects all the proper data based on the patient's condition. This data is uploaded daily to the database where our java web application made the data useful.

The tablet application was a very nice system that asked all the proper questions for patient's condition.

Maybe someone should contact them about licensing their software.