My old laptop was an A22m, and before that I used a T20 (which I loved). The A-series is just a little too big and heavy for me (to watch DVDs on planes is kind of a pain in coach).
I have thought about selling the darn thing, but I haven't decided yet. I really like OS X.
Take a loaded 12" Powerbook, 20 GB iPod, keyboard, mouse, USB hub, 3 year warranty, Soundsticks, airplane adapter, spare battery, and spare power supply and it adds up. As I mentioned, I switched hard.
Okay, this is a real long comment, but since you brought it up, here is my 12" Powerbook story.
I support an open-source network management product, and a friend of mine turned me onto OS X (which is one of the operating systems we run on). I was just about to buy his iBook when the new Powerbooks came out. I fell in love with their styling, and I "switched" big time (loaded Powerbook, iPod, Soundsticks, warranty, etc.)
It took a month to arrive, and everything about the packaging, the look of the machine, etc., was pure Apple. If I were to ever buy a new Mercedes, this is the feeling I would hope to have (only more so).
But the honeymoon didn't last long. While it worked great on my lap, when I put it on the desk it would wobble. Cold or hot (and it does get hot), there was an obvious wobble.
Then I noticed that whenever I pressed down with my right hand, there would be a "click". Closer examinination found that the "palm rest" on the right side of the mouse was actually bent. You could see it and definitely feel it when you ran your finger along the ridge between the mouse and the keyboard. If you close the unit, the little rubber pad on the left side of the screen met nicely with the rest of the laptop, but there was an obvious gap on the right side. Finally, if I put the spare battery in place of the original (which goes in on the right side) it seemed to require a lot more effort than it should to get it in.
Conclusion: Bent laptop.
Having purchased the warranty, I called Apple, and they told me that, yes, they knew about the wobble (they also told me it was worse on 17" Powerbooks) but that they didn't know what they were going to do about it yet. As far as the bent palm rest, they told me to take it to the Apple Store and have them send it in.
At the Apple Store I dealt with some rather nice people, but became very worried when one said "oh, they'll say this is abuse."
Abuse? I hadn't had the thing long, I normally take care of my laptops very well (I travel a whole lot, so they have to work) and I have taken even better care of this unit. Luckily, that never became an issue.
So I sent it off, and they kept it for over a month. I would call in weekly and hear things like they were waiting for parts (one time I heard the word "mainboard") but eventually it arrived back on my doorstep.
It was the same laptop I had sent out, with the same wobble issue, but someone had spent a lot of time getting everything to fit the best they could. The bend is gone, but you can still see that things don't quite fit well on the right side, the screen still has the gap, and if you look under the keys in front of the mouse, there is some sort of plastic film that is buckled - as if it doesn't quite fit.
But these things are too minor to do without my laptop for another month. I took a razor and trimmed one of the rubber feet down to fix the wobble, and I'll just live with the other problems.
The downside for Apple is that I will be hesitant to buy another product from them. For much less than the $3500 I shelled out, I could have gotten a small Linux laptop that would function to meet my needs. The reason I bought an Apple was for the "fit and finish" and quality I used to associate with them, and I am very disappointed. I still like my iPod, though.
My name is Tarus. I'm a consultant. And I'm a sucker.
You face a similar problem to pretty much any hardware specific driver issue when it comes to Linux: the O/S tends to be ignored by the vendor.
Open-source tools tend to be (gasp) based on open protocols, whereas hardware tends to have its own specific, closed methods for determining state (such as temperature, etc.). The only real way to solve the problem is to reverse engineer the available methods or patronize those vendors that offer either an open solution or wider selection of supported O/S's. I believe that Compaq embeds some code from BMC Software for monitoring low level hardware information, so it is doubtful you will ever see the source for it.
Off the top of my head, only Dell's OpenManage is available for Linux.
If you can find a way to access the information from the command line, you can always use net-snmp to integrate it into an SNMP agent that can be accessed by most management products.
Good luck, and if you get it working you may want to check out OpenNMS as your monitoring solution. It supports CIM out of the box (as well as Dell OpenManage).
Slashdot Mirror
Solid advice. Where were you in January? (grin)
My old laptop was an A22m, and before that I used a T20 (which I loved). The A-series is just a little too big and heavy for me (to watch DVDs on planes is kind of a pain in coach).
I have thought about selling the darn thing, but I haven't decided yet. I really like OS X.
Flame bait?
Take a loaded 12" Powerbook, 20 GB iPod, keyboard, mouse, USB hub, 3 year warranty, Soundsticks, airplane adapter, spare battery, and spare power supply and it adds up. As I mentioned, I switched hard.
Stupid? Yes. Bogus, no.
Okay, this is a real long comment, but since you brought it up, here is my 12" Powerbook story.
I support an open-source network management product, and a friend of mine turned me onto OS X (which is one of the operating systems we run on). I was just about to buy his iBook when the new Powerbooks came out. I fell in love with their styling, and I "switched" big time (loaded Powerbook, iPod, Soundsticks, warranty, etc.)
It took a month to arrive, and everything about the packaging, the look of the machine, etc., was pure Apple. If I were to ever buy a new Mercedes, this is the feeling I would hope to have (only more so).
But the honeymoon didn't last long. While it worked great on my lap, when I put it on the desk it would wobble. Cold or hot (and it does get hot), there was an obvious wobble.
Then I noticed that whenever I pressed down with my right hand, there would be a "click". Closer examinination found that the "palm rest" on the right side of the mouse was actually bent. You could see it and definitely feel it when you ran your finger along the ridge between the mouse and the keyboard. If you close the unit, the little rubber pad on the left side of the screen met nicely with the rest of the laptop, but there was an obvious gap on the right side. Finally, if I put the spare battery in place of the original (which goes in on the right side) it seemed to require a lot more effort than it should to get it in.
Conclusion: Bent laptop.
Having purchased the warranty, I called Apple, and they told me that, yes, they knew about the wobble (they also told me it was worse on 17" Powerbooks) but that they didn't know what they were going to do about it yet. As far as the bent palm rest, they told me to take it to the Apple Store and have them send it in.
At the Apple Store I dealt with some rather nice people, but became very worried when one said "oh, they'll say this is abuse."
Abuse? I hadn't had the thing long, I normally take care of my laptops very well (I travel a whole lot, so they have to work) and I have taken even better care of this unit. Luckily, that never became an issue.
So I sent it off, and they kept it for over a month. I would call in weekly and hear things like they were waiting for parts (one time I heard the word "mainboard") but eventually it arrived back on my doorstep.
It was the same laptop I had sent out, with the same wobble issue, but someone had spent a lot of time getting everything to fit the best they could. The bend is gone, but you can still see that things don't quite fit well on the right side, the screen still has the gap, and if you look under the keys in front of the mouse, there is some sort of plastic film that is buckled - as if it doesn't quite fit.
But these things are too minor to do without my laptop for another month. I took a razor and trimmed one of the rubber feet down to fix the wobble, and I'll just live with the other problems.
The downside for Apple is that I will be hesitant to buy another product from them. For much less than the $3500 I shelled out, I could have gotten a small Linux laptop that would function to meet my needs. The reason I bought an Apple was for the "fit and finish" and quality I used to associate with them, and I am very disappointed. I still like my iPod, though.
My name is Tarus. I'm a consultant. And I'm a sucker.
You face a similar problem to pretty much any hardware specific driver issue when it comes to Linux: the O/S tends to be ignored by the vendor.
Open-source tools tend to be (gasp) based on open protocols, whereas hardware tends to have its own specific, closed methods for determining state (such as temperature, etc.). The only real way to solve the problem is to reverse engineer the available methods or patronize those vendors that offer either an open solution or wider selection of supported O/S's. I believe that Compaq embeds some code from BMC Software for monitoring low level hardware information, so it is doubtful you will ever see the source for it.
Off the top of my head, only Dell's OpenManage is available for Linux.
If you can find a way to access the information from the command line, you can always use net-snmp to integrate it into an SNMP agent that can be accessed by most management products.
Good luck, and if you get it working you may want to check out OpenNMS as your monitoring solution. It supports CIM out of the box (as well as Dell OpenManage).