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As of laptops it is IBM, IBM and only IBM. Nothing else.
Alex.
At 08:58 AM 7/28/99 -0400, Owen Davies wrote:
>Jerry Rehert helpfully observed:
>
>
>>I never heard of a ProSTar. I'd recommend a NAME-BRAND laptop (Toshiba,
>IBM,
>>Dell, Compaq). I know people who bought no name laptops and when they went
>>for service, the company was nowhere to be found. Name Brand laptops I'd
>>expect to have more consistent components, more reliable warranties and
>>better chance to have the bugs worked out of them. I've consistently
>bought
>>Toshiba and have been very satisfied.
>
>
>Thus far, I have experience with only two of the above, but enough to make
>some
>comments.
>
>If you go for a Compaq, be sure to buy the Armada series, not a Presario. I
>didn't
>know any better and bought a Presario. As a physical object, it's nicely
>designed,
>convenient to use, and well supplied with features. The proprietary add-ons
>to
>Windows are buggy as they could be and still work at all. Not that anything
>will
>refuse to load and run, alas. Instead, you get stuck with arbitrary
>freezes, more
>than the usual number of problems with Internet Explorer, functions that
>work one
>day and disappear the next, and so on. (In short, it's just like Windows,
>but more
>so!) I've had mine for just over a year now and am getting close to
>re-installing
>the software yet again. This will be the fourth time, and I've heard of
>people who
>had to do it that often in the first six weeks. (No doubt I'm lucky in that
>the laptop
>is not my only machine.) Problem being that in this one (it varies from one
>version
>to the next) the installation CD does not permit any changes in the
>installed package.
>You always have to install exactly the same software configuration that
>didn't work
>last time. On the most recent rework, I installed Windows and the
>associated
>joined-at-the-hip junk, installed Word, and had the machine freeze solid
>before
>getting to use it for anything practical.
>
>Oh, yeah. Also had to have the keyboard and touchpad replaced, at the cost
>of three weeks or so without it.
>
>I have not used the Armada laptops, but have talked with a tech who
>maintains
>a fleet of them for a major company in this area. He says they no longer
>use the
>Presarios because of all the trouble they had, but have never had a problem
>with
>the Armadas. Several other folks have echoed his report.
>
>As for the Dell, it seems to be a nice machine, but on the model I used
>while on a
>trip last week the touchpad was not adequately recessed, so it was almost
>impossible to use the machine without accidentally shifting the cursor
>somewhere
>it wasn't supposed to be. Bad enough in Word. Using Excel was next to
>impossible.
>No doubt you'd adapt to it eventually, but who'd want to bother? In photos
>of the
>current Dell line, it appears that the touchpad is recessed a little farther
>into the
>surface, but I'd want to use one of them before buying it.
>
>What led me to the Compaq was the feature set, and especially that I didn't
>have
>to fiddle around swapping out the CD-ROM and floppy drive; everything is
>built
>in (save the Zip drive I hung on it) and available whenever you want it.
>Some other
>laptops require you to switch them as needed. The IBMs I've seen do this.
>Still,
>the next laptop I buy is likely to be an IBM. Maybe a Toshiba, depending on
>the
>feature sets available next time I go shopping.
>
>One thing for sure: I'll put a lot more research into picking the next one
>than just
>going to the local store and picking up whatever looks good.
>
>Hope that's enough help to justify having to wade through it all.
>
>Owen Davies
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