[rescue] non-Intel laptop for general use?

[Mark]

On 30 Oct 2007, at 01:36, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007, James Hartley wrote:
>
>> I'm soon to be in the market again for a laptop used for  
>> development &
>> other things, but I would like to look at non-Intel based systems.
>> Would the gentle readership comment on what Tadpole systems are the
>> best for their needs & any other non-Intel systems which are
>> available?
>
> I really like my Powerbook G4.  It's fast and as trouble-free as a
> notebook gets.

I'll second that. My Powerbook G4/667 Gigabit was a gift from a fellow  
geek who rescued it. It is battered to hell and needed a new hinge  
(which left a scar I'm afraid to say - they are hard to do and even  
harder to do right). Now it's had that done it's a battered but still  
worthy old trooper. We took one looked at the battered wreck w  
recovered and assumed, as with most other battered and bruised  
laptops, that it'd be fu... ahem... non-functional. Surprisingly it  
worked fine. The hard disk gave out recently but that's not a surprise  
given it's evident level of use. The FireWire port doesn't work  
(another common Powerbook failing, sadly). Everything else is fine and  
dandy.

The only major design criticism I have of the G4 Titanium Powerbook is  
the Airport antenna are under the wrist rest at the sides, not in the  
lid (the lid isn't thick enough to take them) so the wireless  
reception ranges from sporadic to really bad. Because mine is  
basically a dog anyway, I used an old iBook G3 antenna I had and  
routed it to the back of the lid and duct taped it on. Much better  
reception immediately. Oh and also they were one of the first laptops  
to use slot-loaders and the mechanisms are a bit jankey, takes a bit  
to get it to take in and load a DVD sometimes.

On the upside the G4 TiBook feels great to use, is fast, slick and  
very well made, and it's very ergonomic, the screen is big enough to  
not feel cramped (1175x768 or 1280x800) and high quality and the  
keyboard is really nice to type on. All-round a good laptop.

-- 
Mark Benson

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