I'll add my two cents:
I have a Sony Vaio and I've been pretty happy with it.  Originally it was a 
Windoze machine which I was using for some contract development work.  (I 
made a horrible mistake getting it with Windows ME; it's horribly unstable 
even by MS standards.)   When the contract was over I put Red Hat 7.1 on it 
(I know there are newer versions; I just happend to have the CD's); it was 
quite an easy install.  The only problem was that the USB ports didn't work; 
I did a google search and discovered that this is a kernel bug that somehow 
affects the Vaio in particular; when I downloaded the patch and recompiled 
and reinstalled the kernel, it worked fine.  If anyone's considering a Vaio, 
let me know, I'll help out if I can.

Later,
Vaughn Treude
Nakota Software, Inc.

P.S.  Speaking of notebooks, I'm in the process of installing Debian on an 
older notebook; a Winbook (which is unfortunately pretty banged up, almost 
impossible to use without external KVM).  It looks promising, but not a fun 
install; I don't have X working yet, and it worked first-time with RH.   So I 
probably wouldn't recommend doing Debian on a notebook for a Linux newbie- 
unless you're eager for an "educational experience."

On Saturday 17 August 2002 22:37, you wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Aug 2002 19:04:19 -0700, Voltage Spike
>
> <voltage_spike@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> >3) Apple makes great portable solutions if you can break the Intel
> > dependency (which is easy with open source).
>
> Kevin was the first to mention an iBook as an alternative.  I went out
> to the Chandler Pavilions Mall today to get a first hand look at one.
> The one draw back that I didn't like was the 1024x768 resolution.  I
> guess I've been spoiled by using higher resolutions.  I also looked at
> the PowerBook series and liked it much more...albeit at a higher price
> though.
>
> Decisions, decisions, decisions.
>
> Michael
>
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