Linux on Laptops

Back in the days I used to claim a laptop is of little use with having a machine at work and at home. I mean, why bother having another keyboard when you are travelling. Once I got a loaner laptop (a Gateway-2000 colorbook) in the summer of 1996 on a trip to Amsterdam, i was converted. Later that year, (December 16, 1996, to be precise) I obtained a second hand AST J30 laptop. And a bit later (3 July 1998) I ``upgraded'' to an AST M-5160X laptop. Hardly a year later, I exchanged that for a nice Micron Trek-2 Pii-333 machine (basically, i wanted to run in 16 bit color), then got replaced by a Dell-5000, with this amazing 1400x1050 15" screen (recently Dell upgraded this model to a 1600x1200 display :-).

Apart from those machines, I've gained some more experience by helping some friends getting linux going on their machines. I've listed those machines too in the list below. I have limited access and memory about the others, but you can always ask me.

Experiences

Experience is a big word, but i've had my hands on the following machines, one way or another, and maintain some local pages about them. Prehistory:

Kaypro2 (1981) and Kaypro4 (1983) - not linux, but ZCPR (CP/M)
Never owned, but played a bit with a SunOS luggable. Later the tadpole was developed. Always wanted one, but too expensive.

So, in rough chronological order, with linux, we have:

Gateway2000 colorbook [summer 1996]
Toshiba Tecra 500CS [dec 1996]
AST J30 [dec 1996 - dec 1998] ** this was my working laptop **
Toshiba Tecra 740 [apr 1997]
AST M-1560 [jul 1998 - jun 2000] ** this was my working laptop **
Sony VAIO 505g [jul 1998 - sep 1999]
Toshiba 335CDT [??? 1998 - ]
Compaq Pressario 1670 [jan 1999]
Dell Inspiron 3500 [mar 1999]
Toshiba Portege 7020 [apr 1999]
Micron TREK2 [may 1999 - dec 2000] ** this was my working laptop **
Thinkpad 1472 [jul 1999]
Dell 5000 [jun 2000 - sep 2002] ** this was my working laptop **
Toshiba Portege 3480ct [sep 2000]
Dell 8200 [sep 2002-sep 2007] ** this was my working laptop **
IBM Thinkpad 40 [jan 2005-] (**** this was also my current laptop ****)
Dell X300 [feb 2005] ** just a peculiar laptop some of us have at work **
Dell 810m [march 2005] this will have to go into the record books as my laptop from hell....
Sony Vaio SZ160 [may 2006]
Thinkpad 61p [sep 2007-dec 2012]
Lenovo S10-3 [dec 2010-]
Thinkpad T530 [dec 2012-] (**** this was my work laptop ****) I have some notes on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.10 LTS . Now running dual boot 16.04 LTS and Neon 20.04
Thinkpad X1 (3rd gen) jan 2015 - mar 2017 - running 16.04 LTS (passed on)
Thinkpad X270 - March 2017 - April 2018. running 17.10. (passed on) - got this laptop twice, one for me, one as a graduation present for friend
Thinkpad T480 - May 2018 - running 18.04, and now 20.04 ** this was my working laptop **
Nov 2019: I'm thinking now.... but the market hasn't really improved beyond my T480. Colleagues got the X1 Extreme Gen 2
Thinkpad X1-Yoga 4th gen with kubuntu 20.04. This will be my walkabout laptop for writing. No email. - May 2020.
Dell XPS13 Developer came with ubuntu 20.04. - Oct 2020. Now running kubuntu 22.04. i5-1135G7, quite speedy. I used it to normalize NEMOBENCH5 with a score of 1000
Dell Latitude 5420 May 2022, hand me down, installed kubuntu 22.04. Not a great feel (plastic), but it has 64GB memory and is technically the fastest thing i have (i7-1185G7) <<<<<<(**** this is my current work laptop ****)>>>>>>
BEELINK AMD June 2023, a surprise NUC. Meant as home server. I'll call it an honorary laptop.
KFocus XE Gen 2. Ordered July 19, arrived July 25. Came with Kubuntu 22.04 (with kfocus finetuning), 16GB memory and a 256GB disk. Now the fastest machine I have, 1260 in nemobench5, where 1060 was my previous laptop.
System76 Darter Pro. Ordered May 20 (2024).

Please note that I do not have any access to the machines with just one or closing dates, and limited access to those of my friends/collegues.
As a result of this, i'm beginning to assemble my personal pet peeves on laptops, and thus presenting my ideal laptop (a laughable moving target of course)
Here's my list of working PCMCIA ether/modem cards:

3Com Megahertz (3CXEM556B) combo ether/56k modem, with Xjack. Works on my laptop, but for the record, could not get this to work on a Vaio 505's redhat 5.2
Xircom 10/100+MOdem 56k (CEM56-100)
Linksys 10/100 Cardbus PC Card (model PCMPC200), some trouble initially as it took the latest tulip driver from Becker, but should be in the latest pcmcia driver list now. See also recent notes, but as of redhat 7.1 the newer card seems to work out of the box.

Some hardware/Software references

Linksys, since i got their Etherfast10/100 CardBus PC Card (model PCMPC200). Took a bit of effort to get it running, you need at least V0.90 of Don Becker's tulip.c driver.
XF86Config files for lots of laptops.
story on upgrading laptops

General laptop references

The Portable Computer Center website - EP Brown: http://home.att.net/~epbrown01 (FAQ for comp.sys.laptops)
The Notebook Buyer's HomePage - Erick Reyes: http://www.edgeworld.com/notebook
Lapland: http://lapland.intrastar.net
NotebookReview.com: http://www.notebookreview.com
The Notebook Jungle: http://www37.pair.com/lynge/jungle/index.html (gone?)
The Review Finder: http://www.reviewfinder.com
Jessica's Transmonde Home Page: http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~boydj1/vivante (gone?)
ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/products/notebookuser and http://lhd.zdnet.com/superguides/laptops.html (gone?)
Linux on Mobile Computers and their HOWTO's
Linux Laptop Page.

Problems, Suggestions, Solutions? mail teuben at astro.umd.edu