Rolling Your Own Laptop? 412
rneches asks: "I've been looking around for a Linux friendly laptop, and I've found a
couple of reasonable systems. However, there really aren't any laptops out there that really meet the needs of a Linux user.
In particular, most laptops are, more or less, desktop replacements.
As such, they are loaded with scads of nifty features, beefy
processors, and so forth. This is great, I suppose, if you are
running Windows or MacOS and want a desktop replacement. If you're a
Linux user, and spend most of your time in emacs windows (er, frames), most of that fancy stuff is more of a liability than an asset. In other words, I'm talking about coders, admins and other Linux hackers more than I'm talking about the 'average user'." In short, rneches is looking to find a way to build his own laptop, and if the platform doesn't exist to be able to do this, he's looking for help in creating one. Interested?
"From a laptop, I want five things:
- A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
- Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
- Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
- Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
- Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
Which brings me to my point - Is it possible to roll your own laptop? I've looked at pc104 systems that might do the job for a base, and flash disks that would be great for storage and battery life, but the video, screen and enclosure are all somewhat of a mystery to me. I've taken apart Dells and (shudder) Sonys, and the video hardware is completely non-standard and funky. Each major brand of LCD has a different connector, and require a special (as in, not your average VGA compatible card) hardware to drive them. I'm not sure where I'd get a decent PS/2 keyboard that would be appropriate for a laptop. And as for the case itself - well, I'd probably need take out some life insurance, and then get in touch with those folks from the /. story a few months back about making storm trooper costumes from vacuum molded PVC.
I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project. The pc104 standard seems like a pretty good standard to use in the same way desktop system use AT and ATX. Most of the pc104 boards are intended for ultra low power embedded systems, but there's no reason I can see that beefier chips couldn't be used. You'd have to give up the spiffy ZIF sockets, but laptops aren't really that upgradable anyway. Chances are, there's already a pc104 board that will do just about anything you want at very low power consumption. You could cram two or three pc104 boards into a really thin laptop (side by side, not stacked).
If someone started making pc104 video cards that could drive a host of different LCD screens, that would help a lot too. And, of course, someone would have to make some decent cases.
Is there anyone out there who's tried this? Any successes, I hope?
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?"
Pointless... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pointless... (Score:2)
Re:Pointless... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pointless... (Score:3, Informative)
I'd think, however, that maybe some of those old portables like the TRS-80 Model 100 might be closer to what's necessary. They at least had great battery life.
Re:Pointless... (Score:2, Insightful)
Its life always oscillated between 3-5 hours, most likely because the Pentium-3 was constantly running full-tilt, even though the thing was spending most of its time idling for input. For most purposes, aggressively throttling a fast cpu down to a minuscule duty cycle would work just fine while extending battery life at least 500%, yet you would still have some crunching power available if you really needed it. Let it run at 33mhz while I futz with the text editor, then kick it up to 1.0g when gcc fires up. That flaky Intel Speedstep stuff already does some throttling but it is very lax, even when set to "extend battery life". Perhaps if they added a "zombie mode" to run it at 1/20th of its rated mhz, it would still be plenty fast for the mundane coding binges we've been doing since the dark ages of the Apple II.
Re:Pointless... (Score:2)
/Brian
Re:Pointless... (Score:2, Informative)
See Itronix.com [itronix.com]
Not only are these very durable, They are drop tested multiple times, they are waterproof/dustproof, and able to stand temperatures varying from -15 to +140 F. They have a special LCD screen called Color-View and special keyboards that are illuminated.
Check them out....
Re:Pointless... (Score:3, Insightful)
I have the X20 (and a T21, and Sony Vaio PCG-F450) which is a slightly older version of the X22. Awesome little box. Small, Farily good battery life (requestors battery desires are TOTALLY impossible today, maybe when fuel cells are availbale....), networking, modem, etc. This box also has the add-on base for when you DO want drives, speakers, etc. and works with the newer version of IBM's docking stations (compatible with the T series.)
Runs Linux nicely. Throw in a 802.11b card and you are set.To get the machine this person wants to build would cost millions in R&D meaning the first few off the assembly line would be WAY spendy (market for this thing would be on the order of hundreds...)
Think things like cases, custom motherboards, keyboard, etc. Costs for the molds to make the case alone would run a good $200K. Cases like the IBM's made from composite's are VERY VERY expensive to have a line setup to produce. Now you could probably build a prototype the size of a desktop for a few thousand, but getting it small in one package is a whole different ball game.
This idea seems to come from someone who really has no concept of the costs or issues involved with building a hardware product. Oh yeah, if you actually wanted to SELL one of these things, you need to get the product certified with multiple different agencies (gets worse for overseas.)
Case Mods (Score:2)
Sort of retro in its own way.
So something like this would be viable if you do not mind re-inventing the luggable ;-)
A low cost way to do it (Score:3, Informative)
First, consider that LCDs are expensive and nonstandard, as already mentioned. TVs on the other hand, are cheap, mass-produced and rugged, even when portable. So...use a TV for the display. Of course, the bigger the TV, the more expensive it'll be...but then you can use it to watch TV too.
Then you want rugged and portable? Get a biscuit form factor PC. They're small, but they're still standard PCs (which can therefore run Linux), including all the usual connections. You can get them with TV outputs (for VGA drivers), and built in ethernet and serial connections. Check out some of them at this site [advantech.com].
Most don't come with a hard drive, and you'll have to "roll your own" there, too. You have a choice: buy a biscuit with an IDE connector, or buy one with another standard connection, such as Compact flash or PCMCIA. If you go with the IDE, a portable 500MB IDE isn't that expensive. I saw one for $40 (US dollars) recently.
Then of course, you have to worry about batteries/power supply. That's not as big of a problem as you might think - there are LOTS of battery manufacturers. You want long lasting? You'll have to pay for longer lasting. On the upside, the compact system shouldn't take as much power as a standard laptop would.
How rugged is the result? Well, you'd be creating the casing for everything, so that's pretty much up to you.
So, I figure these costs:
$400 CPU (with ethernet, etc...)
$400 portable Flat Screen TV (VGA video displayed)
$50 Hard Drive
$800 Batteries/Power supply (enough to last a week - a SERIOUS load, and still probably an underestimate of the price)
$80 Casing
Of course, for an extra $500, you could upgrade to having real SVGA video, but you don't need hardware acceleration of video for most applications with which this technology is normally used, so...you can't get it.
I suppose if $1730 is three times as much as you would have paid, then this is a bad deal...but since the Thinkpad X22 retails for around $3000, I think I'm talking about a better deal than a prebuilt machines. Plus this thing is actually upgradable.
I had an armada (Score:2, Informative)
Just make Linux work on the laptop (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Just make Linux work on the laptop (Score:2)
It's unfortunate that Apple has yet to recognize this.
/Brian
What about TuxScreen (Score:3, Interesting)
Even though it's a telephone type system, you might be able to get enough information from it to build what you need. It has a ARM based processor running Linux. You might get some ideas from that.
Re:What about TuxScreen (Score:2)
Buying a cheap laptop is really best. Yes, not what the poster is after (I'd love to see something like this too) but it just doesn't yet exist.
Some kind of ultraportable would fit his needs probably.
Build your own laptop? (Score:5, Interesting)
In what way? I have run Linux (various distros) on a variety of laptops ranging from an old toshiba T3400 to various Tecra's and Thinkpads without too many problems.
Anyhow, building your own laptop would be quite a challenge. You don't have a choice of nice, standard-sized mobos that fit nice standard enclosures. Laptop parts (mobos, cases, screens) are made to fit by the manufacturer, there ain't much you can change except for the HDD.
And you don't want PCMCIA (PC-CARD), well bang goes most of your hardware customisation options right there!
Re:Build your own laptop? (Score:2, Insightful)
>>And you don't want PCMCIA (PC-CARD), well bang goes most of your hardware customisation options right there!
I think you might have missed the point of the comment. He wants good built in networking, not some funny PCMCIA card with one of those flimsy cables that everyone looses. He doesn't mention ditching PCMCIA altogether (like legos with out the little bumps), just doesn't want to use it for networking.
spamacon
Re:Build your own laptop? (Score:2)
I agree it is dumb (Score:5, Interesting)
You are asking for a lot of trouble and I doubt you will be satisfied with your hackies result.
I am a typical "power-user" and have cycled through many laptops and machines but it seems I am settling on my laptop just for mail, and do all my development on a box. Just the raw power makes a huge difference.
I used to love my Linux laptop about 2 years ago, I felt so sophisticated. Tell you the truth I am running w2k on it now (A Sony Vaio), just wasn't worth the trouble. Then my box runs Linux (RH) and I do most of my java development on it, I am very happy with it.
Bottom line is this: Laptops and boxes are very different in how sensitive they are to "fucking around". It is pretty simple to assemble a box from scratch, even fun and economical but with Laptops I wouldn't fuck with quality, you need high end material and high end assembly, otherwise you are going to have a clunky thing that doesn't hold up... and then the linux choice to boot is imho a mistake, but that is another story.
Get real,
marcf
Re:I agree it is dumb (Score:2, Informative)
My F250 Vaio came with Win98.
I shifted that quicksmart
Put Mandrake 7 on it,
got the Irda working, PCMCIA came working out of the box.
Come Mandrake 7.1, Irda stopped, but USB started working for my CPIA webcam. Very cool, but I couldn't dial out from my cellphone anymore.
7.2 had pretty much the same results
Installed Win2k, and it works, and is sort of stable.
I use Mandrake 8.0 on my file server/devbox, and dual boot, win98/Mandrake 7.2 on my girlfriends machine for games, and win2k on my SMP BP6 workstation/game box.
I would love to run Mandrake on my Laptop again, becuase it was so much faster than win2k, but as a whole win2k has been more compatable with my day to day laptop needs of the occasional game of Command and Conquer, getting mail, and using my wireless lan card (yes I know my wifi card can be used in Linux), getting sound that worked without blackmagic, and irda transfer, and dial out.
BTW when I did get IRDA working in Mandrake 7, I did get the file transfering from my cellphone working in linux fatser than one the guys at work got it working on his Win98 Laptop.
Re:I agree it is dumb (Score:2)
You know that Madrake 7 and 7.1 were second only to Corel for the most flaky distros ever, don't you?
Re:I agree it is dumb (Score:2)
I used to love my Linux laptop about 2 years ago, I felt so sophisticated. Tell you the truth I am running w2k on it now (A Sony Vaio), just wasn't worth the trouble. Then my box runs Linux (RH) and I do most of my java development on it, I am very happy with it.
I've been running Linux on my laptop for about a year now. Used to be Win98 but one day I just got sick of rebooting and reinstalling every 12-18 months. I'd been using Linux on all my servers and firewalls so I figured why not give it a try on the desktop?
I run Slackware 8.0 with XF4.1.0 with WindowMaker and KDE2.2.1 from CVS (I hack around on it a bit) -- the antialised fonts are great, the screen works perfectly, the video card, PCMCIA, sound and USB subsystems are all supported more or less flawlessly. I'm having issues with printing but I think I'm going to dump CUPS and try LPRng or something; I'm getting sick of fiddling with it.
I used to run Win4Lin [netraverse.com] daily to get the office aspects of my job done but now the only time I boot it is to run MPLAB [microchip.com], an IDE which drives the ICE I use in my embedded development. KOffice does 99% of my office needs and KMail/KNode work pretty damn good for POP3/IMAP and NNTP handlers. What Konqueror bungs up on Opera seems to take care of.
This laptop is about 3 or 4 years old now. It's a Hyperdata [hyperdatadirect.com] MediaGo 950AGP: Celeron 300, 256M RAM and a 10G drive. I get about 3 hours of battery life out of the thing, even watching DVDs (that was back in Windows when the ALI M3909 hardware MPEG2 decoder worked). If I'm doing heavy compiling then drop that time down about 40-50%. The notebook doesn't get overly warm in my lap and its sleep mode seems to be compatible with Linux for the most part. Hell, I take multiple-hour baths and surf the net/IRC with it (wireless card) -- I have one of those old wrought-iron claw-foot tubs which holds the heat forever and a 3/8" sheet of plywood goes across it to rest the notebook or any books and drinks I have. Yeah it's a little weird but it's a form of relaxation. :-)
So, at least for me, it hasn't been more hassle than its worth. Win98 was a hassle. Win2k won't work on this machine (the install freezes every time, Hyperdata support claims there is something not supported by Win2k). Linux has been a godsend for me. I've been offered notebook upgrades from work but I've really come to like this little one. I've even ordered plastic subassemblies a few times to repair cracks from overuse and misuse (I tend to pick it up by one corner and that strains one of the shell pieces).
aside: if anyone can find drivers or specs for the M3909 MPEG2 decoder I'd love to hear from you. I don't understand why they EOL a product and still refuse to give out data on it. A cel300 is a little weak for DVD/DivX decode so I'd at least like to try for half. Hell, this thing has an ATI Rage Mobility graphics chip in it; if ATI would release a Linux DVD player I'd be happy too!
Re:I agree it is dumb (Score:2)
Actually, I beg to differ. If all you do is Linux development and administration, then you're going to want that, and there really isn't a substitute.
Take my friend who has a large linux development project, but needs to travel fairly often. He has a Vaio and it's essentially useless to him. He can't exactly ssh into his development box while he's on the road (and under windows he can't get good X-Windows forwarding anyway). There really isn't an option for him. He has to have Linux. But because of the wierd propriatary devices Sony uses he can't find a distro that will support Sony's CD-ROM.
Of course the question that was asked here was not "Why don't I want to build a good basic Linux laptop?" but "How do I build it."
With that in mind, an avenue that might be worth pursuing, would be to look into embedded systems designed to be deployed in the field: to truck drivers, and scientists in remote locations.
I haven't looked into these things in a few years, but last time I did. I seem to recall that they had pretty good systems with decent battery life, LCD's, and a fairly impressive degree of "hackability."
There are clearly caveats involved in constructing your own portable - you're certainly not likely to come up with something as compact and elegant as a Titanium or even a Sony Vaio. But I'm sure this fellow is well aware of the difficulties - he wouldn't have gone to /. if he weren't. After all 10-12 years ago people might have said "Build your own desktop computer? Your asking for a lot of trouble and you'll never be satisified with your result. Just go buy a PC Jr.or PS/2 from IBM.
Battery life vs... (Score:3, Insightful)
I was wondering if, as an emacs user, you could cope with a real text-only display - just like a text mode console. Surely the lack of video RAM, bandwidth etc should save some power?
Re:Battery life vs... (Score:2, Informative)
Um... not really. The thing that eats power for displays is the backlighting of the LCD. You might try looking for a reflected-light LCD display if anyone makes such a thing - would need no backlight but you'd only be able to work in well-lit areas
Sounds like all you want is a Palm Pilot (Score:4, Interesting)
linux-laptop.net (Score:3, Informative)
It will save you much aggrivation and probably a lot of money as well.
iMac (Score:2)
It has many of the features that you asked about.
Re:iMac - he meant iBook, and good idea (Score:2)
Cost isn't outrageous, certainly not compared to building your own. $1299 + sam ram from elsewhere gets you going. (DVD or CD/RW will kick the cost up, wireless adds $100, but as of today it is 128 bit encryption.) Think about it as $2/day to have a computer.
Re:iMac - he meant iBook, and good idea (Score:2)
Linux runs GREAT on it. Infact, I would never recommend a non-apple laptop to anyone who isn't afraid of running Linux/Unix
To me there were 3 important factors:
1. Screen size, 14.1" 1024x768 minimum
2. Keyboard, laptop keyboards are typically terrible. The powerbook keyboards are amazing, I would rank them 2nd best keyboard of all time.. right under the IBM model:M
3. Battery life - each battery can do upto 4 hours, in theory. You can fit 2 batterys in a Powerbook.
They actually say my model of powerbook is still a little better then the new iBooks.. the new iBooks may come with newer/better software, a new look, and sporting all of the features of the Pismo.. but the bus on the motherboard is slower, reducing overall performance.. also the Pismo is upgradable to 1 gig of ram and has an upgradable processor card. Oh, and since they are now a little older.. expect to find them cheaper
Re:iMac - he meant iBook, and good idea (Score:2)
Actually, the Pismo has one advantage that even the PBG4 doesn't: you can install two batteries. Sure it's going to weigh a little more than the CD-ROM, but that's at least 8 hours of battery life with proper energy saving settings, which likely can't be beat by anything larger than a PDA. (But the batteries aren't cheap. The third-party PBG3 batteries at Fry's are $200 each.)
Plus, OS X can run MacOS 9 software, and with Virtual PC, Windows software too. (A WINE-like emulator would be better than Virtual PC, though.)
PC104 ! (Score:4, Informative)
Hit this google link
Google Search on PC104 [google.com]
It has a much greater use/life in Europe than it ever did here in the States.
The little modules are stackable, and they make little "backplane" like boards for you to put the modules.
Or as Egg Chin in Big Trouble in Little China said, "Its like your salad bar -- we take what we want, and leave the rest for everyone else"
Re:PC104 ! (Score:2)
Also, PC104 boards are terrible for laptops. They are ment to be stackable (vertically!) and each card is pretty high (about an inch thick) to start with. You could probably build ribbon cables and special connectors for PC104 boards, but if you're going to that much trouble you might as well just buy a cheap laptop and rip it's mobo out.
Re:PC104 ! (Score:2)
options (Score:2, Interesting)
Uh. (Score:3, Insightful)
What day was that? 1950? First Desktop PCs were sold as kits, you realise.
Re:Uh. (Score:2)
That day would have been around 1978 or so.
I might remind you that the Apple ][ wiped the floor with the kit-based PCs of the day, because it came in an integrated box.
Old ThinkPads (Score:5, Interesting)
The only issue could be battery life. But like I said, with some models you can drop the extra drive and use a battery instead, or maybe IBM sells better modern batteries that would fit in the old systems.
So check out models from IBM and then search for them on auction sites and such. Good luck!
P.S. When you've found or built what you're looking for, let us know what linux distro you used, or how you built your own, since so many of us have issues getting Linux up on laptops.
If you use X, avoid Olivetti Laptops (Score:2)
The thinkpads are a great option in old laptops to install linux on. There also a lot of other good older laptops to install linux on. I tried with it my old Olivetti and had no problem whatsoever doing the install. Everything worked the first time, except for X. It only filled up 3/4 of my screen. No incompatiblity with the graphics hardware or anything, just couldn't get things set exactly right in the config and no-one out there had much experience in setting up X on one of these things. This was probably due to the fact that Olivetti got out of the business right after they made my model. Still, if you're X-guru, you can probably make it work, and the command line worked just fine. I had an Echos P-100 with 40 megs of memory wtih an LCD screen. Aside from the display only using 3/4 of the screen, X worked great. I could run a Gnome desktop very nicely. I figure you could pick one of these up for around $100 or two these days, slap in a network card, and you've got a great, cheap command line terminal. I'd probably try to upgrade the HD because at 1.3 Gigs it's pretty small. They come with a CD-ROM and a floppy that you can swap in and out.
Re:Old ThinkPads (Score:2)
Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:4, Informative)
It runs Yellow Dog Linux very, very nicely.
And the wide-screen aspect ratio on its display is FANTASTIC for running side-by-side xterms....
--nbvb
Re:Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
Agreed! And it looks the bizznizz aswell. It'd probably work out cheaper aswell!
Re:Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
The display is huge and the titanium supporting it is quite thin. Added to Apple's Wonderful Idea(TM) to actually have the keyboard and the LCD almost touching, you wind up damaging your display if you squish anything (soft muffin crumbs killed some of my pixels) in there.
Then, i had left it closed on the coffee table. One of my kittens jumped on the side hanging off, and the latch broke. It fell under 2 feet. Half a meter fall, and it's busted. I now have to ship it back to Apple, where they will look at it and _then_ give me a quote to fix it.
I almost never run terminals side-by-side, either; perl one-liners get really long, and if it doesn't wrap, i'm a happier camper.
Anyway, i'd think twice before picking up a PBG4, especially if you're going to be beating on it. I'm very close to the point of having my credit card company refund my money and return the product to Apple as "Unsatisfactory." It's a beautiful machine, very cool, and very powerful, but it's not up to my standards for durability.
-josh, who wishes everything was as durable as his TI-85
Re:Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
Re:Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
But as long as you want a nice screen, wireless, and plenty of storage, you can forget about long battery life - regardless of CPU. Those three things suck a lot more power than the CPU does. And if you want enough power to keep it going ad infinitum - forget about portability.
Laptops are full of design compromises, but if the original poster really thinks there's a market for his kind of spec, he should try and gather some funding and contract a Taiwanese manufacturer (like Alpha Top) to design and build them. Hardly anyone makes their own laptops anymore, anyway.
Re:Apple PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
A quick search on google turned up the following:
http://www.macyummies.com/jammacsleevf.html [macyummies.com].
For $30 or so, you can keep away most scratches, and get a little bit of extra cushion for those accidental drops.
linux (Score:2)
Akin to turning the house around to install a light bulb.
How about tuxtops? (Score:4, Informative)
Sceptre (Score:2)
Battery Life is the big issue (Score:2, Insightful)
Battery life of a week, on a system used for coding...I think that is a little far fetched. I have to agree with him on this point though. My COMPAQ (ewwww) 1200 barely has enough battery life to spend a week out of town checking email. Course...it is a Windows system.
What is the average battery life most of you see?
High End Linux Laptop (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a developer who uses X and graphics tools. In my looking for a laptop had one priority: Screen resolution.
I purchased a Dell C800. Currently I am staring at a 1600x1200 16 million color Mozilla window. Not only that, but how many CRT's can do that resultion well. With my LCD, not only is the screen crystal clear, but I still have room to have more things on the screen at one time than I can really pay attention to. For my application testing (jsp), I do my editing in full screen Netbeans, then minimize leaving two terminal windows, and a Mozilla window (or two) open. I use the two terminals for packaging and deploying the app for view in mozilla.
I have had RedHat 7.1 and (now) 7.2 on the C800, and most things work fine. Only problems I have had is the video adapter doesn't support DGA (for direct VMWare screen access) and the internal modem (on a ethernet, 802.11b, modem combo card) did not work until RH 7.2. RH 7.2 detected the modem on the first after install boot. I have never used the wireless interface, so I'm not sure it that works.
This is a great machine for the high end Linux user, I would buy it again for use with RedHat 7.2. (I have the 1Ghz version btw.)
-Pete
Simpsons (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Simpsons (Score:3, Funny)
Or that urban myth about that Finnish guy that built a Unix-like kernel from scratch. The chutzpah of these do-it-yourselfers!
Re:Simpsons (Score:3, Insightful)
You could indeed use PC104 or another one of the standard bus families. You pay more for less performance, but you get good reliability since these cards are industrial grade. One issue is that your box will probably come out more cubical than lap-top shaped. Any of the rack-mounted systems are automatically at least 5 inches thick. PC104 cards are designed to stack one on top of the other, but if the clock speed is low it is possible to connect them side by side with ribbon cables. I'm not sure how low it has to be -- maybe 20MHz? But if you can live with that sort of performance, it would certainly help the battery life.
1 week battery life and integrated fast ethernet? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well."
1 week battery life? I think you should invest in an international power adapter. And you don't want PCMCIA sockets, why not? What about expansion?
Re:1 week battery life and integrated fast etherne (Score:2, Insightful)
When I took my laptop to the UK, I had no problem at all running it off 240V/50Hz, I just had to buy a 3 prong UK->tele-funken cable (not a problem, they're fairly univeral).
Japan shouldn't be a problem either, since the connector is used on a variety of game consoles and other devices.
Alternatively, you can buy connector adapters (without step-down/up transformers) that are designed to convert one mains voltage connector to another, for devices that auto-sense.
Ability to use AC power in a different country is obviously something that the laptop manufacturers thought about, so I wouldn't say extremely long battery life is a real need just for international travel:).
FYI (Score:2)
Plenty of today's PCMCIA NICs don't have dongles, e.g. Netgear FA411 (not an endorsement, just a remark).
RiscStation (Score:5, Informative)
> system with a StrongARM CPU, a flash
> disk and grayscale 1024x768 LCD.
> Insofar as I can tell, no one makes
> such a thing.
RiscStation [riscstation.com] is about to issue an ARM-Powered laptop...
And RiscOS machines support ARMLinux [armlinux.org] or RiscBSD [netbsd.org] (even though I 'd advice you to just keep using RiscOS [riscos.com] which is far more intuitive and performant on such platforms)...
Anyway, the product is not ready yet but you may hear about it *very* soon.
Re:RiscStation (Score:2)
http://www.psion.com/series7/
Linux on Psion information:
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/distributions
http://www.aleph1.co.uk/armlinux/pda/psion.html
OmniBook XP (Score:2, Funny)
I have successfully run both Linux Mandrake and Red Hat on it. (Even back to Red Hat 6.2!)
I use a Xircom ethernet card, and that was detected by both with no effort.....
Why build your own when you can easily buy one ready to go?
Linuxrunner
Sony Vaio (Score:2, Informative)
I installed a Debian on it with NO problem, even if I had no CD rom, not even an external one. Builtin networking is enough - quite good, not a 3com but having in my home network with just 3coms and a kickass switch the Vaio integrated well.
It is small (letter paper sized x 1inch) and light (3lbs maybe), but has a max res of 1024x768 (there are some smaller ones which only have 600x800). Didn't get the modem working.
And I find it really nice. That's also a reason I bought it, but I don't think you actually care.
But if you really want to build your own... well, if you have the money to buy the parts and the patience to put it all together I think it will be at least a very instructive activity and you'll learn a lot from it. I'd like to hear of the result.
Re:Sony Vaio (Score:2)
What a horrible purchase.
Oh sure.. I like my tiny little laptop.. but in hindsight.
1) Sony support sucks ass. They REFUSED To sell me a new keyboard, as it's not 'user-replacable' (but you have to take it out to replace the user-replacable ram.. hmm)
2) They said that I had to send it to LA to get the keyboard replaced, and that they would re-format the laptop and re-install from the recovery disks to test that it works. There was no way around this.
Luckily.. I fixed it myself.
Linux.. linux went in okay..but I have to say, having the BIOS only boot from Sony's CD Rom is a major pain in the ass when upgrading.
I will never buy another sony again.
Rugged Laptops (Score:3, Informative)
Not So Laptop (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the base unit:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/bookpc2.htm
It's small, compact, and fits in the large pocket of my schoolbag nicely. It currently has a 933 Pentium III, 256 mb of memory, and a 40 mb HD. It's dual-booted with Win98 and Mandrake Linux 8.1
I also use a special keyboard:
http://www.dnrtechs.com/foldable.html
I feels a bit strange at first, but it's not all the difficult to et used to -- even for everyday use.
Finally, I have a logitech optical mouse. I don't have a LCD monitor yet, I'm hoping to find a thin 15".
What about... (Score:2)
It runs linux, although its not particularly complete yet. There has been major development on the 5mx recently though and hopefully it should get to a good state soon.
OK maybe not the size of thing you want but its 36Mhz ARM, 16Mb RAM, compact flash disk, backlit greyscale 640x240 screen, goes 8 hours on 2 AAs and you can carry it in your pocket (just about).
The machines are cheap second hand now since psion have gone tits up but you better be quick before they disappear. Get a big CF disk and you can have a full debian-arm distribution on it.
look here [sourceforge.net] for the linux on psion files
If you want something bigger, how about the netbook? 32Mb, 206Mhz ARM etc. This runs linux too but im not sure at what level of completeness.
Its a shame psion have stopped making these machines, as technically theyre very nice.
Re:Actually... (Score:2)
Rolling Your Own World Order (Score:2)
think outside the box... (Score:2, Interesting)
but what is a laptop, after all? it's a portable computing device. You can buy really tiny computers, such as tiqit or pocket pc (many slashdot articles on these) :
tiqit [tiqit.com]
pocketPC [unicomplabs.com]
add a fold-up keyboard, and a 5G PCMCIA drive
5G pcmcia [kingston.com]
And a display device, either a portable screen (there are wireless screens out there) or glasses:
micro glasses [microopticalcorp.com]
and you've got a really small computer. There are also a couple articles I've seen on building a "laptop" into a small stainless steel or brushed aluminum brief case.
Obviously, designing a motherboard and integrating everthing into a nifty case would be nice, but that's where the cost comes in. Buying really small parts isn't cheap, but building your own thang never is. But you *can* build a really small, portable computer, pretty much tailored to your needs.
You might also consider (if you really want to go for the gusto) the new technology that lets you output circuits via a printer (which thus far has been used to create cell phones and batteries):
but I see no reason you couln't print custom PC's! In short, although it may not be cheaper, it is I think possible to build something small, light, portable, and tailored to your design. And if you do, could you send me one?
cheers,
neil
neil@dove-tail.com
I want one! Me too! Let's do it! (Score:2, Interesting)
There are certainly enough (net|sys)admins out there to support a 'community' for this effort. After all this hardware setup is perfect for us at work or on the road. (Even at work we are away from our desks at racks of computers or in foreign data centers!) My company (Steem) [steem.com] will gladly step up the web resources , maybe even hardware purchasing if we could begin producing something 'sell'able. I would even venture to guess that ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com] would support the endevour on some level.
I'll keep an eye on this story and see what develops. Obviously the more off-the-shelf (COTS as the gov businesses call it) stuff we can find the better. I have looked at the PC104 hardware and it seems do-able but we'll need to work at getting all the other pieces together.
BTW, if you haven't read through the MIT wearable web pages [mit.edu] or wearables central [blu.org], I suggest that you should. Lots of good hardware suggestions there.
iBook is the answer. (Score:5, Informative)
* A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
iBook: SuperCrisp 1024x768 screen. Don't want color? Just turn it off.
* Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
iBook: Check.
* Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
The current crop of iBooks is rugged. I've dropped mine a few times (oops). Not a scratch, no problem. And unlike the PowerBook, it *feels* rugged. I am confident that it could withstand the abuse that I dish out.
* Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
This is the only place I can't help you, except to say that if you aren't using processor intensive tasks or the CD drive, you will get 5 hours (maybe more). Get a few extra batteries and an international adapter if you are going to Tokyo. (Don't they have the same power plugs there as here?)
Also, the adapter that comes with the newest iBooks is very compact and lightweight. Cord wraps around it easily.
* Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
iBook has 100BaseT, and with an AirPort Card, you're all set. And there is no PCMCIA. (If you want that, you want a PowerBook). The antenna is very good, much better than the PowerBook. (Up to 300 feet in some cases)
See other posts for good reasons why you don't want to build a laptop, but value for dollar, an entry level iBook can't be beat.
Pick one up at your local Apple Store [apple.com] or on the web [apple.com].
Good Luck
Re:iBook is the answer. (Score:3, Informative)
This is the only place I can't help you, except to say that if you aren't using processor intensive tasks or the CD drive, you will get 5 hours (maybe more). Get a few extra batteries and an international adapter if you are going to Tokyo. (Don't they have the same power plugs there as here?) Also, the adapter that comes with the newest iBooks is very compact and lightweight. Cord wraps around it easily.
As far as a can remember, Apple has always had universal power supplies in its portables. Basicly that means that in another country all you need is a different plug, not a voltage adapter. I think this goes back to the Duo series...
Variable voltage power supply (Score:2)
A funny story: A friend of mine once traveled to the UK with her PowerBook 140 and StyleWriter (a Canon inkjet rebranded by Apple for a while in the early 90s). The former was variable voltage, but the latter was ... NOT! When she plugged them both in with plug adapters only, the StyleWriter (or at least the adapter) quickly began to emit thick smoke.
Months later, she took the StyleWriter back to the retailer in the US. She told the guy: "I plugged it in, and it caught fire!" Very baffled and concerned, the store owner replaced it - not, of course, knowing the whole story.
So make sure you have a universal adapter before plugging in your laptop in Europe!
Not a good idea (Score:2)
Now, think about how often you've damaged a laptop in minor accidents. Even in a case, a short fall is likely to require a trip to the shop. The durability on these things is hardly industrial grade.
Rolling one is just asking for trouble.
The Ultimate Laptop (Score:4, Informative)
MACOS 10.1 is the best thing to ever happen to computing and is the ultimate geek's operating system, and is also the best operating system you can ever run on a laptop.
Its networking configuration is very easily configurable and nicely abstracted behind a very nice interface. Check this:
1) At work, i am connected to the 'net via corporate LAN thru my ethernet port and static tcp/ip configuration.
2) At home, i have a dsl connection and multiple computers, all sharing the connection via a LinkSys DSL router, with DHCP enabled, and an Apple airport base station acting as a bridge to the rest of my ethernet LAN.
3) At my girlfriend's place, she just has a simple phone line and I can connect via dial-up only.
==> I work during the day as a web applications developer, and run the NetBeans java IDE on OS 10.1 which comes pre-installed with Java 1.3, while listening to mp3's with i-tunes, with 10 terminal windows opened with multiple ssh connections to various hosts, using shell scripts i wrote to manage files, quickly edit files with emacs, do complex file search and replaces in BBEdit. I also have my DVD player idling with my crouching tiger hidden dragon DVD just sitting there waiting to be watched during my lunch break.
Work day is over. I unplug the laptop's ethernet jack, unplug my desktop speakers and the power cord, drive home.
As soon as i get home, i open the laptop. This instantly wakes it up from sleep. It instantly detects that I am not using my ethernet port, but it also detects that there is an open wireless network at my home. It hops on it right away. Then automatically makes the DHCP request as I had configured to. BAM: I get home, I wake up my laptop, and it's connected to the net via its airport card.
Say I wanna go to my Girl's place rite now and check my e-mail from there. Put the laptop on 'sleep', get there, plug her phone jack into my modem port, and click the little modem icon on my status bar and select "connect". And there i am. Easy.
I recently downloaded, compiled and configured the standard samba daemon distro by passing a few flags to the configure script. OS 10.1 already comes with a couple samba clients built-in via command-line and is also handled at the URL/protocol level, but not samba SERVER. So that lets me share drives with windoz weinies, while i already had the built-in ability to share drives two-ways with AppleTalk clients and unix/linux NFS clients, via standard unix command-line as well as a couple GUI tools.
It really doesn't get any sweeter than this. Wether you are just getting your feet wet into Unix, or you only work in vi/emacs and swear by terminal and console windows, this puppy has everything you need to get your stuff done and your jollies off.
I guarantee you, there is absolutely NO cooler operating system than OS 10.1. They've still got improvements to make, and it's still unofficially considered 'betaware', but hey, I've been using it very intensively for weeks now, and it hasn't failed me. and the titanium powerbook with its wide screen and pretty colors and all its connectivity stuff is just way cool.
Re:The Ultimate Laptop (Score:3, Informative)
Well for one OS X, is BSD unix at its core. You're not talking about a younger operating system like windows or traditional macos to which we grafted UNIX-like features like cygwin.
You're talking about a *true* unix at the core of the operating system, interacting with well-defined hardware, with all peripherals already working. All user-friendliness shortcomings of traditional unices have been taken care of in a very friendly GUI, "Aqua".
If you do not use the "classic environment" which insures compatibility with legacy applications, this thing flies.
You're looking at a fare more secure and high-performance operating system than windoz.
Plus, OS X being a BSD variant, you benefit from all the open-source servers and applications. This is why I was able to install the samba daemon to allow PC's to mount shares from my laptop, by simply downloading the standard samba distro and passing a few extra parameters. What does this mean?
AppleTalk clients can mount shares from my laptop.
Unix NFS clients can mount shares from my laptop.
PC Samba clients can mount shares from my laptop.
All of which can simply be, the laptop's ~user home directories. You can set permissions within your home folder that can be reflected accross all those network services.
That's one example.
But really. Your question is just like asking me to compare the advantages of running a true unix with a friendly interface on a laptop versus windows.
Arguments can be made in favor of either operating system. However, in that guy's case, he seemed to be strongly inclined to run a BSD variant on his laptop, which means he seems to be the most comfortable with a unix variant, so the OS X solution seems to make more sense for him. Now you might want to try to convince him to not use unix at all.
Beat M$ to the tablet PC (Score:2)
Im not sure the PC itself is your problem, simply getting a proper LCD driver and VidCard is your real issue.
As Ive seen/thought many times before, even recently mentioned here @
This is an excellent question, an excellent topic and a very worthwhile idea. Basically, how do we hobble together some cheap, general purpose computers... not too much power - not much more than a network connection... these could be terminals in the home, "tablet-pcs", a DIY "ConnectedTouchpad/IOpener/Audrey", portable MP3 players... all cry out for *EXACTLY* the hardware this question is asking for.
A modular "embedded" PC. Just like our desktops... expandable, extensible and versatile. Why dont we have a solution like this for PDAs? Without straying OT too far, it would be *EXCELLENT* to see a DIY laptop for a lot of reasons.
Decide what you want (Score:2)
The inherent contradictions should be clear to all. The reality is, if you want all these features, you're going to be stuck with a whiz-bang computer. The latest screen, networking, and battery technologies always come with the most beefy processor available in the day, because those people who can afford those technologies are the ones who need and can afford the beefy processor. Sorry, but you're just NOT going to find ultralites with beautiful 15" TFT screens and 8-hour (?) battery life that runs a Celeron. And as others have suggested, you have NO chance of making a machine of your specifications - laptops represent the cutting edge of consumer PCs in almost every respect except where heat is a mitigating factor.
And forget about taking a computer to Tokyo and not charging it for a week, unless you plan to leave it in hibernate mode.
Hello, Sally, this is Harry (Score:5, Insightful)
Going to a restaraunt with you is a staggering exercise in pain & humiliation, isn't it? I can just tell: you must be the sort of person that looks over the menu at a fine dining establishment and then makes the staff do backflips to come up with some esoteric custom dish for you, because the many, many fine offerings they provide are never quite right. Give me a break... :)
I wouldn't pick at you, because you've clearly thought about this a lot, but somehow you haven't noticed that your requirements are, aside from just plain silly, mutually exclusive & thus impossible. You want a week long battery -- yeah right! -- and you want ultra light weight (thus, um, no battery??) and built in high speed wireless networking? How much power do you think that's going to draw? I'll admit, I'm not sure myself & maybe it's less than I'm thinking, but you are going to have to make some compromises between these wildly varying demands. If you want long life, it means a big battery. If you want lightweight, it means a small battery. You pick.
And in the, assuredly long time you're going to spend ruminating over that dilemma, there will be thousands of others that take one of the many fine off the shelf offerings, meet 90% of what you seem to really want here, and they'll be able to get on with their lives without a second thought. Might I suggest relaxing & trying to do the same?
Re:Hello, Sally, this is Harry (Score:4, Insightful)
Surely this isn't in the spirit of the analy retentive puritanical
We're not talking about functionality here - we're talking about fetish. We're talking about obsession, compulsion, and personality disorders!
Its like having a model railway - its a way of avoiding your woman by spending untold hours online and in the garage making tiny, but observable, changes to a train, hedge, track, motherboard, skin which REALLY matter to you, but are incomprehensibly pointless to the rest of the world. You dont have to watch endless soaps and listen to her bitching about work mates - AND you get a new toy sometime!
In many ways its like art. The pursuit of perfection is always worthwhile if it matters to you. Who cares if it doens't matter to anyone else. If he gets it right he could be using this machine for 20 years. Text is text. A bit of effort is well worthwhile.
Applause to this guy! The spirit of the shed in action.
Re:Hello, Sally, this is Harry (Score:2)
No, its not impossible and in fact, would be very easy. When devices like the cdrom aren't used, they are in the off condition and consume no power due to the electrostatic nature of the MOS transistor.
Engineers of consumer electronics are obsessed by speed these days. Why a person does not have any choice for humble computer designs these days is a mystery. We certainly do have the best technology to make it work beyond our wildest dreams. Its not good design anymore, its marketing obesity.
Re:Hello, Sally, this is Harry (Score:4, Insightful)
Your technical analysis is, although interesting, also off the mark. The fact is, there was a machine that met most of the requirements I outlined - the TRS80, and we all know how old that is. If you want a refrene point, what I propose is to build a modern system along the same lines as the TRS80. A 50 Mhz CPU is more than sufficent, and a non-backlit screen will do just fine. When the wireless card and LAN card aren't in use, you can power them down. Besides, you are right. It does draw less then you're thinking.
Since I wrote this article, I have found a number of hardware combinations that would essentially give me what I (and, if my crammed inbox is any testament, an astonishing number of other people) want: A portable system to hack on, not a desktop replacement. Basically, the questions are ones of design, not plausibility.
I have a Dell Latitude that I like very much. It runs Linux splendidly, it's pretty light, and I get fairly decent battery life if I stay in framebuffer mode (6-7 hours on one battery). But it's a lot more than I really want in a portable. What I propose is, from a technical standpoint, much easier than building a Latitude, or a Vaio.
I'm sorry if my tinkering offends you. If hobbiests annoy you, you don't have to listen to their ruminations or read thier posts on public forums. I happen to enjoy building things. The fact that a reasonable solution exists in off-the-shelf systems (with notable compramises) is quite beside the point.
When I'm at a resteraunt, I order what's on the menu. When I'm at home, in my own kitchen, on my own time, I'll cook whatever I want. I know Slashdot isn't as civil as it used to be, but for crying out loud, loose the attitude. Sure, I like to play with computers because I think it's fun. What are you accusing me of? Being a geek? A nerd? A dork? If you have a problem with that, what are you doing on Slashdot?
Re:Hello, Sally, this is Harry (Score:2)
Maybe the difference between us is that I'd rather tinker around with an up & running system, rather than agonizing over what the exact specs of that system are. I never was much of a hardware guy.
If your idea of a good idea is cobbling together at, I still think, great effort an expense a system that will IMO be not all that different than the off the shelf stuff, then hey have at it & have fun. I'm not trying to stand in the way of that, Mr Quixote. Everyone has their quest, I suppose, and if this is yours then I wish you the best. I just can't help but think it looks a little silly for anyone to try so determinedly, but generally it's considered best to ignore people that think things like that about you, right? :) :) :)
Apple. (Score:2)
Throwaway PC? (Score:2)
Here's a somewhat ridiculous suggestion, but it just might work. You know where you're going to be in advance, and you're going to be there a week: buy a refurbished name brand PII for $100-$200, get a refurbed monitor for another $50. (Prices in $US.) Have them shipped to your destination. Bring a CD-ROM of your favorite Linux/BSD/whatever distribution with you and either do a run-from-CD or just a quick install.
After a week is up, either ship the PC to your next location, or donate it to a local charity and write it off.
Obviously, you have the additional time overhead of getting your system up and running when you get to your destination, but my thought was that it would get amortized over a longer trip.
Another disadvantage would be that you couldn't work on the plane, but I figure that if you're not in business or first class, it's too tight a squeeze anyway. I can barely type on a Palm foldable keyboard on those food trays.
Don't Re-Invent the Wheel (Score:4, Informative)
--Mid
NEC LaVie (Score:2)
For long battery life, you might do a Google search for the NEC LaVie. NEC claims 11 hours battery life, which is the longest battery life I've seen in a Laptop.
Kinda low on the performance side, but the battery life more than makes up for it!
I just don't know where to get one in the USA!! It seems they are only sold in Japan, and importing them is EXPENSIVE!
So basically no windows and no multimedia (Score:2)
The answer (Score:2, Informative)
Been there (Score:2, Informative)
1) Toshiba Libretto - these puppies range from p75|133's with 32mb ram to something more decent (300ish?) - the lowest two models are the tiniest damn things you ever did see. Only quip you might have with these is small keyboard, and only 640x480 resolution.
2) Sony Picturebook (PCG-C1[X,XS,etc.]) - this ranges from pmmx 266+64|128mb ram to crusoe 667(?)+64|192mb ram. Their screens are BEAUTIFUL (1024x480 though), the video performance is good.
In case you can't tell - I have owned the lowest two models of both of these lines. I still own the picturebook, and use it daily at work. Its portability and performance are only matched by its successors. The libretto I passed on to my brother when I got the vaio, and he brought it backpacking around europe with him so he could offload and resize his pictures then upload them to a website.
--- that said ---
The only real solution for building your own laptop - unless you're going all out 100% your own hardware (insane lengthy expensive) is to go PC104/PC104Plus/Proprietary embedded systems. The advantage is you may make it so you can actually upgrade - but it sounds to me like you're looking for a keeper, and it doesn't need to be powerful. The other problems you will run into is video performance isn't a neccessity in the embedded area - so forget amazing performance. Additionally, you will have a field day connecting to an LCD and once you do you'll find you can't find an OEM LCD as nice as the ones you see in big-name laptops. It's a wonderful thought, but I suggest going with the libretto for max portability (very small dock thing gives parallel+serial for those null modems), or vaio for something with some screen real estate while holding the portability.
Electrofuel -- Insane Battery Life? (Score:2, Informative)
Disclaimer: I haven't used 'em, but I saw them at Comdex and they looked cool enough to put on my Christmas wish list.
Compaq iPAQ (Score:3, Interesting)
Get a 31xx monoPAQ. Get the compactflash sleeve and the pcmcia sleeve (the latter because it has its own battery). Get a large (5gb) PCMCIA drive (IBM microdrive), a smaller (1gb) CF flash card, a Targus foldable keyboard, a CF 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA Sierra Aircard 510, and a CF vga-out adapter. Find a LCD panel that you like, build a battery pack for it.
Some creative duct taping or plexiglassing and yes sir, you have a Linux-capable [handhelds.org] computing brick that has a modular power system! Go full-tilt, and you have VGA on a full LCD with a keyboard and your big microdrive. Monitor dies, and you switch back the native screen. PCMCIA battery pack goes down, switch to CF. CF draining you too fast? Switch to internal memory.
If you want to get more creative, try it with the new 38xx series. Has longer battery life and built-in SD so you don't even need a sleeve. Don't forget, for the 31xx and 36xx series ipaqs, you can expand internal memory to 128mb with some creative soldering (read: surface mount).
So let's review your criteria:
1) clear screen: the 36xx has a nice screen, and whatever external LCD you choose could be good.. up to you.
2) decent 2d video: Hrm... well, it runs Quake. You decide.
3) Physical utility: Well, build a padded titanium case for your ipaq and lcd screen. Should be sturdy. Use it as a foot stool.
4) insanely long battery life: modular battery style means you can get long battery life. 12+ hours with the monopaq alone. Since everything else has it's own battery pack (except the CF sleeve), you can mix-n-match. A little creative hackery and you can probably paste an external big battery to the ipaq.
5) networking: 10bt, 100bt, 802.11b wireless, CDPD wireless and CDMA wireless. Sounds good to me.
Sounds fun to me.
Toronto Microelectronics (Score:2)
Intel Pentium MMX or AMD K6, K6-2, K6-2/3D
Up to 450 MHz CPU with 100 MHz system bus
512 KB L2 Pipeline burst Cache memory
Two DIMM sockets supports ECC / SDRAM up to 512 MB
Dual Ultra DMA/33 EIDE and folppy interface
CRT / Flat Panel Display interface with 2 or 4 MB display memory
LVDS supports Flat Panel Display cable up to 20'
10/100 Base-T network interface using Intel 82558
Ultra Fast and Wide SCSI-3 supports 40 MB/s
Disk-On-Chip (DOC) socket supports up to 144 MB Flash disk
Four serials ports, one parallel port and two USB ports
Dynapro Touchscreen interface
Thermally controlled CPU & system fans
It runs Linux just fine (SuSE 6.3), although I never had a chance to try it from the DOC, since I got the DOCs with Phar Lap already flashed on them. We even got our touchscreen to work! (Sorry, I don't remember the manufacturer.)
It uses standard 168-pin SDRAM, and supports 100MHz FSB, and it actually has the jumper settings for a 500MHz CPU (not sure why they list 450MHz as the top speed, ours were running at 350MHz). Basically it's a highly integrated, very compact Super7. The footprint is slightly larger than a paperback novel, and the hieght is determined by the RAM. The IDE sockets are laptop style, and the PS/2, serial, parallel, and USB are headers that you have to plug a small interface card into that has the real connectors on it.
The only interface I can think of that you'd be missing is firewire, but in my experience firewire is pretty sketchy under Linux anyway, so you may not be missing much.
When I was working with these I was constantly fantasizing about stealing one and building my own portable system. The only problem I could think of was finding a small enough AT power supply, although it uses an adapter which could easily be modified for any PSU that provided the right voltages. Just make sure your 5V rail is stable, they're kind of sensative to that.
Build your own? (Score:2, Flamebait)
You want a week's battery life? not going to happen.
By the way, from the sounds of it, you aren't the 'typical linux user' by your requirements.
My advice, and no, I'm not a mac user...
Get a new mac iBook. yes. That's right.
Give OSX a shot while you are at it.. then install linux if you don't like it. IT's light, much better than average battery life, very nice display, rugged, and cheap.
Production Laptop that meets most of those specs (Score:3, Informative)
It's like 5lbs, 266mhz Pentium MMX mobile, 12" screen (does 800x600), runs linux very well... grab one of those 2-slot-high 3com PCMCIA cards that lets you jack the ethernet straight into the card (no more dongle annoyance). The stock battery will run you in X, editing files, for about 8 hours. Add a second battery, that time goes up to 18 hours, depending on use. These numbers are with a Toshiba 4gb IDE laptop drive. If you replaced that with a less power-hungry Flash device, I'm quite sure that a double-battery setup could run for 25-30 hours on this laptop.
I used to run one of these laptops as a car MP3 player, and it could normally go 15-18 hours without being recharged on two batteries. It also recharged to full in about 3 hours.
Slightly different approach (Score:2)
-cpd
NWK to LAX (Score:2, Informative)
Just a clarification, Newark Airport's designation is EWR, not NWK.
Does anyone sell a bare-bones laptop? (Score:2)
/Brian
Look through some used laptops (Score:2)
usedlaptops.com [usedlaptops.com].
Surprisingly useful machines, and some pretty damn sweet prices. No, I don't work for them in any way.
Or try ebay or the like. Getting something used is a sweet deal if you don't need a solid warranty (most geeks don't) or the bleeding edge of tech (doesn't sound like you do).
Good luck,
Jason
Re:Why? (Score:2)
(Just a guess)
Re:Processor power a liability? (Score:2)
It doesn't sound like this guy plans on spending a lot of time jerking around compiling kernels (anyway, that's what scp is for, compile it on a fast box, then copy it over). There is even the very real possiblity that he works for a joint with a compile farm, and he never farts around compiling crap on his local box. Even if he does do local compiles regularly, if his app is well designed he only needs to re-compile his code and re-link anyway.
So, given the parameters emacs, networked, ultra-long battery life, yes, a fast processor is a liablity.