[NCLUG] A laptop computer

[Chad Perrin]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 12:36:58PM -0600, Stephen Warren wrote:
> On 03/22/2012 06:24 AM, Kerry Miller wrote:
> > Hello NCLUG,
> > 
> > I am in the market for a new laptop computer.  I have been told by a 
> > couple technicians that ASUS makes the best laptop computer.  I have 
> > receintly become aware that some laptop computers have a SATA disk 
> > interface to an external disk drive and it sounds like I might like to 
> > have such an interface among the other interfaces I think should be.  I 
> > would consider offered opions.
> 
> One recommendation: Test the laptop (preferably using Linux) in person
> before you buy it. A little story:

Agreed!


> 
> I used to have a Dell Inspiron 9300 (purchased about 6.5 years ago).
> During that time, I simply could not understand why people didn't like
> laptop touchpads (as opposed to external mice or the Thinkpad stick
> pointer things).
> 
> About 1.5 years ago, I purchased an ASUS, and found the following input
> device issues:
> 
> 1) The touchpad is terrible. It's somewhat bad in Windows too, so I
> think it's just the HW design. Testing the laptop in person probably
> would have found this.

I love the TrackPoint on ThinkPads.  It is one reason that ThinkPads are
the only laptops I have bought and used for years.  For a long time, I
couldn't understand how it was that most people seemed to prefer
touchpads, but I just chalked it up to "no accounting for taste".

One day, I found myself doing repairs on a bunch of laptops for a while,
mostly Dells.  What I discovered is that Dell "stick mice" (I don't
recall the specific name for them on Dells; it's different from what
they're called on ThinkPads thanks to some kind of patented branding
thing) are much, much worse than ThinkPad TrackPoints, and are somewhat
worse than Dell touchpads, too.  In fact, the "high quality" Dell stick
mice are slightly worse than the best quality Dell touchpads, and the
worst Dell stick mice are far, far worse than the worst Dell touchpads.

My general opinion of how various pointing devices compare has lived on a
codepad paste for a while now:

    http://codepad.org/2wbWRCy1

Regardless of your personal taste in the matter, though, the lesson is
clear -- you should be sure you will be able to tolerate your hardware
before investing if it's expensive and difficult to return.


> 
> 2) The idiots put Insert and Delete keys on the same physical key, so to
> cut/paste, instead of pressing Ctrl+Insert/Shift+Insert, I have to press
> Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Fn+Insert. This is very annoying considering I use
> a desktop at work that doesn't have this issue, so I have to use the
> keyboard differently. I might not have noticed this during testing, but
> anytime I look at a laptop design now, I am careful to look at photos of
> the keyboard layout.

That sounds *awful*.


> 
> 3) The arrow keys aren't separated from the rest of the keyboard in any
> way (no space around them, and they're in the same aligned set of
> rows/columns as the other keys). This makes it hard to move my hand to
> the arrow keys and back to typing position without looking, so I often
> press left arrow instead of down arrow or similar)
> 
> (I have no idea if these issue apply to all ASUS, or just some). Buying
> something someone else has and likes or e.g. visiting a Fry's
> electronics or Best Buy might help.

Where's the nearest Fry's these days?  There have been rumors of one
opening around the northern end of the greater Denver metropolitan area
for half a decade at least, I think, but I've never heard of that
actually coming to pass.  The closest Fry's of which I'm aware off the
top of my head is in Las Vegas.

Every town should have a Fry's.

(I'd just solve that arrow key issue by choosing more software that uses
vi-like keybindings, but your mileage may vary, of course.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]