This will be my first purchase that is focused primarily on having only
OpenBSD on it and nothing else to be used as a main workstation. The budget
is around $900 or so. I'm looking for something with quality parts and
probably have everything supported and compatible with OpenBSD straight out
of the box (like the graphics/sound, wireless card, etc.)

I've heard that most developers use Thinkpads. Which model would be a
good suggestion?

[ message continues ]

A problem is that $900 isn't going to get you a thinkpad and a multi-year
warranty.  If you stay away from nvidia video, just about all the thinkpads
are going to work with the ooccaisonal exception of the wireless card, and
I'm not sure that hasn't shrunk a bunch, the ones that don't work.  My W500
runs OpenBSD wonderfully.

Looking at the Lenovo site I see a T500 with a 15" screen with *led* back
light, 160G disk 2.4G core two something, intel wifi and intel graphics
for $849.  I don't know the status of the Intel graphics card, but you
could get that, except it has a 1 year warranty.  There are discounts
if you can get it through an educational organization, etc.

--STeve Andre'

[ message continues ]

If you get a Thinkpad stay clear of the SL300.
It's cheap crap.

[ message continues ]

I suppose I should add to this.  In order to compete with HP/Dell/Toshiba/Sony
Lenovo had to come out with a low end series, the SL.  Having used one for a
few days I will say that the SL is better than its competitors, but still not
as good as the W or T series Thinkpads.  Note that you can increase the price
of an SL by 50% and get a 3 year on site warranty, so Lenovo will back it up.

The T, W and X series are the reliable units, with the X series being a little
weaker in the physical ruggedness department.  The R series seems to be best
for desktop usage, somewhere between the SL and T/W in terms of reliability.

--STeve Andre'

[ message continues ]

reliability.
[...]

[OT]
I can contest the physical ruggedness thingy -- about an year and half
ago, I had a nasty fall, and my X60 banged on the concrete floor on
its lower right hand vertex. The fall was bad, because my backpack
took my entire weight when I slipped sideways and fell down, with the
Thinkpad vertext touching the ground first, followed by me. :-) It
only sustained a break on that corner, and on the LCD top corner, but
not a single functional issue has it developed since then.

Sure, I have no data to backup the ruggedness of T and W, but I call
*this* as reasonably rugged.
[/OT]

So yes, I also find the Thinkpads' to be a better option
aesthetically, but that's just me. I have been running OpenBSD on X60
with "standard" configuration, and every necessary thing works just
fine.

Ah, but don't get the X60 since it has "known" heating issues in most
configurations, where, due to poor ventilation, the wireless card
heats up a lot, and your right palm faces the heat! X61 tried to fix
it by having an additional fan (some configurations), and a exhaust
vent on the right side. You can stick a USB cooling fan underneath,
and it is okay.

-Amarendra

[ message continues ]

Don't know about Thinkpads, but Dell E6400 works great. But it's
around 950 $ or so.




-- 
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

[ message continues ]

The benefits of western world... ;) My e6400 cost me almost $4000 here
in Ukraine. But i am very happy of that purchase, the notebook is
great and everything is supported by OpenBSD. I can recommend that one
to everyone, it's no worse than Lenovo stuff.

-- 
The best the little guy can do is what
the little guy does right

[ message continues ]

You can have it much more cheaper. Grey economy was strong in
ex-communist countries ;-)




-- 
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

[ message continues ]

On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:05:01 +0100

Probably not if you want clear title to the equipment, with warranty and support.
Grey economy is not so good if you're cast as Caesar's Wife ;-)


[ message continues ]

Sometimes it's funny :-) There was a test in Czech Republic when some
redaction of magazine purchased "black" version of Windows from China.
To their surprise it was there in time, it had real phone/email
support and there were patches which were available in official
version after two months or so :-)

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 3:04 AM, Duncan Patton a Campbell

-- 
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

[ message continues ]

Just some update. People from west had (at least many of them) what
they want. Here behind the iron Curtain it was very different. So
people learned how to fight with it. And it's still used a lot because
even after twenty years some problems still persist like idiotic 1 USD
= 1 EUR and similar.

Reagarding PC here are some pieces of history. Maybe people here may
find it interesting :-)

http://respekt.ihned.cz/english/c1-38540700-the-birth-of-czech-made-capitalis
m
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAE$O
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_151

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 3:04 AM, Duncan Patton a Campbell

--
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

[ message continues ]

IMHO, the E6400 is too big to carry around often. Other than that it
feels okay quality-wise. Do not get the edition with an NVIDIA graphics
card, if you want, e.g., XV (overlay video) support (it requires their
binary blob driver, which is only available for Windows, Linux and
FreeBSD, AFAIK). The laptop's otherwise fast Core 2 Duo processor is not
able to software scale videos to fullscreen smoothly.

[ message continues ]