Changes at my day job (we have a big merger being finalized), has me in the market for a new laptop.
They may require me to only run the approved XP build on the system they provide.
I do not know if they will fund another unit for me or not, so I am looking to go cheap. Here is what I am looking for:
Runs Centos (duh!) Supports Suspend to memory as well as to disk. Bootable from USB devices, e.g. USB CDdrive, SD card, etc.
12" LCD, ie. a small unit that can be used on a plane! Good battery life, 2nd battery an option (min 4hr battery time, perfer 8hr). Swappable drives (preferably not requing a screw driver as my old Portege or a non-findable drive carrier as my HP nc4010). Built in Ethernet, and 2 USB 2.0 ports miniPCI wireless (external antenna options would be nice!) Eraser-head mouse pointer (IBM thinkpad-style), optional addtional touchpad (I hate touchpads for D&D. Bluetooth would be nice, but own many Bluetooth USB tokens.
Don't need weight, power-draw of a CD/DVD drive, got a USB one when needed. Did I say light? I will be having to drag at least 2 laptops on planes all the time now.
I dislike Dells, am OK with IBM (but it's not IBM any more!), Toshiba Porteges are old friends, and HP Compaq nc4000s....
So who has what working?????