Notebooks

Avi’s Vaio r505 is developing some ‘wear and tear’ annoyances, so he tested a 17" Powerbook. This was huge disappointment as the unit feels really really tacky and the keyboard is a soggy mess.

I have no experience whatsoever with the Sexy Powerbooks, but I have been using a 12" iBook G3 for a little less than three years now. Yes, it has developed some scratches, but the screen latch still works like new and the keys have developed only a little wear. The battery ran out of juice after two years of almost continuous use, so I had to get a replacement, but otherwise I am still completely happy with it. It’s small, light, rugged and it does not pretend to be made from something it is clearly not. Why try to make plastic look like brushed metal if you can make it look good on it’s own?

The one-mousbutton-problem under Linux is solved by mapping the missing buttons to your keyboard (for example the option keys or F11 and F12). For me, this is no problem, because I almost always plug in an external pointing device anyway. I really hate touchpads, no matter if they come with one button or two.