Paul Crowley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ciphergoth) wrote2003-01-17 11:07 pm
ciphergoth) wrote2003-01-17 11:07 pm
Frustration
Trying to choose a laptop to buy online is an extremely frustrating experience. All of the websites suck. It's just that I know any other source of information will be even worse.
Right now I'm running a recursive wget against Sony's Vaio website so I can look at the specs without having to navigate their insane frame system.
Right now I'm running a recursive wget against Sony's Vaio website so I can look at the specs without having to navigate their insane frame system.
Gaah!
(If you want the grisly details, buttonhole me at the pub and I'll tell you all about my experiences with two of 'em in succession. Let's just say, Sony's warranty coverage is pure shit -- they refuse to obey the Sale of Goods Act statutory terms and conditions -- and the model number on the machine is no guarantee that the motherboard components are the same from one machine to the next.
I don't like Dell's approach to design -- they build clunky boxes -- but they work pretty well (except when their batteries explode). I have had *good* experiences with Toshiba laptops, although I wouldn't touch one of their lowest end consumer ones. And I have never heard a bad word about an IBM Thinkpad. If I had to buy a new PC laptop tomorrow it would probably be a Toshiba Satellite Pro model. (Of course I'm biased towards being able to run Linux or BSD on the machine and have access to all the hardware bits'n'pieces ...)
Re: Gaah!