Monday June 07, 2004

I put JDS on my laptop just after Winter Break. I've had this L470 Fujitsu machine forever or so it seems. It's a ~300 MHz P2 with < 256MB of memory and a small disk -- small enough that I had to wipe my Win98SE installation and switch totally to JDS.

Well, I've never looked back except to laugh. Switching to JDS was like getting a virtual processor upgrade. Admittedly, I'm using the machine for mostly e-mail and web browsing when I travel, but I also use it for creating and giving presos with SO7 and it works like a champ -- much more responsive and, heck, it's UNIX. No more swapping brain cells when I move from my SunRay to my laptop.

One quick installation story. First, I thought it overall went very well and I was impressed by the GUI. I did have to pay $15 for a modem driver, but I'm not complaining. My story starts at the start of the installation process. As the installer chugged through the first install CD, I got called away for a meeting and didn't return for several hours. At which point I found the machine totally non-responsive -- screen blank, system quiet, wiggling the mouse and pressing keys had no effect, etc. This had happened to me once before and I'd had to power cycle and start the installation again. This time I impulsively hit the Sleep/Resume button instead -- since this button had never worked correctly under Win98SE for the years I'd been using the machine, I honestly don't know why I even bothered. I was surprised I even remembered there was such a button. Poof. Please load the 2nd CD to continue the installation. Such a simple thing, such a happy user.

I've also been able to disconnect the CD dock, disconnect the machine from the network by unplugging the ethernet cable, put it to sleep by closing the lid and then bring it back to my office after a meeting and have it just keep working. Never, ever worked under Win98SE. (2004-06-07 11:35:11.0) Permalink Comments [0]