Just the battery for the thing probably weighed more than my next two laptops combined, and one was a 17" “Media” edition HP with the DVD ROM and the full keyboard with numpad. I actually loved that machine, and it ran Arch for a good while, before HP’s garbage thermal management (and, likely, aging solder) killed it.
I still have it because of sentimental stupidity and it being the only one I’ve ever stickerbombed the hell out of. I might need to craigslist a toaster oven just for hobby projects and see if I can bake it back to life. Would make a fine addition to “in case of LAN party” stack of old laptops I keep around for when friends are over and want to run some CS:S, Quake 3, Brood War or whatever.
I should’ve clarified: “I actually loved that machine, referring to the HP*, …”
The HP was my first successful Arch machine, after various failures due mostly to impatience and incomplete knowledge; failing to install necessary drivers, not understanding how easy it is to just boot the live media, chroot back in and fix those sorts of things, and so on. It marked a point in my life where I just really went into crunch-mode, consuming as much as I could about as much as I could.
The Compaq was a hunk of junk, even when it was new. I can’t imagine servicing them was remotely pleasant, but I’ll give it credit for being the first machine I ever ran Linux on. Even if it did so poorly, “we all start somewhere.”
Damn. I read Compaq Presario and suddenly tasted bile. I’d almost forgotten about them.
Just the battery for the thing probably weighed more than my next two laptops combined, and one was a 17" “Media” edition HP with the DVD ROM and the full keyboard with numpad. I actually loved that machine, and it ran Arch for a good while, before HP’s garbage thermal management (and, likely, aging solder) killed it.
I still have it because of sentimental stupidity and it being the only one I’ve ever stickerbombed the hell out of. I might need to craigslist a toaster oven just for hobby projects and see if I can bake it back to life. Would make a fine addition to “in case of LAN party” stack of old laptops I keep around for when friends are over and want to run some CS:S, Quake 3, Brood War or whatever.
I am glad you have fond memories of it. I had to support them in a business environment so my perspective is somewhat different, lol.
I should’ve clarified: “I actually loved that machine, referring to the HP*, …”
The HP was my first successful Arch machine, after various failures due mostly to impatience and incomplete knowledge; failing to install necessary drivers, not understanding how easy it is to just boot the live media, chroot back in and fix those sorts of things, and so on. It marked a point in my life where I just really went into crunch-mode, consuming as much as I could about as much as I could.
The Compaq was a hunk of junk, even when it was new. I can’t imagine servicing them was remotely pleasant, but I’ll give it credit for being the first machine I ever ran Linux on. Even if it did so poorly, “we all start somewhere.”