5660 for Developers

I am no expert in those programs (my specialties lie elsewhere, lol). BUT, judging by your current desktop, I seriously doubt if you will have ANY trouble with a 5660. The only thing your desktop might have over the 5660 would be hard drive speed and MAYBE the graphics card (and I capitalize the maybe because the rest of your desktop doesn't lead me to believe that your graphics are even near as good as those of the M9). So, I would say you have little to worry about. You might want to consider that you will be using an LCD screen on the 5660 as opposed to a CRT (I assume) on your desktop. I don't know how much of a difference this will make with your apps, but generally it is a better option because of less glare, lots less radiation, etc etc. Hope that helps some!

Habib

Definitely no trouble with screen repainting unless you're running more than a 2.4-2.8Ghz processor can handle (which will be hard, lol). If you get plenty of RAM, you won't have trouble. And the great graphics card will ensure that refresh rates aren't detectable by the human eye I'm sure. People who have the computer can give backup to this statement (or refute it... but that would be a HUGE surprise to me).

Habib

Me too...

This is exactly the purpose I need a new notebook for. I am a professional Java developer, and I start a new job that involves some travel Jan 1. I am hoping the 3 GHz machines are available by then, but I will likely get the Sager 5660 either way.

You can definitely put Linux on this system. There is a forum dedicated to that here, and one at powernotebooks. (http://www.powernotebooks.com/forum/ )

As for horsepower, any of the 5660 or 8886 models should have plenty. And believe me, you'll need it - a professional Java IDE (Netbeans/Forte, Eclipse, JBuilder, etc...) require a lot of memory, and tend to be annoyingly slow on older machines. They should run fine, however, even on a Sager underclocked in battery mode (Sagers typically run at 50% when in battery mode). If you are not happy with the performance, you might want to look into Emacs with a Java elisp extention: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?JavaDevelopmentEnvironment. Emacs is not nearly the hog as the IDEs written in Java.

The one problem I anticipate is with the slower harddrive. There are a couple good solutions to this: You can get a faster external firewire drive. Or, (my preference) you can set up a RAM-Disk. If you get the 1GB of RAM, then you can dedicate 512MB to a RAM Disk, and do all your programming directly in memory. To create a RAM Disk in windows, I have used this product with success: http://www.cenatek.com/product_ramdisk.cfm

In Linux, Ram disks are supported natively. A simple google search for "ramdisk linux" should get you on the right path.

I can't wait until I get this machine so I can try it out for real!


-Larry

galex-

There are lots of people in multiple linux forums that can help you, but I can give you a head start.

First, for a distribution:
I suggest gentoo, found at http://www.gentoo.org. This is a source distribution, meaning it will be much faster than the prepackaged ones like mandrake. It is also very customizable too.

-IDE: oodle of IDEs are made for Linux, because it is open-source. You can edit it however you like. Give KDevelop a try, at www.kde.org.
-Dreamweaver/Flash- This presents a problem. There are many good linux replacements for those programs, a quick post at forums.gentoo.org will he lp you find out. However, running those SPECIFIC apps is hard under linux. Wine, a semi-windows emulator may be able to handle it, but it is only in alpha stage, don't expect miracles. Check www.winehq.com for more information.
-Office Suite- This one's easy: look at www.openoffice.org. It is highly versatile, free, very portable, and in some cases better that Microsoft Office!
- Multimedia sound and video players and editors: Most of these come with KDE, don't have to worry about them.
- Photo and image viewers and editors: same here, they come with the installation
- Personal webpage and database server (as backgroud tasks)- Here is where linux shines! Apache, at www.apache.org will handle anything. It even runs Amazon! MySQL will take care of any databasing.
- A project managment application (like MS-Project)- I'm not familiar with any of these applications, check the forums at gentoo for more info.
- A finance managment application (like Quicken)-
- Real-time internet chat clients and video conferencing: IRC will be an excellent performer for this situation, the clients are included with the installation
- Email w/ PIM (like Outlook): Endura will take care of this very easily. Check the gentoo website for more info on how to install it.
- Backgroup tasks such as: antivirus, popup-stoppers, firewalls, etc: Antivirus programs are not needed in linux, with the correct user permissions, viruses cannot even be opened. Check WebWasher for pop-up stoppers at webwasher.com, and linux comes with excellent firewalls in the kernel. Check the gentoo site for more info.
- Support dual monitor setup: This one's sketchier. I know it is possible, but I don't know how to do it. Post it as a question at forums.gentoo.org.

Be patient, linux has a very hard learning curve. Check the documentation at gentoo, and take it step by step. Since it is a source distribution, it has to compile everything, which means it could take days. Best of luck for your linux laptop!

-James

lol... James... That was an incredible list of info. I'm not planning on using linux, but I'm glad you are on this board :-) Your last name is even the same as some of the guys at Sager! :-) Thanks again!

Habib

There is no doubt that you can get a Linux distro running on your 5660, and that it will have excelent performance to drive such developing environment. The question arises as to the particular software packages you mention; I'm not sure if Macromedia has ported its applications to Linux but my feeling is that it hasn't.
Now if you must use Macromedia then Linux will not be option for you because you could only run such applications on a virtual machine such as VMWare which severly hinders performance (something that seems very important to you).

Update: I found some news that you might find interesting. It seems that a Macromedia Linux Port is on the works, but for now it is just speculation...(see link below)
Macromedia for Linux

Should be no problem

Everything you mention I have running on my current laptop, except the dual monitors. I've got an IBM A30p (1.2 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB 5400 rpm, UXGA 15", Radeon 7500 mobility).

Since you know which programs to use, I won't go into those. If you absolutely need to have micros~1 compatibility or run certain windows apps, I recommend VMWare. It's expensive and runs slower than native (about 50%), but it doesn't crash -- ever, and it is 100% compatible.

I also recommend Debian (Sid/unstable) as a great distribution. Haven't used Gentoo yet, but it looks good as well.

The only real issue looks like the display drivers. The mobility 9000 (M9) is pretty much a speeded up 8500 plus the mobile features. The 8500 hasn't been well supported yet, particularly for 3D. Between updated/tweaked 8500 drivers from Xfree86 and the closed-source drivers from ATI (which probably need to be hacked to work) there's probably a combination that will work at least for 2D. If that stuff isn't ready for prime time yet, you can always use the VESA or framebuffer driver. It's not as fast as the ATI drivers. It will be slower and use more CPU, but it will work.

Good luck, and post back with your results in the Linux section. I'm sure there are a bunch of people interested.

I am also a developer and bought this so that I can develop while on the road. The 5660 is more than enough computer. I have a 19" monitor sitting beside me that I don't even bother to plug in because the LCD (UXGA) on the 5660 is so easy on the eyes and you can get 1600x1200 resolution which is what I use on my 19" monitor anyways. I got a wireless card now too, so I can work everywhere now. Seriously, this thing kicks.

I run
- Intellij Idea (Java IDE)
- MySQL
- Jetty (Java HTTP and App server)
- 10 - 20 IE windows
- Winamp
- Trillian for all my messaging and chatting needs (www.trillian.cc)
- Dreamweaver MX
- and sometimes Macromedia Fireworks or Photoshop
- SSH Secure Shell
- sometimes ftp

Even when all of that is running, I don't have any problems. When the graphics proggies are running and I run out of memory, then there's some crunching, but no more than my old desktop.

I would say go for it. I don't think i'll ever buy a desktop again to tell you the truth. Just no point.