[Duo2400] best subnote for writer?

[Ivan Drucker]

As Larry said, we beat this one to death not long ago, but if you are 
interested I can repost my long analysis of why I consider the 2400 to be 
the better choice versus the Duo.

However, at the risk of being a blasphemer, have you considered a white 
iBook? I know it's a little larger and heavier, but if your goal is to be 
on the road and you're accustomed to the long battery life of your 
MP2100, you'll feel much more at home -- when it was new, my battery got 
4-5 hours with normal use in OS 9. As a writer myself, this is huge. The 
keyboard is also much larger and better feeling, and the screen is REALLY 
bright and large, which are all also a big deal for writing.

Other major perks: It's faster than even the most maxed-out 2400, comes 
with a CD-ROM drive (and/or DVD drive and/or burner), has FireWire/USB, 
can take up to 640 MB RAM, etc, etc. If you want to use OS X, you can, 
and you'll like the "instant-on" of waking OS X up from sleep -- again, 
much closer to the Newton (I had a 2100). The iBook is also way more 
durable than the 2400 and Duo IMHO -- I know of at least two iBook horror 
stories (think falling, open, down concrete stairs) which would have 
destroyed the earlier machines but which had no impact on the iBook.

Considering that you can get iBooks new or reconditioned with a full 
warranty for $850 if you look around (check out dealmac.com), and even 
less used, you get considerably more bang for the buck -- they're still a 
great deal even at Apple's standard $999 for the base model.

And, to address one of your specific issues -- the iBook doesn't even 
require a crossover cable when connecting between two computers. It 
figures it out. I love that. I never carry a crossover anymore; I can 
just use one of those little retractable thingies. And it's 10 times as 
fast as the ethernet on a Duo (and most 2400's, depending on the Ethernet 
card you get for it). Plus, if you're going between your iMac 333, you 
have the option of using FireWire disk mode, where the iBook will just 
mount on your iMac desktop like an external FireWire drive. That's REALLY 
fast.

Anyway, just a thought. They're not much larger than the G4 12" 
PowerBook, but half the price.

To specifically respond:

>So my burning questions:
>Is the 2400c--given the relatively high price and hard-to-find 
>availability--overkill for this kind of work? If I buy a 2400c that needs 
>work (new mo-bo, new logic board, etc.) how hard it is truly to get repair 
>work done?

It's hardly overkill, but yes, it's a pain to get repair work done, and 
you may well need to. It seems like it's a choice of sending your machine 
to the one place in the country that does work on them, or become a 
do-it-yourselfer like many of us here.

>Are the Duos too limited for exchanging info if you *don't* have a 
>DuoDock? (ideally would like to be able to use Ethernet crossover between 
>a sub and a desktop system for exchanging information, if possible, 
>otherwise would use floppies, I suppose). Like the price of the Duos more 
>than the 2400cs, but don't want to buy into an endless headache of not 
>being able to easily move information back and forth between sub and 
>desktop systems, and have no desire to turn the Duo into a desktop system.

If you can find an Ethernet MicroDock for the Duo (which noticeably 
increases the footprint of the machine, btw), great. If you can't, you're 
SOL in a big way. For a while they were fetching a pretty high price on 
eBay if you could even find them, but maybe those days are over. I'd look 
at eBay to see if they're available before you buy a Duo if that's 
important to you.

>If there are other freelance writers on the list using a 280c (or other 
>Duo I should consider) or 2400c in their work, I would really love to hear 
>about your experiences/problems with these systems.

I have used all both before my iBook, and I can't imagine going back 
(though if I had to, I'd take the 2400 in a heartbeat).

Ivan.