[clug] Arguments on list + Linux H/W Question

[Neil Pickford]

Thanks Bob and the others who offered suggestions.

I had been thinking about a Toshiba Tecra laptop solution for a while 
(as I have a couple of these gathering dust) but the lack of dual NIC's 
and Serial ports was a drawback.

The reason I don't want to go USB serial are:
Having a dedicated 16550 type UART that is always at a known address and 
not distracting the CPU too much vs the remapping that sometimes occurs 
with USB devices being plug and pray.
I want to absolutely know which device/tty port will be doing what 
monitoring task.

Also I didnt mention an intention to be fanless / motorless - less dust 
and no mechanical maintenance.

The laptop does have the advantage of built in display and UPS (battery 
- till it dies)

Lots more research to do now :)

Cheers Neil VK1NP

<snip>

On 8/04/2015 9:36 AM, Bob Edwards wrote:
> My idea: seriously consider buying a ~$300 notebook and use a USB NIC
> for the 2nd port and USB serial convertors (I know you stated "not usb",
> but you gave no reason for that - the advantages of using a notebook
> may, or may not, out-weigh whatever reasons you have for the serial
> ports not being USB).
>
> Advantages: cheap, has built-in console, has built-in UPS, low-power
> (relatively), easy to replace if/when needed, ample storage/RAM etc.
>
> cheers,
>
> Bob Edwards.
>