I think I might be the only one who does this and it works well for me, but other techies are kind of surprised when they hear me describe my mobile work solution- I like to have access via a laptop at a moments notice, but I don't want to even carry my Sony laptop at 5lbs. My solution is a netbook. I currently have two- One stays in my travel trailer for weekends where I need to get away, but am still on call, (Wi-fil campgrounds, what a world we live in...LOL) I carry the other one around with me just about everywhere and they are only two pounds with a 10 inch screen, so it's easy to have in a small padded sleeve in any bag. I log in via wireless connection, (surprising how much wi-fi is available or if in a crunch, I can login in using my blackberry as a modem.) I remote desktop into either my pc at work or a server so the work machines takes the brunt of the resource requirements. Netbooks are cheap enough that if anything happened to one of them- not a big issue. My Acer has a 1yr warranty and as harsh as I am on keyboards- I sent it in a month back and had it back in one week with a brand new keyboard. It had to be the easiest warranty support transaction I've been through. I did wipe the machine and load my own OS installs, doubled the memory on both of them, (so I'm on Windows 7 with the bizarre limit on memory for XP, which I do prefer...) and I have quite small hands, so the smaller keyboard isn't an issue for me at all. When I had to send it in, I just backed up my OS load, etc. re-installed the factory installation, (it fits on a 16GB jump drive!) and then there was no concern of vulnerability... I work well this way and I find I'm one of the few professionals that has a solid use for a netbook that doesn't involve simple "web surfing and email"... :) Kellyn Pedersen Sr. Database Administrator I-Behavior Inc. http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynpedersen www.dbakevlar.blogspot.com "Go away before I replace you with a very small and efficient shell script..." --- On Mon, 5/31/10, Guillermo Alan Bort <cicciuxdba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: Guillermo Alan Bort <cicciuxdba@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: ot - laptop for dba To: andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx Cc: girlgeek@xxxxxxxx, oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Monday, May 31, 2010, 12:05 PM Mac is for designers... graphic designers at that. Every other use of Mac is a waste of money. (this is my opinion and not a flame war igniter). Anyway, as a multiplatform DBA, I've found windows XP works very good. A good linux, well configured would work as well. I don't like MacOSX and I never will like Apple products, It's the incompatibility of linux with the closedness of windows... the worst of two worlds. Specially for savvy users. hth Alan.- On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 2:10 PM, Andrew Kerber <andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I do pretty good on Windows 7, 64 bit, 8G RAM on a Dell XPS laptop. > > On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 12:01 PM, Claudia Zeiler <girlgeek@xxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> Time for a new laptop. Shall I switch to a Mac? I have seen DBA's using >> Macs, but I wonder, do any have a toy database on the Mac? How? There is >> no Oracle certified for Mac that I know of. >> >> Thanks for any tips. >> >> -Claudia >> >> ________________________________ >> Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your >> inbox. See how. > > > -- > Andrew W. Kerber > > 'If at first you dont succeed, dont take up skydiving.' > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l