The new machine will also allow me to develop 64-bit emc2 for Ubuntu Hardy, hopefully allowing me to rededicate "tall" to its original intended role as a replacement server machine.
Update, 20100113: I'm still using the machine, but now running 64-bit Ubuntu Karmic Koala. Compiz works properly now, but performance is still low enough that I leave it off. I replaced the hard drive with a 128GB solid state drive too. My current beef with the system is that it is not adequately cooled; running CPU-heavy things like compiles or flash games can cause the CPU to throttle itself to control its temperature. Was this always the case but I didn't notice it for over a year? Or has the laptop's cooling ability worsened over time?
Update, 20100630: Now running Lucid. In May, I disassembled the machine to clean the fan. This greatly reduced the thermal problems and increased performance. The design of the fan+heatsink is to pull air in through the bottom and then pass it over the vanes of the heatsink and out the side. Unfortunately, this means any fur, hair, or dust sucked in will get stuck on the heatsink and slowly build up over time. The laptop has to be almost completely disassembled to access the heatsink and remove the built-up gunk.
Update, 20120119: Running Debian Squeeze these days. Have learned to vacuum the fan regularly; this is enough to keep it cool. Won't readily give this machine up, because 15.4" 1920x1200 screens are unobtainium on new laptops.
Update, 2013: I retired the laptop and traded it to Chris. Unfortunately, a few months later something internal failed and it no longer powers on.
Because they come from separate devices, dragging with the touchpad button and the pointing stick for motion doesn't always work right. It seems that moving the stick with a touchpad button held down generates additional X button events. Unfortunately it feels very natural to use the stick together with the touchpad buttons.
pcm.bluetooth { type bluetooth; device XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX profile "hifi" }
Under compiz, DVD playback framerate suffers seriously if it is not the topmost window.
I've chosen to disable the fancy Desktop Effects entirely, and of course there's a nice payoff in general responsiveness of the GUI.
Ubuntu sometimes warns me that a suspend failed even when it was successful (i.e., the laptop showed the "breathing" power light).
It's possible that if the rtai smi-disable module becomes available for amd64 that the realtime performance would be OK, but according to Intel, running with smi disabled is running out of spec, and the CPU might exceed its thermal design power. (this is true of all Intel CPUs, not just their mobile CPUs)