PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Regular readers of "Technology & You" know that I'm a strong advocate of getting rid of the assortment of ports, connectors, and drives that the computer industry lumps together as "legacy devices." Computers that replace their old fashioned serial, printer, and mouse ports with universal serial bus (USB) connectors and that eliminate anachronisms such as floppy drives, boot faster and run better and more reliably.
Apple Computer shipped the first legacy-free laptop last year, when it came out with the iBook. Now, Acer America has brought a clean new design to Windows laptops with its TravelMate 600 series, which starts at around $2,500.
The TravelMate 600 looks like a fairly conventional thin-light laptop. It comes with a 600 or 650 MHz Pentium III, a 13.3-in. display, weighs 5.4 lbs., and is 1.3-in. thick. The difference requires a closer look. The familiar serial and parallel ports are gone, with a couple of USB connectors the only way to hook up external devices. For those who need access to legacy accessories, Acer supplies a special Y-shaped cable that plugs into a USB port and accepts standard 9-pin serial and 25-pin parallel cables. Note, however, that the parallel adapter will work reliably only with printers -- printer-port devices such as scanners or Zip drives probably will not function correctly.
CD WRITING.
The even bigger change is Acer's choice of a replacement for the floppy drive -- a CD-RW drive that can read conventional CD-ROMs and write both CD-R and erasable CD-RW disks. With the included Adaptec Easy CD Creator software, writing to a CD is about as easy as saving a file to a floppy. And while CD-RW drives are becoming available in laptops, they are typically $200-plus options, so supplying one as standard equipment in a relatively inexpensive laptop makes it a real bargain. In any case, if you simply must have a conventional floppy, you can get one that connects using USB.
One gripe: The TravelMate 600 seems ideally suited for Microsoft's new Windows 2000, which runs very well on legacy-free equipment. Acer's literature declares it to be "Windows 2000 Ready," but it comes only with Windows 98 Second Edition. That makes an upgrade to 2000 a do-it-yourself job with a $200-plus price tag.
Acer was able to offer a legacy-free product because it's a relatively minor player in the corporate market. Major commercial laptop makers such as IBM and Compaq say they're holding off on legacy-free products because corporate computer buyers continue to demand a full set of legacy ports and floppy drives. Meantime, this laptop could be an ace-in-the-hole alternative for anyone who wants to be freed from all that outdated gear.
Wildstrom is Technology & You columnist for Business Week. Watch for his Flash Product Reviews on BW Online. Have a question or comment? Leave a message on our Tech & You forum EDITED BY THANE PETERSON
Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.
Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.
Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.
To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
