Unpopularity of Elba

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Ann:

Ann Parsons writes:
> 
> Janina, can you tell me more, please?  I'm researching both Elba and
> the Braille-Note.  I need a note taker for the work I'm doing now.
> I'm teaching windows, and I need a note taker, not a laptop because of
> ease of use and size.  If I could be assured that the Braille-Note
> would work on my network here, I might go for that.

Well, when you put it this way, I'm not so sure that I wouldn't go for
the Elba. If you put it this way. But let me think aloud for a minute
with you.

You're teaching Windows, but you want to have your favorite OS around,
too. So, you need a system that will work both ways. 

You say you don't want a laptop because of size and ease of use. I can't
comment so much about ease of use as that's so very very individual.
Sufffice it to say that any notetaker will require you to learn its very
own ways of doing things.The size thing, though, is different. Bothe the
Elba and the Braille Note are pretty big compared to some very powerful
subnotebook computers around. For example, take a look at:

http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/products/notebooks/fujitsu/fujitsu_lifebookpseries_specs.html
http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/products/notebooks/nec/nec_versa_daylite.html
http://www.transmeta.com/everywhere/products/notebooks/casio/casio_fiva_206e.html

Three very compelling subnotebooks there. Consider the Lifebook alone:

There's a system you could run both Windows and Linux on, in a dual boot
configuration, if you wanted to. And it weighs in under 4 pounds which
compares smartly against the Elba's 5 pounds plus, and even against the
Braille Note 32 at 1.3 kilos. Consider that there are lighter versions
of the Lifebook and I'm not at all convinced that size and weight are a
compelling basis for decision.

Let me put it this way. If it were me spending my own money,

1.)	I'd pay cash or forget it. Computers are rarely a good thing to
put on credit. Maybe for work, like you say, but even then only on the
short term. 

2.)	I'd almost surely go for a notebook because I could do more with
it, I think.

But, let's go back to the question you posed: Braille Note or Elba?

I've got two consoles open as I write. One is looking at the Pulse-Date
site where they sing the praises of Braille Note:

http://www.humanware.com/E/E1/E1F.html

The other, to the U.S. dealer of Elba:

http://www.sighted.com/english/elba2003.html

Damm, but these are expensive when I consider spending my own money.
But, if it's between the two, I think I go with Elba for several
reasons. The reasons against seem to come down to one reason:

Size and weight -- It's a monster. No comparison to the notebooks. It's
big. Frankly, it's almost as big as my full-featured IBM Thinkpad T30,
and it's more expensive. By the way, my Thinkpad is top of the line with
all the extras -- totals 120 gigs of hard disk and a gig of RAM. If it
weren't for that sound care on the Thinkpad ...

But, I diagress ...

I said there were reasons for:

It seems the Elba has ethernet on board, whereas the Braille Note only
says "supports ethernet," meaning "get a PCMCIA card for that."

I think the rest of the hardware specs are fairly the same--close enough
for me, in any case.

So, it comes down to the software. Here two, they do more or less the
same thing, with probably a few more features in the Braille Note. But
the Braille Note's software is all some kind of Windows. The E-mail will
be a Win-CE version of Outlook, the word processor a Win-CE kind of
Word, etc.

For my taste, I'd rather have the tweaked Pine on the Elba--and the rest
of the tweaks they put in to make it palatable to Windows users, because
it's Linux under the hood, and there is a way to get under that hood and
do some things your own way. Well, OK, only some things. 32 megs times
two isn't very much these days. Of course, you can spend another $500
and put a 5 gig PCMCIA harddisk in the PCM slot. Hopefully, you could
run emacspeak from there. I don't know, it would be interesting to find
out.

Now, of course, if you're happy running over Win-CE, then the Braille
Note is probably slicker. I'd get that ethernet nic, and figure out how
to connect to my Linux servers. I'm sure it can be done by running
Samba, for example.

Still, when I look at all the options, bearing in mind always the money
involved, it just doesn't make sense to me. But, that's me, and I'm not
you.

What you should do, since it's so much money, is tget one for 30-day
trial, or 15-day trial. They should be willing to do that, for all that
money. I certainly wouldn't spend it without spending hours working with
the unit. After all, you'll probably need to live with it for years and
years whichever one you actually get.

Good luck, and please don't hesitate to ask for more thoughts.