->  RT> RT>> But both HP and Compaq have been playing the
proprietary game
->  RT> RT>> for quite some time now...

->  RT>> Yep, why I refuse to use their stuff .... and avoid working on it
->  RT>> as far as humanly possible ...

->  TW>  I nevr found most of their stuff, 900 Mhz and earlier, particualrly
->  TW>  hard to work on. BUT reasonable replacement parts could be a problem.
->  TW> But I also found them particualrly reliable.

-> That is the problem, I get to work on them mostly when they are broke, and 
-> spares are not available or if they are, I can buy 10-15 replacement parts for 
-> a standard computer for 1 of their parts, then the owner does not want to pay 
-> daylight robbery prices ... so my time is mostly wasted, and the owners piss 
-> me off further when they request that I make ordinary
"normal" parts fit their 
-> box. 

Older H.P. here, very reliable.
Very good performance with Linux too with the Celeron 433
and 256 Meg of RAM.

Convinced it required proprietary memory I was informed otherwise
and I upgraded it on the cheap.

Ripped out the combo software sound card - modem and using an external
56K modem and Turtle Beach hardware sound card Knoppix Linux
autodetects everything and provides the correct sound card drivers.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5