Any experience with Panasonic Notebooks?

Does anyone have any experience with Panasonic's "Toughbook" line of notebooks?

www.panasonic.com...

The semi-rugged models look interesting as a replacement for my aging Dell, but I can't find many reviews online.

I dont know anything about it, but here are some reviews

[edit on 3/6/06 by makeitso]

I own a rugged Toughbook CF-27. This is an earlier model, the thing is outdated, very slow processing power, but it's built solid like a tank. I don't have first hand experience with newer Toughbook products.

I can dock the laptop in my car in matter of seconds with a Havis-Shields mount, the hard drive in Toughbooks is encased in shock absorbent gel so it can takes road bumps without problem.

I can use my Toughbook outdoor in light rain, the keyboard is water proof, but the ports in the back of the laptop are a bit exposed. I plug an external mouse into it, and I'm always afraid if water get inside the plugs that all hell will break loose. And the little doors to cover the ports does not seems so sturdy while it is opened, I'm careful with mine but I'm afraid a wrong move and the little door would snap off easily.

You won't be disappointed with the Panasonic Toughbook. But for my next purchase I will probably consider a Itronix GoBook.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I can't install latest versions of Linux on my toughbook. Floppy installation was removed in Suse or Redhat. So even after installing on the laptop hard drive from a desktop computer with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, the kernel is too big for the memory or something so it won't boot on the laptop.


[edit on 6-3-2006 by ufia]