Hal, while that link is from September, I did just get a laptop with XP last month. For Dell anyway, you have to get a Small business laptop. It's actually better though, because tech support is in America From what I hear though, June 08 is the last date to buy XP.
Yeah, I was looking at Dell laptops too and saw that. Problem is in this business we need a laptop with a serial port and the only one Dell makes is a rugged $2300 one (forgot the model), perfect for the field. The high cost versus the fact that I really have to act on this to still get XP Pro is driving me nuts.
Hal, my Latitude D530 has a real serial port. With XP pro, Core 2 Duo 2GHZ, 120GB hd, 1GB RAM, it was only 1000 bucks. The D530, D531, D630 all have serial ports. The newer Vostros do not.
Hmmm, gotta look at that. I did go through several looking for serial ports but I didn't see any. Then I just did a seach for "serial port" and the ones I was talking about were the only ones to come up.
This is the one I use. I have it running 24/7 for SMDR using a Dell with sever 2003. I also use it for programming on several different PC's running Win2K SP4. Programming with Samsung OSM, Comdial VMMI and Hyperterminal.
When my Temple upgraded to a new Dell, we needed one - it was hooked up to a box called a "Phone Tree". It was like a modem, but called everybody on a list supplied by a database and played them a message.
Well, the long and the short of it was that it didn't work and we had to get a serial port on a card (shades of 1985). So I would say that it's going to be hit or miss, depending on the device.
I have two Toshiba's on my desk at the moment. A friend dropped them off and asked to please 'de-vista' them, which is a hugh pain in the a$$ when the sata drivers are not included on the XP cd, had to make a custom install disc.
For the usb serial converters, try to avoid the Belkin ones, I had a problem with a Cisco router and the converter couldn't pass the break character. I have one made by Prolific and it works great, I haven't found a program that doesn't work with it.
Hal, you have to look in Tech Specs within each model.
I do but Dell sure doesn't make it easy. After you told me and after some digging I see now that the D530 does have a serial port. I actually have an older Latitude C540 with Win 2000 that has one.
I don't know of a latitude model that does not come with a com port. I have had them all from the C400 to my latest the D620. I only buy Latitudes because of the com port. Never had any issues. Oh...and I have been running Vista with no problems for over a year now, on both my Dell's
Have a look at the HP 6820s. It does not have an RS232 port but a USB to RS232 adapter is readily available. If you buy it through the business resellers it comes shipped with an XP OEM CD. You can then downgrade to XP and later on go back to Vista Business. You have to download a lot of drivers after the install as they do not supply these on CDs. I have a CD though with all of the drivers I can mail to you. No need to go Dell, other manufacturers will support XP.
You can always wipe out the hard drive and start over with XP. Thats what we are doing. Of course we have a volume licensing aggreement that allows up to put XP on all of our pc's. We have a Image with XP in it.