[NBLUG/talk] Advice for prospective Linux lap-topper?

[Robert Hayes]

Jeff,

Find a machine you like in a local store where you can kick it's tires.
Take a copy of a KNOPPIX CD with you and boot the little monster right there.
I have a 3 year old Compaq Presario that took Mandrake, and KNOPPIX without 
batting an eye. Video, audio, everything but the winmodem worked right from 
the start.

If you order it and can customize it, buy more hard drive than you think 
you'll need. 

And research the wireless cards before you buy one. A number of them require 
jumping through hoops to get them to work.

RH


On Thursday 08 May 2003 03:02 pm, you wrote:
> Dear NBLUGers (especially Linux laptop users),
>
> I'm headed to a programmers' conference in late June and I thought it might
> be time to get a laptop so I can "play along".  Of course, if this one is
> going to be my own, I would like to be able to run Linux on it, as well as
> Windows (for work-related purposes and some games, and a few random USB
> devices like a digital camera).
>
> Another force in me looking at a laptop as a replacement computer (I have a
> desktop machine in storage which I got from VA Linux a few years ago) is
> that I have just moved to a small apartment in Tiburon with a toddler who
> likes to pull on wires and a domestic partner who doesn't like to look at
> them.  So part of the picture is probably a wireless hub connected to DSL,
> safely inside a ventilated box.
>
> One alternate idea would be to get a bootable CDROM (a "Pluggable Linux
> Personality") provided that it would be reasonably functional with the
> less-standard hardware configuration of a laptop.  In order to exchange
> data via the hard drive, I expect I would have to reinstall Windows and
> partition the drive to limit the area devoted to NTFS.  (Or does Linux read
> NTFS these days?)
>
> My current inclination is to get a pre-installed Linux/Win2000 notebook.
> However, a cursory survey (via Google) of Linux laptop vendors suggests
> that I would pay a big premium for someone else to work out all the
> hardware compatibility issues.
>
> Or I suppose I could go to
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-dell-laptops/
>
> :)
>
> Does anyone have any general thoughts, suggestions, or pointers for where I
> should be looking?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Miller
> (Linux 0.98 - 2.2 user, but out of practice lately)
>
> P.S.:  Thanks for the list.  I enjoy hearing what's up and learning tips
> about Linux and networking, even if I am usually elsewhere on Tuesday
> nights.
>
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