On Friday 09 July 2004 12:52 am, Blue Moose IT Support wrote:
The following website has links to other website where people have shared their experiences with putting various linux distros onto laptops. It was invaluable to me when I was trying to get my wireless to work with my Dell Inspiron 8500. I've got the whole thing working pretty well now, except for the damn subfs nonsense.
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com
I would recommend you select three different laptops that you think you would enjoy owning and then search the above site to see what peoples experiences have been.
But when doing this, remember that people only post about problems, never (or much less frequently) about successes. I read the linux-sony mailing list (insue.org) and have a high end vaio (desktop substitute with 16inch screen) that I have been running Linux on since SuSe 7.2. With 8.2 everything works and I am having a hard time convincing myself to upgrade to 9.1 just because EVERYTHING works so well. I use it for Software Development (for Windows world - sigh) and I run Vmware on it so that I can run several (all) versions of windows simultaneously for testing etc. Very cool. -----MY SUGGESTIONS based on several years of daily laptop / linux usage? Things to avoid in ANY Linux Laptop purchase: 1)External (fire-wire/USB) CD-ROM drives 2)Unsupported Wireless (whether built in or add on) 3)Anything with the name NVidia on it. (screw 'em till they open source it). 4)DO NOT buy with ALL memory slots full unless you positively load it with memory (1 gig or maybe 2). Pay for a bigger mem module to allow one slot open for future. Then go to Crucial.com and get it for half the price the laptop vendor wants! Things to look for: 1)Lots of USB ports. 2 is not enough. USB 1.1 is not acceptable any more. 2)Easy access to (replaceable) Hard drives 3)Removable CDROM (for additional battery). 4)Biggest screen you can possibly afford. 5)There is one school of though that you should avoid built-in wireless because you are stuck with it for life. The field is evolving fast and prices are dropping, so pcmcia looks attractive for upgrade purposes. Ambivalence: I have never found a use for InfraRed (IR) ports I have never needed a docking station - more trouble than worth Track pads and keyboard mice are cute - But gimmie a real (wireless optical mouse) and let me get some work done. I have a floppy drive (USB) but NEVER use it. If you can boot from cdrom, you don't need one. You can burn a cdrom for about 30 cents(us) these days. Serial ports are falling into disuse these days. YMMV. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen Sony Vaio GRXseries.