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On Sunday 18 September 2005 07:21, James Knott wrote:
ThinkPads tend to be good. I have an R31 that works well. Also, I recently read that HP is selling some Linux loaded notebooks in Africa, so they're likely OK with Linux too.
I would be cautious with HP when it comes to laptops and Linux, regardless of their marketing ploys. Due to contract issues, I was recently forced to go to HP when I replaced my laptop. I tried to get the nx5000, which came preloaded with SUSE 9.1. Unfortunately, after I sent my PO to HP they sent a letter back saying they no longer made the nx5000 and suggested the nw8000 as a Linux replacement. I went through the specs for the nw8000 piece by piece with our salesman. I even spoke with an engineer to make sure I was getting parts that were Linux compatible. Hell, I've even purchased SUSE software from HP as part of my contract. None-the-less, I now have the nw8000 -- a laptop that HP marketed as a workstation replacement -- and I cannot get the wireless to function _properly_. That is to say, the wireless nic functions okay, but the two antenna that are built into the laptop's monitor are controlled by a Windows-only driver, for powersave reasons. While the drivers for the wireless nic are OSS and readily available (Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)), the drivers for the antenna are not. So, I can use the wireless nic, but without the antenna. Pathetic! Last Friday evening I spent over two hours on the telephone with support -- after all, I have 4-hour on-site support for this laptop (and a multitude of other hardware). Because the wireless nic functions properly under Windows, and because HP doesn't _officially_ support Linux, they were _not_ able to help me. Now I know that HP has a Linux support team. I've spoken to them in the past about other issues. Unfortunately, those issues were server related and this was not. I could not get HP to transfer me to the Linux support team. Before you buy a laptop I would suggest you go to your local computer stores with a SUSE LiveCD (or a Knoppix CD) and test as many machines as possible. Find a machine that WORKS! Don't settle for junk that must have Windows to work! My .02 cents. -- Christopher Shanahan