Maura Edeweiss Monville mailto:memonvil@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:

Thank you very much for this info. With regard to the laptop weight i have to stress I don't care a bout its weight. I do care about my laptop having performances as close as possible to a ast generation desktop. Short-lived batteries are not an issue for me asi'l be using the laptop once arrived at destination rather tha during the trip itself.

Regards, Maura

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Richard Mixon (qwest) wrote:

...

Maura Edeweiss Monville mailto:memonvil@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:

...

I've ben thinking for a long time of buying a laptop for working on my projectduring trips and overseas stays ... rather than renting desktops. Needless to say I wish to rn SuSE. Up to last year most laptops were shipped with Windows installed and vendors/makers denied any responsibility about replacing Windows with SuSE satisfactorily. Another drawback is the particular configuration I need. Basically I'm looking for at least 1GB RAM, Pentiun IV or equivalent processor at least 3.06 GHz or faster. I aslso need the wireless network and a true model for occasional dial-up connections. Last year i thought I had found a laptop with the above characteristics but a better look at its components revealed an extrmely slow access to the data bus which would result in many CPU idle cycles.

During the last year laptops have evolved and maybe the current market offers even more than I need ... I havent' found any time to follow up unluckily ... recently I've been offered a laptop ECS which is to me a totally unknown brand name. My understanding is that some third parties buy the main components and then they assembly them together according to the customer's requests .. which sounds pretty convenient.. But there may be a pitfall I cannot see out of ignorance in this field. Honestly I do not know whether it's better to buy a known brand like Dell, HP, IMB, etc ... or save some money and still have a reliable laptop specially made for me by these third parties ... I'd greatly appreciate some advice

Maura EM

Maura,

Several days ago there was quite a long thread describing which laptops (in various user's opinion and experience) worked well with SuSE. Search the list history and you should find it (not sure where history is though ).

First, do you want a really light-weight portable laptop, or a heavier desktop replacement in a laptop form factor. I say this because a number o outfits (maybe even Dell??) are making laptops with desktop processors (both AMD 64 and Pentium 4 3+ghz) in them with even a fast 7200 RPM drive. Their battery life is just so-so. But if your purpose is to travel and then work, they can be the best solution.

If you want a traditional, light-weight lapt, personally I've been well rewarded by sticking with IBM Thinkpad's since 1992. I have also run Dell and Toshiba laptops in the past. IBM's are usually not the fastest but they are close and their integration and support are still as good as anyones. The thing that impresses me is that they continue to support their laptops with new drivers even when they are several years old. I've heard of too many other brands that do not bring out drivers for new operating systems once the system is a year old.

I am sure other's have good experience with other brands to.

- Richard

-- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

Maura, If this is for work, and reliability is important, I would still say check out an IBM Thinkpad or HP equivalent. The extra few percent of performance you might get with a less well-known brand may not be worth the risk, unless you have the time to devote to such issues. One of the IBM G40's with a 3GHZ Pentium 4 is priced quite reasonably (around $1700 US) and can be located at this URL (or more simply www.ibm.com/thinkpad and find the G40's): http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?categor yId=2580117&storeId=1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1 An similar HP with a 17" display can be seen at: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-64295-89315-321838- f1-417058.html You may find a workstation laptop with more extreme performance from one of the 2nd tier vendors (alienware.com, ??) - but you will need to check them out very, very carefully as to their Linux support. Maybe someone else has a specific recommendation. - Richard

On Friday 09 July 2004 13.55, Gregory Lumpkin wrote:

Through all my research, SuSE 9.0 and 9.1 *should* have built-in drivers for the Lucent WinModem in my Compaq Armada M700 laptop but I have yet to get it to work with SuSE 9.1 Personal.

I think you'll find she said *true* modem. A so-called winmodem has all modulation and demodulation done in software, making the actual cards little more than glorified sound cards

Thank you. I do not mind the weight of the laptop. I do mind about the possibility to run and develop simulations (intensive-calculus applications, number-crunchers) on it. Therefore I'm concerned about the elaboration speed and power besides the possibility to spend many ours staring at a small screen. I do not intend to use the laptop on board of aircrafts. Instead I would use the laptop to keep working on my project at destination. It would save me the money I spend on renting an adequate desktop, but also all the time it takes me to recreate my development environment to resume working from where I left before leaving. I recently came across a representative of a local business where they assembly ECS laptops taylored on their customers'needs.. at least this is what this guy states .... To be quite honest I've never heard of a brandname called "ECS" but I'm not following this market for lack of time so it may as well be a known laptop components maker ... Though I doubt it as none of the laptops experts that kindly answered my question has even mentioned ECS so far .. It sounds like I'd be better off by choosing a well established brandname like DELL or HP or COMPAQ or ACER, etc.... Maura On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Richard Mixon (qwest) wrote:

Maura Edeweiss Monville mailto:memonvil@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:

...

I've ben thinking for a long time of buying a laptop for working on my projectduring trips and overseas stays ... rather than renting desktops. Needless to say I wish to rn SuSE. Up to last year most laptops were shipped with Windows installed and vendors/makers denied any responsibility about replacing Windows with SuSE satisfactorily. Another drawback is the particular configuration I need. Basically I'm looking for at least 1GB RAM, Pentiun IV or equivalent processor at least 3.06 GHz or faster. I aslso need the wireless network and a true model for occasional dial-up connections. Last year i thought I had found a laptop with the above characteristics but a better look at its components revealed an extrmely slow access to the data bus which would result in many CPU idle cycles.

During the last year laptops have evolved and maybe the current market offers even more than I need ... I havent' found any time to follow up unluckily ... recently I've been offered a laptop ECS which is to me a totally unknown brand name. My understanding is that some third parties buy the main components and then they assembly them together according to the customer's requests .. which sounds pretty convenient.. But there may be a pitfall I cannot see out of ignorance in this field. Honestly I do not know whether it's better to buy a known brand like Dell, HP, IMB, etc ... or save some money and still have a reliable laptop specially made for me by these third parties ... I'd greatly appreciate some advice

Maura EM

Maura,

Several days ago there was quite a long thread describing which laptops (in various user's opinion and experience) worked well with SuSE. Search the list history and you should find it (not sure where history is though ).

First, do you want a really light-weight portable laptop, or a heavier desktop replacement in a laptop form factor. I say this because a number o outfits (maybe even Dell??) are making laptops with desktop processors (both AMD 64 and Pentium 4 3+ghz) in them with even a fast 7200 RPM drive. Their battery life is just so-so. But if your purpose is to travel and then work, they can be the best solution.

If you want a traditional, light-weight lapt, personally I've been well rewarded by sticking with IBM Thinkpad's since 1992. I have also run Dell and Toshiba laptops in the past. IBM's are usually not the fastest but they are close and their integration and support are still as good as anyones. The thing that impresses me is that they continue to support their laptops with new drivers even when they are several years old. I've heard of too many other brands that do not bring out drivers for new operating systems once the system is a year old.

I am sure other's have good experience with other brands to.

- Richard

-- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

--- Blue Moose IT Support <__> wrote:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

Maura Edeweiss Monville wrote: | I've ben thinking for a long time of buying a laptop for working on my | projectduring trips and overseas stays ... rather than renting desktops. | Needless to say I wish to rn SuSE. Up to last year most laptops were | shipped with Windows installed and vendors/makers denied any | responsibility about replacing Windows with SuSE satisfactorily. | Another drawback is the particular configuration I need. Basically I'm | looking for at least 1GB RAM, Pentiun IV or equivalent processor at least | 3.06 GHz or faster. I aslso need the wireless network and a true model for | occasional dial-up connections. Last year i thought I had found a laptop | with the above characteristics but a better look at its components | revealed an extrmely slow access to the data bus which would result in | many CPU idle cycles. | | During the last year laptops have evolved and maybe the current market | offers even more than I need ... I havent' found any time to follow up | unluckily ... recently I've been offered a laptop ECS which is to me a | totally unknown brand name. My understanding is that some third parties | buy the main components and then they assembly them together according to | the customer's requests .. which sounds pretty convenient.. But there may be a | pitfall I cannot see out of ignorance in this field. | Honestly I do not know whether it's better to buy a known brand like Dell, | HP, IMB, etc ... or save some money and still have a reliable laptop | specially made for me by these third parties ... | I'd greatly appreciate some advice | | Maura EM |

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.

[snip] I would also recommend that, when the moment arrives to buy it, grab a copy of knoppix cd and SuSE's Live CD and spend some time testing in the store. Knoppix CD --> http://www.knoppix.net/get.php SuSE Live CD --> ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/live-cd-9.1/ Both CD will not damage the machine or the preinstalled software (if properly used) and you will have a good first idea on how the machine behaves when working under Linux. Remember to explain to the store clerk what you plan to do... they tend to be quite unsimpathetic to people that messes with their computers without consent! ;-) regards, ===== Riccardo G. Facchini

On Saturday 10 Jul 2004 23:12, John Andersen wrote:

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)

Well lets face it wirless networking yes now if there ever was an iffey idea thats king of the heap ..

3)Anything with the name NVidia on it. (screw 'em till they open source it)

whats your problem with Nvidia pal they work very well , Yes it would be Nice if the drivers were Open Source but they work and work well there's no need for that at all and people say I'M a beligerant twat Hummmmmmm ..

. 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.

Mouse Hummmmm never a desktop waste of space that you have to punt aronud all over the show track ball FAR FAR better

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.

-- Linux user No: 256242 Machine No: 139931 G6NJR Pete also MSA registered "Quinton 11" A Linux Only area Happy bug hunting M$ clan PGN

You could try Matt at eracks.com they sell rackmount and laptop systems reasonable *nix only. Its the only complete *nix laptop operation I know about. do your homework then go shopping. BTw for that pricegrabber.com is a site which does searching for you and presents you a price sorted information. CWSIV

On Tuesday 13 July 2004 11:43 am, Don wrote:

thing to keep in mind if you're using PCMCIA for WiFi is make sure you can get the drivers before you buy the card. I'm having fun finding drivers for some, even older, 802.11b's and PC vendors just laugh at you when you ask.

Well surf on over to linuxant.com and try their driver loader which loads the windows drivers under linux. Works well, for $19 you can't go wrong, because almost any other solution will cost you the price of a new pcmcia card or a few hours of hacking around. There is a free driverloader project too, but when I tried it it was imature, and buggy. May be better now. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen