Jim Crumley writes: > Does anyone have any recommendation for laptops to use with > Linux? > > Some of my considerations are as follows: > Harware that can be made to work with Linux is essential. If > it has a software modem that won't work it's not the end of > the world, but still a minus. > Weight doesn't really bother me. > Sturdy is a plus - I have been known to drop things. > Large screen size would be nice - probably 15 inches. > Linux pre-installed would be great. No OS is ok. I'd really > like to avoid the Windows tax. > A well respected brand would be nice. As would something > local. > I prefer trackpoints to trackpads, but as far as I can tell IBM > forces you to choose one type of Windows or another. I'm pretty happy with my Gateway 450X. Have never tried the modem, so dunno if it will work. Weight c. 6lbs, seems sturdy. 15" screen. Linux not pre-installed. I smooshed Mandrake on top of XP (I wanted dual boot). Gateway seems pretty well-respected. You can buy it at a local store if you want (unless you want to reconfig the default machine, as I did, which put me into mail order). Trackpad. > > Has anyone gotten a laptop from any of the smaller Linux > specialist dealers online? In particular, Los Alamos Computers > http://www.laclinux.com/ has caught my eye. I looked into this and the economics seemed very bad. Laptops seem by their nature proprietary (vendors compete on weird boardage, etc.), and they go obsolete way fast. Very different from the desktop world. I found only bad deals on mediocre hardware or bad deals on people installing linux on (obsolete) Toshibas. Gave up. Too expensive. R _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list