On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 03:28:35PM -0500, Mike Miller wrote: > The sales guys at MicroCenter were pushing a Gateway laptop, partly > because it has an i5 processor, instead of a Dell with an i3. The prices > are the same, as are most of the specs. > > My son is reading some reviews and it sounds like the i5 is somewhat > faster but it actually gets better battery life. So I guess the i5 is a > better choice than i3. Right? > > On the other hand, I'm not hearing many recommendations for Gateway. If > anything, people (other than sales people at MicroCenter) have been trying > to steer me away from Gateway. Is Gateway really to be avoided? What > about Linux on Gateway. Right now I'm thinking the Gateway might be the > best choice, for $599 at MicroCenter. This is it: > > http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-NV5929u-Notebook-i5-430m-battery/dp/B0036FFH4A > http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0336321 > > Strangely, the Amazon reviews say that it plays Blu-ray, but I doubt it. I > wonder if Ubuntu can do the graphics/sound easily. I don't know if it is > Linux-friendly -- not finding info via Google. > > Any opinions on this? Stay away from Gateway. They used to be decent ten years ago, but they were bought, sold, went in and out of bankruptcy. I don't believe they have much of an engineering staff left - they are probably just tossing some components and glue into a case and shacking instead of stirring it. If it's for college, get a business line machine, even if it's more expensive. It will resist wear and tear easier, and it will be smaller and lighter than the consumer-grade model, for similar specs. I got my wife a Thinkpad X61s three years ago and it's going strong (with the additions of 4 GB of RAM and a Intel 80GB SSD). It survived a 4 feet drop from the desk to the carpet - the HDD was spinning and started making funny noises, but I managed to get all the data off it before and it's still running. You can buy a solid machine and get 5 years out of it, or you can spend 75% now and 75% in three years to replace or fix it. Cheers, florin -- Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition. http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/163 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20100812/3a0e25bc/attachment.pgp