[PLUG] Re: New Laptop
Keith Lofstrom
keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Jun 11 07:48:02 UTC 2004
Marv wrote:
> I need a med priced laptop $2500 range.
> Need to dual boot deb/xp
1) Laptops are borrowed from factory service, not owned. The laptop
may need service once a year. Look for a company that does very rapid
repair, with no backtalk. Good (formerly great): IBM . Very bad:
Dell. HP/Compaq might be OK, very Linux conscious, no direct
experience. No opinions beyond that. Get the three year service
contract, subract that ($400?) from your starting price.
2) Internal/External Wifi: built-in is supposedly convenient, but
it is very hard to specify chipset that way. Atheros, Prism-2 good,
Cisco OK. Everything else is poorly supported. You get a lot more
options with a PCMCIA card - which can be moved around, sold, etc.
3) Dual boot: Note recent issues with 2.6 Kernel and XP, described in
http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2.html and elsewhere.
4) If you travel a lot, or are otherwise more than a couple of hours
away from a charger, get a Valence N-Charge external battery for about
$300.
5) Extra chargers, or at least extra charger power cords, are a good
idea unless you like crawling around plugging and unplugging things.
You will find that, starting with a budget of $2500, you will be down
to $1500 by the time you pay for all the goodies that make laptop life
worth living.
Keith
--
Keith Lofstrom keithl at ieee.org Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
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