[PLUG] New List Member and Laptop

John Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Sat Apr 30 00:32:37 UTC 2005


After some research on the net I have just ordered a Compaq 
R4000 laptop. It will have:

Athlon 64 4000
1 Gb RAM
80 Gb 5400 rpm HD
Realtek 10/100/1000
Wireless, but I forget which brand (Intel, I think)
Conexant faxmodem
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M

I tried out its previous version at Fry's (R3470) with Windows XP 
and it could eat all the other laptops in the store for lunch. So I 
figure with 64-bit Linux it should kick serious butt.

My intention is to leave Windows XP on the hard disk for the time 
being, but never even boot it up. I'll squeeze it down to, say, 10-15 
Gb, then make another 10-15 Gb partition for Linux, leaving the 
remainder for data. After I get Linux running perfectly so I know I'll 
never need XP, I'll nuke it completely and use the space to install a 
different distro. That way I'll never have to activate XP, and thus it 
should be easy to sell the license for a few bux to recover at least 
part of the Windows tax.

However, my knowledge of Linux is rather limited. Several years 
ago I installed Corel Linux (when it was all the rage) on an old 
computer and played around with it some. That's all I know about 
Linux. I realize Linux has matured enormously since then, but I fear 
I am going to need help getting it installed. I'm especially worried 
about the video.

So I googled around until I found PLUG. I note on the website that 
there are monthly Clinic meetings. That may be just what I need. 
But, considering that there are a couple other out of date things on 
the website, I felt it best to ask someone if the Clinic meetings are 
still being held. And if so, when the next meetings will be (May 21, 
June 18?).

HP says it will be built/shipped by May 20 and 5-7 days for 
shipping.



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