[PLUG] Linux on Laptops

[AthlonRob]

Renegade Penguin wrote:
> Buy a Gateway.  Gateway 675XL (17" widescreen) with onboard wireless. 
> Works perfectly in all respects.

Does it?  I've never met a happy Gateway customer before...

> I got the accidental damage protection, next business day on-site
> service.  On Tuesday I get a new notebook as my video has some issues. 
> With a laptop, it's not IF it will break but WHEN.  With a 3 gigahertz
> P4 hyperthreading, it will be functional for a LONG time.  PAY FOR THE
> WARRANTY.

I've had this sorry old Inspiron 2650 for nearly three years now.  It's
been across the country and back.  I've dropped it, kicked it, tripped
over it, yanked on the poor power cable more times than I'd care to
remember.  One time something started eating all the CPU, causing a lot
of heat - with the CPU vent covered.  The CPU hit 88C before I caught
it.  It fried the Wifi adapter I'd purchased for it a few months earlier.

Yet the thing keeps on ticking.  I've had similar experiences with
Toshiba laptops.  Some friends still have the first 486 Mom purchased
nearly a decade ago... nothing has had to be replaced (except the
battery, of couse) on it yet.  The second one she purcahsed had a hard
drive die on it, but has otherwise worked flawlessly.  That was a PII.
Her latest one died about two years after purchase after a glass of
water was dumped on it.

> The warranty was an extra $500.  I've already gotten a new DVD burner
> ($459) and now the whole replacement.  Have had it 11 months.  I am
> covered if I drop it, run over it, get it wet, anything.

So what you're saying is... pay an extra $500 for the warranty if you
buy a Gateway, because the optical drives won't last a few months and
the entire system won't last a year without replacement?  That's what I
keep hearing about Gateway - low quality systems that don't last...

> Not to mention I have the ability to put up to  3 hard drives in it at
> one time.

That's nice, but how portable is it?

Rob