[PLUG] Laptop Recommendations

[MJang]

On Thu, 2007-02-01 at 11:09 -0800, alan wrote:
> On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, MJang wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 19:41 -0800, Tim Wescott wrote:
> >> Its time to retire my tired old Dell laptop, and I'm planning on
> >> replacing it with one running Linux.  If possible, I'd like to either
> >> get one that either doesn't have an OS installed and put Linux on it, or
> >> buy one that comes with Linux preloaded.
> >
> > One other issue to consider - if you're interested in Virtualization -
> > VT (Xen, KVM), watch the CPU. Only some "Core Duo", "Core 2 Duo", and
> > "Pacifica" CPUs support VT.
> >
> > And many laptop mfrs disable VT - as I just noted on the Xen list
> >
> > Many laptop mfrs disable VT, even if the Intel CPU supports it (AMD
> > VT-capable systems can't have VT disabled). There's a long HP thread on
> > the topic (which is also covered in /.)
> > http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1051601
> >
> > There are also interesting Wikis on the topic
> > http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/IntelVT
> > http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Notebooks
> 
> I have considered creating a thumb drive based distro that has the sole 
> purpose of telling you what hardware is on a machine, cpu features, etc. 
> to help people when buying machines or for diagnostics.  It would make it 
> much easier to tell what a machine really contains or does at the store 
> instead of believing sales people.

Alan, just asking - 

What would be the advantage of a thumb drive over say a Knoppix
CD/DVD-based OS? I suppose being able to boot from a thumb drive would
make the VT check faster.

Thanks,
Mike