[ale] Buying used laptops

[Joseph A. Knapka]

"John J. Cruz" wrote:
> 
> Is it worthwhile buying a used laltop such as the Toshiba Tecra 8000
> Laptop for just $529 (@
> http://www.compucycle.net/ftpfiles/todayspecials.cfm)  It's suppose to
> have

This looks like a reasonable deal. I just paid $400 for a slightly
less capable machine (PII233,64M,4GB). On the other hand you can
get a new Gateway laptop for under $900 now.
 
> Pentium II 266 MHz
> 128 MB Memory
> 13.3" TFT (active matrix) Screen
> 6.4GB Hard Drive
> 20X CD-Rom
> 1.44MB Floppy
> 56K Modem

This is almost certain to be a WinModem, which will probably
not work under Linux. However you should be able to pick up
an Ethernet+modem PCMCIA card on eBay for not-too-much $.

> Lithium Ion Battery
> A/C Adapter
> USB,
> Serial and parallel ports.
> 
> Such a PC would give me access to the internet when I'm on the road and
> hopefully allow installing rh6.2 for learning purposes.

Check out

<URL: http://www.linux-laptop.net/>
<URL: http://www.linux.org/hardware/laptop.html>

for compatibility information.

> I guess what I'm
> really asking is how old is this computer and how long will it last?
> What would fail first?

Don't know. Hopefully the internal modem :-)

-- Joe Knapka
"You know how many remote castles there are along the gorges? You
 can't MOVE for remote castles!" -- Lu Tze re. Uberwald
// Linux MM Documentation in progress:
// http://home.earthlink.net/~jknapka/linux-mm/vmoutline.html
2nd Lbl A + 1 = 2nd Pause 2nd Prt GTO 2 R/S
--
To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in message body.