[ale] Linux and Laptops.

[Charles Shapiro]

Uh, I got a used Dell Inspiron 3800 (128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard disk) in
August or so. It had Lose 2000 on it, but I fdisked that off. I'm
assuming that makin' it dual-boot would've been pretty semi easy, except
I don't use that obscure Redmond stuff 'less forced (as now).

After a short wrangle & some groveling around on sites like
http://www.linux-laptop.net/ I got it running Debian Potato with sound,
suspend-to-disk, PCMCIA support 'n airthing. 
The removable floppy, extension cable, and removable CD reader all
worked out of the box (so to speak). I found where someone else had done
the hard work on XF86Config, so I just copied out his stuff to my disk &
it worked without a fuss.  The PCMCIA NIC that came with it is one of
those combo ethernet//modem things, and it works fine for PPP and
connecting to a 10baseT network. I got a $100 PCMCIA radio modem card
and the box sees it, but I haven't had time to mess with that properly.


I'm quite satisfied. My only (minor) complaint is that the battery life
is quite very short, probly 'cause it's used and a little pooped out.
And  it's a little bigger & heavier than the very most current laptops.
But being able to hack from just an electrical outlet is very k00l.

Say, did anyone make the meeting Thursday and copy down the resource
URLs for the TIVO? I got about 2 of 'em before he went on to the next
slide.

-- CHS


-----Original Message-----
From: C I [mailto:comidio at yahoo.com]
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 3:56 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: [ale] Linux and Laptops.


Based on a search of the archives it appears that this
question hasn't been raised in awhile.  But I am in
the market for a laptop and one of the things that it
needs to do is dual boot W2k and Linux (RH 7.2).  I
was wondering what ya'll recommended and notebooks I
should avoid.  I am looking in the used market, but
the 3 primary ones I have looked at are Dell Latitude,
Sony Vaio and HP.  Please let me know your opinions.

CI

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage
http://sports.yahoo.com/

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems
should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.