Re: Laptop Recommendations?

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

On Sat, 2004-05-15 at 19:26, Brandon Adams <bja@Illinois.DynDNS.Org>
wrote:
> I'll be going off to school next year and am looking for laptop
> recommendations. Basically, my only requirements are that it support some
> type of functional UNIX or a compatible system and do it in a completely
> native way (no loading windows drivers through a compat layer; that scares
> the crap out of me) (excluding the 56k modem which is almost never
> supported and I don't plan on using it anyway) and it cost $2,000 or less.
> I've been looking at the 12.1" Apple Powerbook with 768Mb of RAM, Airport
> Extreme (802.11g), and iSight. Any equivilents in x86 land?
> 
> I don't know if I want to use a Mac because I've grown very used to my
> customized KDE with Kontact, Konqueror, Karamba, etc and it seems like a
> waste to buy a Mac and not use OS X (and Yellow Dog doesn't seem to
> support the latest generation of Powerbooks).

Brandon,

A Mac will likely break any budget you may have. If you can find a
source of refurbished laptops, IBM Thinkpads support Red Hat very well
(except for the 600). They're very rugged and, since they consume very
little beer, are likely to survive college better than their owner.

I just did an on-line build of an IBM R-series at their web site
(http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/thinkpad/rseries_byo.html):

ThinkPad R51 (IBM Think Express Program) 		1836B9U	1 
40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive					09N4234	1 
256MB PC2700 CL2.5 DDR SDRAM SODIMM (R Series Bulk)	31P9845	2 
ThinkPad T40/R50 Series Li-Ion Battery			31P9857	1 
Microsoft Windows XP Professional			73P2891	1 :-/
ThinkPad CD-ROM Ultrabay Enhanced Drive			73P3281	1 
					Total Price	$1,894.00

This should be more budget friendly. You could select more options and
spend a lot more money up front, but the smart play would be to add some
of them to your "Dear Santa" letter.

Be aware that most x86 laptops use Lucent-type internal winmodems, for
which easy-to-compile drivers are available (Google for lt-modem). If
that's not your cup of tea, then buy an external serial port modem. It
won't be as portable, but I guarantee there will be AC power available
anywhere you find a phone line.

--Doc Savage
  Fairview Heights, IL


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