[vox-tech] buying a laptop

[Shawn P. Neugebauer]

I can add a few comments.

On Wednesday 27 November 2002 04:22 pm, Gabriel Rosa wrote:
> Either way, Dell laptops seems to work pretty nicely for dual boot
> (although I personally dislike them because they weight a ton and feel like
> cheap plastic).

The Dell Inspiron laptops handle linux well.  Not sure about the very
latest hardware (Dell changes it all the time), but through several 
generations and several friends, sound, HD's, modems, screens, etc. 
have been supported out-of-the-box.  There's an excellent user-supported
with lots of good info:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-dell-laptops/

I agree with Gabriel, somewhat, on robustness.  I've not handled my
machine roughly (e.g., I carry it around in a padded case, I do not move
it around that much--few times a week perhaps, etc.), but I have
friends who are not as careful and they've had problems with screen,
fan, HD, and other things.  The Dell machines are not the quietest in
the world--lots of interesting, low-level clicks and buzzing and such.

However, if you want desktop-quality performance in a laptop, the
Inspirons are great.  I think the feature/pound ratio is quite high.
If you are more interested in minimizing pounds while keeping some
minimum performance, you might investigate another line.

I also agree that you might want to "do it yourself" when it comes to
configuring your dual-boot machine.  Dell gives very detailed information
about the configuration of your machine when you put together your
order, so you have all the info you need to do a little research to make
sure the level of support in the Linux community is to your satisfaction.
I've been doing this with Dell machines for years, and have not been
burned yet.  The importance of the familiarity you gain with your
platform can not be underestimated.

That said, I also appreciate that time is money. :)

shawn.

> On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 04:14:12PM -0800, Andrew Stein wrote:
> > any place that sells linux/windows dual boot high end
> > laptops?
>
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