[vox] Default Linux installation on HP d220

[David Margolis]

P.S.

The d220 comes (_while supplies last_) with a free HP deskjet 3820 color
printer, which is a pretty nice printer, and is supported by the HPIJS
project.

Fun stuff...

D.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003, David Margolis wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I just read about this in Linux Magazine and then went and checked it out.
> With all the Walmart PCs that come with Linux, this isn't exactly
> ground-breaking news, but it's nice to see one of the big companies
> directly supporting Linux on a desktop PC.
>
> Pros:
> 1. You get to choose _Linux_ as your OS right there on the web site
> 2. Slick, sturdy-looking, compact but flexible, black case with USB 2.0 on
> the front
> 3. Good, well-supported hardware at a very reasonable price ($350-$450
> depedending on what you add/subtract)
>
> Cons:
> 1. Mandrake 9.1 - Mandrake is a good Desktop choice, but it seems most users are going
> to format and reinstall their favorite flavor anyway.  Then again, not
> too many _experienced_ Linux users would buy a preconfigured PC anyway.
> Mandrake has a very helpful hardware-detecting installer, and lots of
> equally useful userland tools, so given that, maybe Mandrake is the best choice for
> this target audience?
> 2. No AGP - You're stuck with Intel Extreme graphics (though this chipset
> is well supported, and configures with OpenGL pretty easily).
> 3. Shared VRAM (see No. 2 above), but you can dedicate lots of system RAM
> to VRAM, so that is sort of a pro within a con
>
> So it looks like the only real downside is the integrated graphics, which
> wouldn't even a problem if they offered a backup AGP slot.  Othewise it
> looks like pretty solid (and neat-looking) desktop PC with out-of-the-box
> Linux support.
>
>
> Anyway, I'm just throwing that out to bait opinions.  Most people will
> probably say _blah, whatever_, but I think it's a reasonably meaningful
> gesture from a more credible (hopefully) vendor than Walmart.
>
> Dave
>
> _______________________________________________
> vox mailing list
> vox@lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox
>