[vox] Re: Laptop purchase recomendation

Wed Sep 27 06:57:09 PDT 2006

And in the case of the HP laptop I was considering. They use a Broadcom
mini-pci wireless card which has no Linux support, I would rather use an
Atheros card since they openly support Linux with drivers and regular
updates.  The thought of paying $2600 for a laptop that I cannot use the way
I want to is sickening.  I mean sure they could update the Bios later and it
could fix all of this,  or I could use a Atheros PCMCIA card like I
currently do. But it is the idea that i cannot have the choice of what
mini-pci card to use if i don't like the one it came with.  As long as it is
a standardized card in a standardized slot it should work in my opinion,
that's the whole point of standardization. It just seems to me that
white-listing is actively working against that at the customers expense.

Joshua

On 9/27/06, Justin Cummins <sul3n3t at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> BIOS whitelisting is the practice of having a coded list of wireless
> devices which will be _allowed_ to run in a given system. The whitelist
> contains the device and subsystem IDs of only permitted cards. For wifi
> cards, this includes stock cards and generally hyper-overcharged cards fr=
om
> the system vendor.
>
> The problems with BIOS whitelisting are that it perverts the notion of a
> standard interface (miniPCI in laptops), locks in only vendor
> upgrades/modifications, and forces the system to remain obsolete when the
> vendor doesn't allow newer technology devices in the whitelist.
>
> The workarounds for the BIOS whitelist include risky measures such as
> modifying and reflashing your BIOS and modifying a non-whitelist card to
> have the device ID of a whitelist card (which confuses drivers, etc).
>
> On 9/26/06, Bill Kendrick <nbs at sonic.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Another RoseLUG list Cc...  (I'm happy to pass them on to vox :) )
> >
> > -bill!
> >
> > ----- Forwarded message from vox-bounces at lists.lugod.org -----
> >
> > Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:43:10 -0700
> > From: Anthony Fortenberry <anthonyf at chronica.com>
> > Subject: Re: [roselug] Re: Laptop purchase recomendation
> > To: roselug at roselug.org ,  vox at lists.lugod.org
> >
> > Joshua Morris wrote:
> > >On 9/25/06, Joshua Morris <bullring at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>Hi Everyone,
> > >>
> > >>I am shopping for a new laptop and am looking for suggestions on
> > laptops
> > >>that work well with Linux.  I have been looking at HP's dv9000t  with
> > >>the
> > >>core 2 duo chip set.  At < $2,800 i'm scared to exaust my student
> > >>budget on
> > >>it if it is not going to do what I am looking for.  This is the
> > >>configuration I am looking for:
> > >>
> > >>HP Pavilion dv9000t customizable Notebook Pc
> > >>EZ379AV
> > >>
> > >>   - ? Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
> > >>   - ? 17.0" WXGA+ Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1440x900)
> > >>   - ? 512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
> > >>   - ? HP IMPRINT Finish + Microphone + Webcam
> > >>   - ? FREE Upgrade to 1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB)!!
> > >>   - ? 240 GB 5400 RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120 GB x 2)
> > >>   - ? FREE Upgrade - LightScribe DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
> > >>   - ? Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
> > >>   - ? HP ExpressCard Analog TV Tuner w/remote control
> > >>   - ? Two High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Batteries
> > >>   - ? HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
> > >>
> > >>If you use any other brands that have similar specs let me know.  If
> > you
> > >>have had any good/bad experiences with Linux on a hp that too would be
> > >>greatly appreciated.
> > >>I looked around on Google to see if I could find any websites that
> > might
> > >>have more information, but there wasn't much available becuse the
> > >>laptop has
> > >>only been out a few months.
> > >>
> > >>Joshua
> > >>
> > >
> > >Thank you all for your input.  After looking over the websites you
> > >have all
> > >posted and the points you have all made.  I have decided not to buy
> > >the HP
> > >because of their use of BIOS white-listing noted by some of you( I even
> > >called hp customer service and the sales rep hesitated but did confirm
> > >that
> > >this model has the same bios white-listing "feature") in the websites
> > >that
> > >were mentioned.  It is a shame that computer manufactures like HP want
> > to
> > >cripple their products in this way.
> > >
> > >Joshua
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > What is "BIOS white-listing"?  I'm unfamiliar with that term.
> >
> > On the laptop issue, I've had good luck running SuSE Linux 10.0 on an
> > IBM/Levono Thinkpad T43.  Configured to dual-boot XP and SuSE (some
> > installation details need to be attended to preserve the original
> > restore/repair partition).  The T43 was a great little laptop; good
> > keyboard with no Windoze keys.  (I think the newer T60 has added Win
> > keys.)  Oddly, the T43 had a few bugs in the version of Windows that
> > came pre-loaded (IBM adds several applets), but I never had any problems
> >
> > using SuSE.
> >
> > Also, I'd like to echo the suggestion by Paul to consider a Mac laptop.
> > A peer at work has good luck using his MacBook with Parallels VM to run
> > Ubuntu, FC5, and SuSE.  Wonderful screen on that that little MacBook,
> > and you can't beat the size/weight for portability.
> >
> > Anthony
> >
> >
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> >
> > --
> > -bill!
> > bill at newbreedsoftware.com
> > http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/
> > _______________________________________________
> > vox mailing list
> > vox at lists.lugod.org
> > http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> vox mailing list
> vox at lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.lugod.org/pipermail/vox/attachments/20060927/9464f447/att=
achment.htm