[vox] Looking for a new laptop

[Michael Seydel]

I'm typing this on a Zareason laptop I got in July. I had a triple-boot
Macbook Pro before. Compared to that delightful aluminum unibody, my
Zareason laptop feels extremely shoddy.

The keyboard is awful, I feel like I have to really smash the keys to type
out a password reliably. Pushing down on the plastic around the keys in the
middle of the keyboard shows obvious bowing. The meta key came with a Tux
sticker which quickly began peeling off. I ordered it with a CD-drive,
which shakes in the body as well. The laptop came with a free back-lit
keyboard that I used for a while when at my desk, but it doesn't really
help in terms of portability.

I really wanted to support open source, but I expect I'll go back to MBP
for my next laptop and deal with all the effort of getting Linux working on
hardware not meant for it.

On the positives, they shipped with with Linux Mint, which I requested, it
arrived within a couple days (Berkeley -> Mountain View), and it's very
snappy with few hardware/software compatibility issues. Wifi disconnects
every several hours, requiring manual reconnecting, but I haven't
investigated whether that's Mint's fault or not.

- Michael

On Mon Dec 01 2014 at 6:49:09 PM Bob Scofield <scofield at omsoft.com> wrote:

> Where's Alex Mandel?  He bought a Zareason laptop.
>
> I bought a Zareason desktop.  I like the idea of supporting those who
> support Linux.
>
> Bob
>
> On 12/01/2014 12:59 PM, Carl Boettiger wrote:
> > I've had bad luck with some mainstream manufacturers supporting any
> > faulty or miss-functioning hardware if I'm not running the provided OS
> > (or just getting a hold of knowledgeable support in the first place).
> > Since then I've had a much better experience by going with System76,
> > and also the Berkeley based ZaReason laptops
> > http://zareason.com/shop/home.php both in terms of hardware working
> > out of the box but also in getting knowledgeable and reliable service
> > if something doesn't work. Something to consider.
> >
> >
>
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>
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