Take a good look at the Dell Inspiron 7500 or whatever is equivalent
today. I have a 7000 and it has run both redhat and mandrake very very
well. Forget the internal modem for now although there have been some
rumors that I have not followed up on regarding linux using the
winmodem. There is a project somewhere on this. The 3Com 3CCM156 pcmcia
modem works just fine but be careful if you look at the combo nic/modem
pcmcia (actually cardbus) some have winmodems. I have not used my modem
since last January when my dsl line was installed so I am not very
current with the modem stuff.The 7500 has a megabay which will accept
the cdrom/floppy drive or an additional 30gb hard drive or a battery and
you have two megabays. With a 30gb internal drive you can have 90 gb
total (possibly 96 by now!!). Dell has served me well with my 7000 and
the 15 inch lcd has 1024x768 but the 7500 goes up to something like
1400x1050 or something close to those numbers. You will very much like
the 15 inch lcd. Its BIG. You can also get an adaptec 1480 cardbus scsi
adapter and connect up a cdburner and whatever else pleases you to the
scsi bus. It requires nothing special. Linux pcmcia software will find
all the stuff there and make accessing it transparent for you.
Do not sweat the lack of Dell providing you linux. Its cheaper to get
the box with windows and then install linux yourself in a dual boot
mode. I have mandrake 7.1 on my 7000 currently but with the problems
that I have had with 7.2 on my desktop box, I do not wholeheartedly
recommend it yet. Either stick with the 7.1 mandrake or use redhat 7.0.
The bugs are pretty much worked on rh7 and its rock stable on my
desktop.
They have even updated the glibc to 2.2 now and there are no problems
bringing in the development software, if you're into the fun of new
software.....growl, nash, yeehah...........8-)
Have fun with it
Tom Berkley
Mark Belanger wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a laptop that will
> work well with Linux/Mandrake?
>
> I'd prefer a modem that works, a screen resolution
> greater than 1024x768. The cost is not really an issue.
>
> BTW: Dell has "temporarily" stopped offering linux
> on their laptops. A sales rep told me that the
> would be offering it again soon.
>
> I've been considering the Micron Transport GX+ even though
> the modem is not likely to work.
>
> TIA,
>
> -Mark
>
> --
> Mark Belanger
> LTX Corporation
