On Jan 12, 2012 11:10 PM, "alan c" <aecl...@candt.waitrose.com> wrote: > > On 12/01/12 22:05, Samuel Penn wrote: > > On Thursday 12 January 2012 17:28:41 Paul Tansom wrote: > >> On a related note, does anyone have any experience of the laptops sold by > >> Novatech? I'm considering whether to use them for a no-OS installed laptop > >> to put Linux on, so if anyone knows of hardware issues with any current > >> ones, or build quality issues - or perhaps how easy it is to get > >> replacement batteries for them when the time comes. > > > > I'm thinking along the same lines, but haven't been able to find any > > good information on how well Linux works with them. I did think of > > popping into their Reading branch last weekend to see if I could > > obtain any better info, but dropped the idea when I realised that > > they don't seem to have many Laptops in stock in Reading. > > I think they do have a good range at Reading why do you think otherwise? > > I have on two occasions informally discussed with the (manager?) at > Reading the possibility of using a Ubuntu Live CD with agreement, to > check what the laptops can do - or not. It is an occasional but > repeating problem for me. Also I would be in principle be happy to > post reports on to the novatech linux forum if and when it happens. > > On both occasions the guy (whoever) said ok in principle. > I am a returning customer: they can see on their system. They would, I > think be nervous unless one of their guys could be part of the action > - I guess their bonus is at stake re damage, and retail can be a > bloody affair including from customers. So trust and competence is > relevant. > > They recommended I think a very quiet time such as a Monday (morning??) > > I have not had the need nor the time yet to try it but I look forward > to when I can. >
There are other approaches. You see a laptop you like. You then tell the salesman that you will not buy it unless you can put a test cd/flash stick in to generate a hardware report. I don't think it would be too hard for the LUG to host an automated Linux compatible hardware list. You would send the report to the lug server, and it would report the hardware compatiblity in a human readable form. If it could also take input from mssysinfo xml reports, you would not even need a boot cd. The method for working out the compatiblity list would be scanning the Linux kernel drivers for pci ids. That will give a list of all supported pci devices.
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