On Thu, 2007-05-24 at 22:47 -0700, Chris Mauricio wrote: > > I have found that Dells, by and far, run Linux right out of the box. I have a > year + old Inspiron 710m, 1gb, 60gb, 1.7mhz mobility CPU, 1280x800 screen. I > had to apply a simple patch to run the display at that res, built in wifi and > eth0 worked out of the box. Sound, dvd+r work fine, the built in SD card > reader needs a hack that I haven't bothered with since I have no SD cards. > the little WiFi LED that indicates the wireless is active is software driven > and there is a patch to make it light up, and I got it working, but I didn't > bother to reinstall it when I did a upgrade / reload. FN buttons work, > suspend and resume works, CPU throttling works.... running FC6. It likes > ubuntu too. > > If you want to do a little research, check out the wonderful resource "linux > on laptops". http://www.linux-laptop.net/ > you can check out what people have linux running on by mfg and model, usually > multiple distros worth. It's where I turn before I buy, and after- > disclaimer: no affiliation > > Dells offer NBD on-site repair, which I prefer to sending it out of my sight > for a week or two only to find they fixed the wrong thing. It really only > adds a couple hundred to the price for 3 yr NBD on-site, but amortized over > the life of the warranty it's cheap. Figure a replacemet HD alone will make > you break even. MB or display and you are way ahead of the curve. I recommend > it highly to my customers and have used it several times myself with my > previous dell laptop. >
Dells are fine if you don't mind paying an inflated price and if you really need the service contract (and in my experience, the contract was needed). I purchased my Intel P4 2.66GHz, MSI built laptop from D&J back in 2003 (Microtron 2000 back then, still online as microtron2000.com) for $1172 and have been very happy with it. I ordered it with no OS, a faster CPU than what was listed, and extra memory. I later had them add a larger HDD (it was still under warrantee, so I had them do it) and blow out the dust while they were at it. Linux worked on it OOTB, though I did make it dual boot since I needed Winsucks for school. I selected a P4 for the power, with the drawback of short battery life, but I needed power and decent graphics for game development. It was less than a Dell (I looked at Dell, and even with my student discount at the time, they could not touch the price) and had the video chipset I wanted (NVIDIA - the only choice for Linux). I looked at other places as well - Fry's, a few local stores, some online places - and settled on D&J. D&J came out to my office earlier this year to replace the fan and P/S which had both started to fail after years of a LOT of use. My brother did a lot of research before he bought his laptop online. He found that all laptops are made by a couple of manufacturers so one brand is almost the same as another as far as electronics. He should chime in on this thread and maybe add his $0.02 worth. PGA -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
