>I'd appreciate any advice, but I'm tentatively looking at either a
>compaq presario 1900-266 (266MHz PII), or an dell inspiron 3500 (300MHz
>celeron). Do any of you have experience with these or similar machines?
Go directly to this site:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/
It lists laptops by manufacturer and model number, and gives
configuration tweaks. It also has other useful links, including a
laptop-specific HOWTO.
>
>I gather that one issue is that the video card be supported for some
>flavor of XWindows, right? The compaq says, "256-bit Accelerated
>AGP Graphics," in on of their blurbs about the 1900. Does that
>describe it's graphics card? Is it supported for XWindows? The
>dell has a NeoMagic MagicMedia 2.56 AV. Is that supported?
You may have to check at www.xfree86.org for what X drivers are
needed to handle that particular card. The "Compaq Presario 1000 series"
link on the linux-for-laptops page cited above has some useful information
as well, although it may be a little dated.
>
>What about modems? What does compaq mean by, "56K ITU V.90 Modem?"
>Is that one of these "win" modems? I gather those are problematic
>under linux, yes?
>
"Win" modems are lobotomized modems which expect Windows to do some
of their thinking for them. If you do not have windows, you do not have a
connection. You may have to ask Compaq about that.
>I'd appreciate any advice. Eg, if you can recommend a better brand
>and or model, I'd love to hear it.
I've been using Toshiba and RH 5.2 worked like a dream out of the box, on
all systems.
