Peter,
I am running an Aptiva S90 (this is a model that is two years
old) with linux on it.
Yes, I had a winmodem. At the time I purchased it, word was only
getting around about winmodems and I hadnt heard about such things.
Fortunately for me, when I purchased the m/c, I had specifically indicated
to the salesperson that I was going to run Linux on it, and he assured me
that I wouldnt have a problem (in retrospect, I think he hadnt heard of
Linux and was just nodding his head). So when I found out that the
winmodem was a no go, I twisted their arm into replacing my modem with a
regular modem for free.
(I dont think this will work as a strategy today because lots of
people _have_ heard of Linux, and certainly, the salespeople now know that
a winmodem will only work on Windows).
However, I wouldnt recommend buying an Aptiva if you intend to do
a lot of things with Linux on it - especially if the model you are
purchasing has a split design - the one where the floppy drive and the
cdrom drive are in a separate unit called the media console which is
placed under the monitor. The reason for this is that some of the
interfaces are wierd. No Linux kernel has correctly autodetected my cdrom
drive (which is on the primary of the third ide interface). I always have
to specify the I/O addresses and the IRQ's for it.
I tried loading Solaris for Intel on it. The install wouldnt go
through. The Solaris support guys concluded that the install process used
programs that didnt have the unusual hardware on my machine.
And I also cant boot from a drive on my second ide interface
(hdc). Whether this is a problem with lilo, or whether it is again the
peculiar h/w, I cant tell. Kernels on hda and hdb boot fine, but not from
hdc.
Make no mistake - the machine works like a charm with Win*. I love
the cordless mouse and the split design is actually kinda cool. But if I
had to purchase another machine with Linux in mind, it wouldnt be an
Aptiva.
Regards,
Kenneth
There is no such thing as luck. 'Luck' is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
