I bought an Acer Travelmate (230 iirc, haven't got it with me today), which was under $2k, last year before being at the stage of wanting linux compatibility. Mandrake 9.2 and Knoppix both think the network card is there, but there is no network communications happening. NOT a good thing...
of course, your linux skills may be greater than mine (like most people here) and your results may vary. but if you want something that almost works out of the box, give this model a miss. > I have heard Acer's have reasonable linux capability, and there are some > > around the $2k mark (but they may only have 256M RAM at that price. > > > The latest NZ PC World has a comparison of under $2.5k laptops. > > good sites for compatibilty reports is http://www.linux-laptop.net and > http://www.tuxmobil.org . > > On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:48, anton wrote: > > Hi, > > As we are shortly going overseas we want to get a laptop. I have > > searched around for a bit now and have found some places that look > like > > they might not be so bad. We want to spend under $2000, and the only > > real stipulation is that the processor is over 2k and there is 512meg > of > > RAM. I am never going to have a machine with less than 512 again! Any > > help or advice here would be greatly appreciated. > > > > I have heard plenty about making sure that linux will run on these > > things before buying. Is that still necessary with the latest ones? If > I > > find mention of someone installing on the same model on the 'net, > should > > I trust it? (seeing as there are two 'net places I'm looking at > buying > > from)? > > What are the things that just MUST be on the thing? In terms of slots > > and what have you...? Showing my knowledge here... Do all modern > laptops > > have PCMCIA slots? Is that why they aren't mentioned on most ads? > > > > Anything else? > > > > A little closer to home here, for those who might know - ITS > canterbury > > uni have laptops with the above specs for around $1900, and they > appear > > to be OSless (or with some campus agreement M$ deal). There seems to > be > > something about CTA mentioned there - does that mean that only CTA > > students/staff (which I am) can get them? How do they stack up in > terms > > of slots/compatibility? Anyone don't a linux install on one? I would > > prefer to give Canty money if I could! > > > > Thanks for any suggestions > > Anton >
