On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 4:03 AM, Andrew Errington <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, January 8, 2010 22:39, Roy Britten wrote: >> 2010/1/9 Hadley Rich <[email protected]>: >> >>> http://www.einfo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=16925 >>> http://www.einfo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=16273 >>> http://www.einfo.co.nz/shop/product_info.php?products_id=11904 >>> >> >> Thanks! Nice to see it is possible to get (some variant of) Linux >> pre-installed. Would anyone onlist with experience with Benq and/or MSI >> products care to comment on their general Linux-compatibility and/or >> hardware quality? > > Can't talk about Benq or MSI, but the MSI Wind had very good reviews. I > have an Acer Aspire One (model ZG-5). 1Gb RAM, 160GB HDD. My wife has > one too. They came with XP, but mine is running Mepis 8.0 these days. > > I think everything worked out of the box, but the wireless drivers were > flaky. This might be fixed with a later Mepis, but I compiled the free > ath5k driver myself and it's all good. > > I love this little laptop- my advice is to have a go with the keyboard > before you buy one. I didn't like the HP or Acer keyboard, plus the Acer > does not have a Synaptics touchpad (which I specifically wanted). > > Battery life is about 2 hrs with the small battery. A bigger one is > available. I'm usually not far from a power socket, but if you want more > battery life then buy a bigger battery. The laptop is small and light and > very capable. I don't use it for games (not interested) but I use it for > web, email, development and OSM mapping. Actually, anything really. > > HTH, > > A
I asked a similar question on the nzlug list a few days ago and the general consensus was that the acer machines had bad build quality. The benq came highly recommended. Take a look at the thread http://www.linux.net.nz/pipermail/nzlug/2010-January/018944.html > > > >
