Thanks Greg, I will look into those hints when doing the research. I'm very surprised by Adolfo's case though. Because, frankly speaking I have Toshiba in my mind in the first place. About price, I thought of buying on the range of $1,000-1,200. $1,800-2,000 would be nice, but I don't think it fits in my budget right now.
Well, I'll inform it when the decision's been made and the result. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Meyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 8:24 PM Subject: Re: [newbie] OT: need advice on notebook > On Friday 28 November 2003 10:32 pm, Fajar Priyanto wrote: > > Dear all, > > I want to buy a notebook, but I'm not really sure because it's quite > > expensive. I thought of buying a Pentium 4 one. Could you pls give me > > advice on: > > 1. Regarding the price and technology, is it the right time to buy a > > notebook? 2. What brand and series do you suggest that work best for Linux > > installation? Many thanks, > > Fajar. > > > You will get as many answers to this question as there are Linux users. > Couple things to remember. > > 1) The Intel Centrino is nothing but a brand. A notebook must have a > Pentium-M processor, a Intel 855 chipset and an Intel Wireless card. If it > doesn't have one of them, it can't be called Centrino. > > 2) The Intel wireless card does not have native Linux driver. I works with > something called the driverloader from Linuxant. This is a wrapper that > allows you to use the XP driver in Linux. So if you want wireless with > built-in WiFi, do some research here. > > 3) The Pentium-M at 1600MHz is a faster processor than the Pentium4-M at > 2.4MHz because it does more work per clock cycle, similar in concept to an > AMD AthlonXP 2400+ running at 2.0GHz will beat a P4-2.4. I have experimented > with this myself and found that the Mandrake 9.2 kernel compiles on my laptop > with a Pentium-M 1.6GHz in 230 seconds, while it takes 244 seconds on my > desktop machie with an AthlonXP 2400+. > > 4) Most laptops come with winmodems. Make sure you buy one with one supported > by the Linux kernel. > > 5) On the newest models, don't expect everything to work right out of the box. > You will pretty much be able to get everything to work, but there will be > some tweaking. For instance on my IBM T41, I had to compile a driver module > for my modem and my Cisco wireless card, but everything works and works well. > > 6) ACPI doesn't always work well, so you may want to consider whether the > machine still supports APM. > > In my opinion, the machines around $1,800-2,000 are in the sweetspot right now > in terms of features, etc. > -- > /g > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.542 / Virus Database: 336 - Release Date: 11/18/2003
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
