Hardware vent...

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, at 2:59pm, hewitt_tech at attbi.com wrote:
> My piece of (fill in the cuss word of your choice) Compaq Presario laptop
> ...

  I have a cow-orker who is equally unhappy with his relatively new Presario
laptop.  It's gone back for service twice.  First, the screen blew.  Then
the replacement had a bad Ethernet port.  (I might have that backwards.)  
The current replacement has a floppy drive which sometimes doesn't work.

> I'm looking for reliability and the ability to run Linux without
> ridiculous efforts.

  In general, I have had the most luck with Dell and Toshiba.  The Dell
Latitude line, in particular, is very nice.  Keeping parts interchangeable
between models (batteries, keyboard, disk sleds, etc.) and making them field
serviceable is a design goal of the Latitude line.

  As far as Linux goes, that tends to vary from model to model.  One model
might work fine, the next one might use a different video/modem/etc chipset
that does not work.  I don't know of any "major" vendor currently offering
Linux as a "supported" OS, so you have to do your homework.  Bottom line:  
Check compatibility of the particular model you are looking at *before* you
buy.

  Many laptops use "software modems" which don't work well under Windows,
let alone Linux.  Be prepared for this.

  A Google search for "linux laptop" yielded many links, including ads from
vendors specializing in Linux-ready laptops.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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