buying a laptop either bare or with Ubuntu

[Jerry Feldman]

On 01/21/2009 03:33 PM, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-11-14 at 12:02 -0500, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
>   
>> On Fri, 2008-11-14 at 10:53 -0500, Ben Scott wrote:
>>     
>>> The question is, did you avoid paying for it anyway?
>>>
>>>       
>> Vista Home Premium appears to add $30 to the cost.  
>>
>> The Vista laptop allows for some lower cost options that are not
>> available in the Ubuntu configurations.  Once all the hardware got
>> equalized, the Vista quote was higher by $30.
>>
>>     
>
> We finally got our laptop on the third try.  
>      1. was the Dell Studio documented in this thread (lcd screen did
>         not support Ubuntu's resolution choices)
>      2. was purchased at Staples, but, after installing Ubuntu, the
>         screen driver was simply too slow to tolerate.  We returned the
>         laptop after running the Windows restore.
>      3. is a Dell Inspiron.  While Dell sells these with Ubuntu, there
>         was a discount code that saved ~$200 as compared to the Ubuntu
>         version with equivalent hardware choices.  I did grumble to Dell
>         about being forced to buy Vista.  Ubuntu 8.04 worked OK and the
>         upgrade to 8.10 went smoothly.  The GUI tools work well enough
>         that my daughter appears to be self-sufficient with the sysadmin
>         tasks.  Bluetooth has not yet been tested.
>
>
>   
I'm not a fan of Dell computers. In general they cause us the most 
issues in installfests. I've personally had good luck with HP/Compaq as 
well as Lenovo. I think your problem might be that Ubuntu did not have 
good support for the installed graphics chip.  Generally, before I buy a 
laptop, I check online to see if there are any Linux issues.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846


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