Re: What's your favorite inexpensive Linux laptop?

[Tony Godshall <tg@of.net>]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2001 at 11:09:27AM -0500, Chris Ivanovich wrote:

> I'm looking for recommendations as to what brand and model I should 
> look for (or stay away from).  I don't want to spend more than $800 
> for the beast, so getting something that is new is _not_ important. 
> I would prefer something with an active matrix screen, built in modem 
> and ethernet, and CD drive.  And the smaller and lighter the better - 
> but certainly not the most important consideration.

Chris:

This is what I use: No built-in CD or floppy or modem or ethernet, but
all are available inexpensively and the weight, conveneience, and price 
are right:

HP Omnibook 800CT

 - Small
 - Lightweight (4lb)
 - Robust (unlike comparable IBM TP560 which is soft plastic)
 - 16-80MB RAM
 - P166 MMX CPU
 - 800x600 bright LCD (couldn't find any higher rez when I
   was looking in this price range- ended up setting up
   a dozen workspaces with keystroke shortcuts so it doesn't
   limit me that much- flwm does this out of the box and
   other wms can be configured to do so).  The screen is
   smallish but IMHO the screen is the right size for this res, 
   unlike the TP560, which has a bigger screen but the same rez, 
   so the pixels are too big.  Caveat: XFree86 3.3.x needs 
   tweaking to work right, but 4.0.x just works.
 - Nearly instant-on instant-off (HP seems to do this better
   than anyone: makes the PC usable as a PDA too)
 - supports bigger hard drives (I've put one of those cheap
 - 20GB IBM drives in mine) (unlike otherwise comparable IBM
 - TP560)
 - built-in soundblaster-clone audio (caveat: had to cut
   down the DMA buffer size in the kernel tho)
 - built in external SCSI connector (weird plug tho, so get
   the external CD-ROM with cable)
 - avaialable external 8X CDROM drive plays audio CD's too without PC
 - Ethernet & modem available via PCMCIA: haven't tried a
   modem but the cheapo LinkSys 10BaseT cards (e.g. EC2T) 
   are basically plug and play (after putting your IP and 
   gateway in /etc/pcmcia/network.opts of course).
 - External floppy is avaiable but I've never sused it.
   Docs say the kernel needs floppy=thinkpad or somesuch.

Basic OB800CTs(16MB,2BG, no floppy or CDROM go for ~$200 on ebay)
With CDROM, floppy, and 80MB RAM (highly recommended, esp. if you 
like Gnome or KDE ;) ) would probably run you ~$300.  These all
come with a crummy little 2-4GB hard drive, so add ~$120 for a 
20GB from one of the vendors listed at pricewatch.com), so a total of  
$450-$500 with shipping and incidentals included.

Not a great box for rendering or other heavy crunching ;-> ,
but if you need it for email or writing or light hacking it's great!

-togo
going deeper