Re: What's your favorite inexpensive Linux laptop?
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>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Ivanovich <creature@blacklagoon.org> writes:
Chris> Greetings fellow Debianers... I was hoping I could get some
Chris> personal opinions here. I currently have Debian running on a
Chris> server in my house, and a Macintosh notebook. I'm now looking to
Chris> fire up a PC notebook with it, as well.
Chris> I'm looking for recommendations as to what brand and model I
Chris> should look for (or stay away from). I don't want to spend more
Chris> than $800 for the beast, so getting something that is new is
Chris> _not_ important. I would prefer something with an active matrix
Chris> screen, built in modem and ethernet, and CD drive. And the
Chris> smaller and lighter the better - but certainly not the most
Chris> important consideration.
If you want something cheap, Toshiba Satellites appear to be relatively
well supported by Linux. Unfortunately, they mostly use built-in
WinModems (as do most laptops).
I have a Satellite 2100CDS, and I have everything working except for the
modem and maybe the USB port (I don't have any USB devices, so I can't
test it). The PCMCIA controller is also working at reduced
functionality (no CardBus support ... yet?).
I know Toshiba has a model that's running for around $1700 CAD (so about
$1100 USD - a bit over your budget) that has active matrix, 64MB,
built-in CD-ROM and floppy. I believe it also has a built-in ethernet.
IIRC it's a Satellite 1780 or 7180, or something like that. You can go
to www.toshiba.com and poke around. That's the cheapest (new) laptop
that I know of. I don't know how well supported it is under Linux, but
AFAIK the sound and video should both be supported.
For a laptop, though, the most important things are (in order of
importance, IMHO):
- - pointing device (this is the reason I will only buy IBM, Toshiba, or
certain Dell models)
- - keyboard
- - memory (because swapping on a laptop is painfully slow. Although
memory is probably the easiest thing to upgrade)
(Well, Linux support is at the top of the list, but that goes without
saying.)
- --
Hubert Chan <hackerhue@geek.com> - http://www.geocities.com/hubertchan/
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