>>>>> "Thierry" == Thierry Leurent <thierry.leurent@wanadoo.be> writes: Thierry> Hello, I want buy a new laptop but What's the better solution ? It depends on what you need it for, how much you want to spend, how long you expect to use it for, etc. e.g. If you expect it to last for five years, then figure out what features you'll need in five years, and make sure that the laptop either supports those features, or can be upgraded to support them. If you're just going to use it for one year, you don't need to be as good with predicting the future. Thierry> CPU : AMD or Crusoe ? Intel is the most common, so if you're not too picky about the processor, you can probably get more variety. I hardly see AMD laptops any more, but I would generally prefer them to Intel. Crusoe could be good if you value battery life/weight/not burning your legs when you put your laptop on them. (I have a P3 laptop, and it never goes on my lap. It even has a warning against doing so in the manual.) There are fewer Crusoe laptops, though, so if you insist on that, a lot of your choices for your other options will already be made up for you. The processor is basically impossible to upgrade. Make sure the one you get will be powerful enough for the expected life of your laptop. Thierry> Mem : 258 Mo or more (BTW, it's "MB" in English. "byte" = "octet") 128MB is fine for me, so far, most of the time. I expect to upgrade before my laptop is done for me, considering the size of some of the applications these days. Again, it depends on what you use it for. If you'll be compiling stuff, with multiple OpenOffice and Mozilla windows open, you'll want more memory. If you're just writing LaTeX files or Perl scripts, you can probably get by with less. In most (?) laptops, it's fairly easy to add more memory later. But memory can be expensive -- at least more expensive than for a desktop system. For my laptop, memory units work out to about $1/MB (Canadian $ -- $1 CDN ~ $0.64 US, if that makes things any easier). Thierry> HD : 15 Go or more It depends what you need it for. My old laptop had something like 6GB, and it was barely enough. Right now, I'm using about 10GB, and could probably trim it down to less than 8GB, maybe even 6GB, if I really tried. If you have a lot of music and/or videos that you'd want to put on there, you would need more space. If your needs are relatively simple, you can get by with less. If you want to run other operating systems, you may need more space. Upgrading a hard drive is usually relatively easy (if you know what you're doing), but transferring the files over can be a pain. Thierry> Screen : 14 inch or more My own preference is to always get a TFT screen over a non-TFT screen. I don't find laptops with non-TFT screens to be much cheaper than those with TFT screens. Usually I care more about screen resolution than screen size (e.g. if it's a 15 inch screen, but only does 1024x768, it's no better to me than a 13 inch screen that does the same), but my eyesight is fairly good. Usually larger screens go with higher end models, so unless you're willing to shell out a lot more money, you may be stuck with a smaller screen. For me, the minimum resolution is 1024x768. 800x600 is livable, but to me, 1024x768 is worth the extra money. Screens are hard (impossible?) to upgrade, so make sure the one you pick will be good enough for as long as you expect your laptop to last. Thierry> DVD If you want to watch DVDs, get one. Some laptops (e.g. most/all new ThinkPads) have removable drive bays, so you can buy new drives and swap them in, but they're usually much more expensive than their desktop counterparts. So you may decide, for example, that you don't need DVDs now, and save a little money (maybe), and would rather buy a DVD writer when those start appearing. Thierry> One Lan adaptator If you expect to connect to a LAN, it's probably better to get a built-in LAN adaptor. Most laptops nowadays come with one anyways. Thierry> Graphic : Radeon or ???? I don't know. Usually I don't care, as long as it's very well supported by Linux and XFree86 (which my current one isn't). Thierry> I would like use all features as multimedia keyboard, ..... I don't know which laptops have supported multimedia keyboards. I haven't been able to convince the extra keys on my ThinkPad (R30) to do anything meaningful, but I haven't been trying very hard. Other issues that you didn't mention: - sound chip: make sure it's supported by Linux - modem: most built-in modems are Winmodems, and most Winmodems aren't supported by Linux. Some are supported poorly. If you figure you'll never need a modem, you probably won't care about this. If you need a modem, but the model you want to get uses an unsupported Winmodem, you can get a modem PCMCIA card - # of drives: some laptops only come with the hard drive built in, with external floppy and CD-ROM/DVD. Some come with all three built in. It depends on if you rather have the extra convenience, or a lighter base system. Of course, if your laptop doesn't have a floppy nor a CD-ROM, getting Linux on it may be difficult (though usually not impossible). - # of PCMCIA slots: most come with 2 type-II slots. Mine only has one. Figure out how much expandability you will need. - built-in USB/Firewire: probably all newer laptops should have at least one USB 1.1 port. I don't know if there are any that have a USB 2 (high speed USB) port. Some have Firewire ports. If you do any video transfer, you probably want a Firewire port, either built in, or on a PCMCIA card. - other ports: serial, PS/2, parallel, external monitor, video in/out, etc. Some of these, you can use a USB adaptor if the laptop doesn't come with them. But if you expect to use one of them frequently, it may be worth making sure that it's built in. - wireless LAN adaptor/Bluetooth: if you expect to use one of these, it may be worth getting one built in, if you don't want to use a PCMCIA slot. I think Bluetooth can be done in a USB device, but you may not want to have something hanging off your laptop. - pointing device: I can't use the track pad/glide pad/glide point/whatever it's called. A lot of people can't use the TrackPoint/AccuPoint/whatever. Figure out what works for you. Some laptops come with both. Depending on your style, it may also be worth getting one that has three buttons and/or a scroller (the equivalent of a mouse wheel, emulated in some way). - keyboard: some laptop keyboards have strange layouts. Usually it's not too hard to get used to, but it may be worth consideration. - battery life: if you expect to be working away from an outlet for extended periods of time, you may want to make sure that your laptop can last long enough. You can usually buy extra batteries, but juggling batteries is usually unpleasant. - weight: if you're going to be carrying your laptop around a lot, you may want to either get a lighter laptop, or exercise more. and, of course - price: It would be nice to have a fully loaded laptop, which weighs only 1 lb, and lasts for 36 hrs between battery charges. But you'll have to pay quite a bit for a system like that (including buying some R&D labs). That's probably more than you want to know, but hopefully it's helpful to you. (And most likely, I've missed something.) We can't really tell you that one thing is better than another, without knowing more about what you need it for, and some things you'll just have to decide for yourself (e.g. is it worth $1000 more to you to get a unit that's 1lb lighter?). Usually you need to be flexible in your expectations, since laptops (usually) aren't infinitely customizable like desktops are. So, for example, it might not be possible to find a laptop that has 2 PCMCIA slots, Firewire, a TrackPoint, and a 3 hr battery life, so you'll have to make tradeoffs. Also, some brands tend to have better Linux support than others, so this may be worth consideration. For example, people usually have good luck with IBMs. If I were to get a Sony, I think I would pretty much expect to not get any help from Sony. (Not to say that you can't get Linux to run on a VAIO -- IIRC, Linus has a VAIO laptop -- but if you run into problems, you're probably on your own.) -- Hubert Chan <hubert@uhoreg.ca> - http://www.uhoreg.ca/ PGP/GnuPG key: 1024D/124B61FA Fingerprint: 96C5 012F 5F74 A5F7 1FF7 5291 AF29 C719 124B 61FA Key available at wwwkeys.pgp.net. Encrypted e-mail preferred.
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