Re: Help selecting used laptop and peripherals to run debian woody
On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 01:17:06PM -0400, Pierre B wrote:
> I've been asked to help someone select and buy a second hand
> laptop and install debian (woody) on it.
>
> I'm seeking advice concerning both trouble free installation,
> and, more importantly, trouble free use.
>
> Laptops to favour.
> Laptops to avoid.
> Features to favour.
> Features to avoid.
> Peripherals to favour.
> Peripherals to avoid.
> Faults to be aware of.
>
> Considerations that are not obvious to someone
> who is experienced installing debian, redhat, mandrake and
> windows, but only on desktops?
>
> For context, the requirement is more for mobility and small
> footprint inside the building rather than frequent travel.
>
> Items of importance to user:
>
> Gnome desktop, Mozilla browser, Mozilla mail.
This sounds pretty plain, I don't see any specific constraints from this
application profile.
Regarding installation, my experience with installing Linux on notebooks
has been that things may be somewhat strange in the beginning, but once
you get the installation disk booted, the rest is not much different from
installing on a desktop system.
Many problems with notebooks are due to unsupported hardware components
(modems, sound cards, WLAN cards etc.), but there is no general answer
which items to use and which to avoid. My pseudo-algorithm for getting
a new laptop would be
1. assemble a wish list
2. get an idea which models match list best
3. go to http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and look for installation
reports
4. If you don't like what you read in the report, go to 1 or to 2
Greetinx, Jan
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