On 8/18/25 04:02, Richard Owlett wrote:
On 8/17/25 4:52 PM, David Christensen wrote:On 8/16/25 04:41, Richard Owlett wrote:I currently have Debian 12.8 on a Dell Latitude [4GB RAM, 150GB disk] which I purchased as a refurbished machine years ago.The local Staples has a sale on of overstocked laptops. There is a selection of Lenovo [used the brand before] and HP [used their instrumentation in the 70's] machines. All have at least 8GB of RAM and suitably large disk capacity.All are capable of running Trixie. For the best experience what options should I favor? "Laptop" is the only form factor of interest.Screen size is not an issues as I primarily use an external 18" display driven by arandr.At least one machine offers a very large SSD. Potential problem(s)? For perspective, I rarely use more than 2/3 of my 2GB monthly data cap.After the new machine is operational I will address partitioning issues of my current machine and do a "from scratch" install of Trixie.Comments? Any questions I haven't thought to ask? TIAPlease tell us about your existing computers and network, and how the laptop will be used.The only thing omitted from my original post was that any desired software [except for preferred browser, SeaMonkey] is available in Debian repository.My current machine was released ~15 years ago. A local vendor has an attractive collection of Lenovo on sale. More disk space would be nice [prompted question about TB SSD's]. Opportunity knocks ;}
So, the laptop will contain all of your data, and your network consists of the laptop and your Internet gateway (?).
I suggest getting a laptop with two or three drives -- a small one for the OS and a large one (or pair in RAID1) for data. Dell Precision "Mobile workstations" come to mind -- 7510+ series with two drives, 7710+ series with three drives:
https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/Dell-Precision-15-7000-Series-7510-Spec-Sheet.pdf https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/Dell_Precision_17_7000_7710_Series_Spec_Sheet.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Precision#Mobile_workstationsAlternatively, get a laptop with one drive and get a file server or NAS for your data. Configure your Internet gateway to allow remote access to the data via sshfs, VNC, VPN, etc., when you go remote.
David