[Chester LUG] Good laptops without the Windows tax

[Scott Fraser]

Not technically what was asked but I can say that the apple Macbooks  
work beautifully with Linux - pretty much everything is supported.   
Installing Ubuntu was slightly more painful than normal (mainly due  
to the bootloader being wildly different) but not too hard - AFAIK  
there is now a project which has updated a standard Ubuntu with what  
is needed.

I have OSX (which isn't that bad - I probably use this most of all),  
Ubuntu and windows XP installed (for 2 windows only programs) and I  
have no complaints at all.  Battery life is also good.

Another benefit is that if the standard config is good enough then  
you can just walk into the Apple Store in Chester and pick one up  
over the counter!

I have a slightly older model than the one available currently which  
is faster and cheaper :-(

Scott

On 2 Mar 2007, at 01:57, George wrote:

> Stuart Burns wrote:
>> Hi Guys,
>> After much searching I have found a laptop builder who doesnt  
>> charge Windows tax, infact window is extra !
>
> YMMV but I would only buy a business grade laptop from Dell or HP  
> for two reasons.
>
> Firstly that if it's business grade you're guaranteed that the  
> hardware won't change for the life of the model - a year or two as  
> this allows the corporate clients who use Windows to keep to a  
> single ghosted image. This is good because it means that if you  
> find something which mentions Linux support on your model of laptop  
> you know that it'll work on your laptop - whereas with the consumer  
> models suppliers are liable to change the chipset if they think  
> they can save a dollar that month. It also means that there will be  
> a lot of that model laptop floating around and the chances that  
> someone will have already done the hard work of getting Linux to  
> run are increased.
>
> Secondly - and perhaps more importantly you can buy spares. I have  
> a HP NC8000 laptop that's about 3 years old. If I go to the HP  
> website I can still buy any part on my laptop such as replacement  
> keyboards. eBay also has a wide selection of parts for sale. This  
> is important as batteries on a notebook are typically guaranteed  
> for a year if you're lucky and I would expect them to last for two  
> years. If you have a laptop from a well known brand you will be  
> able to buy replacements for years - which is good to know.
>
> Oh one other bonus - if you buy a business laptop you can buy a  
> docking station. I really recommend docking stations if you think  
> you are going to be unplugging your laptop regularly. It's quicker  
> and tidier and doesn't put wear and tear on the ports - I've seen  
> quite a few laptops where the connectors have broken inside which  
> is a pain to fix.
>
> I don't really worry about the "Microsoft Tax", the OEM cost on a  
> laptop is probably something like £20 and so not worth basting your  
> decisions on. If you really don't want a copy there's always the  
> reject licence, demand refund route. Or you could just keep in case  
> you ever had something you needed to run on Windows in VMware etc.
>
> George
>
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