[Gllug] London laptop recommendations

[Karanbir Singh]

Hi,

Nik Clayton wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a laptop for running Kubuntu that'll be easy to 
> obtain in London, *or*, a store in London that'll be happy if I turn up 
> with a Kubuntu live CD and try and use it on their display models?

Most people here are going to recommend IBM laptops, which are - mostly nice. 
I've had a few over the years - but i dont think they either represent the best 
option out there or real value for money anymore. So I am going to stick my neck 
out and recommend the two laptops I currently use. The Acer Ferrari 4005 and a 
HP TC4400.  I've never used Kubuntu, I can only imagine its no worse than the 
average distro out there at the moment.

> * A display resolution of at least 1024x768
> * Battery life > 3 hours
> * Working suspend to RAM
> * Suspend to disk would be nice
> * Processor speed of 1.7GHz or greater
> * Not much heavier than 2.5Kg (5.7lbs)
> * Bonus points if it supports a docking station, so I'm not
>    repeatedly plugging/unplugging power cables every morning
> * Trackpad (I don't get on with nipple mice)

Except for the battery life conditions everything works for me on both the 
laptops. but:

4005 is 3.80 Kg's - 1680x1050 Wide 15.4" display, Turion 2.2Ghz, ATI chipset and 
I get about 90 - 100 minutes on the battery under decent usage. Playing Doom4 
brings this down to about 50 odd minutes. The TC4400, intel chipset, 12" 
1024x768, core2 duo 1.8Ghz about 2.6 Kg's with the extended battery I have, 
gives me about 16 hrs of proper work time on the battery. Playing doom4 on it 
brings that down to about 9 hrs+ . And the Ferrari only has a trackpad, but the 
HP TC4400 has both - a trackpad and the  trackpoint ( which I actually prefer 
over the trackpad ).

And finally, I have no idea where you might be able to walk-in-and-play with 
this kit. Perhaps if you are going to be down at one of the socials soon, you 
can trial kubuntu on my machines ? ( I am not sure if the Ferrari 4005 is sold 
these days, but its 500x successors are quite nice too )

> My last laptop with an IBM T42, on which I ran FreeBSD + KDE.  It was a 
> lovely combination, but it had to go back when I changed jobs.

honestly, if you liked it that much - why not just get another one of the same ?

Hope this helps,

-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug