[Lancaster] Next LancsLUG Meetup

[Ken Hough]

Thanks to those who turned up at the Britania on Monday night for advice 
wrt suppliers of laptop PCs -- despite really lousy weather.

Since then I've taken time to sit back and ask myself what I really need 
a laptop for. I've also looked around at what is available for the desktop.

It would be quite a buzz to get a powerful laptop, but there would 
always be a risk that it would be dropped while I was giving a 
presentation (or even while attending a LUG pub meeting :-) ), or that 
it would be stolen. In reality, much of my PC usage is presently at the 
desktop.

So, the plan now is to go for a laptop that is somewhat quicker than my 
old Thinkpad T21 (700MHz PIII and 66MHz RAM, and which presently has a 
dead battery), but at the best price possible, and then to look at a new 
desktop PC.

The first part is already in hand. I've grabbed a 2nd hand Thinkpad T42 
via the Internet (Pentium M Centrino at 1.6GHz + 1024MB DDR 266MHZ RAM). 
This will come with a working battery and with Win XP Pro installed 
(spits into corner!) which I need to be able to run one piece of 
hardware which insists on either XP or Vista.

Don't worry guys, I won't be giving up on Linux.  ;-)

I'll then be able to consider getting one of the seriously powerful 
desktop PCs that are now available (quad core? + decently fast 
graphics?). The total cost will still be around what I would have had to 
pay for a fast Core 2 Duo laptop.

BTW: Thanks especially to Dave and Wane for comments about 
virtualisation. I shall certainly explore this.


Ken Hough