[Sussex] Advice and Opinions on a laptop purchase please?

[Steve Dobson]

Neil

On Thu, Jan 26, 2006 at 10:19:59AM +0000, Neil Simmons wrote:
> I'm finally replacing my aging P3 lappy, and I have three choices:
> 
> ACER TM2413LM: Cel-M 1.5, 256MB, 40GB, DVDRW at £399.99;
> 
> TOSHIBA L20-217: Cel-M 1.3, 256MB, 60GB, DVDRW, 802.11g at £449.99;
> 
> ACER AS3003WLMI: AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8GHz, 512MB, 60GB, DVDRW, 802.11g
> at £469.99
> 
> Any one of them is plenty powerful enough for my needs (and truth be
> told, my preference is the AMD as it's also got a 15.4" widescreen) -
> but I want to make sure that whichever one I go for, Ubuntu is going
> to 'Just Work'.
> 
> Has anyone had any experience of Linux on any of these three, and
> opinions they would like to offer?
 
Are you buying these mail order/online or are you getting them from
a shop.

If from a shop then why not arrange to take a Ubuntu live CD and 
try it out.  If they are a decent PC shop they shouldn't have a
problem with that.  They should understand that a live CD won't
hurt the software already installed.

If the shop is Dixon's, Curry's or Comet (box sellers) their 
"technical staff" might might not understand what you want to do.
I wouldn't buy from a buy from a box seller anyway, their business
is built around the selling of the box, not the product itself.

Would a box seller understand if you had to return the laptop for
repair that it would come back without the disk?  Not because you
have certain kind of kiddy photos on it, but because your private
GnuPG key was on the disk and you don't even what them doing a 
forensic examination to get at it.  Would they understand, or would
they just say "It don't work because it's got no disk mate" (or
just phone the local police).

If your buying mail order/internet they have you contacted their
pre-sales advice.  If nothing else it would express your interest
in Linux.  

Thirdly have to looked at linux laptops [1]?  While the Acer
TM2313LM isn't listed, the TravelMate 2413WLMi is, and the report 
is for Ubuntu 5.10.  Is the WLMi close enough to the LM?  

I couldn't find any thing on the Toshiba (maybe the model number is
very different) but there is a report on the Acer Aspire 3003 WLMi.
It doesn't say its AMD based but it did mention the 15.4" screen
and gives you bits of his X11 config file.

Hope this helps
Steve

[1]
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
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