[Wolves] Best sub £300 Linux Netbook

[Matt Warwick]

Adam is right, the 4213 is an ECS G10L, although internally it's the 
same as most of the other netbooks on the market. The models we sell 
which are rebadged Winds are the Advent 4211 and 4489 (The 4489 only has 
an 8.9" screen), and the new LG one - you wouldn't think that was a Wind 
but if you turn it upside down you can quite clearly see it is. I 
actually prefer the top styling of it to the 4211 but unfortunately we 
only sell the pink one ;)

Which store did you go to where you were told that about the warranty? 
The only thing you'll need to do is make sure you make a system recovery 
USB key from XP before you wipe the internal HDD - That way if anything 
on the laptop goes funky just reinstall XP on it to verify if it's a 
hardware fault or not, if so just phone Tech Guys to get it picked up 
and repaired.

An a related note, the amount of Linux based netbooks we get coming back 
is astounding - the main complaints appear to be that people can't seem 
to get them connected to their WiFi networks, and their ISP's flat out 
refuse to support them, and most mobile broadband dongles tend not to 
work out of the box either with most of the butchered distros that get 
preinstalled. I personally have installed Ubuntu on at least 3 of those 
in the last couple of months when people have bought them back to us - 
and also one where the customer didn't even buy their netbook from us, 
and one of my colleagues has done a couple as well. That sorts out the 
majority of them, but there are still quite a few occasions where the 
customers are adamant they want to exchange it for a Windows one, and no 
amount of persuasion will change their mind. In fact they normally start 
getting quite irate about it, until we agree to swap it for them. No 
matter how many times people say to me that Linux is ready for the 
general public, I think about all the customers I've had moan at me - 
people just don't like change, even if it is for the better.

Blimey, I think this is the first time I've posted in about 5 years?

Matt

On 17/05/2009 16:37, DragonMaster wrote:
> Hi All.  Just been to PC world to try to get a netbook - specifically the
> Advent 4213.  However, I was told that putting Linux on it would mean that
> half the features wouldn't work, and that it would invalidate the
> warranty!  Can anyone advise if they have found a netbook that is 100%
> compatible, AND has a large HDD (rather than an 8Gb SSD) and 3G
> compatability.
>
>    I was originally looking at the HP 2133, but this is no longer available
> anywhere.
>
>    Your advice and recommendations are, as always, very welcome
>
>
>
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