[Wylug-help] Laptop Choice

[Frank Shute]

On Wed, Nov 13, 2002 at 11:20:37PM +0000, Roger Leigh wrote:
>
>
> Sorry to butt in, but I'm also looking for a similar machine.  I've
> been using a Thinkpad at work for the last few weeks, and I've grown
> to like it.  I'm looking to something I can use for networking
> (testing software), software development, and taking away on holiday,
> to LUGs, etc.
>
> Are there any reputable places to buy a second-hand Thinkpad of a
> similar spec to yours?  I don't want to buy new because I don't want
> to be too worried about theft or damage, and I don't need a bang
> up-to-date machine.  I'd like to know I was buying a machine in good
> working order, though.
>

I've got a Thinkpad too & can recommend them also.

I bought mine directly from IBM (expensive!) but a year or two later I
was wondering around Tottenham Court Road & they had IBM laptops that
were new but had fallen behind their product cycle ie. didn't have the
latest CPU/HD combo. These were a bargain, about =A3800 as compared to
=A31200 for a machine from IBM. So if you can scratch together a bit
more than you'd pay for secondhand I'd recommend a trip down to
London.

This was a couple of years ago but I'm sure you can still get
remaindered IBM stock down there.

When I looked into laptops it came down to a choice between Dell & IBM
since they consisted of hardware largely supported by Linux. I chose
IBM for three reasons over Dell: the company supports Linux
considerably, I was an IBM shareholder at the time (no hassles with
tech support ;), better build quality than Dell (Dell machines had a
reputation for the LCD hinges coming apart back then). The downside is
that they are more expensive (but worth it IMHO).

BTW, I wrote up my Linux installation procedure for it:

http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/misc/thinkpad240.html

Not that it's likely you'll use a 240 but it still might be handy.

For Dave who had a problem with suspending one of his, here are the
APM options I used in my kernel config (2.2 kernels):

http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/misc/config_files.html#kernel_opts

It's worth looking through the kernel docs about IBM APM as some funny
hacks were required (Courtesy of AC).

BTW, FreeBSD works fine on my laptop also, NT4 was a bit of a hassle
though.

I did think about a RISC based laptop (ie. Apple hardware) but I
thought it would be more trouble than it would be worth & it's handy
for me having an MS OS at times.

--

 Frank

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