[NCLUG] Gateway MT6916

[Chad Perrin]

On Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 10:43:16AM -0700, DJ Eshelman wrote:
> this may be completely too late... but hey, why not...
> Two pieces of advice based on my experience with a lot of these Vista
> laptops:
> 
> 1)  Make sure you have recovery disks - sometimes you have to make them
> within Windows.  Gateway doesn't have a stellar past about providing these
> disks.

  1.5) Keep regular backups of your data.  Using a recovery disk
  generally means losing anything on the hard drive.


> On Nov 22, 2007 8:29 AM, Brian Wood <bwood at beww.org> wrote:
> >
> > Generally yes, but if you want to be "safe" there are several vendors
> > shipping laptops with Linux pre-loaded, "guaranteeing" that the hardware
> > all works, including drivers for "exotic" things like touch screens and
> > fingerprint readers.
> >
> > I think there was a recent Linux Journal article on these vendors.
> >
> > But of course the "cheap" feature may not be included :-)

On the other hand, it may be.  Dell has some that are fairly reasonably
priced.  Wal-Mart has some that are even cheaper (though the quality
probably matches the price).  One of the cheapest non-OLPC laptops I've
seen, and among the highest quality (as long as you don't consider the
ability to play World of Warcraft a minimal standard of "quality"), is
the Eee PC.  It runs a Debian derivative, and the rumor is that it is
also excellent for OpenBSD.  Be sure you want a *very* small laptop
before buying an ASUS Eee PC, though.

If I had any way to justify the purchase beyond just getting new toys,
I'd consider getting one.  They're going for under $400 brand new.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
McCloctnick the Lucid: "The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your
time waving your hands and hopping when a rock or a club will do."