[NCLUG] linux on recent HP laptops

[Brian Wood]

S. Luke Jones wrote:
> On Oct 22, 2008, at 7:21 AM, Brian Wood wrote:
>> If I'm looking at a particular laptop I tend to go with the ones that
>> have been reviewed in Linux Journal, and are thus known to work well
>> with Linux.
> 
> Well, the models I want come and go pretty fast. I'm looking to nab a
> Best Buy / Office Depot / ... special some week in the next couple of
> months. That pretty much rules out (usually but not necessarily) waiting
> for a genuine review to come out. And with the big-box commodity models,
> the model reviewed won't necessarily have the same parts as the one for
> sale this week.
> 
>> There is also Emperor Linux, which specializes in selling machines that
>> they guarantee will have all the functions working properly. There is a
>> big difference between an outfit that just slaps a Linux distro on
>> something and one that actually works to make sure that every thing
>> works, but you pay for that difference.
> 
> Yes. I've been using macs since 2003. Great machines, and they "just
> work" but Steve will only sell cadillacs. (Make that "Lexi" :-)  My
> wife, however, can't be convinced I need another spendy computer.
> ("Honey," I say, "'just works' isn't free.") So as I look for something
> more portable than our old eMac, it will have to be on a budget.
> 
>> Most WiFi radios are supported these days, by one trick of grabbing the
>> firmware or another. Any standard DVD burner interface is usually
>> supported as well. Power control, as you mentioned, can often be
>> problematic.
> 
> Good news about the DVD burner. I built my last linux box in 2001 (a
> desktop) and finally abandoned my sporadic attempts to get a working
> CD/DVD burner about 2-3 years ago.
> 
>> I was pretty astounded that my PPC iBook worked great with Ubuntu, the
>> only problem being that I have the older ADB trackpad and had to patch
>> the kernel to get trackpad scrolling working with the Synaptics driver
>> (you need to get it into absolute mode). It really makes a nice little
>> Linux box.
> 
> 
> That's my plan B, because I've had such good experience with macs: to
> buy one somebody is unloading (Mac OS X 10.6 won't support PPC,
> apparently) and put Linux on it.

You can get Linux onto any iBook, PPC or Intel. If you can pick up a
refurb or used one it would be cheap, heck, new ones are only $999 these
days, not bad for a Linux laptop that pretty much "just works".

Would any of the netbooks meet your needs? <$400 gets you a pretty
usable machine. I'm thinking seriously about an Acer Aspire for $399.

beww