[OFB Cafe] New Laptop... A Report

[Fred A. Miller]

Donald Spoon wrote:
> My wife decided to present me with a new laptop for Christmas, but
> allowed me to select it.  I was watching the sales and special deals
> from Best Buy, etc looking for a decent Dell or Toshiba machine.  Dell
> had a sale on their model 1525 Inspirons last week end, and I almost got
> one.  I was doing the on-line "Configuration", when I ran up against the
> option for "Wild Tanget Games", which was a "try before buying" deal
> that I definatetly didn't want.  When I tried to remove the option, it
> protested implying it was needed for the overall system, and wouldn't
> let me uncheck it!  I did the on-line "Chat" thing to Dell Sales and
> explained the problem to "Dave" who assured me he could remove it by
> entering the order on his end.  Since I had made several minor changes
> like the color, no dial-up ISP, etc, which didn't change the base sale
> price, I wasn't inclined to repeat it all again over the "Chat" so I
> asked for a call-back to complete my order.  Dave took my information
> and assured me that his assistant would be calling me in 2-3 minutes.
> I waited, and waited, and waited...  I got bored and went to the Best
> Buy site and started looking there.  I ran across an Acer Aspire model
> 6930 that had identical hardware, except it had a larger screen (16")
> and a larger Hard Drive for about $40 less!  I also found that the local
> stores had them in stock and I wouldn't have to wait 7-10 days for one
> to be "built"!  I ran down and took a look at the display model, liked 
> what I saw, and bought one.  Dell hasn't called me back yet...

Too bad.....I have had that model for roughly 7 months, and am typing
this on it. The ONLY thing I don't like about it, is that there's no
hardware "switch" to turn off the touchpad. I HATE touchpads with a
passion and use a wireless Logitech mouse. The Dell likes Linux a LOT. ;)

> My old laptop was an Acer Aspire 1522, which has served me well over the
> years, so I didn't have any heartburn about the brand.  I decided to
> accept the default Winders Vista, since there didn't seem to be many
> other options.  On my old Acer they and divided the HD into two main
> partitions and installed XP on one and used the other for "Backup". 
> This computer had the same thing, which makes it nice if you want to
> install Linux!!  You just delete the backup partion (NOT the hidden
> recovery partitions that contain the Vista self-install) and put the
> Linux Dist of your choice there.  On my new computer, I have about 140
> Gigs of space to install Linux.  The only problem is that Acer had used
> all 4 of the "Primary" partions in the original partition schema, so you
> have to make the old Backup partition into an Extended partition in
> order to have a place to put the Swap partition and the EXT3 primary
> Linux partions.  I dunno if Acer does this for all their computers, but
> it has happened to me twice now, so I though I would pass it on.  
> course you CAN delete all and use the entire HD for Linux if you want. 
> This is just a suggestion on how to do minimal damage...

I've replaced Vista on a number of them, after all I get paid to do it
:), and make it clear to the owner that there WON'T be any remnant of
'Bloze anywhere on the hard drive. I'm not sure why Acer uses this config.

> BTW,. a good set of System Rescue Tools that has GParted on it comes in
> handy.  I used this one:  http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
> 
> I also grabbed the latest KUBUNTU iso image and burned a CD.  This iso
> has KDE 4 on it.  Once I re-rigged my BIOS to boot from the CD, I put in
> the KUBUNTU CD and tried the live disc option. which was the first one
> on the list.  Amazingly, it booted the first try and even discovered the
> wireless WIFI chipset, wireless mouse, audio, and proper Xorg screen
> driver!  In short, KUBUNTU "just worked" on this new machine!  I was
> especially amazed at it discovered the wireless WIFI chipset (which
> supports the draft N spec too).  All I had to do was supply a few config
> items, like which AP I wanted to connect to and the WEP key in order to
> connect to my home Lan!  I did a little digging and found out the
> included chipset was an Intel Wireless Link 5100, and Intel has
> published drivers for it.  In fact Intel these drivers are now
> incorporated in the new Linux Kernels!  (2.6.25 and higher I think)! 
> Intel seems to be aggressively supporting Linux.   The live disc feature
> is really neat, in that it let me see if I was going to have any
> hardware problems before I actually changed anything up.  It now seems
> that I can safely put Ubuntu or Kubuntu or probably Debian Lenny on this
> computer without having any major hassles!  Dunno how this all
> translates into the other Dists.

You'd be fine with openSUSE as well.....11.1 releases in 11 days. You
can install it with KDE 4.1.* or under "option" install KDE 3.5.10 if
you install from a DVD image.....32 and 64-bit versions will be available.

> My,  how far we have come....

Oh yes.

> Well, that is my report for now.  I am having fun down here in Geezerland!

GOOD deal! By the way, openSUSE runs a lot faster than Vista did on this
box. I just can't see why anyone would want that junk.

Fred

-- 
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties
than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to
control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks
will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up
homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson, 1802