Re: Laptops and Linux (was: Re: tecra bootdisk)
On 3 August 2000 at 23:05, Rogerio Brito <rbrito@iname.com> wrote:
>
> I'm in the market for a new computer and I'm still deciding if
> I'll go with a desktop or with a laptop... I'm looking for
> something that uses only free-software, without third-party
> drivers and that has reasonable performance.
Everyone's going to die laughing at the suggestion, but look at
WinBook. I had been a fairly devoted user of Linux for a while, but
when I was in the market for a computer, I had returned to using
Windows, and the WinBook XL^2 was about what I needed--very good
features for a small price (~$1000) and small weight (~7 lbs. for a
mid-featured notebook). When I chose to return to the fold and
install Debian again, I was pleasantly surprised that I could spend
five minutes configuring a kernel, adding Ir* and PCMCIA support,
compile, reboot, and keep working. No OSS nonsense, no strange,
third-party drivers, nothing. (Note that I am using a 3COM PCMCIA
modem/ethernet combo; if you use an internal modem from WinBook YMMV.)
The name sounds scary, but the price for the features is not. Their
higher-end notebooks ship with big screens, DVD, big hard drives, and
fast processors and still undercut Dell, etc. In addition, I have yet
to hear of serious problems with the hardware. It is not a
low-quality machine.
The single thing about the WinBook I would warn about is that the fan
is on almost constantly when it's on AC power, at least on my XL^2
with a Celeron 400. Whether this is a Celeron-only precautionary
measure for over-clocked processors or a "feature" of all WinBook
laptops, I don't know.
Oh, and it has a Synaptics touchpad, which is a little...weird under
Linux. The click-and-a-half feature is only sort-of supported, and
dragging in general is a tad weird. At least on my model; again,
YMMV.
Hope that helps. :-)
Chris
--
Christopher Tessone Computer Programmer
Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy Learning-at-a-Distance Program
http://www.imsa.edu/~tessone/
GnuPG Key: http://www.imsa.edu/~tessone/mykey.asc
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