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  • #61




    I would wait a bit and see if this is going to be true...
    Last edited by val-gaav; 04 June 2008, 06:42 PM.

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    • #62
      Whilst good news if true I don't think it's worth the wait. Acer's laptops are fine if you need something cheap but if you want something a bit better I'd go with Dell or Lenovo as both offer linux pre-installed.

      Personally ThinkPads > * as they could be run over by a tank and still work fine.

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      • #63
        I bought an Acer 5920. Not the G, with nvidia graphics, just plain old Centrino. Some things were glitchy in 7.10, such as only one of the chassis speakers worked. Installed 8.04 and problems have gone away. Don't care about the webcam so haven't tried.

        I'm surprised to hear the OP say that wireless is spotty. The 4965 wireless card in this Acer works great. Have connected to numerous wi-fi hotspots and several protected wireless networks without a problem.

        I'm dual-booting Vista. Wireless connects are better, faster, and less finicky in Ubuntu.

        Sometimes Ubuntu just makes me smile. Tried for two days (I'm not a networking whiz) to connect to my father's wireless HP printer from Vista. Could see the printer and even check ink levels but couldn't add it to the network. It took about five minutes to find the printer and print a test page from Ubuntu, using HPLIP application.

        I'd say that going with a Centrino notebook is a very big first step. Any non-Intel wireless card can be troublesome. Even if you get them working, kernel updates can break them again as happened just two weeks ago.

        Sure, I'd rather have a Thinkpad. The Acer cost me $650 six months ago. Have seen better deals since. A comparable TP woulda been roughly - what - at least a thousand bucks?
        Last edited by Telkwa; 08 June 2008, 10:06 AM.

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        • #64
          Originally posted by Aradreth View Post
          Whilst good news if true I don't think it's worth the wait. Acer's laptops are fine if you need something cheap but if you want something a bit better I'd go with Dell or Lenovo as both offer linux pre-installed.

          Personally ThinkPads > * as they could be run over by a tank and still work fine.
          And they weigh like 2 tons too.

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          • #65
            Originally posted by Telkwa View Post
            I'm surprised to hear the OP say that wireless is spotty. The 4965 wireless card in this Acer works great. Have connected to numerous wi-fi hotspots and several protected wireless networks without a problem.

            I'm dual-booting Vista. Wireless connects are better, faster, and less finicky in Ubuntu.
            I can connect to open wi-fi hotspots and I think that's fine... sometimes on my WEP protected hotspot (don't harp on me about WEP, I know why I picked it) though it just simply cannot find the hotspot and says there are no DHCP offers. Pisses me off.

            I use Vista and Ubuntu and Vista has a much better time looking for hotspots.

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            • #66
              Update: Lenovo and Dell are definitely choices to me. So, that's good news.

              So, out of these, which one?:
              Dell XPS M1330
              Dell Vostro 1400
              Lenovo Thinkpad T61

              Is there any reason to choose the Vostro over the Thinkpad if it's between two 14" screens?

              I'd probably go with the Intel grahpics. I'm now looking at the negatives regarding the choices. The Dell XPS laptop is most expensive but the Thinkpad supposedly has some flaws with its screen (one is that it is dim). I would be watching DVDs so I'm wondering how that effects the comparison. I'd like to go with the Dell LED screen but that increases the price quite considerably. The Dell has quality issues but are they serious enough to take the Thinkpad over it?

              All these are adquate for Linux but which one and why? I want a light and think laptop but all the above are good for portability. Which one?!? It's hard to decide! ;-)

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              • #67
                I've got a Dell Vostro 1400 and I love it. I've got the nvidia 8400gs upgrade and the 1440x900 screen, and I've been running Fedora 8 and 9 on it and it runs great. I dual boot with windows XP for certain architecture apps, but I do most of my gaming under linux with the nvidia driver. The only issue with installation is making sure you don't wipe out Dell's diagnostic partition and the media direct crap (if you want it).

                I've got the extended battery and I can get about 5 hours of it. When I ordered mine it was only 40 bucks to get the extended battery + the standard one vs a 20 dollar upgrade to just the extended battery, so I've got the standard and extended batteries and between the two of them I can get a little over 8 hours out of it.

                My other recommendation if you go with the vostro is to make sure to get one of the intel wireless cards...I got the 4965 card and it works really well too.

                (Oh, and make sure you go through Dell's small business site...I got 2 gigs of ram and a 250gb harddrive for a fraction of what it would have cost to upgrade to those specs under the regular users site.

                I'd be glad to answer any questions about the vostro if you still have any. Good luck picking!

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                • #68
                  Originally posted by Panix View Post
                  Update: Lenovo and Dell are definitely choices to me. So, that's good news.

                  So, out of these, which one?:
                  Dell XPS M1330
                  Dell Vostro 1400
                  Lenovo Thinkpad T61

                  Is there any reason to choose the Vostro over the Thinkpad if it's between two 14" screens?

                  I'd probably go with the Intel grahpics. I'm now looking at the negatives regarding the choices. The Dell XPS laptop is most expensive but the Thinkpad supposedly has some flaws with its screen (one is that it is dim). I would be watching DVDs so I'm wondering how that effects the comparison. I'd like to go with the Dell LED screen but that increases the price quite considerably. The Dell has quality issues but are they serious enough to take the Thinkpad over it?

                  All these are adquate for Linux but which one and why? I want a light and think laptop but all the above are good for portability. Which one?!? It's hard to decide! ;-)
                  I think you'll find that you can't really go wrong with any of those choices.

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