Dell Computers will still sell a Laptop Preloaded with RedHat ,
as for local none!
The only reason I would choose a Dell is because Dell does stand behind the
hardware. In fact the Only Name Brand I do trust.
Also Dell will come to your house or business and Fix for up to 3 years.
They are not
going to go out of business for a while and usually within 24hrs either the
repair tech or
parts are in your hand.
I do not know what IBM could offer. I also give this advice from being a
support tech.
When you buy a Laptop with the amount of money involved You should look for
the following.
Product Support! , Stick with a Name because I have to say this sometimes if
the battery fails some
of these generic marked ones you can not easily track a battery down to buy
a backup one or replacement.
The Company I use to work for bought 9 generic brand Laptops they were ESP
then went out of business
shortly after we purchased them. 8 of them had battery failure in less then
a Year. While I found places on the net
that said they sold batteries for ESP this model we got which was their
highest rated was redesigned to use a
different battery then what anyone had. After 3 months of Looking and
research I found out that they were made by Chinon
when we contacted Chinon they said that they came out with this model and
dropped it because they could no longer get
the battery manufacture to send them batteries because they went out of
business! So then we tried on final thing we tried
to send them to 3 different places who claimed they could rebuild them at
190.00 each. They were expensive because they
were Lithium Ion batteries which had the smart technology which means that
they have a indicator on them which you can
remove the battery and push the little button and a led would come on and
tell you your power level.
Any ways we paid and all 3 were returned from the different places which
none of them worked and there was no promise that
they could rebuild them. They all were split open only to find that the
cells in the batteries were also too new for them to have.
and they were destroyed and would not work.
So then we could only use these Laptops with a power cord. Which defeats
the purpose of having a Laptop.
This is why I would never go with a generic unless you are buying extra
batteries at the time of purchase or that you can cross
reference them to a replacement available for it. The sad thing is we could
have purchased Dells instead which we normally used
but my Boss wanted to try these others. They were in fact more expensive
then the Dells were as well. He just bought them on a
impulse cause a magazine did a good write up on that model and he liked the
looks of it.
As for loading Linux your self it is no big thing if you spend a few days of
research on what models are compatible with the
Distro you intend to run. Usually a weekend is all you need. The ones that
usually works fine are Compaq Persario's and Armada's
Dell Inspirons and Latitudes, IBM think Pads, and Hp ask Robin about the
models.
While I know some use Sony Vaio's which has a awesome Display but the are
not too trust worthy, and Gateway Solo's have a problem with the system
clocks keeping accurate time and display bombs usually quick in a year or
two.
Also sometimes you can get a Refurb Dell like Ed Centanni did at a good
price with warranty and parts still available,
Good Luck
Bill Preece
-----Original Message-----
From: Carson Wilcox <carson_wilcox@yahoo.com>
To: SLUG <slug@nks.net>
Date: Sunday, January 27, 2002 11:22 AM
>I'm in the market for a new laptop. While I could
>install linux myself, I'd prefer to have it preloaded
>for a couple of reasons. First if I get a laptop and
>for some reason linux won't run on it, I'm stuck with
>a boat anchor and I don't have a boat. Secondly I need
>it for every day work and just don't have a lot of
>time to mess with it.
>
>Can anyone point me to a good place, preferably in the
>Tampa Bay area or if that isn't possible, some place
>on line where I can look for this animal.
>
>Thanks,
>Carson
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions!
>http://auctions.yahoo.com
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