[olug] Linux Laptop v/s. Apple Powermac

[Brian Wiese]

I'm running Knoppix 01-01-2003 on it just fine (even detected wifi card
and all for me).  I got it online from the dell refurb outlet[1] last
July.  

Unfortunately, I guess I paid my m$ tax with it and found no way to get
around it online (perhaps calling Dell and complaining might have
helped?)... also, as soon as I got it, it was preinstalled with WinXP home
- so I think even booting it voided my ability to turn it back in for
windows refund day[2].  There are plenty of docs online about it though,
people have had tons[3] of success with the 8100/8200 (desktop/)laptops.
=)

I opted for the cheaper 1400x1050 xsvga screen, on a gforce2go, minipci
builtin wifi 3c920, firewire (no usb2.0 unfortunately), 1.4ghz p4, 30gig,
8xDVD/8xCDR combo for about 1700 plus 3 year warranty on top of that. 
I've seen some good buys lately, on Compaqs and such with usb2.0 and built
in wifi -- I hear their support is a bit shaky though... and thats
important for me (can't upgrade laptop mobo easily/cheaply).

... one thing I do NOT like, the sound/firewire ports right underneath the
PCMCIA slots. =( but I get by.  1600x1400 might be nicer if you can afford
it, but the screens/graphics are quite nice.

[1] http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/default.htm  (select model to view
inventory)[2] http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6471
[3] http://www.rm-r.net/~meff/i8200/
http://www.deselaers.com/DellInst/
http://www.stephanwehrheim.de/computer/dell8200+suse80/dell8200+suse80.html
http://home.t-online.de/home/mchristoph.eckert/inspiron8200/Inspiron8200.en.html
-- and the 8100s/8000s ---
http://vergil.chemistry.gatech.edu/~park/dell.html
http://halfdans.net/index.py/standard?c=show&p=69
http://www-lehre.inf.uos.de/~ftrenkam/i8k-installation.php
http://perso.efrei.fr/~parmelee/
...

On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 14:44:19 -0800
"Jacobs, Robert A." <RAJACOBS at northropgrumman.com> wrote:

|Brian,
|
|	Are you running Debian on the Inspiron 8200?  That was one of
|the machines I was looking at?  
|
|	Were you able to get around the Microsoft tax?
|
|>-----Original Message-----
|>From: Brian Wiese [mailto:bwiese at cotse.com]
|>Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 1:40 PM
|>To: olug at olug.org
|>Subject: Re: [olug] Linux Laptop v/s. Apple Powermac
|>
|>
|>On 09 Mar 2003 15:09:19 -0600
|>"Robert A. Jacobs" <r.a.jacobs at cox.net> wrote:
|>
|>|On Sat, 2003-03-08 at 20:25, Daniel Pfile wrote:
|>|
|>|
|>|> Get the airport extreme and use it with whatever 802.11b/g 
|>base station
|>|> you want. The range is kinda weak (antenna is in the screen, and the
|>|> back is covered in titanium), mine seems to go about 100 
|>feet through 3
|>|> plaster walls ok though.
|>|> 
|>|
|>|Any PC laptop users want to comment on their wireless experience?
|>|
|>|rob
|>
|>yeah, my builtin wifi card on my dell insprion 8200 seems a bit weak
|>compared to other pcmcia cards... i honestly haven't tested 
|>the range and
|>differences, but it personally seems noticable.. it works though. =)