[olug] Laptop options.

Rob Townley rob.townley at gmail.com
Sat Feb 2 03:14:55 UTC 2008


On Feb 1, 2008 6:11 PM, Drag Sidious <linlamer at cox.net> wrote:

>
> On Thu, 2008-01-31 at 17:43 -0600, Dan Linder wrote:
> > On Jan 31, 2008 5:21 PM, Dave Thacker <dthacker9 at cox.net> wrote:
> >
> > > We've all been is this position, and I know you want your friends to
> have
> > > a
> > > trouble free experience.  I'm curious why you ruled out a
> pre-installed
> > > Linux
> > > laptop from Dell?
> >
> >
> > Wow, nearly 20 hours  and this is the first "Why not Linux?" post! ;-)
> >
> > I have been thinking it over a bit, but for this time through I'll have
> to
> > stick with WinXP.
> >
> >    - They have a very small set of programs that they run.  They
> >    specifically use the Windows AOL client - it isn't very nice or
> powerful for
> >    someone like us, but it suits them just fine.  I'm pretty sure this
> won't
> >    run under Linux natively.
> >    - I ruled out using Wine because a lot of the programs they want to
> >    run are just not 100% there yet (MS Word and AOL especially).
> >    - I'm pretty sure that I could get them up with other FOSS software
> >    (Thunderbird, OpenOffice, etc), but these folks are the best example
> of
> >    "stuck in a rut".
> >       - And it's not just Linux.  That is the same reason I'm sticking
> >       with XP, and going to try to resurrect their old MS-Office
> installation
> >       media.
> >    - They travels quite a bit (must be nice to be retired!), and a big
> >    concern of theirs is getting it working (or getting something new
> installed)
> >    wherever they are at.  I am sure most of the things they would add
> (webcam
> >    and other USB devices) would be fine under Linux, but if they had to
> send it
> >    in for repairs they'd get all worried about being "out of the
> mainstream".
> >    And I especially don't want the tech working on it to say, "Sorry, we
> don't
> >    support Linux..." or some other lame excuse.
> >
> > Once they are moved over, I *do* plan on resurrecting their old systems
> by
> > putting Ubuntu on it and configuring it as best I can for their needs.
> > Maybe having a "spare" sitting around that *Just works! (tm)* will make
> them
> > a Linux convert after a while.
> >
> > Dan
> >
>
> This is a bit tough-in-cheek, but...
>
> Take Ubuntu Linux and slap a XP theme on it and call it 'Service Pack 3'
> and I doubt they'd notice the difference. Most people wouldn't.
>
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Cheaper too....

$199.00 for a new desktop
$399.00 for a new laptop
http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php



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