Re: Choosing a computer is more important than choosing a distro
Posted by: Brian Masinick
on April 10, 2008 06:15 PM
"Like many people, pdmayton has it backwards. He's made the first, crucial, mistake: buying a laptop without checking whether Linux has support for all the devices in it. Chances are, he is going to find Linux frustrating and go back to Windows."
That may be true. However, from the standpoint of helping people out I think those of us who are savvy and Linux evangelists need to be kind and patient in our explanations of things like that. I'm hearing that the vast majority of desktop systems use components common enough that they generally work, but I would agree that is not universally true, and it is much less true with laptop systems. There are a few laptop systems that are sold that actually come pre-installed and pre-configured with Linux software. Asus has a line of those low end "eee" class systems that are plenty powerful enough for many tasks, but Dell and Lenovo actually sell a few systems that are quite capable by any standards. For the first timers, those may be the best ones to get into so that the initial experience is positive.
I have heard it said that in general, one to two year old laptops tend to be a fairly safe choice. Probably so as long as it is a mainstream laptop vendor with a household name. However, even back in 1999, I had good results with a no name Cybermax laptop, so who is to say!
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Re: Choosing a computer is more important than choosing a distro
Posted by: Brian Masinick on April 10, 2008 06:15 PMThat may be true. However, from the standpoint of helping people out I think those of us who are savvy and Linux evangelists need to be kind and patient in our explanations of things like that. I'm hearing that the vast majority of desktop systems use components common enough that they generally work, but I would agree that is not universally true, and it is much less true with laptop systems. There are a few laptop systems that are sold that actually come pre-installed and pre-configured with Linux software. Asus has a line of those low end "eee" class systems that are plenty powerful enough for many tasks, but Dell and Lenovo actually sell a few systems that are quite capable by any standards. For the first timers, those may be the best ones to get into so that the initial experience is positive.
I have heard it said that in general, one to two year old laptops tend to be a fairly safe choice. Probably so as long as it is a mainstream laptop vendor with a household name. However, even back in 1999, I had good results with a no name Cybermax laptop, so who is to say!
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