Re: [tlug] Where to buy a laptop (was: Is it the hardware or the software...)

[Dave Corning <dave@example.com>]

Quoting Dave M G <dave@example.com>:

> Instead, I'm looking for 40,000 yen if I can, and up to 60,000 yen if I
> feel it's a really worthy laptop.
>
> So I'm probably looking for a used laptop, or low end new.
>
> What's annoying me is that most laptops these days seem to be offering
> this stupid "wide screen" format (1366×768 resolution), which really
> just means lots of screen real estate trimmed from the top or bottom.

Hi there,

Although you dislike the 1366x768 resolution, I would still recommend  
the Acer Aspire 1410/1810 series.  Specifically, I bought this one  
last september :

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-AS1410-8414-11-6-Inch-Sapphire/dp/B002LEXA64  
(yes I know amazon.us doesn't ship laptops to japan, but its a nice  
reference)

I bought mine last year, bumped up the ram to 4 gigs and put in an ssd  
drive.  Its cheap and fedora supports 99.999% of the hardware out of  
the box.  The only thing that doesnt seem to work is the built-in mic,  
but who cares.

Pros:
- around $400-450 USD new for the model I bought.  some of the ones  
with a little bit higher specs are somewhat more expensive, but still  
way cheaper than a lets note
- actual core 2 cpu, not some shitty castrated atom.
- 3 pounds, 11 inches
- real world usage of 4.5 hours (many firefox instances, wifi or  
emobile-usb-dongle for internet, possibly streaming music)
- much better keyboard than the EEE-pc 1000 that I used to have (i'm  
talking to you, shitty right shift key thats the same size as and  
positioned adjacent to the up arrow key)
- wifi works out of the box in fedora
- webcam works out of the box in fedora
- sound works out of the box in fedora

cons:
- the jp models ive seen have the celeron processors (sigh) so you'd  
have to buy one online from the US
- built-in mic doesnt seem to work with fedora, perhaps ubuntu might  
work (ymmv but I dont think most people care about that functionality)
- my model doesnt have bluetooth, but other updated versions do.

I bought mine in september of last year, but I have seen newer  
versions that have a core 2 duo cpu (mine has a core 2 solo, but it  
still beats the hell out of atom processors).  Furthermore, newer  
models are shipping with 4 gigs of ram, and very soon now, acer will  
be releasing one with a core i5 cpu.

just my 2 yen

-dave