[conspire] Recommendations for cheap Linux laptop?
Rick Moen
rick at linuxmafia.com
Wed Feb 15 11:49:38 PST 2006
Quoting Paul Snyder (pls29 at cs.drexel.edu):
> Greetings from Philadelphia,
>
> My wife is out in Redwood City for at least the next month while her
> father is in the hospital. Her old Dell laptop finally gave up the
> ghost, so she finds herself without a computer. We're trying to decide
> if it makes sense to buy her a new one now (i.e., if we can find one
> cheap enough).
>
> Does anyone have a recommendation for a dirt-cheap Linux laptop that
> could be, say, purchased at Frye's or ordered online? Ideally, it
> would have integrated 802.11g, but getting a PC Card would be
> reasonable.
People have differing understandings of the term "dirt cheap". I'm
personally a notorious cheap bastard<tm>; my idea of a server upgrade in
2006 is to repurpose a donated 2000-era 2U PIII/650 with scrounged RAM
and hard drives, and I sweated bullets about the need to spend $120
to replace the RAM and PSU on a Cobalt Qube2. ;->
By my standards, "cheap Linux laptop" precludes a new unit, so you're
talking about either:
1. Linux Certified, http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html ,
or
2. one of the Silicon Valley used computer stores, e.g.
Action Computer & Surplus
500 Lawrence Expy # F, Sunnyvale
3783 El Camino Real, Palo Alto
Surplus Computers, 1600 Duane Ave., Santa Clara
http://www.softwareandstuff.com/retailstore.html
Maybe you can talk to your wife via cellular while she's shopping?
Otherwise, the Linux Certified people seem a fair bet.
Fry's Electronics is a real spectacle, and it's convenient for us locals
to know that it's open late, but I've never been really impressed with
their selection of things I'd actually want to buy.
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