[sf-lug] Linux CDs

[Rick Moen]

Quoting jim stockford (jim at well.com):

> http://www.shoprcubed.com/
> http://www.rcubedtech.com/
> This company, R Cubed, sells inexpensive
> laptops.

Ah, having a truly Linux-oriented vendor is worthwhile and another thing
entirely.  Some people really like laptops from LinuxCertified, Inc.,
too.  I track that company and other Linux-oriented firms that are local
to the Bay Area, here:

http://linuxmafia.com/bale/other.html

The ThinkPad T4x series was indeed pretty good.  The T43 and T43p (ATI
video variant) models were a little peculiar in using PATA hard drives
equipped with Marvell SATA-to-PATA bridge chips -- instead of real SATA
hard drives.  Also, the ACPI programming interface was a _little_
peculiar, such that you really want a pretty recent 2.6.x kernel with
the ibm-acpi patches merged in (2.6.19, or so).  Therefore, for example,
any RHEL3 release is a bad idea on those, and even RHEL4's 2.6.9 kernel
isn't really satisfactory.

FWIW, I believe that series is likely to be soon discontinued in favour
of the T60 / T60p series -- which _really_ needs good ACPI, by the way.

Anyway, one of the nice things about locally-available hardware is the
ability to walk up and boot Knoppix from it _before_ buying.  Nothing
like knowing about compatibility from direct inspection, in my view.

-- 
Cheers,             
Rick Moen                 "Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor."
rick at linuxmafia.com                                   -- Elizabeth Tudor