[sf-lug] Any one have experience with this old laptop?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss at sfo.com):

> Rick Moen wrote:
>> [I'll asume Bobbie dropped offlist accidentally.]
>
>    Yes it was an accident.

No problem.

>    Anyhow with all the information I could get I went ahead and ordered it
> this afternoon.

Enjoy!

My own strategy is dictated by the fact that I'm (1) a cheap bastard,
and (2) frustration-adverse:  I tend to buy whatever high-quality 1-2
year-old model is reasonably priced on the used market.  Often, my 
top pick in that area would be a ThinkPad.

But I would be, in general, reluctant to buy a _new_ (laptop) model at
all, because then you often get new chipsets and consequent driver
and/or ACPI-support problems.  And for what, really?  A good laptop from
1-2 years ago, at any given time, tends to make an absolutely
outstanding Linux machine, and all you tend to forego, in my experience,
is extra CPU punch that Linux doesn't really need anyway.[1]

People keep buying cutting-edge laptop hardware and then asking me for
help with exactly those sorts of problems, and it keeps reminding me of
the old technical support joke's punchline:  

Patient:  "Doctor, doctor!  It _hurts_ when I do this!"
Doctor:   "Well, don't do that, then."


[1] Most laptops are designed for the needs of the Microsoft OS platform
du jour, which at any given time tends to require gobs more CPU (and
RAM) than any reasonable Linux setup of the same vintage.  The extra
CPU capacity of a current-vintage machine tends to therefore go mostly 
wasted, when used for Linux, because typical uses are not CPU-bound as
they are on the proprietary platform.