[Discuss] Linux on laptops

[smallm at SDF.ORG (Mike Small)]

On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 10:34:05AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> My experience has been more like 3/4 than 1/2, but even at 1/2, the
> elephant in the room is you have no idea what condition the used
> machine is in. Has a teenager continuously run it on a bed, making it
> run hot for 2 years? You don't know. Has the kid repeatedly pulled on
> the power supply cord, to the point where that ever-so-delicately
> soldered in power jack is ready to break (and guys, that's not likely
> to *ever* be fixed right)? How carefully did you look to make sure all
> the screws are in place, and none of them are infinitwist
> threadstripped? Will the battery die the first time you leave it
> unplugged for a week, or the first time it runs all the way down?
> 
> Meanwhile, Costco has a 90 day warranty on their laptops, and it's
> pretty much "you can return it, no questions asked, no restocking fee."
> Buy the laptop, boot System Rescue CD, back up the GPT and the restore
> partition. Boot Windows, shrink the Windows partition, shut it down.
> Make a Linux and swap partition with the (usually substantial)
> remaining disk space. Lay down Linux.
> 
> If Linux doesn't work, you can return it. If you cannot defeat Secure
> Boot, you can return it. If nothing else, do the system restore off the
> restore partition.

To me the sweet spot for used is on the older 0 - $150 range. The
risks you raise along with the chance of having a bad human/financial/legal
interaction with the seller are mitigated by there being so little
cash involved. Also you're not competing with and raising prices
for cash strapped nonprofits or whoever else might want to go a
little cheaper than new but can't deal with really old.  I think
it good to take what others won't want, with the very low prices
being the measure of that.  Of course you need to not need very
much computer, so maybe it's not an applicable approach to some
here.

And Costco? You don't vomit in your mouth a little bit walking into
a place like that? Is that what you want your city to have in it?

-- 
Mike Small
smallm at sdf.org