Laptop recommendations

[dogbert at clue4all.net (Brian J. Conway)]

> I was at Costco this evening, and I saw a fairly nice looking Compaq
> for $1400.  It had a 14" screen, 192 MB RAM, and 30 GB disk.  The
> screen was in fact only 1024x768, although Windows (at least) was able
> to do 1600x1200 virtual resolution.  I think it was an ATI chip; I
> presume XF386 can do the virtual resolution thing?

Sort of.  I don't have all (or any) of the specifics, but while laptop LCDs _can_ run at a bunch of different resolutions, they're really only meant to run at a particular resolution (and look good at it).  My Dell Inspiron 8000's 15" runs "normally" at 1400x1050x32, and it will do 1280x1024, but will start to blend pixels together to try to emulate that resolution at best it can (and badly at that).  Their 14" models are meant to run at 1280x1024x32, and I think your best bet is to look into the specs first for the LCDs on any model you buy well before buying it.  My $0.02 from a user perspective without any real explanation to back it up.

Brian J. Conway
dogbert at clue4all.net

"LINUX is obsolete"
     - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix
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