New Laptop questions

[ienglander-ROuZJvFXBa6Vc3sceRu5cw at public.gmane.org (Englander, Irvin)]

I concur on Thinkpads. I have two Linux Thinkpads at school. Both are old; one is  a T41, the other an early T61, which I use daily. No failures ever on either. In fact, I like to impress my Windows-using students by showing them the uptime command. The only time either machine has been rebooted is when I have to install a new Linux distribution. At one point the T41 had an uptime of over two years.

I still recommend you take a look at Acer machines, as well though. I've had two and a number of students have also bought them. I've had good luck with mine. (Side note: I HAD to have a working Vista machine. I bought the Acer I'm typing on right now with the intention of blowing away the Vista to use the machine as a Linux box, but since it has the only reliable, non-crashing version of Vista that I've ever seen to date, I've been unable psychologically to kill the Vista. That's why I'm looking at a new Acer netbook.) I'd like to hear from others on their Acer experiences, but mine has been that Acer produces an inexpensive, solid machine, with a high feature and construction to cost ratio. Comments from others?

BTW, the Best Buy website price on the particular Acer netbook I want is $105 ABOVE Acer's listed price. Best Buyer beware?

Irv Englander, Professor, CIS Department
Bentley University
________________________________________
From: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org [discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of ref [tbs-Gb/NUjX2UK8 at public.gmane.org]
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 11:18 AM
To: L-blu
Subject: Re: New Laptop questions

On Fri, 2009-06-19 at 10:21 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:

> Robert Krawitz <rlk-FrUbXkNCsVf2fBVCVOL8/A at public.gmane.org> writes:
>
> > I've had very good luck with Dells (Inspiron 8000, 8200, and
> > 9400/E1705).  They're also usually quite easy to fix or upgrade.
>
> They need to be easy to fix because they need to be fixed quite often.
> The one (and ONLY one) time I've had a Dell in my posession it broke
> approximately once a quarter and needed to go back to get fixed.
>
> My Thinkpads, on the other hand, usually last about 2 years before
> needing a repair.  I have a T23 that I acquired around 2002 that
> just died a couple weeks ago but hasn't needed a repair for about 3.
> My T60 from 2 years ago finally needed a repair a month ago and
> now it's as good as new.
>
> I can't recommend Thinkpads highly enough.


Interesting, I've never even though of Tinkpads... I used one when they
first came out and hated the red nipple mouse button thing in the center
of the keyboard, and apparently have dismissed then from then on. I will
give then a better look now, especially as the NVidia card I had chosen
has no driver, and the HP may have BIOS issues ....



>
> -derek