[ILUG] Laptop Recommendation?

[Ruairi Newman]

On Mon, 2004-04-19 at 19:12, Justin wrote:
> Would anyone recommend one of the these over the other?
> 
> Dell  Inspiron  9100 (special offer)
> http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_9100?c=
> ie&l=en&s=dhs
> 
I have two Dell laptops currently.  One is mine, the other is the
property of my employer.  Mine is a 850Mhz Latitude C600 that I have
since 2001.  It ROCKS.  As soon as the 3 year next business day onsite
warranty runs out (at the end of next month), I'm going to buy another
(I like the security of the warranty, it doesn't NEED replacing).

Dell's service has been excellent, on both occasions on which I have
needed to call them.  First time, I knocked a mug of hot chocolate into
the laptop and knackered a row of keys on the keyboard, and they had
someone out to the apartment next morning to replace the keyboard. 
Second time there was an issue with a blue tint to the screen, they came
out and replaced the screen, the morning after I logged the fault.

Another advantage over some laptops IME, is that the battery will
happily last the duration of a train journey from Cork to Dublin will
listening to MP3s and playing tuxracer, even after nearly 3 years of
abuse.

> Sony VAIO PCG-K115S
> http://www.peats.ie/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=7585&type=6&path=14x164x43
> 3
> 
First thing: FFS don't buy a laptop from these idiots (Peats).  Better
to pay extra in the Sony shop.  Secondly, I've always found even the
most basic model of Sony laptop to have a crap return-to-base warranty,
and to be overpriced in comparison to other vendors.  If you want a
flashy laptop, buy a powerbook... at least those are WORTH the extra
money you'll pay.

> It will be a dual boot  Redhat 9 / windows2000, used for development work.
> Seen a few posts about the ATI Mobility Radeon with Linux, but mostly very
> high res. issues. Anyone know of any issues? Alternatives?

XFree86 > 4.3.0 should support this in 2D mode.  Not sure if you'll get
3D support though.

Rgds,

Ruairí

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