[ILUG] Aldi/Lidl laptops?

[Éibhear]

James McDermott said:
> Has anyone any experience in using Linux with the laptops on sale
> (sometimes) in Aldi and Lidl? I think Aldi have "Median" and Lidl have
> "Targa". Targa, for one, is unknown here but well-known in Germany.
> The model on offer in Lidl is EUR1500, for which you get an AMD64
> Turion with big specs. But there's relatively little information out
> there (eg http://www.linux-on-laptops.com) on using them with Linux...
>
> Any info would be very welcome.

I bought the Targa last January as a system to muck about with. An
Athlon64 with (I think) 512MiB RAM. I removed the OS it came with, and it
now has Fedora Core 3 and CentOS 4 dual-booting on it. I use it as a
system to learn and experiment with Oracle technologies.

When I need to move about the house and not use the internet connection, I
boot Knoppix 3.8 up on it and, more often than any other use with knoppix,
put OpenOffice under some stress.

I also had Mandrake 10.1 installed on it briefly.

The four Linux distros I have used on it work with it very well. I have a
memory of being particularly impressed with how Mandrake worked so
effortlessly on it, but I can't remember the specifics. Essentially, my
use of it is as an unstable system, and what I do on it is often done with
the knowledge that I'd have to rebuild it afterwards. However, aside from
that, I have not had one problem with how the software works on it.

[P.S. I now remember what impressed me so much about Mandrake: The aspect
ratio on the Targa's display is 0.625 (i.e it's wider than the more common
displays). For Fedora, CentOS and knoppix, there seems to be stable
support only for an aspect ratio of 0.75. As a result these three look
strange, with every thing slightly flattened. Mandrake Linux, however,
spotted the unusual aspect ratio immediately and configured the display
accordingly, without any problem.]

The general keyboard layout is the familiar UK-standard QWERTY. However,
some keys, like '|', [INS], the scroll keys, etc., are located differently
than on other laptops and desktop systems, and this causes minor
irritation.

It's heavy.

I haven't put the system under any serious load, nor is it powered up all
the time, or often. Therefore, I can't offer any information in that
respect. My father-in-law got one at the same time, and he's a heavy user
of his, but with Windows, so it probably is a stable creature.

Aside from the weight and keyboard irks, I have been very happy with it.

Finally, while I haven't had a call to use it, I was impressed with the
support package that came with it.

It's a good buy.

Éibhear
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-- 
Éibhear Ó hAnluain
Gibiris.org
Dublin
Ireland