[ILUG] linux compatible laptop

[Donal Buckley]

I just bought (3 weeks ago) a dell e6400 latitude laptop (Core Duo 2.2gHz).
I had used a D600 for 5 years and it was showing it's age but it was so 
reliable I wanted to stay with Latitude. Also i know dell were shipping 
Ubuntu preinstalled in the US.

The e6400 is still dual-booting Vista but I'm in Ubuntu 8.10 99% of the 
time.
Everything works great. Wireless, bluetooth, HP laserjet, tons of 
external storage, incl. 2 Iomega UDF filesystem drives. Oh & HSDPA modem 
(fm Three) worked out of the box, when i couldn't get it goong on old 
laptop/kernel.

The only things I've had difficulty with are *nix related than the 
laptop (Nokia & Rio Karma support). Oh, and since my old docking station 
doesn't fit so my 2nd monitor connected directly to the laptop and the 
Alt>F8 monitor select doesn't work. But I think this is an Ubuntu 
problem anyway?

The Latitude range isn't the cheapest but i bought mine from a etailer 
on ebay.co.uk who handles the Dell Outlet Business systems, Latitude & 
'Plex (I've worked as an account manager handling Dell in my last job, 
so I had some idea how the system works). By doing this I got 3 years 
next day warranty, 4gb RAM, 160gHDD, mag alloy case & shipping for just 
over €800, saving about €400. Oh,& with shipping from the vendor, I had 
it in 2 days, vs prob. 6 weeks-long waiting list for same system direct 
from dell.
Vendor was called eComputer, based in Newcastle. Find 'em on ebay. (Dell 
DON'T put their business systems on the Dell Outlet, only consumer. 
Outlet systems are those where the customer order is usually 
changed/cancelled after being built but before the systems are shipped, 
so can't legally be sold new). Hope this helps.

Donal