[clug] Linux Laptop?

[Paul Wayper]

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Well, in deference to Chris, I think my Dell Inspiron 6400 has been pretty
solid and reliable in the year and three months that I've owned it.  Nothing's
fallen off, the support for the hardware is pretty complete - the only thing
that doesn't work is the SD-Card slot that I don't use anyway - and it's a
good combination of light, small and fast.

I payed $1,900 for it, but that was because I got the high-res screen option,
a faster processor and those things were still more expensive.  I just priced
up a Dell Inspiron 1525 with T7250 processor, 2GB of memory, 1440x900 screen,
250GB disk and bluetooth for $1,387, which is pretty reasonable and well in
your price range.

If I could, I'd buy a second power adapter when getting the laptop.  Steve
Walsh gave me this advice and it's turned out to be invaluable.  It's a rare
fault that causes you to not be able to charge the battery or run the laptop
off mains power - battery problems are much more common.  So buying a second
battery gets you very little unless you absolutely have to do programming on a
plane for more than four hours at a time.  Besides, I leave my 65W charger set
up in my desk (all cables neatly tucked away) and the 90W charger in my laptop
bag so I can get a quick charge anywhere.  Still get the 9-cell battery for
longer off-power time, but don't get two unless you cannot live otherwise.

Hope this helps,

Paul

P.S. Commiserations on losing your old laptop; blessing in disguise?
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