Well…
…I did it. Yes I did. I broke down and bought a new laptop. I got one preinstalled with Ubuntu Linux from System76. They get good reviews (especially for customer service), and the laptops are priced competitively. I narrowed down the choices to this one, and an IBM Thinkpad from Lenovo, and this one won out, because I could get the same options for a little less, and, (the big one) it comes preinstalled with Linux. Less messing around for me to make sure everything works. I’ve been using a Gateway laptop for the last 2.5 years, and installed Ubuntu (starting with 4.10–Warty Warthog) on it with minimal fuss. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another Gateway, since I ‘ve had nothing but trouble with the last four computers I ‘ve bought from them. The Lenovos are really nice (I just bought one for my stepdaughter), but the System 76 seemed a better fit for me at this time.
I’ll be blogging some more about this as things unfold. I’m really hoping this is closer to the Thinkpad than the Gateway in sturdiness: that’s really my biggest concern.
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August 8th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
[...] Well… Hey, it shipped today. It was supposed to ship out 5 days after being sent to manufacturing, but due to a surge in orders, it got delayed, and System 76 was nice enough to upgrade shipping to 2nd day express. Turns out that the big reason for the delay was that the CPU I ordered was out of stock from Intel, (this via email yesterday), so they upgraded my CPU, so that they could ship it out today. Wow,! I’d call that great service. System specs: Display: 15.4″ Widescreen WXGA (1280X800) Graphics: Intel GMA X3100 Audio Output: Realtek ALC 268 Networking: 10/100/1000 (LAN), WiFi Wireless: 802.11 abg Expansion: Express Card Ports: VGA, 4x USB 2.0, MIC-In, Headphone Out, FireWire 1394, S-Video Battery: 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery Life: 3.5 hours Dimensions: 14.20″ x 10.43″ x 1.74″ (WxDxH) Weight: 5.9 lbs. Operating System Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Linux Processor: Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8 GHz 800 MHz FSB 2 MB L2 Memory: 1 GB - 2 x 512 MB DDR2 667 MHZ Hard Drive: 80 GB 5400 RPM SATA Optical Drive: CD-RW / DVD-RW [...]