[ale] OT: Laptops.

[Dow Hurst]

The man hours to get all the hardware working properly and a year of real 
support is what the extra funds are for.  Emperor has offered to come pick up 
the laptop at one point.  Dell can't help you with software support on the 
custom Linux you'll have on the box.  Plus, we are used to self support so 
much we forget the value of being able to make a phone call, have them ssh 
into the box, and fix the problem immediately.  I've had Emperor take care of 
a Winmodem problem, a wireless card problem, and a complete rebuild problem. 
For the time they spent, the $400 I spent for the "retrofit" was well worth 
it.  Dell's top of the line laptops are not well supported and are focused 
toward a WinXPPro install for the hardware.  Without Emperor's custom kernel 
and knowledge, most of the laptop would have not been functional.  New IDE 
controllers not supported in the stable kernel were a big problem.  I wish I 
had bought from them directly instead of having to go the retrofit route.  So, 
really check out your hardware with Knoppix before you plunk down the big 
bucks.  Also, if the laptop or any hardware is business related, you have to 
think about support.  Even though the built in wifi from Dell is still not 
Linux supported in the kernel, Emperor will get the Broadcom chip to run with 
the new wrappers that use the Win drivers.  So there are great benefits to 
using Emperor if you need their services.  If you don't and can beat on the 
hardware yourself then definitely saving the money is a nice thing.  I 
couldn't deal with IDE stuff or have the time to figure out the Winmodem.  Our 
user who got the laptop has used is successfully for a year and never booted 
in the XP left on the disk.  That says alot for having the hardware and 
software work together out of the box since she is not the type to even bother 
if it doesn't work easily.
Dow


Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-03-15 at 20:14, David Corbin wrote:
> 
>>On Monday 15 March 2004 08:30, Dow Hurst wrote:
>>
>>Emperor certainly has the right hardware, but it seems to me it's got a markup 
>>of $500 over a comparable Dell system (seat of the pants comparison).  That's 
>>not worth it to me.
> 
> 
> I had the same issue with Emperor.  Looked like I would have been paying
> a LOT of money for a sight-unseen laptop with no local remedy should I
> run into a problem.  That's what drove me to Best Buy, where I picked up
> my first-ever personally-owned laptop - the eMachines M6805, with the
> AMD64 CPU.  I whacked the WinXP install the first full day I had it and
> immediately set out for the bleeding edge with 64-bit Gentoo.
> 
> - Jeff
> 
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> 

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Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428            *
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Kennesaw, GA 30144                                         *
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