<html><head></head><body>It matters to get an external usb adapter that can do multiple tasks. If the new laptop has usb-c, that's great. A few extra older usb ports, ethernet, charging, and even hdmi can all run at once over that 1 C port.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On December 6, 2020 10:54:35 PM EST, Steve Litt via Ale <ale@ale.org> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<pre class="k9mail">On Sun, 6 Dec 2020 14:15:00 -0500<br>Sean Kilpatrick via Ale <ale@ale.org> wrote:<br><br><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;">On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 1:17 PM David A. De Graaf via Ale <ale@ale.org><br>wrote:<br><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #ad7fa8; padding-left: 1ex;">On 12/6/20 12:44 PM, Bob Toxen via Ale wrote: <br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;">I'm looking for advice on purchasing a new Laptop to install and<br>run Linux, almost certainly CentOS but maybe Slackware. I'l<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;">Ah, but an Ethernet/USB dongle exists. I have one and it works well.<br><br>Sean<br><br></blockquote><br>Excellent idea, but the problem with modern "legacy free" laptops is,<br>by the time you buy a USB DVD drive, and a USB ether net, and if you<br>use a USB mouse because trackpads mess up your typing, pretty soon<br>you're all out of USB slots, unless you also carry a USB hub. After<br>awhile it's a Rube Goldberg Machine.<br><br>There are those who say you don't need an optical drive because you can<br>boot from thumb drives. My experience tells me that an optical drive,<br>made by cdrecord or wodim against an ISO, always boots correctly. With<br>thumb drives, you have to go through a series of rain dances to get<br>them bootable, and each distro has its own set of raindances. Easy<br>solutions like dd or unetbootin only work for some bootable software or<br>distros.<br><br>SteveT<br><br>Steve Litt <br>Autumn 2020 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times<br><a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive">http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive</a><hr>Ale mailing list<br>Ale@ale.org<br><a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br><a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br></pre></blockquote></div><br>-- <br>Computers amplify human error<br>Super computers are really cool</body></html>