[Eug-lug] Recommendations

[Jim Darrough]

Bob Miller wrote:
> Harald Sundt wrote:
>
>   
>> I thought I'd ask again. I asked a month ago and the talk about Dell was 
>> fun but I still want to know what Packages and laptops have the best 
>> reputation.
>>     
>
> None of us knows the answer to that question.  The problem is that
> the manufacturers upgrade their hardware every couple of months.
> There are hundreds of models, and by the time compatibility reports
> start coming in, the model is out of production.
>
> Instead, maybe we could have a discussion about good and bad
> components in laptops.  Here's my limited and biased understanding.
>
> Things that just work.  keyboards, trackpads, USB, wired Ethernet,
> hard disk, CD/DVD.
>
> Things that almost always work.  sound.
>
> Video: Intel video works well but is not fast enough for Windows
> games.  (or so they tell me.  I don't use Windows.)  ATI's current
> chips require the proprietary fglrx driver and even so, don't work
> well.  (There's a free radeonhd driver that just started development
> last month, and should give ATI a much better position in six months
> or so.)  I don't have any NVIDIA experience.  I know they require a
> proprietary driver, which is a bother if you upgrade your kernel
> often.
>
> WiFi: It's just gonna suck.  Every WiFi chip requires a proprietary
> firmware blob.  Aside from Intel, manufacturers release no information
> about their chips.  I personally have an Intel IPW 3945ABG WiFi chip,
> and have never had any configuration issues.  But on another mailing
> list, I read about someone who can't get it working at least once a
> month.
>
> Suspend/resume: It's almost impossible to predict whether it will
> work.  The best thing is to minimize the number of proprietary drivers
> you rely on, as the open source drivers get fixed quicker.  The second
> best thing you can do is pick a popular model, in the hope that a
> developer will have the exact same unit and will be motivated to make
> things work on your distro.
>
> The thing that makes a bad situation worse is that you get what you
> pay for in a laptop.  The $400 laptops that people like to buy are
> reliable like Yugos.  (Remember the Yugo?)  It's hard to tell whether
> you have an incompatible subsystem or just a broken one.
>
> Some manufacturers let you configure your laptop and pick components
> on the web site.  If I were laptop shopping, I'd use one of those
> sites and pick Intel video, Intel WiFi, and as much screen resolution,
> RAM, CPU cache, and disk space as I felt like paying for.
>
> I've tried to keep my post neutral up to this point.  But my personal
> preference would be to get a Lenovo T61p Widescreen, 1680x1050
> resolution, with Intel G965 graphics and Intel 3945 WiFi.  (That's
> probably about an $1100 configuration, though. :-( ) Anne and I have
> carried four T-series over the last few years, and we like them.  (I
> bought one, and Juniper, Cisco, and Symantec each bought one for us.)
> They're pretty nearly bulletproof, which is why Corporate America
> likes them.  Plus, we already have extra A/C adapters and docking
> stations. (-:
>
>   
I am getting a small Panasonic laptop with a P-100 mmx and minimal other 
stuff (4g hard drive, 48M memory, etc.). What flavor of Linux would you 
guys recommend?

I am leaning towards Xubuntu but would like your input.

Thanks Jim Darrough