On 3 August 2000 at 23:05, Rogerio Brito <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm in the market for a new computer and I'm still deciding if > I'll go with a desktop or with a laptop... I'm looking for > something that uses only free-software, without third-party > drivers and that has reasonable performance.
Everyone's going to die laughing at the suggestion, but look at WinBook. I had been a fairly devoted user of Linux for a while, but when I was in the market for a computer, I had returned to using Windows, and the WinBook XL^2 was about what I needed--very good features for a small price (~$1000) and small weight (~7 lbs. for a mid-featured notebook). When I chose to return to the fold and install Debian again, I was pleasantly surprised that I could spend five minutes configuring a kernel, adding Ir* and PCMCIA support, compile, reboot, and keep working. No OSS nonsense, no strange, third-party drivers, nothing. (Note that I am using a 3COM PCMCIA modem/ethernet combo; if you use an internal modem from WinBook YMMV.) The name sounds scary, but the price for the features is not. Their higher-end notebooks ship with big screens, DVD, big hard drives, and fast processors and still undercut Dell, etc. In addition, I have yet to hear of serious problems with the hardware. It is not a low-quality machine. The single thing about the WinBook I would warn about is that the fan is on almost constantly when it's on AC power, at least on my XL^2 with a Celeron 400. Whether this is a Celeron-only precautionary measure for over-clocked processors or a "feature" of all WinBook laptops, I don't know. Oh, and it has a Synaptics touchpad, which is a little...weird under Linux. The click-and-a-half feature is only sort-of supported, and dragging in general is a tad weird. At least on my model; again, YMMV. Hope that helps. :-) Chris -- Christopher Tessone Computer Programmer Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy Learning-at-a-Distance Program http://www.imsa.edu/~tessone/ GnuPG Key: http://www.imsa.edu/~tessone/mykey.asc
