On 10/11/2013 06:10 PM, Adam Thompson wrote:
Hi guys,
I am looking for some suggestions for a good, small quite laptop. I was
looking at futureshop.ca and bestbuy.ca. I currently have an HP dv3
For OpenBSD, I would never buy something at FutureShop or BestBuy; those
are all consumer-oriented "Designed For Windows 8" laptops.
I either buy Lenovo ThinkPads from an authorized reseller (e.g. the
x201t sitting in front of me, and many of the OpenBSD developers use
various models of Thinkpad), or I buy off-lease (trailing-edge) Dell
Latitude/Precision laptops directly from Dell - see www.dfsdirect.ca for
their off-lease selection.
The Latitude E4000 series are all quite small and light, are readily
available, and AFAIK are fully supported. Right now I'm running
5.3-RELEASE on a Latitude D630 with no issues at all, and IIRC the E4500
should be fully supported as well.
Many people cringe at the thought of a used laptop, but note that DFS
will offer a 1-year warranty, which is exactly what you get buying
consumer-grade laptops from a retail big-box store anyway. My favourite
part of the Latitude E series (and most Precision models, too) is that
if you get the optional docking base, you can then run dual-DVI off the
laptop!
Thanks very much this is very helpful I will keep it in mind. In the
mean time I stumbled across this
http://solaptop.com/en/products/laptops/ it is pretty cool and the price
is right I think I will give it a try when they start taking orders that
is. I have two small Shuttles using the Atom D2700 with SSDs and they
are really snappy and quiet. I wished they made a proper laptop with an
Atom no fans and noise but proper keyboard etc.. and these have solar
batteries as well nice :).
Thanks for the list of machines and the model numbers. I agree
futureshop and bestbuy are consumer vendors getting extended specs is
impossibly from their web sites and sometimes even the manuals on the
product maker site does not contain the version number or the type of
the WIFI card. It is a bit of a hit and miss kind of thing, which is why
I posted here, and with the new secure boot it is only getting more
difficult to figure out what will work or not.
Cheers and thanks again.
George
