Linux Newbie Info Request

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Monday 10 July 2006 8:51 am, admin at worstofboston.com wrote:
> Here is my question: I need to secure some reliable hardware to learn
> this stuff on. Laptops would be great, but a desktop is sufficient. I am
> looking online for places that might be able to supply a machine already
> running this stuff. I figure I will learn it from a proper, sound
> installation first. Then I can install it myself once I get the general
> hang of it.
www.linux-laptop.net/ 
http://www.linux.org/hardware/laptop.html
The above two sites have a list of laptops that run Linux and contain the 
experiences of the owners. 

The following company provides a preinstalled linux:
http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html

In my department, we have a number of HP business laptops with Linux on 
them. (In my case an AMD 64 NX6125 running SuSE 10.1). 

I would suggest that you install Linux on the laptop yourself as an 
exercise. Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora, and Mandrivia are all relatively easy to 
install. There are some caveats. You may need to download drivers from the 
video chip vendor to get the best video performance, and some wireless 
chips may require Windows drivers with NDISWRAPPER. (note that there is a 
native Broadcom driver in the latest kernel, but that has not made its way 
to the distros). 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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