[thechat] laptops for linux

John Handelaar john at userfrenzy.com
Wed Nov 9 09:20:08 CST 2005


Judah McAuley wrote:
> Regarding the warranty, I certainly agree with your 6 month figure for 
> desktops. Do you think the same is true of laptops? I would think that 
> failure would happen post 6 months more often with laptops as they are 
> constantly being moved, picked up, set down, etc. I was looking at 
> Dell's Complete Care warranty which covers accidents (except fire and 
> theft) as well as part failure. I figure that being able to take it to 
> the pub or Burningman and not have to worry about beer being spilled in 
> the keyboard might be worth a couple bucks extra.

Well, beer errors are a different thing.

For my part, laptops fail in only one of two ways ever:

a)  It dropped.  Hard disk needed replacing.  $60.
b)  Screen connector goes wonky.  Bit of vaseline and Duck Tape (TM): $1
     plus labour

Mostly this is just a preference thing.  The extra warranty was never a
couple of bucks, it was two or three hundred more.  For lappys we *did*
spend the money, just got docking stations and/or extra batteries instead.

Ugh.  Batteries.   Are there any that don't suck? </rhetorical>

 > As for Ubuntu with kde vs
> Kubuntu, what would the difference be in your mind?

Only that Kubuntu isn't *yet* a first-class citizen.  That and the fact
that lots of the nice admin stuff runs under Gnome and afaik kubuntu
doesn't install it by default.

And these days I have these nice manufactured CDs of Ubuntu...



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