RE: Laptop Recommendations

I bought a Vaio a few years back and found that a lot of the
hardware was
proprietary with poor driver support. I had lots of grief
getting Linux up
and running on dual-boot. However, now Vmware is free, I
wouldn't bother to
go the dual-boot route. I'd go for a shed load of ram &
disk space and the
fastest available processor and run whatever under Vmware.

Tony


************************************************************
********** 
This is a commercial communication from Commerzbank AG.

This communication is confidential and is intended only for
the person to
whom it is addressed.  If you are not that person you are
not permitted to
make use of the information and you are requested to notify
<mailto:LONIB.Postmastercommerzbankib.com>
immediately that you have
received it and then destroy the copy in your possession.

Commerzbank AG may monitor outgoing and incoming e-mails. By
replying to
this e-mail you consent to such monitoring. This e-mail
message and any
attached files have been scanned for the presence of
computer viruses.
However, you are advised that you open attachments at your
own risk.

This email was sent either by Commerzbank AG, bond Branch,
or by
Commerzbank Corporates & Markets, a division of
Commerzbank. Commerzbank AG
is a limited liability company incorporated in the Federal
Republic of
Germany. Registered Company Number in England BR001025. Our
registered
address in the UK is 60 Gracechurch Street, bond, EC3V 0HR.
We are
regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the
conduct of investment
business in the UK and we appear on the FSA register under
number 124920. 

************************************************************
**********

On Wed, 2007-11-28 at 13:48 +0000, Edwardson, Tony wrote:
> I bought a Vaio a few years back and found that a lot
of the hardware was
> proprietary with poor driver support. I had lots of
grief getting Linux up
> and running on dual-boot. 

I've had three Vaios over the last five years ( this might
be a
testament to their robustness, but only one died and that as
a result of
a mishap.) They've all run various linux distributions and
one of the
surviving ones dual-boots with win XP. 

The current one (a VGN-N31) all the devices work fine with
the exception
of the SD card reader and that probably because I can't be
arsed to get
it to work.

/J

Edwardson, Tony wrote:
> I bought a Vaio a few years back and found that a lot
of the hardware was
> proprietary with poor driver support. I had lots of
grief getting Linux up
> and running on dual-boot. However, now Vmware is free,
I wouldn't bother to
> go the dual-boot route. I'd go for a shed load of ram
& disk space and the
> fastest available processor and run whatever under
Vmware.

I've had few problems with dual Ubuntu/XP on a Vaio SZ330P. 
It didn't 
come with any XP media (restore partition) so was a bit of a
pain 
finding out how to make an XP CD I could use to do a clean
install.

I would also go the VM route next time and run XP on
Ubuntu.

paul

On Wed, 2007-11-28 at 14:11 +0000, Jonathan Stowe wrote:
> I've had three Vaios over the last five years ( this
might be a
> testament to their robustness, but only one died and
that as a result of
> a mishap.)

I'm inclined to think the Vaio reputation for poor build
quality might
be slightly exaggerated.  I was wearing a rucksack
containing a Vaio
when I had my motorbike crash a few years back...  I wrote
off a
motorbike, a car, and my right leg, but the laptop still
booted.  

The hard drive did need replacing about six months later,
after getting
increasingly unreliable, but even so I thought it did fairly
well
considering.  And at least I got to use it to watch DVDs in
hospital.

Regards,
Denny

On 28 Nov 2007, at 15:56, Denny wrote:
> The hard drive did need replacing about six months
later, after  
> getting
> increasingly unreliable, but even so I thought it did
fairly well
> considering.  And at least I got to use it to watch
DVDs in hospital.


I have a very old Olivetti laptop upstairs that a work
colleague drove  
his car over. Twice[1]. It still got gravel rash where it
was pushed  
into the road surface. Still works fine - although a P120
barely cuts  
it these days 

[1] Backed out of a parking space over it and when he felt
the bump -  
inexplicably - rolled the car back into the space and over
the laptop  
*again*.

-- 
Andy Armstrong, Hexten

I am currently trying to see if I can get VMWare Player to
install XP 
Pro for me using qemu to generate an initial disk image.

If anyone has decent instructions for Ubuntu let me know,
doesn't seem 
very happy to play right now, not detecting that there *is*
a bootable 
CD there.

Edwardson, Tony wrote:
> I bought a Vaio a few years back and found that a lot
of the hardware was
> proprietary with poor driver support. I had lots of
grief getting Linux up
> and running on dual-boot. However, now Vmware is free,
I wouldn't bother to
> go the dual-boot route. I'd go for a shed load of ram
& disk space and the
> fastest available processor and run whatever under
Vmware.
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
>
************************************************************
********** 
> This is a commercial communication from Commerzbank
AG.
> 
> This communication is confidential and is intended only
for the person to
> whom it is addressed.  If you are not that person you
are not permitted to
> make use of the information and you are requested to
notify
> <mailto:LONIB.Postmastercommerzbankib.com>
immediately that you have
> received it and then destroy the copy in your
possession.
> 
> Commerzbank AG may monitor outgoing and incoming
e-mails. By replying to
> this e-mail you consent to such monitoring. This e-mail
message and any
> attached files have been scanned for the presence of
computer viruses.
> However, you are advised that you open attachments at
your own risk.
> 
> This email was sent either by Commerzbank AG, bond
Branch, or by
> Commerzbank Corporates & Markets, a division of
Commerzbank. Commerzbank AG
> is a limited liability company incorporated in the
Federal Republic of
> Germany. Registered Company Number in England BR001025.
Our registered
> address in the UK is 60 Gracechurch Street, bond, EC3V
0HR. We are
> regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the
conduct of investment
> business in the UK and we appear on the FSA register
under number 124920. 
> 
>
************************************************************
**********
> 
> 

On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 01:34:34PM +0000, Nigel Rantor
wrote:

> I am currently trying to see if I can get VMWare Player
to install XP 
> Pro for me using qemu to generate an initial disk
image.
> 
> If anyone has decent instructions for Ubuntu let me
know, doesn't seem 
> very happy to play right now, not detecting that there
*is* a bootable 
> CD there.

Can it boot other CDs?  And are you sure that your Ubuntu CD
is
bootable?  ie, have you tried it on anything else?

-- 
David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the
populace alarmed
 (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it
with an
 endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary" 
-- H. L. Mencken

On Nov 29, 2007 3:59 PM, Nigel Rantor <wigglywiggly.org> wrote:
> Hmm...thinkpads can handle 4Gb eh....damn, I still
don't know what to
> get though. Thinkpad, Vaio, Thinkpad, Vaio, Thinkpad,
Vaio......
>

As someone who's owned two Vaios, I say go with the
Thinkpad.

- Alex