[TriLUG] new laptop

[Michael Kimsal]

Good luck letting people let you run it on the hardware there.

I was kicked out of the Circuit City on Capital a couple years ago for
trying to boot a machine in to a livecd (amazing how there were *no* sales
guys around to ask but the moment you try to do that, someone was there to
tell you *no*).  No assurances or guarantees that it would run Linux, and I
was told I couldn't bring it back if it didn't run Linux.

Best Buy - I asked first (cause there was someone there) and he was pretty
adamant about not letting me do it.  I might be putting a virus on the
machine, after all.  Better to just let 30 laptops continually run ads for
how great bestbuy "service" is rather than, you know, helping the customer
make a purchasing decision.

The Tiger Direct on Capital - I didn't ask, and no one stopped me from
testing a boot on a livecd.  A couple of reps walked past and looked at me
briefly, but kept moving.

I ended up buying a machine from TD that day because I could verify what I
needed to work worked.

Not sure if TD today (compusa) would allow it or not.



On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 2:54 PM, Pete Soper <Pete at soper.us> wrote:

> Perhaps a livecd would be useful to scope out the hardware compatibility?
> -Pete
>
> On 04/09/2010 08:41 PM, Thomas Ingram wrote:
>
>> I'm looking to purchase a laptop soon, and I'm looking some input.
>> Below are the four I'm looking at. The price and many features are
>> nearly identical. All four come with some incarnation of Windows,
>> which I will probably not even boot into before installing Linux.
>>
>> - Does anybody know if TigerDirect or NewEgg will remove Window (and
>> the licence fee)? I've heard of stores doing this when the buyer
>> brought a live CD in and reformatted the hard drive in front of the
>> clerk.
>> - My current laptop has Ubuntu because proprietary wireless drivers
>> were so difficult to install in Arch Linux. If someone can confirm
>> that wireless "just works", more or less, in Arch Linux with one of
>> these, that would probably trump every other consideration.
>> - Are there any (Linux) specific pros or cons with any of these
>> regarding brand, support, drivers et cetera? What are your thoughts?
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220710
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115763
>>
>> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5642179
>>
>> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5766707
>>
>> I really appreciate any feedback you guys can give. Thank you.
>>
>>
>>
>
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Michael Kimsal
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