[TriLUG] Laptops

[Justin Johnson]

> Gotta disagree.
>
> Been using Redhat on Lattitude LM, CP, and LS series laptops and while
> it hasn't all been tea and honey, it's been an overall positive
> experience.  The only problem is suspend mode, which with some patient
> tweaking you can get working.
>
> So, to sum... Dell not BAAAD, just not PERFFFECT.
>
> Also, Dell tech people don't even bat an eye when you call in and say
> you've got linux on there...

I'll have to chime in and say that I too have had a good experience with
Dell !Latitude! laptops. I have heard of bad experiences from people with
Inspiron laptops. This is both in the world of linux and Windows. Speaking
for myself, I have a Latitude Cpi D300XT that was my first linux machine,
which was first installed with RH6.2. It was until recently running RH7.2.
Then like a bonehead I installed Mandrake 8.1 to 'see what was the fuss'.
Won't do that again. I digress, pardon me please.

I'm typing this on a Latitude c810 that will be getting RH7.2 installed at
the next installfest, if not sooner. I did a quick search on Google that
turned up a couple of people saying they where running RH7.2 on the C810
with no problems. Looks like there was an issue with the video driver at
some point, but there is an updated driver on the NVidia site that is
supposed to fix that.

FWIW, I actually asked our Dell sales rep recently what the difference was
between the Latitude and Inspiron lines. He said that the Latitude was more
of a business class line, and that no parts went into those models Dell
didn't consider stable for enterprise customers. Inspiron is more of a less
expensive home user line I guess.

Last note. Dell's support has always been damn good in my experiance. I'd
say better than any other support staff that I've had to deal with.

Now if they would just get rid of that annoying kid on TV in the elf suit.
;-)

HTH,
Justin