[TriLUG] New Vista laptop needs Linux

[James Jones]

This laptop was purchased at a Walmart. For 400 dollars, I couldn't
pass it up, even if I had to use an external wifi card ( pc card slot
) known to work on Linux. The video problem was another obstacle, but
Ubuntu 8.10 took care of that. I wonder what problems I would have
encountered with Fedora?

I really would have liked to  have installed fedora or centos, but the
cd/dvd's I had of those distros couldn't even bring up the install
graphical interface. Perhaps newer versions of those would work, but
Ubuntu latest version was the first downloaded.

Thanks again to all.
jcj

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Michael Kimsal <mgkimsal at gmail.com> wrote:
> And *that* underscores the point that there's very few stores that will let
> you do that.  I've been kicked out of both bestbuy and circuit city for
> trying that.  TigerDirect seemed to turn a blind eye, but even when I booted
> something up, I couldn't tell if the wireless worked or not (ultimately it
> did, but ubuntu's wireless UI sucks, so it took way longer to determine that
> than it should have).
> So, I guess only buy from stores that let you "install" something on a floor
> model during working hours.  Perhaps a list of stores that would allow that
> would be good to put together.  My guess it that it would be pretty small
>  :)
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Alan Porter <porter at trilug.org> wrote:
>
>> > I really appreciate all the input on the live cd issues.
>>
>>
>> I'm glad you got your new lappie working, JC.
>>
>> This would be a good time to underscore the utility of taking
>> a live CD to the store with you.  Klaus Knopper claims that was
>> the main motivator for Knoppix.  And it makes good sense.  Test
>> drive that box before bringing it home.  This is especially
>> true for the traditionally troublesome areas of video and wifi.
>>
>> Alan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> .
>> --
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Kimsal
> http://groovymag.com
> http://jsmag.com
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>



-- 
Jc Jones
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