I could use any help finding a type of laptop, as what I see in stores
is not at all what I want. I am looking for a notebook computer (AMD or
intel CPU, i.e. not Mac) with a standard height::width ratio screen,
NOT the widescreen laptops I am seeing everywhere in stores these days,
and NOT the brightscreen technology that makes for screens that look
glossy and thus reflect your own face and room lights, etc. I also
would like a notebook PC with a titanium/magnesium/silver look to the
case, not that dull gray/black. ATI or nVidia graphics chip for display
is a plus, because this laptop would be used primarily with the linux
operating system and ATI and nvidia/GeForce provide drivers for linux.
Wifi a must. Any ideas/suggested models?

Beowulf.1000 wrote:
> I could use any help finding a type of laptop, as what I see in stores
> is not at all what I want. I am looking for a notebook computer (AMD or
> intel CPU, i.e. not Mac) with a standard height::width ratio screen,
> NOT the widescreen laptops I am seeing everywhere in stores these days,
> and NOT the brightscreen technology that makes for screens that look
> glossy and thus reflect your own face and room lights, etc. I also
> would like a notebook PC with a titanium/magnesium/silver look to the
> case, not that dull gray/black. ATI or nVidia graphics chip for display
> is a plus, because this laptop would be used primarily with the linux
> operating system and ATI and nvidia/GeForce provide drivers for linux.
> Wifi a must. Any ideas/suggested models?

I bought the Dell D610 for use with Linux. I had to buy it used, but
Dell has a three year warranty on the Latitude, and it's transferable
(online), so I still had about two years of warranty. I bought it just
as Dell was discontinuing the D610 a few months ago (they dropped the
D610, then brought it back for a couple of months, then dropped it
permanently).

Installing Linux on it was a breeze (using Mepis Ubuntu, and dual
booting). The D610 has an ATI Mobility Radeon X300.

I also wanted a laptop with a non-wide screen. It has a dark silver
case, whether or not that meets your needs is another story--to me it
looks gray, but I've seen it described as dark silver.

The other requirement that I had was that I needed a serial port, a
parallel port, and an infrared port. With Linux, getting external USB to
serial or USB to parallel adapters working would be a real adventure,
judging from how they don't work with many older programs that need to
write directly to the hardware registers of the ports. The port
requirement pretty much eliminated about everything other than the D610.

The D610 with the ATI graphics option, is almost a super-standard laptop
for use with Linux, because of the graphics, the ports, and the non-wide
screen. The D620, which replaced the D610, dropped the parallel port,
and went to a wide screen.

There are a lot of used D610s on the market. Look for one that has at
least two years of the warranty left on it. I like using a Bluetooth
keyboard and mouse, so I bought the Bluetooth module that goes inside
the laptop (inside the battery compartment) but Bluetooth is an option
when the system is new so some used ones have it already. I haven't
tried getting Bluetooth running under Linux on the D610, but I got it
working, ith a little effort, on another notebook I have with Linux on
it (Compaq X1000).

One negative with the D610 is the lack of 1394.

Also, whatever you buy, be certain that it still has a PC Card slot.
Many manufacturers are decontenting their laptops, and removing this slot.

Dell has models with options that meet most of your specs, I think
everything except (possibly) the silver color look.


Beowulf.1000 wrote:
> I could use any help finding a type of laptop, as what I see in stores
> is not at all what I want. I am looking for a notebook computer (AMD or
> intel CPU, i.e. not Mac) with a standard height::width ratio screen,
> NOT the widescreen laptops I am seeing everywhere in stores these days,
> and NOT the brightscreen technology that makes for screens that look
> glossy and thus reflect your own face and room lights, etc. I also
> would like a notebook PC with a titanium/magnesium/silver look to the
> case, not that dull gray/black. ATI or nVidia graphics chip for display
> is a plus, because this laptop would be used primarily with the linux
> operating system and ATI and nvidia/GeForce provide drivers for linux.
> Wifi a must. Any ideas/suggested models?
>

Barry Watzman wrote:
> Dell has models with options that meet most of your specs, I think
> everything except (possibly) the silver color look.
>

I will take a look thanks. I also saw an older Gateway at the coffee
shop I frequent, it had the metal look I seek, and a normal size
screen, perhaps something similar can be found.