On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 19:23:49 GMT, Leonard Evens staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
> I may be in the market for a laptop.

col.portable included in Newsgroups: line, followup-to set to that
group since this is a laptop question.

> Unfortunately I will have to keep Windows on it, but I also want to
> install RedHat 9. I don't want to have a lot of trouble resizing
> Windows

Apparently, the "ntfsresize" program is working well enough for general
use now, if you get something with 'DozeXP on it. FAT32 was never a
problem. I have always just run cfdisk and then reinstalled 'Doze on
laptops anyway, just to avoid potential resizing problems and to get rid
of OEM-supplied crap/malware. There's no way to convert NTFS to FAT32,
so this step is a good idea anyway so your Linux installation can have
reliable write access to the 'Doze partition.

> or getting X to work. Also, I want it to cost as little as possible,

Think "refurbished". You can get a decent machine for $1000 if you go
refurbished. http://ebaystores.com/ibm/ has a lot of decent Thinkpads
available for less than you'd think. Or try the "not exactly new"
section of pricewatch.com . All 3 laptops I've owned have been
refurbished, and I've had exactly 1 hardware problem with them.

> although I will spring for more memory, a floppy, and a CD-RW drive.
> Wieght is probably not a major concern.

So far, I've had no problems at all getting a number of IBM Thinkpads to
work reliably with several distros. (380D, 600X, A22p.) Thinkpads are
nice because they have Trackpoints and good keyboards, and most of them
have supported graphics+sound chipsets. Avoid Sony like the plague.
Dell might work well depending on model#. Do not get anything with a
"Radeon IGP" graphics chip; support for that is only in XFree86 CVS
right now AFAIK.

General rule for picking out a Linux laptop is to narrow the selection
down to 4 or 5 models with the specs you want, then Google or hit
http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and check them all out. Pick the one that
people have reported the fewest problems with. HTH,

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
http://www.brainbench.com / "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/ penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL