by@moscito.org wrote:
> Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>
> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The
> top priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I
> lug it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
> will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
> some other unix is a must.
>
> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>
> Any gotchas? Can I expect to install Mandrake 9.2 or
> Fedora Core 1 and run everything smoothly? Is there some other
> machine that I should look at instead?
>
>

Well for the price of the T41 you could get an Apple Powerbook, OSX is
"some other unix", although I understand you can run Linux - (I havn't
tried it ;-))
I have no doubt where I would spend that kind of money.

--

Mark²°°³

by@moscito.org wrote:

> Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>
> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The
> top priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I
> lug it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
> will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
> some other unix is a must.
>
> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>
> Any gotchas? Can I expect to install Mandrake 9.2 or
> Fedora Core 1 and run everything smoothly? Is there some other
> machine that I should look at instead?

Have a look at the Dell Latitude series. They have all the features you
want. And you can easily install Linux on them.

On 7 Jan 2004 01:50:11 GMT, by@moscito.org wrote:

>Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>
> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The
>top priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I
>lug it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
>will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
>some other unix is a must.
>
> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>
> Any gotchas? Can I expect to install Mandrake 9.2 or
>Fedora Core 1 and run everything smoothly? Is there some other
>machine that I should look at instead?
>

I understand the T41 is a Centrino machine, and there are some issues
about getting wireless to work with linux on Centrino. Look here for
more info:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/

Allow me to object ...

I just purchased a Dell Latitude D600 and I am extremely disappointed.

I started off with a Mandrake 9.2 distribution that failed to recognized
my USB devices, has no ACPI, and the bios does not seem to have APM
(unless I overlooked that). I'm currently trying to get a 2.6 kernel
running on it ... USB works better (but I'm not done getting the hotplug
automount working), ACPI has the merit of existing, but sleep states
freeze the machine (suspend works, though). However, switching over to
2.6 made me lose access to my CD-RW/DVD.

Oh, and forget about WiFi and Modem too (it appears the Linuxtant
wrappers/drivers work, but I haven't tested yet) !

Furthermore, it comes with an ATI Radeon which is not well supported
either !

So don't go for the D600 if you want plug-and-play Linux.

Bart


BTW: Anyone having hints on getting ACPI sleep states stop freezing my
box is wellcome !


blackcat a écrit le 07.01.2004 15:38 :
> by@moscito.org wrote:
>
>
>>Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>>
>>I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The
>>top priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I
>>lug it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
>>will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
>>some other unix is a must.
>>
>>I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>>
>>Any gotchas? Can I expect to install Mandrake 9.2 or
>>Fedora Core 1 and run everything smoothly? Is there some other
>>machine that I should look at instead?
>
>
> Have a look at the Dell Latitude series. They have all the features you
> want. And you can easily install Linux on them.
>

--
Bart.Lamiroy@loria.fr Bart.Lamiroy@mines.inpl-nancy.fr
http://www.loria.fr/~lamiroy QGar - LORIA - INPL
Tél : +33 3 83 58 41 22 Bureau 498B - Dép. Informatique
Fax : +33 3 83 58 43 28 École des Mines de Nancy
Secr: +33 3 83 58 42 70 Parc de Saurupt - 54042 Nancy CEDEX, France

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 00:50:16 +0100, whoot wrote:

> On 7 Jan 2004 01:50:11 GMT, by@moscito.org wrote:
....
> I understand the T41 is a Centrino machine, and there are some issues
> about getting wireless to work with linux on Centrino. Look here for
> more info:
> http://www.linux-laptop.net/
maybe http://tuxmobil.org/centrino.html , too.

Werner

>>>>> On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 17:50:16 -0600, whoot said:

whoot> On 7 Jan 2004 01:50:11 GMT, by@moscito.org wrote:
>> Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>>
>> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The top
>> priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I lug
>> it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
>> will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
>> some other unix is a must.
>>
>> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.

high-resolution aka big screens and long battery life don't go
together. they also work against lightness.

i have an x30 (which i assume is not that different from the x31) and
it's nice. despite the metal-reinforced lcd cover it doesn't seem as
sturdy as the other thinkpads i have had (tp600 & 560z), but it has a
longer battery life and the screen is better. the t series would be
slightly easier to install linux on.


--
garglemonster@my-deja.comb

I'm having an EMOTIONAL OUTBURST!! But, uh, WHY is there a WAFFLE in
my PAJAMA POCKET??

In article <87k740wzpg.fsf@shroud.disorg>,
Garglemonster wrote:
>>>>>> On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 17:50:16 -0600, whoot said:
>
> whoot> On 7 Jan 2004 01:50:11 GMT, by@moscito.org wrote:
> >> Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
> >>
> >> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The top
> >> priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I lug
> >> it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
> >> will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
> >> some other unix is a must.
> >>
> >> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>
>high-resolution aka big screens and long battery life don't go
>together. they also work against lightness.
>
>i have an x30 (which i assume is not that different from the x31) and
>it's nice. despite the metal-reinforced lcd cover it doesn't seem as
>sturdy as the other thinkpads i have had (tp600 & 560z), but it has a
>longer battery life and the screen is better. the t series would be
>slightly easier to install linux on.
>--
>garglemonster@my-deja.comb

I've gone through a number of Thinkpads, and currently have an X23 and
a T40. If you NEED the larger screen or a built-in CD/DVD, then the
T41 is your obvious choice. On the other hand, if you actually have
to carry it around a lot and can survive with a 768x1024 display,
you'll have fewer excuses to leave the X31 at home :-) A one pound
difference may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference
after about a mile of schlepping around the city (or from one end of
the airport to the other).

Both run Linux just fine although I needed to compile my own
kernel and download some drivers to get all the features built-in
to work. But hey, that's no different from loading Windows from a
standard distribution disk.

As for sturdiness of the X series, I've had no complaints. But I agree
that it seems a lot less rugged than my 560's or 600's. But it is also
significantly lighter, even a 560 feels like a brick in comparison.
--
Vincent C Jones, Consultant Expert advice and a helping hand
Networking Unlimited, Inc. for those who want to manage and
Tenafly, NJ Phone: 201 568-7810 control their networking destiny
http://www.networkingunlimited.com

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 11:46:19 +0100, Bart Lamiroy wrote:

> Allow me to object ...
>
> (paraphrased)
> acpi doesn't work, usb, doesn't work, wifi and modem don't work,
> cd-rw/dvd doesn't work with 2.6...
>
> Bart
I can't speak for Mandrake, but SUSE 9 works fine with everything you need
with the 2.4.21 kernel. A while back I had complained on a list that I
couldn't get RedHat 9 or Fedora to do acpi (although everything else
worked fine). Someone had replied that you can pass a boot time parameter
of noacpi to prevent newer usb devices from getting in the way during the
boot process. Once the
machine is booted then you could started the acpid daemon. I've never
tried this, but you could google for it.
As far as the ATI Radeon (Mobility, I'm assuming) is concerned, it does in
deed work. I got it to work with both RedHat 9 and Fedora as well as SUSE
9. I basically had to make one manual change in the
/etc/X11/XF86Config file...
===
Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800"
===
to get 1280x800 resolution.

I use the Linuxant drivers for both the internal WiFi and the modem. They
work as advertised. They aren't free, however.
CD-RW/DVD drive works fine in all distros I've tried, so your problems may
just be 2.6 related. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the 2.6
kernel does, in fact, have trouble with the way cdrecord interacts.
Again, google for more detail.

HTH.

R.
==

I forgot to include that I did this on an emachine m5310 (love it).

R.
==

I am running Fedora Core 1 on emachines m5312 (Best Buy). Very nice so far.

Rick H. wrote:
> I forgot to include that I did this on an emachine m5310 (love it).
>
> R.
> ==

wrote in message news:btfokj$pm8$1@gemini.ntu.edu.tw...
> Dear Sirs and Mesdames:
>
> I am looking to purchase a thin laptop for linux. The
> top priorities are: *long* battery life, relative lightness (I
> lug it around all the time), a trackpoint. High resolution LCD
> will be a *big* plus. Scroll wheels will be a plus. Linux or
> some other unix is a must.
>
> I am looking at the thinkpad X31 and T41.
>
> Any gotchas? Can I expect to install Mandrake 9.2 or
> Fedora Core 1 and run everything smoothly? Is there some other
> machine that I should look at instead?

Thinkpads wear like iron. Sony Vaio's are very nice, and quite light, but
getting the scroll wheel working can be a bit of an adventure.