looking for cheap small linux laptop

Apreche · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Posts: 506 Location: Beacon, NY

I've finally got a real computer job (a linux one too) and I have moneys now. Since I have money I can finally get a laptop. I'm not a zillionaire or anything so I'm looking to spend around 1000, less if possible. I want a laptop pretty much just so I can do some wireless networking, web browsing, a little text editing, maybe some puzzle pirates and some mp3 listening. You know that kind of stuff. No 3d gaming or video encoding. Maybe some mplayer dvd watching though.

CPU power is really unimportant to me. What is important is this. It has to be small, I want a 12" here, it's supposed to be portable. Thinner is better too. It's gotta have at least 1 USB and 1 VGA out. Built in wirless is a must as well as a hole for the cat5. The more battery life the better. Oh yeah, I want it to run gentoo on it.

I really don't want to get a used laptop unless I'm absolutely sure its at least in 97% mint condition. A beat up piece of junk with dead pixels and the like just isn't worth the money. Oh yeah, I hate touchpads so the nub in the middle of the keyboard is a plus. I'll probably plug a mouse in the USB anyway if I'm at a table.

Any suggestions?

jjasghar · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 3:03 am Post subject:

simple man,

www.pricewatch.com is your best friend!

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Apreche · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Posts: 506 Location: Beacon, NY

I know about pricewatch. But that doesn't help me unless I know which laptop I want now does it? Manufacturers and model numbers are what I'm looking for.

Paradigmbreak · n00b Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 64

For my money I would either get
-an iBook-the G3 versions are still on sale at the apple store under the refurbished section. After adding memory and the wireless card that would be about a $1000. great machines!
-an eMachine M5310- available through tigerdirect.com for less than a thousand as well. Big Screen, HD, and memory included. You can upgrade it to internal wireless by buying a new minipci card for it off ebay.

Both very stylin rides.

stgreek · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 1:56 pm Post subject:

Go to Ebay and get an X series Thinkpad. They are small, light (1.5kg) and have excellent connectivity (Wifi, bluetooth, compactflash). I have an X23 (P3-M 866) and an X31 (P-M 1.4) and they both work perfectly with Gentoo. IBM quality is well known, and they have 3 years warranty.

Of course the X31 is way over $1000, but on Ebay you can get excellent prices for X23, X24 and X30 machines. If you really dont need anything fancy, you can even get X21 and X22s for $600.
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dreas · Guru Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Posts: 359 Location: Germany

DrACoNuS · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 4:49 pm Post subject:

iBook G4

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snowmoon · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 64 Location: Albany,NY USA

What price range? Less than 1000 is cheap, and you can get many NEW laptops, less than 600 and you are looking at a used/refurbished unit and less than 500 is going to be a few years old.

1000 -> watch for a good deal on a PM laptop
600 -> Used iBook is the best path
500 -> Old thinkpad

allucid · Veteran Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 1314 Location: atlanta

If you want to run linux get an IBM X series. They have good battery life, are light, and have very good hardware support in linux. Make sure you get one with an optical drive...

LD · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject:

http://www.emperorlinux.com/

Try this page. They sell laptops with Linux configured on them.

wishkah · Guru Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 441 Location: de

uzibear · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 116

this is excellent advice. for what you specified, the ibm thinkpad is a no brainer. for what you're doing, you really don't need to spend $1k. but if you are going to, definitely get a pentium-M; a dell coupon deal would be the way to go. but really; for what you're doing; get a nice pentium3 MOBILE thinkpad (1gz or nearly that much would be nice); get 512mb ram for it; upgrade to a faster hdd with more space if you like, and you'll be rockin big time.