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New laptop
I've just ordered my new laptop, a Compal HGL-30. Of course I'll be using it privately as well, but mainly it will be the new standard issue work horse for all Onlinebase employees ;-) Jonathan, my Onlinebase and SZW colleague has bought the same laptop (2 months prior to me) and as he was very satisfied and it was the best value for money offer on sale right now (€ 900,-), I decided to buy the same machine. I pretty much have the same specs as in the abovementioned review, with some minor changes:
- 1GB memory (2 x 512MB for use with Dual Channel)
- 80GB hard drive (more than enough for the prospected use)
- I'll be running Linux (Ubuntu Feisty Fawn) as the main OS
Especially the last point will be a new challenge for me, but seeing how quickly Jonathan got used to and addicted to Ubuntu, I figured I could give it a try. Most probable setup will be a dual boot with Windows XP (no, I'm not gonna molest my system by installing Windows Vista) and then the rest will be Open Source software (OpenOffice, BlueDragon, MySQL, Apache, etc.).
There's a small glitch in this whole, exciting story of mine, and it is reflected in the very first part of the very first sentence: "ordered" is the right word to use, as the vendor I'm buying it from told me they were having some delivery problems... That was after I had transferred them the 900 euros for the laptop. Grumph, hrmph, argh... Anyways, as soon as it is in house and setup, I'll come back with more on this new plaything of mine ;-)
Updated 09 May 2007, by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk
Well, it seems that there are some serious problems delivering enough Compals to Europe. According to Laptops4U it'll take upto 10 weeks before they have my ordered laptop in stock. So, I quickly decided on another laptop, as I'm dying for a new playtoy (my current Dell is driving me NUTS). The newbie is an ASUS A8JR-4P005C (hehehe, had to write that down), a 14'' beast with most of the same specs as the Compal. A major difference is the graphics card (an ATI instead of an NVidia), but as I won't be playing any games on this laptop, that won't be a problem. Other differences are no PCMCIA-slots or the frequently used fingerprint scanner ;-) Extra's are 40GB extra storage, a Firewire- and a DVI-port as well as a laptop bag and an extra external mouse (standard with every ASUS laptop). Oh, and it comes with a Windows Vista Home Premium Licence - not that I'll use that, but it's nice to have it in a partition just to see what it does. Most probably Linux with Beryl running will be my prime choice. This all cost me around € 80 extra, but they can deliver in 2 to 5 days. So hopefully I'll have it at home sometime next week.
Updated 16 May 2007, by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk
Here are the specs of the new laptop (which I unfortunately STILL haven't received):
- Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz; 2MB L2 Cache; 667Mhz FSB)
- 120GB harddisk 5400RPM
- 1024MB DDR2 667Mhz (1 x 1024)
- 8* DVD+/-RW Dual Layer/ 4-in-1 cardreader
- ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 w 128MB vram & DirectX10
- 1 x VGA Out, 1 x Audio out/Mic-in, 5 x USB 2.0, 1 x Firewire, 1 x TV-Out, express card support, 1 x Infrared Port (SIR-115.2Kbps supported), 1 x DVI Port
- 14.1" WXGA ColorShine TFT (1280 x 800), 0.35 Megapixel Webcam
- Windows Vista Home Premium NL/UK/FR
- Internal W-LAN 54Mbps (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG)/ Bluetooth 2.0
- Li-Ion Battery 6 Cell
- 335 x 245 x 34.8-37.3 mm/ 2.3kg (6 cell battery)
- 2 year pick-up & return warranty
- Free carrier bag and optical mouse
But the best thing I saved for last: the price has just dropped to € 899,-, which is cheaper than the original laptop I'd ordered, the Compal HGL-30.
Updated 25 May 2007, by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk
Yesssssssssss, it's in da house ;-) This morning at 8:20 AM (can you believe it?) my new Asus was delivered to my house (with two 512MB memory chips, so I can make use of the Dual Channel). Tonight I'm gonna install a lisenced version of XP in one partition and Linux in another partition (I'll split the harddrive in a 80GB and a 40GB partition). Then it's install time of all the other apps I need to have it up and running for my company Onlinebase. Of course all the software that I install will be Open Source Software or free 2 use. After all, I wouldn't like to get a fine for using illegal software on my company's computer. And why bother with "stolen" software? All you'll ever need ts out there, for free ;-)
Updated 26 May 2007, by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk
Everything works ;-) After having decided that the preinstalled Windows Vista wasn't the way to go (doing nothing it sucked up 70% of my 1GB memory), I tried to make the switch to Windows XP. I stress tried, because it took me more than one day to have everything up and running. For the most part it was a problem getting the right drivers for all my ASUS laptop computer parts. All in all I've installed more than 40 (sometimes rather exotic) drivers, not counting all the drivers Windows installs by itself when a certain part is registered with the correct main driver. Searching the whole Internet for the right drivers bore some fruits, so this morning around 4:30 AM I gave up. At that moment everything except the Audio and Webcam drivers were installed. But these two quite important parts summed up to more problems than I'd bargained for. Then this afternoon something miracously happened: the Search function on the ASUS Support website suddenly decided to up it's searchresults by 400% (using the same searchphrase though ;-) - A8jr...). This seemed to be the last remaining drivers - but all of a sudden a rain of drivers were automagically installed by Windows XP. Luckily for me they were all the correct drivers, and the questionmarks in the Device manager suddenly took a steep dive towards zero. Around 8:30 PM this evening I'm up and running - now I need to get my workspace up and running: CFEclipse, Apache, WinMerge, Tortoise SVN, Blue Dragon, MySQL, SQL Yog and Mozilla Firefox. Then of course I need CrapCleaner, AVG and Rocketdock and I'm ready to serve all Onlinebase customers ;-)
Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top
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posted:
3... on 19 April 2024 @ 22:03
Pappa posted:
1geweldig, Linux werkt bij mij perfect en de meeste etater in Oslo etc werken met Linux...succes
... on 11 May 2007 @ 03:15
Sebastiaan posted:
2Here's a review of the notebook: via Notebookcheck.nl. By now (nearly three years later) the battery is seriously lacking in duration, I get no more than 30 to 40 mins out of it by normal use. That's no fun when I need at least 90 mins for my trip back home from work.
... on 01 March 2010 @ 18:24