bolawy

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hi all,


A friend of mine is looking for a new laptop and better still, she wants it to run Linux. She has been tempted to get an Apple, but didn't like customer service, and some other things. She has asked me for advice, but it has been tougher than I thought to get good tips. Here's what she wants:

A completely white laptop (or in a very ladylike colour such as pink or purple -- no black or grey, but all in one colour). She doesn't like the very thin models, as she is afraid that those will break too easily.

Performance wise, it should be relatively fast, for instance a core 2 duo processor and 2 GB of RAM. The screen size should be between 12 and 14 inch.

Most importantly: it should be so Linux friendly that a mainstream distribution such as Ubuntu or Fedora will get all components to work without any fiddling around. Also the power saving features should work such as fan control. It's not a huge deal if some of the components come from non-Linux friendly companies, as long as they work well with a mainstream distribution.

So if you have any experience with such a laptop or if you know a model that is worthwhile considering please let me know. A link would be highly appreciated.

By the way, she lives in Europe, so please keep this in mind. I don't know if all models are shipped all over the world.

Bolawy

choogendyk

Pink Sony Vaio?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...6398&langId=-1

http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/sony.html

XavierP

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en...-ng633ea_2744/ from HP, a Vivienne Tam designer laptop in pink
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home...=dhs&cs=ukdhs1 - the Dell Inspiron 15 & 17 are both pink.

Both of those sites are UK, but there shouldn't be any real variation in the other European countries.

bolawy

Thanks for your suggestions. I think the Sony comes closest, since it is entirely in one colour and it comes with an core 2 duo processor.

It seems strange to me that no other manufacturer is producing entirely white laptops. Apparently there is a market for it so there must be more than this. Has anyone else seen one? If not, I guess the choice is easy.

linus72

Now all you need is a white/pink feminine distro

Probaly should just make a remastersys iso of ubuntu or debian
and add all the pink stuff

you know how to use remastersys?

ongte

The Silver Pearl Dell Adamo is gorgeous. If price is no issue.

Adamo

bolawy

Indeed, this Adamo looks good. It might be too thin in the sense that she might be afraid to break it or that it might overheat. Also, I would be afraid that no one had ever tried to install Linux on it, because I think it might not be too popular among Linux users. I'm not sure, I know many people buy an Apple and then install Linux on them. Perhaps it's the same thing with these, but somehow I doubt it.

I was thinking that she could just install a normal distribution and then tweak it. Getting a nice wallpaper, installing a dock (e.g. avant) and different icons. Then, when done she could of course make a backup or an image if you would like. What would be the advantage of having a start-up disk?

Bolawy

ongte

A while back I had a chance to play with an Adamo for a week. Let me tell you, it looks thin, but it's very solidly built & quite heavy for it's size. It uses the same aluminum unichassis as the Macbooks Pros.

I've managed to try 64bit Ubuntu 8.10 & Mandriva 2009 on it. They both work fine on the first try. I did not manage to test the Bluetooth and Webcam, but everything else worked. Suprisingly, It uses pretty typical hardware, except for the blazing fast SSD.

linus72

dont know what you mean by startup disk?

basically, using remastersys, she or you can make a custom flavor of Ubuntu or Debian

simply do a minimal net0--install of either
add all the apps you want
do a remastersys backup
which will include all bookmarks, settings etc
and it will create a LiveCD, which is then installable
or you can also run it from usb or cd with ppersistence

its pretty easy, GUI driven too

I could whip one up and drop a download link to you?

repo

<ON TOPIC>

http://www.pinklaptops.org.uk/

<OFF TOPIC>

Just wondering, everytime there are security updates or you install a program, or...
you need to remaster again?
Isn't a decent backup strategy better than remastering ?
What is the use of a live cd, if you have a laptop with HD, and want to install a distro to it ?

</OFF TOPIC>

linus72

the remastersys remaster can be installed just like any other Ubuntu repo
dont you know this?

There are many ubuntu derivatives built off remastersys

Ultimate-Editon
WattOS
Ubuntu-Satanic
Icebuntu/Sprii
Samurai-Ubuntu
MoonOS

and many more
all built with remastsersys-backup

it will install using Ubiquity, the Ubuntu installer
its just like Ubuntu, just in your flavor
it takes about 2hrs or less to get it all together
you can fine-tune each backup
and you can exclude any files too

its pretty cool

bolawy

thanks for all your help! I'll let know her options and will see which she prefers...