From: ray@zianet.com   
      
   On Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:28:49 -0400, Jim Beard wrote:   
      
   > I have been toying with the idea of buying a laptop for 2 or 3 years   
   > now, and the possibility of Winblows Ate leading to indigestion has me   
   > inclined to buy one sooner rather than later.   
   >   
   > My basic want list is largest screen I can get, multi-core cpu, large   
   > hard drive, DVD R-W, and the usual assortment of connectors (ethernet,   
   > USB, ?anything else I will need?).  Battery life is not really   
   > important, as I expect to tether it to a wallwart for use, but desktops   
   > are too much trouble to assemble/disassemble and haul around in a car or   
   > maybe (if absolutely necessary) on an airplane.   
   >   
   > My don't want list includes anything by Toshiba, Sony, or other Japanese   
   > company, plus Lenovo.   
   >   
   > I looked at an HP DV76C63NR that has an i5 cpu 640GB HD and a Dell   
   > i17RN-2943BK that has an i3 and 500GB, both with 17-inch screens and   
   > Win7 64-bit home edition or some such, which I would likely shrink to   
   > maybe 50GB and keep for dual-boot, just in case I might need Willy's   
   > Wonker software.   
   >   
   > Comments?  Suggestions?   
   >   
   > Cheers!   
   >   
   > jim b.   
      
   Have you checked manufacturer's web sites? I was thinking that Dell   
   offered some versions with Linux installed - that's a pretty good feature   
   check right there.   
      
   FWIW - my solution was an Acer netbook. Very compact, but the keyboard is   
   nearly full size - not really difficult to adapt to. It came with dual   
   core Atom (1.67ghz), I've jacked the memory up to 2gb and it has 350gb   
   hard drive. Of course the screen is only 1024x600.   
      
   How much power do you really need?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)