Re: Need cheap new laptop, any suggestions?

[Nathan Sivin nsivin@xxxxxxxx]

Re cheap computers, Ubuntu has been so successful that it is spawning
other Linux distributions. One that has quickly become quite successful
is Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu but includes codecs for movies
and other media.

Keep in mind that it is extremely easy to find out whether Mint will do
what you want to do on your own computer. You can load it on a Live CD,
which will start up the system and let you use all of its features
without leaving a trace on your hard disk. Just download the ISO file of
the new version 7 from LinuxMint.com and burn it to a CD. Make sure your
computer is set up to boot from a CD before it boots from the hard disk.
Then pop the disk in the CD drive and restart. Running everything from a
CD is of course much slower than from an installed copy, but if you are
willing to be patient you will come out knowing if there are any
hardware complications. At the point where you are satisfied, you can
use the same disk to install the program. If Windows is already
installed, the program will automatically put in place a boot loader
that will let you choose each time which OS you want to run.

Actually the RAM requirement of the Ubuntu series is 384mb, and 512mb is
generous. It hasn't gone up. So a computer too old to run any version of
Windows of the last decade will do fine. It includes all the software
you could want, including OpenOffice.org, which is as sophisticated as
Microsoft Office Suite, and more so in some respects, and it's all free.

Cheers,

Nathan
--
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
nsivin@xxxxxxxx
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~nsivin/