On Thu, October 2, 2014 7:16 am, Johan Vermeulen wrote: > > op 02-10-14 11:33, wwp schreef: >> Hello, >> >> >> On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:01:19 +0200 Johan Vermeulen >> <jvermeulen at cawdekempen.be> wrote: >> >>> op 02-10-14 09:01, wwp schreef: >>>> Hello Frank, >>>> >>>> >>>> On Wed, 1 Oct 2014 22:57:30 -0600 Frank Cox >>>> <theatre at melvilletheatre.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Today I found myself in need of a laptop to run Centos on. And that >>>>> simple statement led to an all-day odyssey. >>>> [snip] >>>>> Since it has now become amazingly difficult to get a laptop if you're >>>>> not planning to use Windows, at least around here, I'm wondering what >>>>> the rest of you fine folks do when it comes to purchasing a laptop? >>>>> Next time this comes up, I'd rather not have to spend all day on >>>>> something that used to take fifteen minutes. >>>> Dell Latitude series, from the old D810 to more recent E65xx ones. >>>> >>>> >>>> Regards, >>> Hello All, >>> >>> when buying laptops I try to avoid Ati/Radeon cards, because of pas >>> issues. >>> But maybe it would be all right now. >>> >>> Definitely no Broadcom wireless. >>> No Lenovo because of id/pairing protected cards. >>> In short, I look for laptops with as many Intel parts as possible. >>> >>> Although it is true that Amd is a lot of power for a buck. >> What's wrong w/ Broadcom wireless? Works fine here (Broadcom >> Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)), even >> if I had to install their driver (it's well documented on the CentOS >> wiki). >> >> >> Regards, >> With Dell laptops I pay special attention to get Intel wireless (as much as I hate intel for video chip I love Intel for their wireless chip), I'm definitely allergic to broadcom wireless from the very beginning. I do avoid Compaq (and HP since compaq was bought by them): they hard code in BIOS IDs of "approved" cards - it least compaq did it to me once, I had to dump BIOS, use hex editor to add Intel wireless card ID to replace with is broadcom crap - way back (yes, I had to unsolder PPROM chip from system board for that). It was the same Compaq that did, as some remember "clean room" --> IBM PC compatible. I too decided recently to stay away from Lenovo in a future, reading this thread confirms it. I'm staying away from Sony; they release very short series of models, do small tweaks, ... you never know what you will get inside, no way to rely on experience published by others. Also I saw Sony fail more often (few people around buy them for themselves). My $0.02 Valeri ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++