If someone sells laptops w/o Windows installed

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 04:57:07PM +0300, Peter L. Peres wrote:
> Yes. In one case the supplier installed MSDOS I think to see if it booted
> right and then deleted the partitions with fdisk I think before shipping.
> Any laptop where you purchase it with a disk up-or downgrade will have a
> blank hdd in it and you can tell the vendor you want him to leave it like
> that. There is a better chance to get such a machine from a local shop
> that does its own integration (shop around in your area), than from a big
> chain. You will also likely get a good price.
> 
> Buying a big name brand laptop for use with linux/others is a risky
> business imho. They almost always have the cojones to implement
> non-standard hardware that requires special drivers. If you then try to
> run anything but a mainstream os (like netbsd etc etc) on it you have a
> problem. The problem can range from nonfunctioning modem to burned out cpu
> due to acpi incompatibility not allowing the cpu cooler fan to run.

I haven't personally seen any of those sall brand laptops yet.  Where do
you find those?

As for linux comaptible laptops, IBM thinpads often are very good,
although not all of them.  I think their website even has a list of
certified linux compatible laptops.  I have had problems with video on
one thinkpad that wasn't listed as compatible, and the modem didn't work
either (apparently the sound chip conflicted due to some stupidity in
the intel chipset design).

> Cheapers laptops will have more compliant hardware since they usually do
> not have the special agreements with our favorite software house and they
> need to be compatible with the mainstream. Many even have linux drivers on
> the system driver cd (supplied).

What brands would these be?  I am currently helping a friend find a new
laptop, and would love to avoid the likes ofd Dell, Toshiba, Sony, etc.

Lennart Sorensen
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