[SGVLUG] Down to the wire on laptops, and now Dell wants in on my action...

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

I Just saw a news item that Dell "will" offer Linux pre-installed "ON
SELECT LAPTOPS..."  It seems the Chairman and CEO of Dell runs Ubuntu
[feisty] on his own laptop & desktop computers, so it follows that the
company should indeed offer such to their customers...

I'm not sure "which" models will offer this as I can't seem to find that
as a configurable item on their website (and I waited 20+ minutes on
virtual hold waiting for the "chat w/sales" application to connect me to
a salesman -- as such, I gave up at that point...)

As to the laptop itself, I have almost decided on the Asus-based "A2:38"
from powernotebooks.com, only (mainly) because the L8:15 is "out of
stock" so far as 1600x1050 displays are concerned (only 1200x800 is
available now, and I really /really/ want the vertical screen res...)
and they are uncertain even IF they will get more in.  (OTOH, they do
have a couple of units that have been returned because the aluminum
cover has become "dented", so they are looking to get replacement covers
from the manufacturer.  I presume this means they've shipped a
"replacement" system in the meantime, so when the cover arrives they
will be able to sell the returned/repaired unit as "refurbished" or some
such.  Either way, this does raise some concern on my part if the cover
is indeed "easily dented")

However, there are a couple more points on this that I'd like some input
from you folks (which, in turn, would benefit all as knowledge is
distributed)

  hard drives: conventional wisdom points out that a faster RPM drive
would have better response times.  Unfortunately, that speed comes at
the expense of capacity.  I can get the system with a 100gb "7200" rpm
drive or a 160gb "5400" rpm drive.  The salesman has made the claim that
the increased density of data (nearly double) makes up for the lower
speed (i.e., you'll get effectively the same throughput even though the
drive is "slower") -- anyone willing to say yea or nay on this?

  Santa Rosa: this is the new codename to replace "centrino" when
discussing families of capabilities of laptops (and/or defines the
processor and chipset)  This is "due out in June", with models arriving
"on the shelves" in July or so -- has anyone heard anything about this
"class" of notebooks to make me want to wait for one?  (or steer
clear...)

Tom

P.s.  Thanks for the link to system 76 -- I did ask if their
top-of-the-line notebook was based on the Compal HEL80, but it seems the
salesman who responded was clueless on this point, or else his response
was mistyped -- the salesman's response was:

   "The Serval sure doesn't look the same as the HEL80 to me. Servals
are undergoing some upgrades, though. I'm not sure what the specs will
be on the new ones yet."

Since the wording is odd, I'm guessing this was a keyboard slip or
spell-checker rewrite -- the pictures on their site do indeed match
those of the L8:15 and Sager NP2080 [powernotebooks sells both...] as
well as pictures on various review sites for the Compal unit.  I also
suspect that "undergoing some upgrades" is a sneaky way of saying "we'll
be shipping Santa-Rosa based systems under the same label"