Re: [LAU] query re: HP notebook

From: Mark Knecht <markknecht@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Wed Nov 12 2008 - 05:41:34 EET

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 7:26 PM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> Mark Knecht wrote:
>>
>> Is there by any chance another number on the HP box? My HP/Compaq
>> laptop had a funky number like that but it also had a more simple
>> number - in my case F600US. This turned out to be the machine name
>> where as the complicated on was the one that indicated the machine
>> coupled with the disk, memory, etc. (Or so I think...)
>>
>
> The only other number that seems relevant is the part number FS185UA. Google
> turned up some mentions on Spanish sites, but they weren't really
> informative. However, they did indicate that Linux runs on the machine, so
> there's some good news.

That's the one:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01533414&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

It's got HDMI which is nice if you own a newer TV.

With 250GB you can easily keep a Windows partition and stream NetFlix
to your 60" plasma. ;-)

>
>> The first review I found wasn't overly kind:
>>
>> http://review.zdnet.com/product/laptops/hp-g60-125nr/33360964
>>
>> but I wouldn't personally care too much about that.
>>
>
> Yep, I read that one. It got me wondering, hence the email.
>
>> I guess based on the way you purchased that you weren't able to boot
>> it with an install disk?
>>
>
> No, they weren't very amenable to the idea at Best Buy. I don't usually
> purchase stuff there, but I was happy enough with the Westinghouse monitor I
> bought there (soon to be replaced by another one of those Samsungs you
> recommended).
>
>> My guess is that the specs will turn out to be 'ok'. Not great, but
>> ok. That's pretty similar to mine when I bought it a year and a half
>> ago. Probably your machine is an nvidia chipset and probably it's
>> going to work fine in Linux. Possibly the nvidia video card will be a
>> problem with the real-time kernel, but possibly not. I think lots of
>> people use nvidia and do fine. In my mind, for what little I know
>> about what you really do Dave, I'd guess the video chip issue is the
>> risky thing, and then ONLY if you use the nvidia driver. Probably not
>> much of an issue at all if you can get by with the Xorg nvidia driver.
>>
>
> Alas, 3D is essential to my current work with the AVSynthesis program. I'm
> using nVidia cards in both my desktop machines, and they're running rt
> kernels. Not the most recent kernels, but I've had little or no tangential
> problem with the nVidia closed-source driver. From other reports it would
> seem I'm a lucky guy.

Nahh, I've used nvidia a lot and haven't had any problems at all. that
said I've never depended on 3D so I cannot speak to that.

>
> Btw, I plan to check out Arch and Ubuntu 8.10 with this machine. Geoff
> Beasley swears by Arch, and I liked what I saw when I did some reviews of
> software running on Ubuntu 8.04. IIRC you're a Gentoo user, but please opine
> on either of those systems if you know them.

I don't use either and personally had so much trouble with
Redhat/Fedora package management that I'd never go back to systems
that mix libraries. It never worked well for me. Some important
product like Ardour or Rosegarden would release a new version and I'd
find that the binary didn't match my system and building it was a
hassle. Building from source on Gentoo is trivial - it just takes time
which I have lots of so it doesn't bother me.

I looked recently at Arch based on Geoff's comments but couldn't get
up the energy to try it out. Maybe I should and go through it at the
same time you do...

>
>> Don't know what to tell you. Maybe you can still go back to the store,
>> or another store, with the Linux install disks and try things out
>> without opening this box. I suspect that with the economy being so bad
>> that you're going to see LOTS of laptop deals over the next few
>> months. If you need something this week that won't help but I'm sure
>> there will be lots of low price machines out there.
>>
>
> I've been laptopless (that sounds a bit dodgy, eh?) for a while, and I do
> want one asap.
>
>
>> Good luck. If you decide to keep it you can be assured that you're
>> going to get LOTS of support from LAU members, but we can't fix real
>> problems with support by the kernel if it isn't there.
>>
>>
>
> Thanks, Mark, the assistance and encouragement is greatly appreciated. I'm
> going to sleep on a decision, but I'm leaning favorably towards opening it
> up in the morning. I'll post again tomorrow with the news.
>
> Best,
>
> dp
>
>
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Received on Wed Nov 12 08:15:01 2008

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