Somehow I have become tech support

[rhyll]

Two questions:
* Can anyone recommend a half-decent laptop (brand/model) for under AU$1500? Dr. C has agreed to me helping her to purchase a laptop and set it up with Ubuntu (hurrah!) All it really needs to do is word processing, etc, play music, and must be able to burn CDs.
* Does anyone else use Doteasy for their website hosting? I am using their free, training-wheels-on service to lower 'barriers to participation' for the Think Tank. BUT! how do you create a page without it showing up on the sidebar? I would be surprised and delighted if anyone here has come upon the same issue. Seriously, this is driving me crazy. I have had actual dreams about it, which is in a way pleasant because it's displacing the thesis-related-night-terrors.

Comments

[sirive.livejournal.com]

I use Doteasy and I know what you're asking!
It was long ago but what I think I did was make it invisible because I couldn't delete it. So the frames, text and everything is the same colour as the background and all the links were taken out. Maybe there's an easier way.

[conradin.livejournal.com]

ahaha, never admit to IT knowledge, and certainly don't help anyone buy a laptop unless you are prepare to be doing a fair amount of support :P I'm slightly reticent about handing out the new business cards, as they reveal I work in IT. (Now is the time you say "Oh, you can tell that by looking at you!")

Do you want a full sized laptop, or are you looking at things like eeepcs?

Soft spot for Toshibas, loath HPs, ASUS seem to be pretty solid and Sony seem nice if expensive. All this is pretty much based on random gut feeling/non-representative samples however :)

[ducts.livejournal.com]

$1500 is quite a generous budget, all netbooks and most home laptops will fit that. Apart from the netbooks, it's still fairly difficult to find one that does not include Windows bundled into the price (though it has happened, for example in http://www.thegoodguys.com.au/ last year, or on Dells sold in the USA).

Intel graphics is still the best choice for a GNU laptop, no need to pay extra for ATI or NVidia graphics. ATI is in the process of becoming a better supported option.

If the laptop is only being sold with 512MB of RAM, an extra gigabyte is $25.
If it has a small hard drive, most of them will take a 320GB or 500GB drive - you could install on that, saving the untouched Windows one for a few weeks in case of warranty claims, then put it in a $20 external USB case for laptop backups.
If a netbook sounds nice but all you need is a DVD burner, a nice small USB-powered one for $115 would do the trick: http://msy.arpatubes.net/display.php?type=product&query=15125

You can take a live Ubuntu CD into the shop and try it out.

[(Anonymous)]

Dell Vostro. go to the aussie website and look under Small Business laptops. they range from a little 12" (which I have. everything works except suspending twice in a row, and the dialup modem), to a larger 15" (which fran has and i haven't tried getting ubanto on yet). the keys on the small models take a bit of getting used to, but nothing too bad as you'd know from the XO. the large ones are not very light, but powerful enough to make up for it. they come to around $1500 with 3 year warranty

whatever you do, arm-wavingly warn against rocking into harvey norman and dropping $999 (plus cashback!) on a hp piece of garbage. other good options are toshiba and ibm, tho they may be a bit more pricey?

you could also suggest a netbook. the MSI Wind is the best out at the moment, but apparently the new Asus EEE 1000HE beats it. the MSI works out the box with Ubuntu, though you'll need to buy an Intel 3945ABG wireless card ($50) off ebay. the EEE has many wikis and a few pre-made distros specifically for it