On 2011-10-09, at 10:38 AM, Yasha Karant wrote: > On 10/09/2011 09:56 AM, Andrew Z wrote: >> Sorry to hear Yasha about the trouble with lappy. >> May i suggest to look into tablets? >> Another idea maybe to look at fatwallet, I just saw a few deals for smth >> around $300 or so. >> -- >> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. >> >> Yasha Karant <ykar...@csusb.edu> wrote: >> >> My wife's laptop recently was stolen, and the university will NOT >> replace it because her Department has no money and she currently has no >> open grants. I routinely install EL on all machines over which I have >> any say; we need to replace her laptop as soon as possible so that we do >> not have to share laptops. She only needs a browser, office suite, PDF >> manipulation, and Thunderbird/Lightning -- she does not need a heavy >> duty graphics/visualisation or development unit. (Firefox, OpenOffice, >> Thunderbird/Lightning, VirtualBox running MS Win for MS Win specific >> applications, etc., suffice for her needs.) >> >> We have seen several discounted/sale/close-out laptops with dual layer >> DVD burners, etc., of a size she will accept (smallish screen, low mass >> unit). I insist on at least a battery that can be replaced without >> disassembling >> the >> laptop, and a mains supply power plug that is >> supported by iGo. >> >> I have made a bootable DVD from the current standalone (no install) >> bootable SL 6.1 IA-32 image (a bit larger than 2 Gbyte -- I do not >> recall the exact file name but there were only two choices -- a smaller >> one and the "full" one -- I chose full). >> >> On none of the test machines did the 802.11 interface activate, nor is >> there any sign of Gnome NetworkManager (I prefer NetworkManager for >> end-user machines that must go to the field). >> >> My intention was to use the SL 6.1 stand alone IA-32 as a way of testing >> that all needed drivers are present in the "stock" image, as I know that >> other than in those nations in which Microsoft has been found to be a >> monopoly and meaningful remedies enforced, some IA-32 hardware only has >> a MS Win driver, forcing the unpleasant use of NDIS (that I plan to >> avoid). >> >> I could go back to the in >> ventory >> of what is supplied on the image file >> that I burned, but to save me time, does anyone know if the 802.11 >> drivers are part of that image? Is NetworkManager? Is the image >> configured to connect automatically (including activating the 802.11 >> interface)? The DVD did boot, Gnome did come up, and the sound test >> indicated that the sound interface was recognized -- but no 802.11 and >> thus no Internet (via DHCP). >> >> Any information or suggestions would be helpful. >> >> Yasha Karant > > Thank you for the kind suggestions. Again, my wife wants a small laptop > (not a microscopic one based upon an Atom processor) with a dual layer > DVD burner, USB 2 (and preferably 3 but that probably is not > affordable), 802.3 RJ-45 and 802.11, etc. She definitely wants a > keyboard using standard size keys (not necessarily a full complement -- > no requirement for a numeric keypad on the keyboard). > > I am thinking of a fat wallet to replace the non-existant PDA (mine has > failed). > > As we are paying for it (owned by the university, thus not under our > personal insurance), we are looking for $300 US or so. > > Yasha Karant
Yasha, a better solution for a desktop/laptop computer may be to use ubuntu or maybe Fedora... Or, perhaps, just try the LiveCDs, and if *those* work, see what software was used to get it working. I have had some pretty good success with ubuntu. You might also try going for a used laptop - maybe a macbook? they all have standard hardware and I know that ubuntu at least will run on a 2009/2008 model white macbook and will work with the wireless perfectly. -chris