Feedback on Acer laptop w. Linux

[Oron Peled]

On Sunday, 30 בAugust 2009 10:15:51 Boaz Rymland wrote:
> On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:06:43 +0300, Oron Peled <oron at actcom.co.il> wrote:
> > Just a general warning (don't know if it applies to this specific model).
> > Many devices on the market with Linux pre-installed have some binary
> > components that make them worthless -- install your own version and
> > many important features will stop working.
>
> and isn't there a way, if it can be generalized at all, to: get a linux
> preinstalled laptop, install your own linux, then install the manufacturer
> packages/updates separately? Alternatively, can one, with little effort,
> collect those binaries from his pre-installed linux prior to installing
> other linux and put them on the new installation? (I guess this can be
> done, but the question is how much resources are needed to fully move all).

Obviously the amount of effort to do this depends on many factors and may
range from trivial to a major pain -- and because there's no source for these
components, the help you can get from other people is also limited.

I normally follow your original method -- put some effort *before* buying
to have an idea about good/problematic hardware. I also make sure
that the people who sell stuff will know *why* I chose their hardware
(because its vendor is cooperating with the Linux community and as
a result the hardware just work out of the box).

As I haven't checked any of the recent netbook offerings, I cannot give
any specific advice -- sorry. However, it would be very nice if you share
your experience with the rest of us after you buy.

Bye,

-- 
Oron Peled                                 Voice: +972-4-8228492
oron at actcom.co.il                  http://users.actcom.co.il/~oron
Free software: each person contributes a brick, but ultimately each
person receives a house in return.
           -- Brendan Scott