Re: Where to start: hardware and reading material

On Saturday 08 October 2011 17:56:16 Nevyn wrote:
> On 8 October 2011 13:52, David L Neil <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Another thought is that if you are talking about 'recycling' older (and
> > likely cheaper) equipment then rather than downloading the latest version
> > of your choice of distro, a version that is -1, -2, or even 3-versions
> > 'old' might be more compatible (whatever that concept might be)...
>
> This doesn't ring quite so true for Linux. Generally speaking, the drivers
> for hardware get better over time and because it's opensource, someone
> other than the vendor is capable of updating those drivers.
>
> We're not talking about a Windows world here.
>
> Regards,
> Nevyn
> http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

I'd agree with that.   My Thinkpad A20m (current prices around $80 on 
Trademe), my R40, and my R50, are all dual-booting Debian Lenny 5.0 installed 
off the same set of DVD's, and working equally well.   (I've just put 6.0 
Squeeze on this R50, haven't installed it on the A20 yet - but I will).
Only drawback was, I could never get Flash to work - with Squeeze it does, 
just like that.

I went for IBM Thinkpads because I'd read they worked well with Linux, I've 
found that's true.

My suggestion for a beginner to Linux would therefore be, get a used Thinkpad 
(whatever model you wish to afford), it'll probably have e.g. Windows XP 
installed if you're lucky, or Vista if you're not ;)   get a set of install 
DVD's of the distro of your choice - personally I like Debian - and dual-boot 
it.   If you didn't pay too much for the lappy (and currently you can get 
e.g. a T43 with XP for ~$200 on Trademe) then you can probably afford to risk 
bricking it (which is extremely unlikely to happen), or having its Windows 
install go catatonic.

(In all cases on my laptops, WinXP has accepted being repartitioned and 
dual-booted with no major hissy fits that I can detect, I'm not sure how 
Vista or Win7 would react though.   But I almost never boot into Windows 
anyway so I can afford to be casual about it).

cr

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