I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is painfully slow. Something like a hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of 4 gigs RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger. I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several "factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! thanks in advance! Fred -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- The Lord is like a strong tower. Those who do what is right can run to him for safety. --------------------------- Proverbs 18:10 (niv) -----------------------------
On Thu, November 2, 2017 12:41 pm, Fred Smith wrote:> I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, > a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with > something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is > painfully slow. > > Something like a hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of 4 > gigs > RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger.Not intending to contradict (if that ends up as pain, it will be your pain anyway ;-) but I would go higher with specs if you intend to use Linux on it. Linux tends to grow its demands for resources pretty much exponentially (same as Windows does, only from lower starting point). It is so during last decade and a half. Consistently. If you decide to run FreeBSD on the laptop, then these specs will be OK (in my estimate) for some 5-7 years, as FreeBSD's demands to hardware grow much slower, not quite linear but close to it than to exponent or even power law.> > I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices > are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 > junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. > > Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. > > I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several > "factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above > in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not"Factory refurbished" is always big red flag for me (Lenovo is another big red flag - I mentioned elsewhere why). This basically means that this particular model is poorly designed (and/or manufactured), so it comes with defects or fails withing short period of time so customers are so outraged that they return it, or Lenovo prefers to get them "luckier" new sample of the same, and buff-up and sale the bad one as refurbished, with lower expectations of whoever buys it. Anyway, your reasoning will be of more value for you, as it will be your money that will be affected. Good luck! Valeri> > I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! > > thanks in advance! > > Fred > > -- > ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us > ----------------------------- > The Lord is like a strong tower. > Those who do what is right can run to him for safety. > --------------------------- Proverbs 18:10 (niv) > ----------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On 11/02/2017 01:42 PM, Fred Smith wrote:> I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, > a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with > something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is > painfully slow. > > Something like a hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of 4 gigs > RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger. > > I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices > are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 > junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. > > Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. > > I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several > "factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above > in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not > > I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! > > thanks in advance! > > Fred >I have been running Linux, mostly Redhat flavors, for a long time mostly on Thinkpads but some other IBM/Lenovo laptops for a long time. Never have had a problem.? Currently running Fedora 26 on a X260, two with Centos 7.4, X200 & X220, all used for software development. HTH -- Roger Wells, P.E. leidos 221 Third St Newport, RI 02840 401-847-4210 (voice) 401-849-1585 (fax) roger.k.wells at leidos.com
Valeri Galtsev <galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu> wrote:> Not intending to contradict (if that ends up as pain, it will be > your pain anyway ;-) but I would go higher with specs if you intend > to use Linux on it. Linux tends to grow its demands for resources > pretty much exponentially (same as Windows does, only from lower > starting point).On my Acer Aspire One 522 (two-core AMD C-50 1.0 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM), CentOS 6 is noticeably smoother than Windows 7. Windows uses the battery more efficiently, however. -- Yves Bellefeuille <yan at storm.ca>
On 11/02/2017 10:41 AM, Fred Smith wrote:> I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, > a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with > something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is > painfully slow. > > Something like a hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of 4 gigs > RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger. > > I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices > are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 > junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. > > Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. > > I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several > "factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above > in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not > > I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! > > thanks in advance! > > Fred >CentOS works well on T-Series thinkpads but be careful of the video, some use an nvidia card which at least historically had issues in Linux that caused the battery to run down faster and caused the laptop to run hot. T series thinkpads use Intel wifi that "just works" with CentOS - at least in my limited experience. Many laptops require 3rd party drivers with proprietary firmware to get the wifi working, which can be a pain in the neck when point release update happens (e.g. 7.3 to 7.4) because you then have to rebuild the RPM in the new point release or the driver won't work, and often that means downloading a new nosrc.rpm - which may not immediately be available. Somewhere there's a list of wifi hardware that works out of the box with the Linux kernel, whatever brand you buy I would recommend the wifi device is on that list.
On Thu, Nov 02, 2017 at 06:34:06PM -0700, Alice Wonder wrote:> On 11/02/2017 10:41 AM, Fred Smith wrote: > >I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, > >a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with > >something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is > >painfully slow. > > > >Something like a hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of 4 gigs > >RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger. > > > >I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices > >are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 > >junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. > > > >Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. > > > >I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several > >"factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above > >in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not > > > >I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! > > > >thanks in advance! > > > >Fred > > > > CentOS works well on T-Series thinkpads but be careful of the video, > some use an nvidia card which at least historically had issues in > Linux that caused the battery to run down faster and caused the > laptop to run hot. > > T series thinkpads use Intel wifi that "just works" with CentOS - at > least in my limited experience. Many laptops require 3rd party > drivers with proprietary firmware to get the wifi working, which can > be a pain in the neck when point release update happens (e.g. 7.3 to > 7.4) because you then have to rebuild the RPM in the new point > release or the driver won't work, and often that means downloading a > new nosrc.rpm - which may not immediately be available. > > Somewhere there's a list of wifi hardware that works out of the box > with the Linux kernel, whatever brand you buy I would recommend the > wifi device is on that list.thanks, Alice, I'll keep your advice in mind. Fred -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. ----------------------------- Proverbs 15:3 (niv) -----------------------------
On 11/02/2017 01:00 PM, Wells, Roger K. wrote:> On 11/02/2017 01:42 PM, Fred Smith wrote: >> I'm looking to replace my (old, creaky) netbook (Acer Aspire One D255e, >> a screaming dual core 1.6 GHz Atom, and a whole 2 gigs of RAM) with >> something faster but not too large. Sometimes (usually) the netbook is >> painfully slow. >> >> Something like a? hi-res 14 (or 15) inch screen (full HD), minimum of >> 4 gigs >> RAM, HD of a half terabyte or bigger. >> >> I'd like to not have to go over 600-700 dollars, so I know my choices >> are somewhat limited if I want to avoid the 400-500 dollar windows 10 >> junk^H^H^H^Hsystems from BJs, etc. >> >> Something with a quad-core processor, and all hardware works with C7. >> >> I've glanced at Lenovo Thinkpads on amazon where there are several >> "factory refurbished" ones with similar specs to what I mention above >> in the $500-700 range, but I don't know if they're any good or not >> >> I'm open to suggestions from any/all of you! >> >> thanks in advance! >> >> Fred >> > I have been running Linux, mostly Redhat flavors, for a long time mostly > on Thinkpads but some other IBM/Lenovo laptops for a long time. > Never have had a problem.? Currently running Fedora 26 on a X260, two > with Centos 7.4, X200 & X220, all used for software development. > HTH >Red Hat provides Lenovo Thinkpad machines to employees, so almost everything for RHEL (and therefore CentOS) works with those. Also the X1 Carbon. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 198 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20171103/7790dfcb/attachment-0001.sig>