My new Compaq laptop

For the longest time, I've ranted and raved about never wanting to buy a computer with MS Windows on it.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a Linux user. I have run a MS-free household since at least 2003, and I've been personally MS-free since oh.... 2000. The last PC I bought with MS Windows pre-installed was my old Sony VAIO (PCG-FX120). Not exactly a top-op-the-line machine, but certainly better thana poke in the eye. I never booted the machine with MS Windows on it. I never even gave it a chance to show me the EULA. RedHat 7.3 went right on there.

Well... the old VAIO's been around the block a couple times. It's original 10GB HDD quit in 2003. I replaced it with a 40GB. That died this past Friday. It makes me sad. I didn't really have anything irreplaceable on there... it's just that I've had that machine fivever. I've gotten very used to it. Admittedly, its behind the times. 700MHz P-III... yikes. Still... it has value.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I decided it was time. I needed a laptop with a little more guts. Preferably an AMD-64... Well... I came across this Compaq at Staples... it was a special buy kind of thing... a Turion... nice box, great price... BUT... they wouldn't clear my check. I was all ready. I was at the register. I wrote out the check. They wouldn't clear it. I had the same problem at Borders a couple years ago. I told 'em to keep the laptop.

I stopped at Best Buy. Now, I don't think Best Buy has technically competent sales staff. Every once in a while one of their salespeople surprises me... but for the most part, if it ain't on the Best Buy website, they don't have the answer. Anyway... they had a similar Turion laptop... but a widescreen model. I hemmed a bit... I hawed a little.... I went for it.

Nice machine.

Like my old VAIO, the Compaq Presario V2570NR did not boot with MS Windows on it. Fedora Core 5 Test 3 went on initially... Package management proved to be a bit of a nightmare, so, I opted to reinstall the OS... Fedora Core 4 Good stuff. The Broadcom WiFi card works great under NDIS-Wrapper. The manufacturer-suppled driver for the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M video card works well. The DVD+/-R/RW drive works great. The display is lovely. The keyboard is passable. The touchpad is a little wierd under FedoraCore 4. It has the Vert and Horizontal Scroll areas... which are... a little tougo to master. Also, the buttons behave wierdly... when I click-and-hold, the click does not register...only when the button is released, does the click register... this makes dragging virtually impossible with the touchpad.

On the downside, HP has refused to unsell me MS Windows. It's not that I want the money. I really don't care about that. I'm cheesed off about the fact that MS gets a sale rung up because I bought this laptop. I don't want MS's software... keep it. I'll ship it back and you keep the money. I want Microsoft's marketshare to be accurately reflected.

I wish one of the major laptop OEMs would grow a pair and offer either a "no O/S" laptop or a Linux-preloaded laptop. Dell? HP? Gateway? Lenovo? Get on the stick, dudes! If, by the time I need to make another laptop purchase, the major OEMs haven't gotten the message, I'll just have to buy a non-major unit.

Anyway... I don't know how this unit performs under the pre-installed MS Windows XP-Home... I'm guessing it doesn't know what to do with the 64-bit CPU. It's nice under FC4... I'll switch to FC5 in a couple months.

Nice unit for the money (sub $1000)