Laptop shopping

[coyote6]

So, I'm looking for a new laptop, and I don't want Windows Vista; I'd rather get XP. Dell will sell me an Inspiron 1520 with XP.

It (now) comes only with integrated video, but they used to have an option (as lately as a month ago, apparently) to get separate NVidia card; so I'm thinking maybe I can get one later, and add it myself. Or not. Who knows.

Anyways, anybody got any horror stories about the Inspiron 1520?

 

[drothgery]

It's probably easier to buy the laptop you want, and then get a copy of XP if you decide that you really can't live with Vista (or OSX, if a MacBook fits the bill for you) than to buy something from the limitted subset of laptops that you can still get with XP pre-installed.

Having said that
- I've got a Lattitude D620 (which was the late 2006/early 2007 version of the Lattitude D630), and it's worked rather well for the last year and a half
- All of Dell's 'business' laptops are available with XP, and Dell doesn't really care if you're an actual small business; I bought two desktops and a laptop for myself over the years from the small business web store because I liked the business options better (because I build my PC for something I can work on, and use consoles for games)

 

[coyote6]

It's probably easier to buy the laptop you want, and then get a copy of XP if you decide that you really can't live with Vista (or OSX, if a MacBook fits the bill for you) than to buy something from the limitted subset of laptops that you can still get with XP pre-installed.

I thought about that, but I was concerned about the getting drivers & the like (for things like wireless, video, etc). I expect they'd likely only send Vista-compatible drivers, and I don't know how easy it would be to track down XP drivers.

I was thinking about a MacBook, but they're still more expensive than a Windows/Linux PC. (I've also considered getting a Linux machine, and then trying to get it to dual-boot with WinXP.)

 

[John Crichton]

It should be really easy to get XP drivers for just about anything, these days. I would get the best comp you can and just throw XP on there. That said, why not wait for Vista SP1? It will be out soon and may fix a bunch of problem from the last year with Vista.

 

[azhrei_fje]

I was thinking about a MacBook, but they're still more expensive than a Windows/Linux PC. (I've also considered getting a Linux machine, and then trying to get it to dual-boot with WinXP.)

I bought a MacBook Pro last August. It was expensive -- I'm not sure I would do it again.

Having said that, I really love the machine. It's very thin and light, and because it doesn't have a fan it's also very quiet. The 17" LCD is pretty nice (my last Compaq AMD64 also had a 17" 1920x1200 LCD) and only suffers slightly from the "dark corner" effect. The Compaq had gotten pretty bad as it reached the 3-year mark. But I miss some of the Linux features: multiple desktops, Konqueror and the "fish://" and "man://" URLs, window placement and sizing options, and so on.

If I were to do it again, I'd find a machine with a T7x00 Intel chip or a dual/quad-core AMD. The MacBook Pro has a T7400 -- nice cache and TLB sizes. I would put Linux on it, probably Kubuntu since that's what I ran on my Compaq.

If you decide to go with dual-boot, install Windows first. That way the Linux installer will find your Windows partition and automatically configure the bootloader to give you options for both. If you install Linux first and then add Windows, the screwed up Windows bootloader will only let you boot Windows and you'll have to use a Linux "rescue" disk to put a good bootloader back on.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Lenovo (formally IBM) still offers XP.

 

[IronWolf]

hat said, why not wait for Vista SP1? It will be out soon and may fix a bunch of problem from the last year with Vista.

Looks like they might not have figured out that I/O performance issue yet, even with SP1:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1332&page=1

 

[John Crichton]

Looks like they might not have figured out that I/O performance issue yet, even with SP1:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1332&page=1

It's certainly possible. I've been loosely following SP1 and so far no overwhelming word of huge fixes, but then again these things need to actually be out in the real world for a bit to see the verdict.

 

[IronWolf]

... but then again these things need to actually be out in the real world for a bit to see the verdict.

Very true.

 

[Arnwyn]

It should be really easy to get XP drivers for just about anything, these days. I would get the best comp you can and just throw XP on there.

You'd think... but that's not entirely true. There are, now, a bunch of laptops in which XP simply won't work.

Carefully read reviews!