linux and laptops

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Cheryul:

Well, my IBM Thinkpad T20 is my main machine. It's the one I spend most of 
my time using. You may recall that I travel quite a bit for business. I 
will be getting a newer Thinkpad--or just upgrading the one I have soon, 
haven't decided which, just yet. The one I have is my fourth Thinkpad in a 
row, going back some 6 or 7 years to a 100 Mhz Pentium on a Thinkpad 560.

There are issues, but there are also excellent workarounds. My only advice 
is to be certain to get an external numeric keypad for Speakup screen 
review. When you have time to set one up--as in a hotel room--it's very 
helpful.
 On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Cheryl Homiak wrote:

> What kinds of experiences have people had with laptops? For instance:
> Is it still possible to get them with serial ports for braille display and/or
> speech synthesizer? On my desktop, I liike to have both available but I realize
> that might not be possible on a laptop.
> Is there any way to be sure you aren't going to be stuck with an unuseable
> internal modem?
> Can you get a laptop without an OS or do you have to remove Windows? I know that
> in some cases the warranty on computers goes by the wayside if you mess with the
> OS. I also understand you can get some laptops with some kind of linux
> distribution, but I imagine then you'd have to redo things so you don't end up
> getting put into Xwindows when you boot; besides, I think I want to stick with
> debian.
> 
> Is finding one that has compatible sound a problem?
> Has anybody found particular laptops that have worked well with linux that you
> would like to recommend (preferably lower end of laptop price range)?
> Of course, I'm looking at all the info in the howtos on laptops and hardware,
> but are there any other pitfalls of which I should be aware if i decide to buy
> one?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Cheryl
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org