Linux laptops and systems (was Re: [LUNI] In search of a server)

[Brian Sobolak]

Larry Garfield wrote:
  > Does anyone have a favorite source for such a contraption for a low 
price?
> I'm open to building my own (I do that all the time), or buying pre-made, or 
> a decent gently-used box.  I don't know if I want to bother with RAID or not, 
> as I'd be interested more in reliability than in performance increases.  
> Brands aren't really important, although reliability and expandability of the 
> case is.  Quiet is, since it will be sitting in my living room.  I'm thinking 
> 1 GHz+, 512 MB RAM, and 200+ GB storage, and trying to keep the cost in the 
> $300-$400 range if I can.  No Windows Tax if I can avoid it.
> 
> Any recommendations for where to find such a system, or parts for it, or 
> someone with such a system they want to offload to a good home? :-)  Is the 
> price range I'm looking for too low for this task?
> 

For those of us who don't want to roll our own, I might give this a try:

http://www.system76.com/

I saw this outfit on the O'Reilly Radar blog today and was fairly 
impressed.  The prospect of a fully configured Linux laptop by a 
(apparently) decent vendor is an appealing one.  Not to mention that any 
changes they make to improve they contribute back to Debian.

brian