Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

[MoonRise]

Gateway NV5387u LX.WGC02.044 Notebook PC

[GreyGeek]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

It's looks great, MoonRise.

Very similar to my Sony VAIO VGN-FW140e notebook, as you can see from the photos in this url.

I see one problem, however. When you compare the photo of the keyboard on that Gateway with the photo of my notebook, you will notice that the Gateway chiclet keys are VERY CLOSE together, almost touching, in fact. This may lead to a lot of dual-strikes or similar typing errors. If you hands are as big as mind, and/or as shaky, typing on that keyboard would be difficult. However, you can plug a cheap USB standard 105 key keyboard into it and bypass that chiclet keyboard.

Other than that it looks like it is trying to compete against my Sony with a similar design, except that the diagonal on my Sony is 16.4 inches, and the 1600X900 is awesome in displaying movies.

[MoonRise]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Thanks GG! I've been eying this one for a while. I'm trying to go with a good mix of power, battery and features. If I try to get what I really want I can easily push the price towards $900 to $1000 and my budget is only about $550, so this one is very appealing. Again thanks!

[MoonRise]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Well, they came done in price a little more! I bit the bullet and ordered it! Yoo! Hoo! Can't wait. Haven't had a new toy in a long time! Squeeze Win 7 partition down a little (A LOT!) and get the correct OS on there. The only reason I'm leaving Win 7 on there is to play with it for work related issues since M$ is the foundation we use.

[Snowhog]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Contact them again, and inquire about the Windows 7 installation disc. You're purchasing the OS with the PC, and as an end user, you have the right to the disc. M$ tries very hard to deny this. And, the rescue disc you get (or the installed recscue partition) doesn't allow for a reinstallation.

It has always been in the M$ EULA, that you can install the OS on only one hard drive at a time, and that if you need to reinstall to another hard drive, that you remove the installation from the other hard drive.

Without the actual installation disc, you can't reinstall the OS you purchased, should you have to replace the HD that the OEM installed version came with.

Put M$ in a VM where it belongs, and let loose the dogs of Linux!

[MoonRise]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Put M$ in a VM where it belongs, and let loose the dogs of Linux!

Didn't even think of that! I use XP and 2000 in VM on my desktop. Never had a laptop that was capable, but I think this one should be. Cool! I love ripping M$ off machines!

[MoonRise]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Well. I did get this and it arrived yesterday. Already shrunk Win7 to a more than acceptable size for play. Kubuntu installed perfectly (I stuck with 32 bit for now) and am very pleased with this system at the moment. This AMD processor @ the moment is quite impressive.

[Snowhog]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Ah, the sweet exhilaration of a new toy.

[toad]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

But why have M$ at all? Demand your money back. Not easy and they probably won't even know what you are talking about, but worth it all the same. Normal M$-tax is round about $50 to $70!

[MoonRise]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

True, but we are still a M$ shop @ work and besides me be the only Vista user we are still XP and having Win7 will be good for me to "keep up" with that front.

[kyonides]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

Well, I guess any laptop better than an OLPC one is good enough for anyone. Maybe people are fooled by the "extras" their laptops might included, I hope you chose the ones that best fit your needs.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Any thoughts about the quality of this laptop?

While Negroponte was seduced by Microsoft for a while, and the OLPC XO-1 had a modification to run XP with DRM control, and Sugar's developer resigned, it has returned to its Linux OS roots with Sugar as the desktop: http://laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml

433 MHz CPU, 256MiB RAM, 1GiB Flash storage, 802.11b/g wireless, 30 fps camera, mic, headphones, 7.5" LCD, AC97 compatible audio, 3 USB ports, and much more.

Software?

Learning is our main goal. We do not focus on computer literacy, as that is a by-product of the fluency children will gain through use of the laptop for learning. Children—especially young children—need the opportunity to learn far more than Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Of course, picking up these skills, having grown up with a laptop, will be readily accomplished.

Epistemologists from John Dewey to Paulo Freire to Seymour Papert agree that you learn through doing. This suggests that if you want more learning, you want more doing. Thus OLPC puts an emphasis on software tools for exploring and expressing, rather than instruction. Love is a better master than duty. Using the laptop as the agency for engaging children in constructing knowledge based upon their personal interests and providing them tools for sharing and critiquing these constructions will lead them to become learners and teachers.

As a matter of practicality and given the necessity to enhance performance and reliability while containing costs, XO is not burdened by the bloat of excess code, the “featureitis” that is responsible for much of the clumsiness, unreliability, and expense of many modern laptops.

Folks who claim they HATE bloat will LOVE the OLPC!

If you want to try the Sugar desktop you can get the Ubuntu version here, and run it in a VM. "Sucrose" is Sugar packaged with demonstration "activities" (applications). Get "Starch" for a complete Ubuntu disk image.