Re: [vox] Re: Laptop purchase recomendation

["Justin Cummins" <sul3n3MAPSt@gmail.com>]

BIOS whitelisting is the practice of having a coded list of wireless devices which will be _allowed_ to run in a given system. The whitelist contains the device and subsystem IDs of only permitted cards. For wifi cards, this includes stock cards and generally hyper-overcharged cards from the system vendor. 

The problems with BIOS whitelisting are that it perverts the notion of a standard interface (miniPCI in laptops), locks in only vendor upgrades/modifications, and forces the system to remain obsolete when the vendor doesn't allow newer technology devices in the whitelist.

The workarounds for the BIOS whitelist include risky measures such as modifying and reflashing your BIOS and modifying a non-whitelist card to have the device ID of a whitelist card (which confuses drivers, etc).

On 9/26/06, Bill Kendrick <nbs@sonic.net> wrote:

Another RoseLUG list Cc...  (I'm happy to pass them on to vox :) )

-bill!

----- Forwarded message from vox-bounces@lists.lugod.org -----

Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:43:10 -0700
From: Anthony Fortenberry <anthonyf@chronica.com>
Subject: Re: [roselug] Re: Laptop purchase recomendation
To: roselug@roselug.org ,  vox@lists.lugod.org

Joshua Morris wrote:
>On 9/25/06, Joshua Morris <bullring@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Hi Everyone,
>>
>>I am shopping for a new laptop and am looking for suggestions on laptops
>>that work well with Linux.  I have been looking at HP's dv9000t  with
>>the
>>core 2 duo chip set.  At < $2,800 i'm scared to exaust my student
>>budget on
>>it if it is not going to do what I am looking for.  This is the
>>configuration I am looking for:
>>
>>HP Pavilion dv9000t customizable Notebook Pc
>>EZ379AV
>>
>>   - ? Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0 GHz)
>>   - ? 17.0" WXGA+ Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1440x900)
>>   - ? 512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
>>   - ? HP IMPRINT Finish + Microphone + Webcam
>>   - ? FREE Upgrade to 1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB)!!
>>   - ? 240 GB 5400 RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120 GB x 2)
>>   - ? FREE Upgrade - LightScribe DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
>>   - ? Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
>>   - ? HP ExpressCard Analog TV Tuner w/remote control
>>   - ? Two High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Batteries
>>   - ? HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
>>
>>If you use any other brands that have similar specs let me know.  If you
>>have had any good/bad experiences with Linux on a hp that too would be
>>greatly appreciated.
>>I looked around on Google to see if I could find any websites that might
>>have more information, but there wasn't much available becuse the
>>laptop has
>>only been out a few months.
>>
>>Joshua
>>
>
>Thank you all for your input.  After looking over the websites you
>have all
>posted and the points you have all made.  I have decided not to buy
>the HP
>because of their use of BIOS white-listing noted by some of you( I even
>called hp customer service and the sales rep hesitated but did confirm
>that
>this model has the same bios white-listing "feature") in the websites
>that
>were mentioned.  It is a shame that computer manufactures like HP want to
>cripple their products in this way.
>
>Joshua
>
>
>
What is "BIOS white-listing"?  I'm unfamiliar with that term.

On the laptop issue, I've had good luck running SuSE Linux 10.0 on an
IBM/Levono Thinkpad T43.  Configured to dual-boot XP and SuSE (some
installation details need to be attended to preserve the original
restore/repair partition).  The T43 was a great little laptop; good
keyboard with no Windoze keys.  (I think the newer T60 has added Win
keys.)  Oddly, the T43 had a few bugs in the version of Windows that
came pre-loaded (IBM adds several applets), but I never had any problems
using SuSE.

Also, I'd like to echo the suggestion by Paul to consider a Mac laptop.
A peer at work has good luck using his MacBook with Parallels VM to run
Ubuntu, FC5, and SuSE.  Wonderful screen on that that little MacBook,
and you can't beat the size/weight for portability.

Anthony


----- End forwarded message -----

--
-bill!
bill@newbreedsoftware.com
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/
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