As for buying an HP/Compaq. The HPs and the Compaqs are identical except
for color. On any give day the price on
http://www.hpshopping.com for
identical models can vary significantly between the HP and Compaq versions
depending on the specials of the day so check both models. HP also sells
systems without Windows, you can get Linux or Freedos instead. They don't
offer these systems on hpshopping, you have to go to
http://www.hp.com and
look up business systems. I don't know if this is actually cheaper then
paying the Windows tax on hpshopping.com, you'll have to do the
comparisons for the model that you are interested in yourself.
I had an R4000 before I sent it back under HP's "no hassle" return
policy. Now I have an R3240, which is much better. I don't see any
speed difference in the R3240. Notice that I said I don't see any
speed difference. Benchmark tests might tell a different story. But
from the standpoint of the user, if the difference isn't noticeable,
then who cares?
It took a long time (because I'm a n00b), but I finally got the wifi
working with ndiswrapper. There's still a problem though. It works
fine, but ever since getting it working the bootup process hangs for
three minutes on "configuring network interfaces," or whatever that
line says. I just hit Ctrl-c to continue. But then the wireless is not
functioning after it finishes booting. I have to do ifup wlan0, and
that takes awhile to finish too. I went to a local Linux clinic for
beginners and one of the gurus got it working without the delay. But a
few days later it was back to the delay. Unfortunately, what he did
took him a while to figure out, and I didn't keep notes. (OK, not only
am I a n00b, I'm kinda dumb.)
As for HP v. Compaq, the Compaq has one feature that I dearly love --
the on-off button for the touchpad. I want the touchpad functional, in
case my mouse battery goes dead or I get to the university and
discover I left the mouse at home. But otherwise, it is a PITA. You're
typing along and your thumb hits it and zooom! Your cursor is suddenly
across the screen.
And as for the laptops sans Windows, I tried everything to get a
laptop from HP without Windows before buying the R4000. HP insists
there is no such thing as a laptop without Windows. I tried the
corporate department and every other department. I think they might
have offered a laptop without Windows once, but as far as I know that
option is history.
And for the record, the main problem with the R4000 was the ATI video.
I could never get it out of VESA 1024 x 768. In fact, to date I still
haven't heard anyone getting it successfully into a decent resolution.
In contrast, when I installed 64-bit Ubuntu 5.04 on my R3240 it
automatically found the video and set it up at 1600 x 1080.