On 10/09/2011 09:56 AM, Andrew Z wrote:
> Sorry to hear Yasha about the trouble with lappy.
> May i suggest to look into tablets?
> Another idea maybe to look at fatwallet, I just saw a few deals for smth
> around $300 or so.
> --
> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
> Yasha Karant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>     My wife's laptop recently was stolen, and the university will NOT
>     replace it because her Department has no money and she currently has no
>     open grants.  I routinely install EL on all machines over which I have
>     any say; we need to replace her laptop as soon as possible so that we do
>     not have to share laptops.  She only needs a browser, office suite, PDF
>     manipulation, and Thunderbird/Lightning -- she does not need a heavy
>     duty graphics/visualisation or development unit.  (Firefox, OpenOffice,
>     Thunderbird/Lightning, VirtualBox running MS Win for MS Win specific
>     applications, etc., suffice for her needs.)
>
>     We have seen several discounted/sale/close-out laptops with dual layer
>     DVD burners, etc., of a size she will accept (smallish screen, low mass
>     unit).  I insist on at least a battery that can be replaced without
>     disassembling
>        the
>     laptop, and a mains supply power plug that is
>     supported by iGo.
>
>     I have made a bootable DVD from the current standalone (no install)
>     bootable SL 6.1 IA-32 image (a bit larger than 2 Gbyte -- I do not
>     recall the exact file name but there were only two choices -- a smaller
>     one and the "full" one -- I chose full).
>
>     On none of the test machines did the 802.11 interface activate, nor is
>     there any sign of Gnome NetworkManager (I prefer NetworkManager for
>     end-user machines that must go to the field).
>
>     My intention was to use the SL 6.1 stand alone IA-32 as a way of testing
>     that all needed drivers are present in the "stock" image, as I know that
>     other than in those nations in which Microsoft has been found to be a
>     monopoly and meaningful remedies enforced, some IA-32 hardware only has
>     a MS Win driver, forcing the unpleasant use of NDIS (that I plan to avoid).
>
>     I could go back to the in
>       ventory
>     of what is supplied on the image file
>     that I burned, but to save me time, does anyone know if the 802.11
>     drivers are part of that image?  Is NetworkManager?  Is the image
>     configured to connect automatically (including activating the 802.11
>     interface)?  The DVD did boot, Gnome did come up, and the sound test
>     indicated that the sound interface was recognized -- but no 802.11 and
>     thus no Internet (via DHCP).
>
>     Any information or suggestions would be helpful.
>
>     Yasha Karant

Thank you for the kind suggestions.  Again, my wife wants a small laptop 
(not a microscopic one based upon an Atom processor) with a dual layer 
DVD burner, USB 2 (and preferably 3 but that probably is not 
affordable), 802.3 RJ-45 and 802.11, etc.  She definitely wants a 
keyboard using standard size keys (not necessarily a full complement -- 
no requirement for a numeric keypad on the keyboard).

I am thinking of a fat wallet to replace the non-existant PDA (mine has 
failed).

As we are paying for it (owned by the university, thus not under our 
personal insurance), we are looking for $300 US or so.

Yasha Karant