[CALUG] Linux Friendly Laptops

[John Alan Hastings]

>>>I am saving up to buy a laptop.  I want to use Linux as my primary  
>>>OS.
> 

* * snip * *

> 
> 
> Oh, and why not just keep that Windows partition on your OEM  
> hardware?  I am now looking for a new laptop, because all the  
> distance learning delivery vehicles for IT grad degrees seem to work  
> properly only in Windows using IE.  Go figure.  By the way, I would  
> be happy to receive some feedback from the group on how wrong I am  
> about that last bit.  I really would prefer to use my PowerBook for  
> school instead of investing in more hardware.

Keeping a Windows partition is a good idea, however, repartition
your disk as early in the life of the system as you can.  I had the
bright idea of repartitioning a reasonably old and well used Toshiba
and began by defragging it.  When the defrag was over, I found that
NTFS had left a number of things it calls unmoveable blocks scattered
around on the disk, and of course there was not enough room between
them to install any reasonable Linux partitions.