Re: Meanwhile, in the real world...

On 11/2/06, Mike Wilson <wilsonmr@sasktel.net> wrote:

> > I'm looking for an older (e.g. PII, though Scott had mentioned that
> > one of the tiny distros (DSL?) will work on an original Pentium, as I
> > recall) laptop for a friend that's less than $150 (preferably less
> > than $100) that runs ok enough for me to install a desktop distro on
> > it for word processing, perhaps light internet use, that sort of
> > thing...
>
> FWIW, some years ago I took this path to get a laptop as a gift for my
> eldest daughter. Within a year it suffered a fatal hardware failure (the
> display died). My impression is that laptop h/w is generally dainty and
> short-lived, so much so that buying used does not work out well --
> especially given the general failure of both individual and enterprise
> resellers to accept a realistic rate of depreciation for computer h/w in
> general.

Indeed, but the problem is that the person I'm trying to get this for
can't afford a new one (and can't really afford a $100 one, but I'm
thinking that this will end up being a Christmas present :) and she
has a desktop system, so I only think she'll use the laptop
occasionally.

Besides, if a $600 laptop these days were to have a lifespan of ~6
years (and that's probably an overly generous estimate), $100 for 1 yr
doesn't seem too unreasonable. However I will have to look very hard,
since as you pointed out, used laptops tend to be overpriced.

CK
Received on Thu Nov 2 22:50:46 2006