Inexpensive laptop?

[algeh]

I'm in the market for an inexpensive laptop. I've run Linux on my desktop for years and plan to put Linux on the laptop as well. I live in the USA.

I want it so I can check my email while I'm on vacation or dogsitting at someone else's house, mostly. It would also be nice if it could run Audacity so I can edit audio files while I'm at conventions.

Are there any brands or models I should particularly look for or avoid? I'm tempted to buy a used machine on Craigslist, but also considering buying new. The last "laptop" I owned was a Compaq Portable, so I'm not exactly up on the latest laptop trends and would like some guidance on what to look for or ask about.

Comments

[pixel]

I have a pretty inexpensive ASUS netbook that I like for running around. It's very portable, and it came with no operating system so I put Linux on it and it works fine. If you're looking for inexpensive, it's probably the way to go. I think it was just over $200 on a sale at newegg.com

[dreamatdrew]

I will hereby second the idea of an ASUS netbook. I currently (sort of) have an eeepc 900 series that is only not in my rotation because of a hinge issue (I am ROUGH on my hardware, I know this..) and because my mother needed a machine when I came into a higher-powered machine (which I kind of needed for development). A 900, which is OLD by now, is perfectly adequate for most web-based stuff (flash is an issue all in itself, but that's a Linux issue, not specific to this hardware), and also has the horsepower for lowend-to-midrange tasks in Audacity (I used it to make ringtones, and rip audio from video podcasts with no problems). The current lineup should have no issues with those tasks whatsoever.

I'll also recommend ASUS hardware, period, as generally reliable and reasonably priced. It may not be the shiniest, but it does the job.

[kerravonsen]

Thirding the ASUS netbook idea. My current one is a recent purchase, a RX051, but my previous one was a 1001, and the one before that was an early 700 with only 4G of drive space (that's OLD).

There are trade-offs, of course. The small screen means that it's not that useful for editing graphics. I've also found that some applications don't play nice with a small screen because they assume that everyone is using large screens nowadays.

It's also slow for CPU-intensive tasks, but for most things it's fine. Probably best to go for a lightweight desktop environment, though; something other than KDE or Gnome.

The small size makes it very portable, which is especially noteworthy if you want to be taking it with you to conventions. The 10" ones are a bit bigger than a trade-paperback. The 7" ones are probably a bit too small, but they are so light, and you can shove it in a coat pocket, which is what I used to do with my old 700. (I no longer have that 700; I put Puppy Linux on it and gave it to my youngest niece.)