Benscomputer.no-ip.org - Worthy of my Congratulations

I recently bought a new laptop - An Advent Roma 2000 - fully expecting to have to do a lot of tweaking to get everything working under Linux. Award Winning and Linux Friendly!

For the first time that I can remember (since a Thinkpad anyway) I have a laptop that needed no additional input to work with Linux.

The only piece of hardware I've not tested yet is the card reader, but that's a pretty standard piece of kit. Even the built in webcam is detected and configured correctly. So my Congratulations must go out to Advent for releasing a machine with standard hardware (i.e. not subtly adapted to suit their needs) and to the Linux community as a whole for working so hard to support the wide variety of hardware out there.

Seriously guys, I mean it! One of the major criticims of Linux based Operating Systems is that they are to complex for the average user. Users want things that 'just work', well as far as hardware support goes, this is one of those occasions. Admittedly it is a fairly basic piece of kit (although with some nice features) and most of the hardware is pretty standard gear nowadays, but it's the first time on any laptop (except the aforementioned T42) that I've installed Linux and had to do nothing more than provide the wireless key.

For those who are interested, the specs of the laptop are as follows

Brand: Advent

Model: Advent Roma 2000 15.6" Widescreen Laptop

Processor: Intel Celeron C900

Speed: 2.2 Ghz

Cache: 1MB

RAM: 3GB DDR2

HDD: 320GB SATA

Screen: 15.6 Inches (Obviously!)

Graphics Card: UMA Intel GL40

Optical: DVD+/-RW

Wireless: Wireless G

Bluetooth: Yes

Webcam: Yes

Other: 3 USB Ports, Card Reader, HDMI and VGA Output

Weight & Dimensions: 2.9kg 43.27 x 260 x 369 mm

Ships with: Windows 7 Home Premium (Only downside!)

Obviously it has a sound card as well, but I can't remember the specs, and can't find them listed on the net. The webcam is of reasonable quality, although the exact resolution escapes me!
Whatever the exact make and models of these two, they are both good quality for the price. The sound output doesn't sound too tinny (a rarity on laptops, I find, YMMV), and the Webcam image is detailed enough for use on Skype/MSN. You're certainly not going to take any award winning landscapes with it, but that's why you have a digital camera!!

It's no real surprise that it comes with Windows 7 installed, unfortunately the otherwise reasonable OS is bogged down by various cruddy programs that the OEM decided to force on you. If you boot into Windows for the first time, it'll ask you which of these to install and then have the cheek to play adverts to you whilst you wait!!!!

I've put Kubuntu Karmic Koala on there for ease of use, especially as I've now gotten used to KDE 4. Despite having an Intel Graphics card, I've not run into the problem with xv and KMS that I wrote about here. It may be that they've fixed it, or it may be that the card isn't using the same driver (I've not got as far as looking!).

The Battery life is reasonable, at least two hours with wireless on, Optical drive in use and no real powersaving settings enabled in the OS (I disabled them to satisfy my curiosity, they are on by default!)

The only areas I can criticise this laptop in are;

It's nigh on impossible to buy without paying the Windows Tax

Having the cheek to play PC World adverts to you whilst it installs the OEM software (Only an issue if you actually boot into Windows!)

The nice shiny lid picks up fingerprint marks very easily

The keyboard is not as sensitive as I'd like

Mouse tracking not very sensitive in Windows (fine in Linux though, and in Windows once you adjust the setting)

The only other thing it may be missing is a Blu-Ray drive. But I've neither a need or a desire to support that particular cartel of sticky tissues so it's not something I lament.

All in all it's a pretty good piece of kit, and the fact that it works with Linux OOB makes it worth its weight in gold!!! You can get it for about £349 from a range of places, it's a good deal, especially if you then get a refund for the unused Windows 7 license.

So once again, my heartfelt Congratulations and Thanks to both Advent and the Linux Community for the hard work that has gone into the respective products.

Obligitary Disclaimer: I am a Linux user through and through, I'd have been quite happy to have to sit and configure 90% of the hardware myself. In some ways I'd have preferred it as an educational exercise, however that cannot match the feeling of pure delight when the common retort "Users want something that just works, Linux can't give them that" was proven false!