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Roland Tarver wrote:
I believe that aMSN supports chatting with a webcam. If not maybe she could consider Skype (okay it's not MSN compatible but it does work with Linux)Hello :-) This is amazingly co-incidental! Recently I have been chatting to an old school friend (Kim). I have not spoken to her in years! Anyhow, she lives near Holsworthy and needs a new laptop because her current one is "smoking" (literally!!!). In addition she is a little strapped for cash at the moment. She was looking into buying a new laptop from a catalogue and paying for it in instalments. :-s. Instead, I suggested she get an older (cheap) laptop and run a Linux. I have already pointed out many of the benefits of Linux, it being free from cost is probably the largest immediate advantage for her. I think she warmed to the idea, but she does NOT have an interest in computers - she just wants it to work (easily without (much) fuss). Her requirements are quite simple:- 1. Wireless internet (facebook) 2. Chatting on web cam on MSN. * 3. Plays a lot of games on bigfish (this is a web site). 4 .Internet shopping* - I do not know of an msn compatible web cam program for Linux. ?NB. No one else will use the laptop.
I'd have thought the minimum requirements of Mint would be fairly similar to Ubuntu, so if it's XFCE maybe something around a P3 1Ghz ish with 256 to 512MB Ram and 10GB hard drive (it might be possible to get away with a lower spec than that), although saying that it might be possible to get a Celeron M or Pentium M with 512MB Ram for a reasonable sort of price.I was wondering if there were any kind folks in the Holsworthy area that could assist? Does anyone have an older laptop that they could sell to her? (Even, perhaps, install Linux first - asking a lot I know!!!!) Perhaps one could be sourced form the local computer shop? I was thinking of Linux mint as a distro? (I am yet to check its minimum sys. requirements) but would anyone be able to help her out with some of the setup problems or differences from windows that she is, arguably, likely to encounter?
Something else to consider, does she specificially need a laptop?If she hasn't got much to spend she'll find she can get a reasonable spec desktop PC fairly cheaply, in fact there is a guy on Freecycle giving away a HP P4 2.4Ghz PC with 512MB Ram and a 40GB hard drive at the moment. Could be worth her considering as if she's buying a cheap laptop, chances are the battery might not have much battery life and she might end up having it tethered to the mains anyway (or looking at £50 or so for a new battery).
Anyway... having a search online I found these machines, not a brilliant spec but probably enough for what she wants (maybe could do with another 256MB Ram which is reasonably cheap on eBay):
Toshiba Tecra 9100 - Pentium 4 1.7GHz, 256MB Ram, 10GB Hard Drive - http://tinyurl.com/yjxv6ge - £99.99 inc VAT Toshiba Satellite Pro A10 - Celeron 2.2GHz, 256MB Ram, 30GB Hard Drive - http://tinyurl.com/yl7gkqs - £99.99 inc VAT Dell Latitude D520 - Celeron M 1.7GHz (no details of memory or hard drive) - http://tinyurl.com/ylk3dsy - £119.99 inc VAT Dell Latitude X300 - Pentium M 1.4GHz 256MB Ram, 30GB Hard drive - http://tinyurl.com/ykz27of - £129.99 inc VAT
Hope this helps. Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html