Open box Laptops

[big_teee]

I just bought a pair of these on black friday sale.
HP 15.6" HD Notebook, AMD A10-9600 Quad-Core Processor, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, HD Webcam, Optical Drive, Windows 10 Home, Available in: Cardinal Red, Dreamy Teal, Nobel Blue - Sam's Club
Regular $449 each, I gave $299 each for them.
Should get them in about a week.
Ordered a Blue one for me, and a red one for Sharon!
I wonder if they are Ubuntu compatible?
T

[big_teee]

I got the two new laptops.
They are very nice.
I logged onto win 10 to register the blue one.
Have to resize the C: drive with Windows 10, to make room to make the laptop dual bootable with Ubuntu.
I forgot how painfully slow disk cleanup, and defrag is.
There is some autoclean and autoremove in linux, but they run quickly.
Thankfully there is no such thing as defrag, and consolidation in linux.
Maybe I will have Ubuntu on one of them by tomorrow.
I will post how it goes.
T

[big_teee]

The blue HP laptop will now dual boot.
Here's a screenshot of the Partition table.
It's pretty busy!
I added the 5 ext4 partitions in the middle.
See Screenshot.

[big_teee]

I don't personally do anything to need a windows computer anymore.
So I took the dual boot hard drive out of the new blue HP laptop.
I put it in a drawer, safe for now.
I put another hard drive in it I had laying around.
It is a 750gb drive that came out of another laptop.
I repartitioned it, and the partition table now looks like the screenshot below.
Has 6-50gb partitions to install up to 6 different Linux OS, plus a large storage partition for document, picture, & misc. storage.
Linux only, fits my use & needs much better.
T

[Leo_Gnardo]

Linux only, fits my use & needs much better.

One sure fire advantage, you won't get any annoying phone calls from "microsoft technical staff" claiming they will help you fix your viruses and malware.

[Enzo]

Sure you will, you don't think they research each call do you? I get calls telling me they will cut my gas bill in half, even though I have no gas bill. The "windows technical department" people are just going down lists of numbers.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Sure you will, you don't think they research each call do you?

Note winky eye smiley thing at end of my comment.

I get calls telling me they will cut my gas bill in half, even though I have no gas bill.

I'm surprised you don't give 'em the ol' Enzo challenge: Go ahead sonny, what's half of zero? Send it here!

I get offers to put solar cells on my roof. It's 140 years old, all slate. "Oh yeah, we'll cover that with solar cells!" Suuuure you will. Same with "we'll cover your house with vinyl siding." It's stone, I tell 'em. "Don't worry, we'll cover your beautiful stone house with tacky vinyl." NOT. One time I told the sales lady: "I live in a CAVE." Didn't slow down the shpiel a microsecond.

Another chodney who claims to be "microsoft technical department" got a well deserved earful from me last week. To top it off, the cheeky monkey tried to argue with me, what a ding dong. News flash a couple weeks ago, a bunch of them were arrested & thrown in jail. Not that it matters, just like any other pest they proliferate like crazy and don't care at all. Hell they probably get better meals in jail in India or Bangladesh or Pakistan than they do by running their stupid phone scam.

Back to subject, Terry now you got me interested. One of these days I may work up the gumption to grab a cheap OB laptop and follow you into Ubuntu land.

[big_teee]

I like to buy them on sale with a 1tb drive, and at least 8gb of ram.
I always buy them with hardware in mind, I pay no attention to the software included.
Cause I replace it anyway!
T

[Enzo]

yeah, you clearly like futzing with computers, me I hate that.

My response to the gas guys was always, "OK, since you seem to know my gas bill, what kind of numbers are we walking."

The technical department at windows guys, I usually just hang up on, but if I feel like a fight, I start right in on them asking if their fathers were proud of them being liars for a living. Does their mother brag about what they do? I berate them until they hang up.

[big_teee]

You like beating on the amps.
I like loading and messing with the free software, on laptops.
A good hobby for retirement.
That is what the computer category is for!
Beating on computers!
T

[Steve A.]

I don't personally do anything to need a windows computer anymore.
So I took the dual boot hard drive out of the new blue HP laptop.
I put it in a drawer, safe for now.

Best way to go in case you eventually want to sell the laptop to a mouth breather, er, Windoze user...
If you didn't already have a spare 2.5" hard drive would it work to create and archive a disk image of the drive? Both before and after registering the laptop...?

IMO Windows has gone to total shit since Win XP 64 and Windows Server 2003 R2. I've been putting up with Win 7 only with the addition of a few programs and shells to restore some of the functionality of XP. Windows 8.1 was a disaster and it sounds like Windows 10 could be even worse.

One question for you, Terry: has touch screen support in Linux improved? I understand that it has been kinda touch and go in the past...

(I have a Lenovo touch screen laptop in a sealed box that I was going to update to Win 10 but missed the deadline... I thought it was July 31st! It would be really cool if I could find a Linux build that supported the touch screen! I suppose I ought to check with Lenovo...)

Steve A.

[big_teee]

Best way to go in case you eventually want to sell the laptop to a mouth breather, er, Windoze user...
If you didn't already have a spare 2.5" hard drive would it work to create and archive a disk image of the drive? Both before and after registering the laptop...?

IMO Windows has gone to total shit since Win XP 64 and Windows Server 2003 R2. I've been putting up with Win 7 only with the addition of a few programs and shells to restore some of the functionality of XP. Windows 8.1 was a disaster and it sounds like Windows 10 could be even worse.

One question for you, Terry: has touch screen support in Linux improved? I understand that it has been kinda touch and go in the past...

(I have a Lenovo touch screen laptop in a sealed box that I was going to update to Win 10 but missed the deadline... I thought it was July 31st! It would be really cool if I could find a Linux build that supported the touch screen! I suppose I ought to check with Lenovo...)

Steve A.

So far I've stayed away from touch screen.
I usually buy the low end computers that don't have touch screen.
Ubuntu has a version for touch screen. I know nothing about it.
Here's all the ubuntu available.
Index of /
On the laptops?
The hard drives usually out last the computers.
Cheap $300 laptops are lucky to stay together 3 years or so. That's still a bargain.
The Screen hinges and built in battery charging circuit are the weak links.
I wear them out salvage what parts I can and move on.
T

[big_teee]

Warehouse sale at Wal-Mart,
Not an open box either.
Several laptops on sale.
This one caught my eye.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-15-ay0...&pltfm=desktop

Intel I-3 processor, 1TB Drive, and 8gb Ram.
A good value for $339.
Also, it should be Linux Ready!
T

[big_teee]

Best way to go in case you eventually want to sell the laptop to a mouth breather, er, Windoze user...
If you didn't already have a spare 2.5" hard drive would it work to create and archive a disk image of the drive? Both before and after registering the laptop...?

IMO Windows has gone to total shit since Win XP 64 and Windows Server 2003 R2. I've been putting up with Win 7 only with the addition of a few programs and shells to restore some of the functionality of XP. Windows 8.1 was a disaster and it sounds like Windows 10 could be even worse.

One question for you, Terry: has touch screen support in Linux improved? I understand that it has been kinda touch and go in the past...

(I have a Lenovo touch screen laptop in a sealed box that I was going to update to Win 10 but missed the deadline... I thought it was July 31st! It would be really cool if I could find a Linux build that supported the touch screen! I suppose I ought to check with Lenovo...)

Steve A.

I never answered Steve's question about touch screen on linux.
I've stayed away from touch screens for my applications, and they are cheaper without it.
Linux does have a touch version, but know nothing about it.
Index of /ubuntu-touch/daily-preinstalled
Looks like they quit working on it, end of last year.
T

[big_teee]

I'm looking for some deals on new laptops.
I have a pair of High School Senior Grandkids graduating this year at Christmas semester.
My wife and I want to give each one a new Laptop for part Christmas, part Grad gift.
Last year there were cheap laptops galore, not seeing that much this year?
Would like something in the 15.6 inch screen 8gb Ram, and 1TB of Hard Drive.
If you see any ads with good deals soon, please post them here.
Thanks,
T