[ale] [ot] Calling for Laptop Reviews

[Bob Toxen]

I've had TWO terrible experiences with Acer in the past 2 years.

A year ago I bought a mid-range Acer as a gift.  They keyboard's "k" key
failed in 2 weeks.

  1. Because Acer changes models every month or so, I was unable to
     exchange it.

  2. Unlike most manufacturers, Acer refuses to let competent retail
     outlets (like the wonderful MicroCenter I bought it at to fix it).

  3. Acer refused to sell me a keyboard with instructions even if I
     accepted liability for breaking it after stating I'd have
     MicroCenter's shop fix it.

  4. Acer refused to send another one, less a disk, so that I could
     put the now heavily used disk in the new one and return their junk.

  5. Acer (I talked with their U.S. headquarters) refused to do anything
     except send it back and wait a month UNDER WARRANTY!

  6. The giftee, a talented 15 year old, found a replacement keyboard
     and instructions on the Internet for about $20 a year later and
     fixed it himself.

The other experience, about 2 years ago, I told the BIOS not to boot
from the DVD for security reasons -- after installing Linux and adding
a BIOS password, of course.

Unfortunately, stupid BIOS design prevents undoing this to again allow
booting from a DVD, say, to install a new OS!  Acer support confirmed
that I'd have to send it back to them and wait a month if I ever want
to boot from DVD again.


Since these Acer nightmares I've bought two Lenovo Thinkpads and have
been VERY HAPPY!  YMMV.

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.
Quality spam and virus filters.

"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where
the shadows lie...and the Eye is everwatching"
-- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh with ... Bob

On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 07:57:59PM -0400, Greg Clifton wrote:
> My preferences run towards Asus and Acer, both seem to make solid machines.
> I have had USB port compatibility issues (on a 6 year old) and power port
> issues with Toshibas as well. I have also had power port failure with an
> old HP laptop behemoth of 7-8 years ago. Definitely agree with Allen on
> Sony being "in a league of their own" price wise.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 6:28 PM, Preston <preston.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > <snipped>
> >
> > I ordered our sales people Dell Percision M3800 laptops. They show our
> > video clips (16 channel in HD) so I have them with Windows 7 Pro, 16GB
> > ram, i7 processor, and an SSD.
> >
> > You will need to get a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter so they can
> > attach to projectors. Also, I grabbed the power adapter cable so if
> > their power brick tanks they can grab a regular Dell brick and rock on.
> >
> > Pricy, but I've had ZERO complaints with them although they do feel a
> > bit flimsy IMHO.
> >
> > Preston
> >
> > --
> > Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don???t matter
> > and those who matter don???t mind.
> > -Dr. Seuss
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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