[ubuntu-uk] Laptops

[Rob Beard]

Hi folks,

Well the time has come where my mum and step-dad have decided to get on 
t'internet so they're looking for a laptop.  They were planning on 
getting me to go with them to PC World to help choose one, but I've 
convinced them to hang fire for a week so I can look into what is out there.

It's been about 3 months since I last really looked into laptops, the 
last one I recommended was for my Dad.  It was a Compaq CQ-61 15.6" 
notebook with about 3GB Ram, a 160GB hard drive and a Pentium Dual Core 
CPU for about £350.

However I've got a few friends with HP and Compaq machines which have 
died through motherboard failures.

Now I've got an Acer Aspire 2920 (12.1" Core 2 Duo) myself which I 
managed to get from Comet so I'm quite partial to Acers.

Anyway, I've been having a look at what is available and in only 3 
months the market seems to have been flooded with low power notebooks 
with 1.2 and 1.3Ghz Pentium Dual Core and Athlon Neo CPUs.

My mum & step-dad don't need anything super fast, they want to do basic 
web browsing (my step-dad has been made redundant recently and looking 
for a new job seems to be easier with internet access, especially 
considering a fair few bigger employers seem to have stupid online 
application forms!).  They'll also want to do e-mail, and possibly a bit 
of basic photo editing.

So I'm thinking anything made in the past couple of years would be 
suitable.  I was thinking maybe a pre-owned machine but I think for my 
peace of mind they might be better going for a new machine.

They have a budget of up to £500 although I think realistically they'd 
probably be looking nearer the £350 to £400 mark.

I've seen an Acer Extensa for under £315 at Aria...

http://tinyurl.com/ycox8mg

It's got a 15.6" widescreen display, 1.8GHz Dual Core Celeron T3000 CPU, 
160GB hard drive and 1GB Ram.  I guess this would be plenty for Ubuntu, 
the hard drive again would be plenty (I'd probably suggest they buy an 
external hard drive maybe to occasionally backup the laptop onto).

My only concerns are the Intel GL40 graphics, and the Acer wireless 
(although it appears to be Atheros wireless).

Just wondered if anyone else had this particular model running Ubuntu or 
had any other suggestions?

Ta,

Rob