Vista and laptop

[Andy]

Hi

I'm planning to buy a new Laptop, and this must be able to run Vista. I've
looked at a HP nx9420 with a Core 2 duo T7400 and 1 gb ram. How will Vista
run on this HW. Will it be sufficent, or should I have a stronger machine?

/A.

 

[DCR]

Wait just a little over 2 weeks and buy the new laptop
with Vista pre-installed.


| Hi
|
| I'm planning to buy a new Laptop, and this must be able to run Vista. I've
| looked at a HP nx9420 with a Core 2 duo T7400 and 1 gb ram. How will Vista
| run on this HW. Will it be sufficent, or should I have a stronger machine?
|
| /A.
|
|

 

[Andy]

Yeah I kno I could do that, but I have already access to Vista through my
MSDN subscription, so I don't have to wait.

/A.

 

[Malke]

Yeah I kno I could do that, but I have already access to Vista through my
MSDN subscription, so I don't have to wait.

With all due respect, this is foolish. Happiness and success with Vista
relies heavily on there being drivers for the hardware. Since laptops are
completely proprietary, you will need drivers from the laptop mftr. for the
desired operating system. The laptop mftrs. may also have proprietary power
management software and other laptop software you will need.

Be smart and wait until HP or whoever is offering their laptops with Vista
preinstalled.

Malke

 

[Kerry Brown]

With all due respect, this is foolish. Happiness and success with Vista
relies heavily on there being drivers for the hardware. Since laptops are
completely proprietary, you will need drivers from the laptop mftr. for
the
desired operating system. The laptop mftrs. may also have proprietary
power
management software and other laptop software you will need.

Be smart and wait until HP or whoever is offering their laptops with Vista
preinstalled.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

While I agree in principle I purchased a new laptop specifically for running
Vista just before Christmas. As long as you do your homework all the needed
drivers are in Vista. Mine works great in Vista, both x64 and x86. The only
thing that doesn't work is the scroll buttons on the touch pad. I knew this
would be an issue before I bought the laptop. I rarely use the touch pad. I
don't know if the HP NX9420 will have the same results though. We would need
more details about the hardware.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If it is a test machine you are correct. If it is for production use or a
primary personal computer, you may not do that. An MSDN license does not
permit usage in that way.

 

[David Hearn]

While I agree in principle I purchased a new laptop specifically for
running Vista just before Christmas. As long as you do your homework all
the needed drivers are in Vista. Mine works great in Vista, both x64 and
x86. The only thing that doesn't work is the scroll buttons on the touch
pad. I knew this would be an issue before I bought the laptop. I rarely
use the touch pad. I don't know if the HP NX9420 will have the same
results though. We would need more details about the hardware.

That assumes that it's even possible to find out what the hardware is -
things like the modem, network card etc may not be made public. Short
of asking someone who has also got the same hardware and has installed
Vista, it's not easy to find out.

D

 

[Kerry Brown]

You're right. It took a lot of searching to find one that I knew would work
before buying. It can be done but it is still a bit of a guess. If the
computer has the Vista logo then you can at least be assured that the
manufacturer will have drivers available at some point.

 

[Malke]

While I agree in principle I purchased a new laptop specifically for
running Vista just before Christmas. As long as you do your homework all
the needed drivers are in Vista. Mine works great in Vista, both x64 and
x86. The only thing that doesn't work is the scroll buttons on the touch
pad. I knew this would be an issue before I bought the laptop. I rarely
use the touch pad. I don't know if the HP NX9420 will have the same
results though. We would need more details about the hardware.

You're quite right about doing the homework first, Kerry. As a Linux user
for many years, I know about finding drivers for laptops. ;-) I was just
approaching the OP's question from a practical point of view. From the geek
point of view - sure, go on and play!

Best regards,

Malke

 

[Kerry Brown]

I haven't tried Linux on the new laptop yet. I left some space for it when I
installed Vista then got the opportunity to test a new beta that required a
64 bit CPU and the laptop is my only pc with a 64 bit CPU. I am looking
forward to testing Linux vs. Vista on a decent machine but it will have to
wait a few weeks now :-(

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Rather than installing linux on metal, consider running VPC 2007 for 32bit
guests (runs nicely on Vista) and VMWare Workstation 6 beta (for 64bit
guests). If your laptop cpu supports virtualization in hardware (it should)
you will great results. That way you don't have to partition the drive or
mess with grub. I recommend 2GB of ram for such uses.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I haven't tried Linux on the new laptop yet. I left some space for it when I
installed Vista then got the opportunity to test a new beta that required a
64 bit CPU and the laptop is my only pc with a 64 bit CPU. I am looking
forward to testing Linux vs. Vista on a decent machine but it will have to
wait a few weeks now :-(

 

[Kerry Brown]

Oops, replied to the wrong post.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'd meant to reply to Malke's post about Linux.

I know I can run Linux in a vm but I prefer dual booting.

 

[Mark-Allen [160825]]

Not sure about that one but my HP nx6325 runs great.

But go for minimum of 2GB memory.

--
Mark-Allen Perry
160825 / 1112165
Windows Vista X64 Ultimate
RTM Build 6000.16386
ALPHA Systems
Marly, Switzerland
mark-allen @ mvps . org